# Memory Lane: What was your very first model kit?



## GrauGeist (Feb 28, 2015)

With the recent discussion of hobby shops closing, it got me thinking about the fun I used to have exploring those shops and dreaming of having that monster aircraft kit that was always taunting me from behind the counter...

It also took me back to the first kits I had as a kid and so here we are:

What was the very first model kit you ever built? Do you remember what it was?

For me, it was a Hawk Model's F2H2 Banshee given to me by my Uncle Bill, who flew them (he also gave me a F9F Panther at the same time, which he had also flown, but I built the Banshee first).


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## Lucky13 (Feb 28, 2015)



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## CommanderBounds (Feb 28, 2015)

My first Model Kit I ever built by myself was an old 1/72 Academy P40B/C in around 2006 or 2007, but the first model kit I ever technically built was Lindberg's 1/64 B17 with my Grandad in 2006. I need to see if I can find it in my Attic or somewhere so I can take some pictures of it.

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## Lucky13 (Feb 28, 2015)

Built this later on with me dad...

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## Airframes (Feb 28, 2015)

The old Airfix 1/72nd scale Lysander I think, back in 1959, followed swiftly by the Spitfire MkIX, or perhaps the other way around. I have the feeling that the Lysander looked like a Spit, an the Spit like a Lysander, by the time I'd finished !!

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## CommanderBounds (Feb 28, 2015)

I need to buy a Matchbox kit soon. Specifically one of those 1/32 kits.


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## stona (Feb 28, 2015)

1/72 Airfix Spitfire. Blue plastic and it came in a bag. I think it cost half a crown which was sixpence more than my weekly pocket money!

Cheers

Steve

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## michaelmaltby (Feb 28, 2015)

1/48 Grumman Panther ... circa 1952 ... I installed the tip tanks back to front ...

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## Airframes (Feb 28, 2015)

The old Airfix 1/72nd poly-bag kits were 2 Shillings (Ten Pence) for many years at Woolworth's, and always displayed on a peg board at a counter immediately inside the doorway of every store, usually on the right hand side. The cigarette and tobacco counter was on the opposite side of the door ! 
Some of those _same_ kits are still being issued by Airfix today, at around £7 to £10, although they have started to re-tool most.

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## Crimea_River (Feb 28, 2015)

Mine was a 1/72 109E that my mother bought me from the grocery store. Probably Airfix. Use to be able to by kits everywhere here in Canada. As I said, grocery stores had them, Coles book stores and even the corner "Smoke Shop" which had a barber shop attached.

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## Airframes (Feb 28, 2015)

Yep, same here. The local Newsagent, grocery stores, toy shops and all sorts of places sold kits, in varying amounts and types.

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## pbehn (Feb 28, 2015)

At the age of 6 I "helped" my brother with his Airfix model of the "Evening Star" while he was out...he wasnt impressed. My first model was a Typhoon...also a dogs dinner. Assembled glued and painted all before lunchtime.

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## GrauGeist (Feb 28, 2015)

I do remember model kits were to be found everywhere: drug stores, dime stores, grocery stores. It seems the toy section of the grocery store mostly had cars models, though.

My Dad used to bring home auto dealer promo cars and I ended up with quite a collection of those. They were identical to the model kits, except were fully assembled. They were 1/32 scale and most often molded in one color, except for the chrome trim. Not too long ago, I looked up the price of some of the ones I had and about cried when I discovered those things are now worth a fortune!


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## Thorlifter (Mar 1, 2015)

B-17 with my dad. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. I have a couple pictures of us building it back at my dad's house.

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## GrauGeist (Mar 1, 2015)

Great memories, guys!


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## stona (Mar 1, 2015)

Airframes said:


> Yep, same here. The local Newsagent, grocery stores, toy shops and all sorts of places sold kits, in varying amounts and types.



I acquired my first few from a local grocery shop. They were delivered with the groceries...and people think 'delivered to your door' is a new idea! Of course you, or rather your mum, had to have credit with the shop I went to school with the son of that shop's owner.

Paints (Humbrol of course) came from a model shop 'in town', now long gone. I wasn't too fussed about the colours, they all looked good hanging from our (brother and I) bedroom ceiling, at lest to us. I'm not sure that the IPMS would agree.

Cheers

Steve


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## destrozas (Mar 1, 2015)

since 1993-94 when my uncle would leave his life in Madrid and moved to our house for a few months to settle in l'alcora, castellon, as one of the many gifts to me was this model, there I began my craze plastic, but I never have taken it very seriously, it's just a pastime more than a hobby







P.D: sorry did not see the photo

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## Wayne Little (Mar 1, 2015)

Too long ago to remember, but it would have been an airfix kit most likely.

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## Wurger (Mar 1, 2015)

My first model I have built was a paper model of the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł. The first plastic kit assembled by me was the Mi-6 of the VEB Plasticart of the former DDR.

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## Lucky13 (Mar 1, 2015)

I also had a few given to me, by one of my dads friends in (then) Czechoslovakia and Brno, all in 1/72, strange colours to the plastic plus some.....names, which I wouldn't even try to pronounce....all eastern block birds and some rather nice! Both WWI and WWII as well...

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## Wurger (Mar 1, 2015)

The most interesting thing is that all of these VEB Plasticart kits weren't of the 1/72 scale usually. Most of them was of 1/76 scale.


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## fubar57 (Mar 3, 2015)

Can't remember the scale or make but it was a Yak 9 in yellow plastic sometime in the early 60s.

Geo

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## imalko (Mar 7, 2015)

Actually, I still have my first ever model. It's a 1/144 MiG-21. I can't recall the manufacturer nor the exact year when it was bought. I know I was somewhere around 10 year old, so it had to be sometime in the late eighties. Like many of you said, in our country too kits could be bought almost everywhere back then; newspaper booths, book shops, toy departments at grocery stores, etc.
I have built it together with my dad. We put too much glue, clear parts fogged up, no colors or varnish, just decals on bare plastic and we had tons of fun doing it together...

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## Capt. Vick (Mar 7, 2015)

I have no idea what was the first kit I built was, but I did "build" a kit of the battleship Bismarck in the back of a moving van on a makeshift table my dad set up for me! I really wanted to work on it, but my dad wanted us all to go for a ride "to blow the stink off" as it were. This must have been the compromise! I must have been around 10?

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## JKim (Mar 11, 2015)

I think my first model was a ship. Revell kit of the USS Arizona after my dad took me to see the movie Tora Tora Tora. This was in Virginia in the early 70's.






In those days, Revell packed their kits with brochures for a modeling club, which I joined. You got a little collection of cheezy plastic tools and a semi-regular newsletter called "Get It Together"






None of these photos are mine (found them on the net) but I specifically remember those issues of the newsletter and having this iron-on transfer.

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## Wayne Little (Mar 12, 2015)

I have found a picture of me back around 1971-72 with my baby brother on the front lawn of our house, i'm holding what looks like a 1/72 B-29


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## Airframes (Mar 12, 2015)

Post the pic !


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## Wayne Little (Mar 15, 2015)

Airframes said:


> Post the pic !



It's in a big framed picture collage...will see....


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