how did you get hooked ..my 1st kit 1963

[MrObsessive]

A Saturday in the fall of 1978 when I finally had that day off at the job I was working at the time............what does it do?

RAIN!!

So I drove to the local mall, and decided to look around and stumble across a Hobby Shop (Allied Hobbies). I see a model kit (Monogram) of one of my favorite cars (a '57 Corvette)........I buy the kit and I was forever hooked!

[Draggon]

My Dad built the Revell 56 Buick for me, and a couple of years later my Mother helped me with a Hubley Nash Metropolitan. We moved to California in 1962, and I found an AMT 40 Ford coupe in a grocery store. That was the first model I built myself, and got me totally hooked.

[Wayne Buck]

Shortly after I was born, my parents split up and I used to go over to my grandparent's house for the weekend to visit my dad. His house was being renovated at the time. When I was around 3 years old, my dad was building one of those 1:12 Revell Camaros to represent the 1:1 he owned at the time, and I was VERY interested in it.

After seeing my interest, he picked me up some models. I had a bunch, but distinctly remember a 2nd gen Camaro (I made it into a circle track car and dad showed me how to make dents in the body by heating up the plastic and... well you know how it works..). I loved that car and built it over and over, as well as some others. I really wish I could find that Camaro just for the sake of memories.

Anyway, from that time up until I went off to tech-school after high school, I built models in my dad's basement pretty much every weekend. I graduated from tech school in Illinois, came back home and started working as a BMW tech (after some more schooling in NJ) and I just didn't have the time and kinda lost interest. I did build a bit while going to school and even got my roommates interested enough to build a few of their own.

About a year after starting my "adult life", I met a girl who eventually became my "wife" (we still haven't officially tied the knot, but are engaged and planning to) and mother of our 3 year old daughter, and believe it or not, SHE is responsible for me getting back into the hobby. Around '06, we were talking one day and somewhere in the conversation I mentioned how much I used to love building model cars and she asked me what some of my favorite cars were. Well, a couple of months later, she remembered that conversation and surprised me with 2 kits on our 4th anniversary. One was an AMT '66 Nova and the other a Revell '55 Chevy.

Once I unwrapped the cellophane and opened the box containing the Nova, it was all over!!

Edited October 6, 2011 by Wayne Buck

[57peppershaker]

I built kits as a kit, but cant really remember what they was, planes, tanks ect.

Had a busted leg from a motorbike crash when I was 18 & a friend bought me a kit to do, as I was bored.

That AMT 57 Chevy kit had a lasting impression ! Got hooked on 57 Chevys, leading to a 1;1 scale 20 years later.

Also got me into other kits & been building ever since, tho dont find as much yime as i'd like.

[imatt88]

I used to stand at the end of my Dad's workbench and watch him build the old '60s issue Monogram kits. He built armor, aircraft, cars, didn't make a difference to him. He never painted anything, he would just build them, and put the decals on

When the glue was dry, he would give them to me to play with..needless to say, they didn't last long..

I was 5 or 6 at the time..

I started building on my own when I was about 9, and those first models were absolute crimes, but god, I had fun

Great memories..

Cheers, Ian

[sjordan2]

Interesting to see how many people here got hooked by working with their fathers. Same for me. We worked together on the Gowland & Gowland Highway Pioneers - Stutz Bearcat, Tall T, etc. That's why the hobby has always filled in a warm, cozy spot in my soul.

[jbwelda]

it wasnt the first kit i ever built but something about the Green Hornet Monogram model in the flatish box got me. Probably that you could lift the body off the chassis and see all the (pretty minimal) chassis and engine detail. i liked that idea and i ended up building it a bunch of time with Revell parts pack motors and stuff like that.