How did you get started building models?

[clovis]

What is your story?

When did you start?

How long have you been building?

Do you build anything other than cars?

[High octane]

I guess it was about the mid-50's I went to the corner cigar/candy store and bought a model kit (probably a plane) some glue and brought it home and started building it. The rest is history.

[caine440]

My Dad got me started when I was little.

Left the hobby for 20 years but now I enjoy it more than ever.

I built just about everything as a kid but now I am much more focused in my builds.

I have a 1 year old son I am hoping to pass on the hobby to.

[turn1wonder]

My brother is 6 years older than me and he needed something to shoot with a pellet air gun (cars) and burn (aircraft).

Did you know that pellets ricochet leaving dings all over the furniture and burned plastic sends thousands of black sperm-shaped threads all through the house...and older brothers will sell you out to your Parents?

Bob

[DumpyDan]

I think I was 12, Christmas of 1973, it was a 1972 Corvette my brother bought me. I remember it well, could not figure out how to put the engine together so I glued the breather into the clear scoop that fit into the hood, no paint. Never forgot that kit, was able to find a built-up a few years back. Plan on building it again. Tried boats and planes but just didn't interest me like cars and trucks do, even still today. Left the hobby at 18 got back in at 20 right after my first born and never looked back.....................And now my wife says it is out of hand....................Oh well.

[Dr. Cranky]

I started in my early teens and I bought my kits at Thrifty's and Woolworths in California. Built mostly airplanes and military vehicles and just as I discovered and started to enjoy model cars (the Pintos and Vegas), I went off to college and gave it all up until I was in my late 30s, then I picked it up again and have never looked back. I think I build models now for the very same reason I built them so many years ago: for the fun, and also because they help keep my imagination sharp.

I don't build for others, I build for myself. I try to build what gets me excited, regardless of accuracy, etc . . .

LONG LIVE STYRENE!

[Jeff Johnston]

My uncle came to the house with his brand new white 1974 Corvette and a model and we sat at the table and built it. From then on I got a model every payday (they were cheap back then LOL). I slowed through my late teens and early 20s while i was studying, and picked is back up in my mid 20s. From my mid 20s to mid 30s I built but maybe only a few kits a year. I guess except maybe when I was 24 and 25 I built pretty steady then.

I moved to Boston in 1991 and had a lot of time spent at work and studying the new procedures, etc I had to know, and at the same time I met a girl...so between work, work travel, and the girl (who I married and we celebrate our 20th anniversary this week) I slowed a lot until about 2001.

When I discovered Hobby Heaven on line in about 2002 or so, and that's when I started back heavy, and have never looked back.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Jeff Johnston

[MikeyB08]

Mr previous Model Building history is pretty weak. When my brother (who is also 6 years older than me) got married, his wife was super big into cars. Well one day they was going to the mall and noticed that there was a Hobby Store. So they got to looking and he was hooked. After he built a few, he took me to the Hobby Store to get a model for my birthday (15). I remember it was an Aoshima Mazda RX7 Veilside Combat Edition. Car looks killer on the box art. When I finished, not so much. It was rocky from their on. A kit here and there, never consistent.

Now I build on a very regular basis. Sometimes an hour or two a day, upto 8 hours a day at work when it's slow. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate the craftsmanship and patience that one puts in a model. I don't plan on slowing down anytime soon. This is the one hobby that I have stuck with that hasn't gotten boring after 2 weeks or so. Half of that is due to the forums here. Great atmosphere and motivation.

[Tom Geiger]

My first recollection of models was at my father's youngest cousins' house. Dickie and Donny lived in a big upstairs bedroom that their father had built a shelf up high around the entire perimeter of the room that was just wide enough for a model car to sit sideways. I was maybe six and was very impressed that the 'big boys' invited me up to their room. I was mesmerized with the display of model cars parked end to end on that shelf! And the best part? They gave me one to take home with me! I don't remember what ever happened to that model, or even what it was, but it left a lasting impression on me!

My dad was military so the next few years we lived in Turkey where there was nothing available to buy. My model building actually commenced in 1968 when we moved back to NJ. Between the debut of Hot Wheels and shelves full of model cars I was in Heaven! Every Saturday my grandfather and I would take a walk to Two Guys Department Store. We'd have a hot dog for lunch and I could pick out either a Hot Wheels car or a model kit. I hate to admit that the Hot Wheels won out more than not, but I got great kits like the original '69 Chevy and after seeing the movie, Herbie the Love Bug.

A year later we moved to Germany and models became difficult to get once again. The German Mark went from four to a dollar to less than two inside of a year so local purchases had literally doubled in price. For instance when you all were paying $2 for a kit, a Revell of Germany kit was $10 in a local hobby shop. That left me to build the Airfix 1/32 scale cars, and models sent to me from the US by my grandparents. They seldom got my requests right, sending me funky Tom Daniel cars rather than the list of hot Mopars I had sent them. So I discovered the AutoWorld catalog. Back then it took something like 3 months to get an order, so I would place an order about once a month. It would be for a kit, some brush paints (they couldn't mail sprays) and if I had a few cents left over, I'd buy a decal sheet, the AW license plates or once time the AW Auto Cutter, which I still have. I kept track of how many orders I had stacked out there, and their anticipated delivery dates. And I lived for package days!

My model building was more self directed than peer pressure. I don't remember building models with the neighborhood kids, it was just something I wanted to do, no doubt from the seed planted with that first kit from my cousin Dickie!

[george 53]

Watched my big brother build them. Probably got smacked a few times for playin with his. My dad bought me some 72 scale airplanes when I was about 5 or so, my brother showed me how they went together. Them my brother bought me my first CAR model.It was Revell's 56 Chrysler New Yorker, with the multi-peice body. I got it for my 6th birthday, in 1959, and I've never stopped. Found this place in 07 after I retired and been here ever since too. I like my hobby and enjoy the freinds I've made thru it. I have the privlige of calling some GSL winners my personal freinds, and have even enjoyed their company in my home after some NNL's.

[Ognib]

I've been a car freak as long as I can remember.

I built 1/24 when I was a kid.

Always obsessed with realism.

Small town boy.

About 15, I got my first 1:1...couldn't drive yet...52 chev torpedo back & forgot about the plastic.

$125, paid for with lawn mowing & putting up hay dollars.

Started hanging out at the local mechanic & bugging him to teach me stuff & he'd let me hang around & watch & ask questions.

Never looked back.

Worked in auto shops for over 30 yrs...mechanically certified in 12 areas, painted in a Ferrari/porsch/benz/jag dealership for a few years.

Built a few rods & show cars & fabbed a few pannels & frames.

Retired now.

Got the bug about a year ago do do another build.

On fixed income now & can't afford that game any more.

Decided if I can't do a 1:1 then I'll do a mineature & came back to square one.

[cobraman]

For me it was my dad who got me started. That was many , many years ago. It was either the late 50's or early 60's. The first 2 kits I remember ( not sure if they were the first ) was a 59 Ford wagon and/or a submarine in which one side was removable to show the interior detail ( The George Washington ???? ). From then I built just about everything. Cars, boats, ships, planes, military stuff. Was very heavy into military dioramas for a long time and won some local contests. Must have stoped and restarted this hobby 8 to 10 times. Now I build as much as I ever did but now only cars. I am loving all the reissues of models I built years ago. Models for me are the ideal hobby. It is the one hobby I have that I can do at home. I also collect Cobra's of all types and materials but all you can do with them is look at them for the most part. I also collect and shoot firearms but I can't really do anything much with them at home. Model building is a great hobby and I will keep building till my eyesight gives out on me. Maybe just build larger models ! : )

[slusher]

My older brother built them and l wanted to be like him so when l was 7 my mother took me to the candy /hobby shop and l have been hooked ever since. l think it was in 1972 when l started.

Edited August 3, 2013 by slusher

['70 Grande]

This is a great topic for the forum; the different stories so "different", yet, many still the same!

My story: I always loved cars as a youngster, was born that way! When Matchbox cars were introduced in 1964(?), I was 5 years old, and started my collection of them quickly... (okay, so I only had 4 or 5 of 'em, but it was my collection). Hot Wheels followed in about 1967 or '68, and I had a few more of those.

At 8 or 9 years old, when at the local Woolworth's store with my mother looking at the Hot Wheels, across the aisle were some model car kits. I promised to mow our lawn all summer long if she'd spend the $1.79 to buy one for me, (wish I could remember which kit it was). I built it poorly, but was very proud of it.

I got my two school buddies to build models, too, (one of them loved the Tom Daniel kits and built everyone of them). We always had work sessions on my parent's kitchen table, (mom was never too happy about the puddles of paint and globs of glue we left behind)! I built car and a few WW2 aircraft models until I was a junior in high school, then quit because of a job and girls.

I've tried writing down a list of every model kit that I built as a youngster, and think it's pretty-much complete, (try it sometime, you'll be amazed at what you'll remember and how many kits you built back then).

I came back to the hobby in 1989 at the age of 30, when my interest in Nascar was at it's peak; so I wanted to build "just one" Nascar model. My interest in Nascar died about 10 years ago, but that, "just one" has turned into over 150 different car kits in my collection, and I still keep buying.

[mbl4321]

I did them when I was really young. But I did them in a day and usually set them on fire or crashed them soon after. Lets not count that.

I was playing golf professionally and living alone in Myrtle Beach. I knew no one and I was constantly bored. So I decided to do a model and I got a Tamiya F2001 Formula 1 car. I painted the whole thing with a brush and I thought it looked great. I had no idea that there were adults out there taking this hobby very seriously. I didn't know people were sanding seams, and priming parts, and airbrushing, etc etc. Or that there were websites devoted to all this. One model turned into 2 and 2 into a hundred. And a hundred into who knows. I always take my hobbies and loves way too far, and that's a good thing.

[Tom Geiger]

A funny thing... my father was US Army so I lived in that shadow most of my childhood. He retired when I was 15. Having lived on military bases and having access to lots of inspiration, I never ever had an interest in military modeling at all. It was always cars for me!

[Dr. Cranky]

Also, if you look at pictures of so many builds at the start of the hobby, you can clearly see how far it has come, providing so many decades of fun to the practitioners.

LONG LIVE STYRENE!

LONG LIVE STYRENE ADDICTION!

[ScaleDale]

I was a science geek during the original space program and built models of the rockets used in that great endeavor. I think I first saw models used to explain things at that time. All of the TV science reporters like the late Jules Bergman used models as props to show us how all this stuff worked. The ability of a model to represent something larger and more complex intrigued me. I built military planes and moved to cars when I got interested in drag racing in my later teens. I remember cutting up two Mustangs to make a flip top funny car when they first came on the scene in the late '60s. That was in the heyday of Revell Parts Pak kits where you could buy an engine, frame and wheels separately for what we would now call small change.

Dale

[Daddyfink]

For me it started when I was about 6 and used to hang out at my Grandparents house. My uncle, who was a college student at the time, had a really cool collection of kits and I would just spend hours looking at them and reading, or looking at, his Hot Rod Magazines. Finally one day they got me a Revell Snap Together Bug and I was on my way! I put my building on hold after High School and resumed again in my mid 20's. I have not looked back since, until now!

[Ramfins59]

I started building models around 1959 or '60 when I was 12 or 13. I built both cars and military stuff, but I blew up and/or burned the tanks and half-tracks with firecrackers and lighter fluid.... battle scenes you know..? I continued building car models through high school but stopped shortly thereafter when I discovered girls, cars & bars... (not necessarily in that order). Life continued without models as careers, marriage (will be 45 years this December), kids, etc., took over. Then I rediscovered car modeling in late 1991 when I got a Revell '57 Chevy model as a gift from co-workers. I was off and running again, especially after finding SAE magazines, which led me to find and join the L.I.A.R.S. Club on Long Island in NY where I lived at the time. I just LOVE this hobby and all the great people in it. I've made so very many great friends in many different states of this country through this hobby.

[LokisTyro]

My dad built models and has been into 1:1's and racing so he got me into all that
at a fairly young age. I learned a lot about 1:1's but not so much scale models.
Nevertheless I enjoyed building them until I was 18 and then took a 10 year hiatus.
I purchased kits a few years back but never completed them, only opened some
of the boxes to check for damage and the like while painting a few parts. I just didn't
have the time.

Well, I finally broke out my box of kits after stumbling across this forum. I'm excited
to take a crack at again and see what I can do now that I'm slightly more wise. I
have a ways to go before I'm in my Yoda years but I feel confident I can do well
especially with all the great info that's at my disposal.

[clovis]

I've been thinking about how and when I got started building models, and even though I started the thread, I simply don't remember.

I do know that the first model I ever received was a gift, and it was a Steve Austin, 6 Million Dollar Man model. My dad glued it together for me, and I tried to paint it, which was a disaster. My mother later pitched it in the trash.

I think I got a couple of car kits, and built those using a whole tube of glue on each one. I don't remember much after that, until I discovered model kits of WWII war birds, and then I was addicted, hook, line and sinker. Those war bird models stole my heart, and I spent seven years, from about 11 years old to 18, building planes.

I gave up building until a few years ago, when my daughter entered 4-H.

When we sat down and started that Revell Corvette kit, I couldn't believe how much I had missed the hobby!!!!

[Wagoneer81]

Growing up, my older brother built car models and both him and Dad were into model railroading. When I was 7, I got a 1/16 General Lee and a 1/25 Daisy's Jeep kits for Christmas. I remember sitting at the dining room table with a tube of glue and my Boy Scout pocket knife and building both... Evidently, I was hooked. that was sometime around 1980... I've been building ever since. I never took time away from the hobby for girls, college or cars, I simply worked them into my schedule... ;^) I've been involved in model railroading in one form or another since then as well...

[Tom Geiger]

I envy the guys who had older brothers or fathers that were into models. Aside from the post I put on this thread about my earliest recollection of models, my first brush with models was in 1967. My father was a Studebaker guy and wanted an Avanti so he bought a model kit instead. He never did build it, but it served as a pattern to build my Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car. We painted it yellow and black, which was my favorite color scheme after watching the movie "The Yellow Rolls Royce". It was number 61 and I still have the 2nd place trophy. The car is long gone. I used that number on all my race cars after that. I have no idea what my dad did with the model.

The year I got into models was 1968 and my dad was away in Korea with the US Army that year. So I did it on my own gumption with my own skills. Upon his return we moved to Germany and his involvement was basically telling me that "if you put that much work into your school work you'd have straight As!"

Later on when I was an adult and showed him my two trucks centerfold article in Car Modeler Magazine he smiled and said, "I didn't know you were going to get this good at it. I would have encouraged you!"

Edited August 8, 2013 by Tom Geiger

[oldcars]

  On 8/3/2013 at 4:16 AM, High octane said:

I guess it was about the mid-50's I went to the corner cigar/candy store and bought a model kit (probably a plane) some glue and brought it home and started building it. The rest is history.

Pretty much the same story but mine started in the early fifties and was bought at a drugstore. Richard