What was your first model kit?

[pulln4dejr]

Was just thinking about this and thought it might be a fun topic 

The first model that I remember getting was around 1970, I  remember my oldest brother giving me Bobby Issac’s Daytona complete with the “iron-in-patch for Christmas (1970?). He was a huge NASCAR and Daytona fan and got me hooked on cars by the age of 10!
So let’s hear about what you remember was your kit kit, sit back and enjoy 

Edited 19 hours ago by pulln4dejr

[Bill_B]

I believe I was around 8 or so. My memory is pretty fuzzy but I either had the Knight Rider car or the Kodak car driven by Irvin. I believe it was KITT though cause I remember Dad helping me with some paint and assistance on how to read the instructions. I still have that very car intact. Rough to look at but intact. 

 

[Dave G.]

Helicopter 1958, I was 8.

[Engine 51]

MPC Jeepster, police version. 

[JollySipper]

The earliest I remember building by myself was a 1/32 '55 Chevy........... It was molded in blue. It had aluminum slot wheels, and side-pipes and such! I thought it was the coolest thing........

[Ace-Garageguy]

First model was an airplane definitely. The old man built planes and I wanted to be like him. Though I don't remember which one it was probably Revell. I bodged quite a few aircraft. First almost decent one I built was the Revell B58 Hustler. First car model was the Revell Ford Country Squire, which I must have brush painted 15 times without stripping (though I tried, with Testors enamel thinner), and it STILL looked horrible. 

            

Edited 13 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[Swamp Dog]

 im 70 years young and i still remember that sad moment. it was 2nd grade we had draw names. i got some kind of car kit. i was so mad, i wanted a cap gun to play Cowboys & Indians 😂as i grew up in the piney woods of south east Louisiana. we lived so far out in the woods we did not get the Grand Ole Opry till a week later.. but that one little car i did not know at the time it would open up a whole new world for me. i have met some great people at the shows , here on the forum & my groups on Facebook.  

Edited 12 hours ago by Swamp Dog

[HankinWisconsin]

Don't recall the manufacturer (possibly Aurora?) but it was a Grumman F9F Panther some time around 1969.

Edited 13 hours ago by HankinWisconsin
Can't spell on Fridays.

[Phildaupho]

When I started school, I lived on a naval air station so the first model I built myself was an aircraft likely from an inexpensive and simple Frog kit. However, I was always a car guy having inherited my older brother's Dinky Toy collection. I helped my dad with a few car kits, some of which were diecast metal but my first on my own styrene model vehicle build was an AMT  1960 Chev Pickup. I built this without any paint and used virtually every part in box and every decal on the sheet. The first model car I painted was an AMT '61 Chevy II Convertible that was painted with a brush light blue. I added a cover over the rear seats with headrests like a Thunderbird Roadster. The Christmas of 1961 I got a Thunderbird Hardtop AMT Styline kit with customizing accessories and AMT putty. That was my first spray paint job - Candy Sapphire Blue AMT paint. That really started my first four years in the model car hobby until I turned 16 and got my driver's license. Everything changed after that for about four decades.

Photo of my 61 Thunderbird taken with a Brownie camera. The only photo I have of my first era of model car building.

Edited 13 hours ago by Phildaupho

[Fat Brian]

I built Legos from the time I was three or four. The first model I remember was a snap together battleship I got on the Yorktown when I was 6 or 7. My first car kit was Mark Martin's Folgers Thunderbird. I was maybe 10 at the time and ditched was a current issue kit. Since I was used to Legos I pulled all the parts off the trees and then had to dig through them to find the right one. I also used most of a tube of red glue and got gluey fingerprints on everything, I built the entire car in an afternoon and it took a couple days to dry. It died a quick death reenacting the wild 80s NASCAR crashes.

[WillyBilly]

MPC Coo Coo Marlin Monte Carlo. I got it 50 years ago and never got a chance to finish it. Got one off ebay a few years back and built it with a matching carrier.

[Monty]

My very first model was some small scale Israeli Air Force jet I received at around 8 years old.  No idea which plane, or what the occasion was.  There weren't many pieces but my experience with it may have given Bill Watterson the idea for this scenario:

This obviously did nothing to get me excited about models, but about a year later I saw this and had to have it.

As most of you know, this is not a kit for young beginners.  To no one's surprise, the build failed spectacularly, but the interest was there as my inner gearhead began to emerge.  

Edited 9 hours ago by Monty

[Big Messer]

1/32 Rolls-Royce by Airfix. A real glue bomb. Managed to glue a rear wheel at the front axle...

Edited 12 hours ago by Big Messer

[1972coronet]

First kit(s) for me were the Monogram 1/32 scale dragster cars (recently reissued by Atlantis ) , circa 1974 (age 4).

First glue kit that I can remember was an MPC kit... I seem to remember that it the 1975 Monza annual. I had the older neighbour / friend help me build it ( show me how to brush paint and such ; no spray painting ).  

[Keef]

This was my first kit at the age of 12. My grandmother used to pay me $30 for mowing and trimming the yard, sweeping the sidewalks, and washing her car. A lot of money for a kid in the early 80s.

Then she would take me to Kmart (back when kits were $3.99-$4.99) and I would load up on all the current musclecars I could find, along with store brand spray paint and Testors glass bottles.

I’ll find another one either sealed or unstarted that I can afford some day.