What were the first models you can remember building?

[iamsuperdan]

My first kit.

When I was really young, like probably 5 or 6, I had a hospital stay. My parents brought in a kit. I'm pretty sure it was the Lindberg Buick. I remember the swooping body line on the front fenders. I vaguely being into Kojak, and I think he had a Buick. I don't even know if that kit made it out of the hospital with me. 

 

I can't remember what my first real build was, but I remember some of the early ones.

 

 

And I remember my first truck kit being one of the Monogram 1:32 Peterbilt trucks. I build a a few of those old snappers.

 

 

As for kits I built and still have?

Monogram 1:24 Superbird. I built two, still have the pieces. One is being rebuilt.

Italeri Mercedes truck. It's a wreck, but I think it's complete. Will do a rebuild eventually.

 

[Bucky]

My very first one was a 1/32 scale Studebaker Lark snap kit my aunt gave me for my 7th birthday. It had a rubber band that you twisted up to make it scoot across the table.

[Mike C.]

I also remember somebody getting me the Visible Man, Creature from the black lagoon and mummy glow in the dark kit. I guess they were hoping I would become a doctor, an archeologist, or a marine biologist or something. ?

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Mike C.

[Lunajammer]

These in this order. I was in first or second grade. Selected and bought them myself.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Lunajammer

[Carmak]

Tom Daniels California Street Vette - mid 70's. Age 6-7.

[Bullybeef]

I remember this as my very first model kit, got it on my 9th birthday. 

[Kelly Burns]

First Snap Tite and first glue together.

[KWT]

My dad got me 3 snap kits over a couple months time...

after putting them together... taking them apart and putting them back together several times, he got me my first 2 glue kits...

It's been down hill ever since lol

[pack rat]

I recently found an old photo of gifts under the Christmas tree back when I was six years old. 

Sure it's a blurry pic, but there's my first kit; the Junior Trophy '57 T-Bird.....plus my Johan '63 Dodge and Plymouth frictions.   

[keyser]

Amt orig trophy issue 57 Ford. Still have it. Dropped it on stairs taking it to my room. Didn’t know swear words yet ??‍♂️

[charger74]

I was probably around 5-6 years old when my father built this kit with me

[ChrisBcritter]

My dad built several kits for me, but finally I tackled this one all by my little 7-year-old self:

Did manage to get it assembled, although I recall using the front shocks as grille decorations...

[LDO]

An orange funny car. I think it was a Vega. Around 1974. I would have been five years old. I would like to show the box art, but…I was five and I just don’t remember much more. Just two or three years later, I learned a valuable lesson about following the instructions. It was the Monogram MiG-15. I glued both upper wing halves together. 

[bluestringer]

I got my first kit when I was 12 years old in 1963. I can not remember much about it except I think it was a 32 Ford kit by AMT. I do remember sitting at our kitchen table with my Dad helping me put it together. After that I was hooked, starting getting kits when we could afford them for a few years. Then I discovered real cars and girls, kit building went away for a while, then getting married raising a family I was out of it for several years. Got back into a little in the 80's and 90's. Then out again until last year when I started back. Now retired I am really enjoying it again. 

[Monty]

I didn't get into plastic models until around the age of 12 or so as I was more interested in my Hot Wheels & Matchbox cars,  but somewhere along the way I won a very small scale Stuka model, which I proceeded to gluebomb due to inexperience.  

My first car model came along soon after.  The choice was inspired by a killer '55 Chevy street machine I used to see every morning on my paper route.  So I bought this:

It didn't occur to me that those who can't build 6-piece planes well might not want to step up to this level, which was borne out when I set it directly on the lawn to paint it.  You can pretty much imagine how that turned out, and that was before I jumped into assembling all the fiddly bits.  TBH I don't recall if I ever actually finished it.  Knowing my typical reaction to setbacks back then, I'm surprised I managed to stay with the hobby all these years.  

 

[Oldcarfan27]

I'm enjoying the stories that are going along with the pictures.

Fun, seeing the similarities we've all experienced, which is why I started the thread.

[Mike C.]

5 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

I'm enjoying the stories that are going along with the pictures.

Fun, seeing the similarities we've all experienced, which is why I started the thread.

Yeah! This is a good thread. Making me think of all the models I built when I was a kid. In the basement room, I had the one half, and my dad had the other half for his ham radio stuff. He was big time into that stuff. Not so much now that he's retired down to Florida. 

[oldscool]

My first car kit was an AMT 1/32 63 Corvette that I got for my fifth birthday. My mother told me if I did well with it she would buy me a 1/25 kit like the ones that my uncle built. I blame him for my lifelong fascination with cars and models. ( thanks uncle Burton !) The first 1/25 kit I built was the classic AMT 53 Ford pickup with all the custom parts of course. That would have been on Christmas when I was in the first grade. After that I built the AMT 57 Ford that I got for my seventh birthday.

The first plane I built came a few years later on a cold winter day when I rode my bike to the local W. T. Grant store to buy a kit. When I got there I thought " why not try an airplane" so I picked the Monogram T-28 kit with the gray South Vietnamese version on the box. Been building cars and planes ever since.

Thanks for getting me to dredge up the memories Patrick.

Edited September 20, 2022 by oldscool

[oldscool]

18 hours ago, pack rat said:

I recently found an old photo of gifts under the Christmas tree back when I was six years old. 

Sure it's a blurry pic, but there's my first kit; the Junior Trophy '57 T-Bird.....plus my Johan '63 Dodge and Plymouth frictions.   

Is that one of those lithographed tin gas stations? I had one if those.

[Vintage AMT]

My very first one, 1968.. 11 years old that summer..* and there's been way more than I can count or remember..

[StevenGuthmiller]

Does anybody else remember that weird sweet smell that you used to get when you opened a new molded in color Monogram kit back in the late 70s / early 80s?

Kits like these.

 

I used to love that smell! 
 

Now, the more mildew I smell, the happier I am! ?

 

 

 

Steve

 

[pack rat]

2 hours ago, oldscool said:

Is that one of those lithographed tin gas stations? I had one if those.

Yup.  Those things were tons o' fun.

[Snake45]

5 hours ago, oldscool said:

... so I picked the Monogram T-28 kit with the gray South Vietnamese version on the box.

I have a soft spot in my heart for that kit. Built at least two of them over the years, and I've accumulated a couple more, and I hope to build at least one more someday. 

[jokar124]

2 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Does anybody else remember that weird sweet smell that you used to get when you opened a new molded in color Monogram kit back in the late 70s / early 80s?

Kits like these.

 

I used to love that smell! 
 

Now, the more mildew I smell, the happier I am! ?

 

 

 

Steve

 

I remember that smell ! Only Monogram kits had it, and I suspect it came from the different kind of vinyl they used for their tires then.

[Monty]

Slightly related: I can't be the only one who got in trouble for using the "good" steak knives to cut parts off the sprues.  Fortunately, not long after, one of my Christmas gifts was my first X-Acto set.  ?