Nostalgia has hit me!

[dusty_shelf]

Although I joined the forum back in 2019, I have not done any recent posting until just last month.  Work and family matters had pulled me away from the project I was to start then.  However, I am now retired (8 mos) and have dusted off my box of modeling tools.  So ready to get back into building, I even purchased a “portable” work station!  I might take some pics and post them as a separate topic.

The title of this post says it all.  I have been hit by the “nostalgia bug!”  For background, I am 62 years old (a Kennedy baby) and grew up in a time when hot rod model kits were everywhere.  Not far from our house was a huge indoor slot car race track with multiple lanes.

I remember my uncle built for my cousin (spoiled!) the Munsters Koach.  It was poised high up on a dresser where us little ones could not easily get to it.  My family generally couldn’t afford such kits and I wouldn’t know how to build them anyway.  Consequently, I was relegated to playing with Tootsie Toy cars, plastic army men and the like.

There is one memory that has remained with me for 50+ years, however.  I was visiting a playmate who lived up the street.  Against the warnings of his older brothers, I’m sure, he brought me into the bedroom they shared.  It looked like any other bedroom except for what was displayed along the walls (think Tut’s Tomb!).  Just above the windows and running the length of the walls were narrow shelves.  On them were dozens of now-vintage kits they had built.  They were all placed at a slight angle, facing out, so that you could see the fronts and a good bit of the profiles.  I even remember them being painted in the unusual colors popular in the day.  I wanted to do be able to do that!

Well, now that I am retired and have the financial means to do so, I am buying the kits from that era.  Originals are a fortune and so I am concentrating on rereleases.  Already in the stack Tom Daniel’s Monogram Paddy Wagon and Lil Coffin.  They will not be out-of-the-box builds.  I will be making my own interpretations using scratch building, kit bashing, and super detail.  I hope to post them in the WIP section as I progress.

For those who dsy you can never go back to your childhood, just watch!

[SpikeSchumacher]

Welcome Mike!

[Street Rod]

Welcome to the forum, Mike! 

[Khils]

18 hours ago, dusty_shelf said:

For those who dsy you can never go back to your childhood, just watch!

Cool ? intro!!  Welcome aboard! & Congrats on your retirement.

[Zippi]

Welcome to the forum Mike.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Welcome Mike. Us kids been waitin' for ya'.

[slusher]

Welcome aboard the forum, Mike!

[Bainford]

Welcome to the forum, Mike. Great memories. Nostalgia can  be a very big part of model building, whether it's the kits, or the cars we are replicating. Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

[dusty_shelf]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone!  Since posting this re-intro, I have added two more kits to the stash!  Again, wanting to stay with models available at the time of my childhood, I went with the AMT ‘33 Willys Gasser (originally released as the “Ohio” George car) and the Monogram ‘29 Ford Roadster Pickup (the old Blue Beetle/Blue Bandito).  There are some parts changes in these later kits but I can acquire the correct ones from eBay or elsewhere.  This is addictive!

[dusty_shelf]

I just had a thought.  If I could find old catalogs/ads from the 1960s and early 1970s, I would better know what kits were available at that time.  I could then possibly find re-releases.  Any members know of a source for these old catalogs/ads?  Perhaps scans or PDFs?

Thanks.

[CaddyDaddy]

Welcome! I can trace my start in this hobby back to the original Beer Wagon and Red Baron customs.

[PappyD340]

Welcome back to the forum Mike!

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 12/11/2023 at 12:08 AM, dusty_shelf said:For those who dsy you can never go back to your childhood, just watch!

 

Yup. Almost as good as knowing way back than what we know now. Almost. 

Welcome aboard.   

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 12/11/2023 at 12:08 AM, dusty_shelf said:

 

For those who dsy you can never go back to your childhood, just watch!

Yup. Almost as good as knowing way back then what we know now. Almost.

Welcome aboard.  

[Matt Bacon]

Welcome aboard! I’m also a fan of the classic kits as well as new ones. Catalogues are often on sale on eBay, as are invidual issues and whole years of old modelling mags. There are also Tim Boyd’s excellent books on collecting model car kits (Muscle Car and Drag Racing so far). Schiffer publishes books on Revell, Monogram and Aurora kits covering the whole range of subjects…

best,

Matt

Edited December 14, 2023 by Matt Bacon

[dusty_shelf]

Yet more purchases!  A lot of three early Corvette “glue bombs.”  May try to restore or just part out.  Also picked up a nice assortment of period-correct “junkyard” tires.  Come in matched sets!  As well, a set of AMT M&H Racemaster slicks.  Will need these tires/slicks to replace the more modern ones included in the re-released kits I bought.

[bytownshaker]

Welcome to the forum Mike