I built my first model kit in _________, and it was a ____________.

[bobss396]

Another early one was the AMT 1932 Ford coupe. Box stock <smirk>...

I used the wire wheels, painted the bottom blue, the top yellow with Testors enamel. Even at age 7 I knew it looked like a-double-s.

[ksnow]

First model was a 1/72 scale F4F wildcat, about 1987 or 1988 (9 or 10 years old).

First car was a 1/32 Ford Mustang from Young Model Builder's Club shortly after.

[Ulf]

Harder and harder to remember but like mom paid for a 1975 Jo-Han Richard Petty Plymouth, the toy stores smelled in a special way, safety.
All the new kits notwithstanding, Jo-Han is since then No 1.

[Wickersham Humble]

Bill, Tim, et al, I hope you sourced an unbuilt example of your first kit, and exorcised your demons with an accomplished build!  I did two multi-piece kits in the 'nineties from the past, both Revell: the '60 Corvette kit (two, actually), and the '57 Ranchero (with the '59 front bumper, no less!) and both were still aggravating inasmuch as the interiors were molded integral with the body center section, etc.  The AMT '59 ragtop kit got renovated before I presented (back) to my brother, but all I have of the '60 Edsel is the chrome tail-lites, somehow.  Did anybody ever make the Hubley '60 Corvair sedan kits that could be ordered with fifty-cents and a cereal box-top?  Found an instruction sheet the other day!  They weren't at all bad, and I bought four of them before I was exhausted by the U.S.-V.W., and got the AMT Monza coupe version.  Still have some headlights from them in my junk drawers.  But, what happened to the models I have no recollection.  Four-doors don't feature much in my 'collection' since then!  

This proves I can write a short comment, huh?  Once upon a time, I got paid 'by the word' for car articles...    Wick

[Jim Dodson]

I built my first model in 1959 at age 6. It was the AMT 1940 Ford Tudor and the Coupe version followed soon thereafter.  Any vestiges of my modeling career prior to 1972 disappeared in one of my mom's many garage sales during my Air Force years. Oh yeah, those garage sales also saw the exit of my late 1950's vintage Lionel /Plasticville collection. Mom was very good about sending me the couple of bucks (literally) she sold all my stuff for. But, at the time a couple of bucks was almost a week's pay for this A1C. LOL

 

Wick, don't feel bad about a long post... This old man's ramblings can go longer than necessary LOL and I never got paid for my writing unless you count the lesson plans and tech manuals covered by the salaries!

[WillyBilly]

I built my first model car in 1974ish. It was MPC Coo Coo Marlin Monte Carlo from the NASCAR Series. I never finished it, and only recently found one and built it. The first complete model was a funny AMT kit called the Lug Bug around the same time.

[ChrisBcritter]

[bobss396]

Around 1963, for my birthday I would get a few cards in the mail from aunts .. nice crisp $1 bills. At times I would amass a fortune of $3.

My dad worked at Grumman and would pass a hobby shop on his way home. The kits were $1.09, I gave my dad a $1 bill .. he kicked in the rest. 

I'd ask him to get whatever they had, I gave him a short list. Usually something like a '40 or '36 AMT Ford.

[1972coronet]

On 5/15/2025 at 10:17 AM, Wickersham Humble said:

Bill, Tim, et al, I hope you sourced an unbuilt example of your first kit, and exorcised your demons with an accomplished build! 

I've managed to purchase a couple of my faves from c.1976 - c.1980 (see below) , and am waiting to build 'em once I get my skills up to snuff.

- MPC 1978 Chevy Step Side Pickup (2WD version; produced in late '77. That became the Dust Devil by mid-1978, and the basis for all 4WD iterations since)

- MPC 1977 Datsun Pickup ( annual from late '76 ; and the c.1980 reissue (whose name I've forgotten) which includes a camper shell )

- MPC 1978 Pinto (Coupe and Wagon)

- 1977 Monza (annual)

- 1978 Chevette (annual)

Edited Saturday at 04:26 PM by 1972coronet
AMENDMENT

[Radretireddad]

The first model kits I had were the ones my father bought and built for me. The oldest one I remember him getting for me was an original AMT 1965 Impala SS convertible in 1965 because our family car at the time was a 65 Impala hardtop. The other kits I can remember him buying and building for me was a ‘64 vette and an AMT ‘67 Mustang that he ruined by spraying it with Rustoleum. When it was taking too long to dry, he stuck it in the oven and I don’t think I need to tell you how that worked out. I came home from school one day to find him frantically working on a second gen Hurst Hemi Under glass he bought to replace it when the LHS didn’t have another Mustang. I didn’t start building kits myself until we moved in 1972. The oldest kit I remember building and painting myself was the MPC Grumpy’s Toy Vega. Back then I could buy two kits for $5.00 at the LHS in my town. My dad is still with us and we just celebrated his 93rd birthday. When I call he asks me what I’m working on and always enjoys pictures I send him of my completed builds. 

[bobss396]

I was on my own for building models.

My dad had an OG 1936 Ford coupe in a box on top of the kitchen cabinets... out of our reach. It was a nice build, no paint, molded in gray. It was never finished.

My mom helped me with a few things I had trouble with when I was around 8 on a 1949 Mercury.

Edited Tuesday at 11:04 AM by bobss396

[lucky 130]

My first was in 1959. It was a Stanley Steamer molded in red and had a whole bunch of gold coloerd chrome. Just can't remember the mfg.

[PatW]

I built my first kit in 1956 and it was an Airfix Supermarine Spitfire 1/72 scale, suggested by my RAF Flight Sergeant father. Although my Mother carried on a bit when I got the glue and paints on the dining room table! After that I had to wait until Father had read his large size Daily Telegraph newspaper each day to cover the table from further damage!

[TarheelRick]

I built my first model kit Christmas Day 1959 and it was an AMT Trophy Kit 1940 Ford Coupe. I was immediately hooked. Started saving my nickels, dimes, and the occasional quarter. When I had a dollar and a half and we went into town I bought a 1960 Mercury and the collection began. Every birthday, Christmas, and gift giving occasion I got a model. Began staying with my grandmother in the summertime, would mow her yard. Most often from my grandmother, uncles, and aunt that lived with her I could scratch together another $1.50. Every Saturday my aunt would go into town to shop and get her hair fixed. I would make my rounds to all the stores that sold models: Griffith's Gift Store, Roses $.05 and $.10, Ben Franklin's, Kennedy Auto, Cassteven's Hardware, and Royall Drugstore. Once I made my rounds I would decide on which kit I wanted, buy it, go back to the car, open it, fantasize on the finished build, and wait for my aunt to return.  Every once in awhile I would have $2 and could afford to buy a Styline kit.

[Tyreman]

Welcome cool post! i am 52... i never built young...i built some kits mid 90s in a few month time period but nothing else..2019 i started.

[Dragline]

I built my first model in 1972 and it was a Bug Bomb. My Father had a hippy type head shop and 2 doors down was a hobby shop. One day he took me inside and I marveled at all the kits. He asked me if I would like make a car and I must have said Yes. I was 7 at the time and picked out my first model all by myself. 

We built it over a series of evenings by my Father's accounting. I played with it and eventually lost track of it.

I have been after one for a few years now and the prices have Not gone down. But that is to be expected since it's a pretty tough kit to find in any condition. At some point I'll get one although I doubt I'll pony up for an NOS kit. A glue Bomb (pun intended) will be fine if A: it's complete, and B: It's not a true glue Bomb.

I am a patient man.

[Wickersham Humble]

Those Trophy Kits were a treat!  I learned some car stuff along the way, too, as there were no (well, one)* street rods in our little N CA burg!  I still have all my Trophy kits, and some not even built yet from 1960; mostly '40 Fords.  Long before I had a motor tool, I was trying to sand the dumb exhaust manifolds from the flathead blocks so I could cobble together some kind of headers -- or scrape them away with Pal Injector single-edged blades!  Carving that old skool styrene was like working in ivory; it was so thick!  Very forgiving for a 14-year-old using Duro Plastic Aluminum for filler!  After 1960, my model stash competed with my saving for a 1/1 car, which I got at the first of school my Junior year: '55 Chevy Delray 2-door 'post' with all the goodies, including red wheels/big moons and lakes pipes!  On about $50 per month, I paid a $26 dollar loan payment, gas (at 32-cents a gallon), insurance and registration, numerous u-joints (!), and model kits.  Oh, and some corsages when absolutely necessary...

*My wife's cousin (married in '72) had a '34 Ford coupe (rear fenders, but cobbled cycle-fenders in front) and what he endlessly touted as a very healthy flatmotor: 'It'll blow the doors off that Chevy, soon as I get it tuned up right!"  It usually wasn't running, which made tuning academic, I thought.  And the Chevy, which could cut a quarter in about 16-seconds at 88-mph, would have had it for breakfast, in reality!  Our country was so cold that old skool street rods just weren't popular -- or practical.  Wick

[bobss396]

I had a bicycle shop close by, it had a toy section with tons of models. That side of the store used to be a men's shop when I was real young.

$2 kits were $1.77, $1.50 kits were $1.27 and the old AMT pink-gray annuals were 99 cents. They had Detail Master parts... too advanced for us back then.

I was 10 when I made the quantum leap to the new AMT spray paints, a total game changer.

Just about everyone I knew built models. There could be 4 or 5 of us outside building on a picnic table in the shade.

We did anything to support our styrene habit. Cutting lawns, chores, collecting bottles, etc.

[Mike C.]

70s it was a Thames panel gasser by Revell

[bobss396]

17 hours ago, Mike C. said:

70s it was a Thames panel gasser by Revell

I still have mine, it was called The Pie Wagon. Also the red Thames coupe, Skippers Critter.

They are not in great shape at all. I also picked up some glue bombs, I'd like to resurrect both of them.

[Kah puts]

I was a car crazy kid right from the womb, I had a cool car nut uncle who lived with us, he would take me for rides all the time in his 56 Lincoln. In the late 50’s and early 60’s cars  were like rocket ships for the road and the cars parked along the sidewalk were eye candy for a young impressionable lad with their fabulous interiors. My parents owned a small corner store and had a small number of kits over the door to the basement and I’m pretty sure my first kit was the yellow plastic Lindberg sports racer Jaguar C or D type around 59 or 60, I’m sure my uncle Jim helped out. I can still remember that yellow plastic like it was yesterday .👨‍🚒

[Wickersham Humble]

Glen, my dad was a depression-kid, dust-bowl in W KS, and when his dad was killed in a construction accident when he was 14, he inherited most of his responsibilities and the family 1914 Model T touring.  When I was a kid, he'd just gone from Principal in his old (tiny) high school in KS to Asst Co Supt in N CA, and didn't have enough time for a car (and airplane) famished kid, but decided that we'd hunt up a T Ford to restore together!  Well, sadly, he passed away (coronary*) when I was 12, and we never got to do that experience, but I was set upon the 'right road' toward being a hot rod/sports car guy, and enthusiastic modeler!  I don't know why I didn't inspire my kids or grandkids to do modeling (my son says it was because 'they could never do it as well as Grandpa' which is sad!) but I have a nephew who does fantastic models (cars, truck, even RR) and I'll leave my stash to him, I guess!  

I like your upbeat comments; good on yer!  Good choice of kits, too!        Wick, almost 80, retired Kinder teacher, Vet, lunatic...

*Dad was drafted in WWII at age 29, a HS English teacher, and fought as a T-7 (SFC, now) in the Battle of Okinawa; he started smoking Luckies then, and 13 years later they made him a belated casualty.  I'm thankful I had a Dad like him until seventh grade, anyhow, but have sure missed him for many, many years!