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Your first aircraft model ?


Nachtwulf

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26 minutes ago, rs2man said:

This exactly matches my first experience - same kit , same treatment of the decals but a couple of years later 

:lol: It took a friend of vastly greater modelling experience ( he was 10!!) to show me the error of my ways regarding the transfers!

 

Allan

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2 hours ago, Albeback52 said:

Airfix Folland Gnat - one of the bagged kits bought at Woolworth's! 1966. I was 8. I was also hooked from that moment! I even managed to painstakingly cut out the transfers and glue them (backing paper and all!) on to the glue besplattered  model! :lol:.

 

Allan

This was the game for kids. Just basics compared to now.

 

Remember the balsa wood kits. Spitfires Hurricanes. Made up in seconds.

 

Came with a nose weight. Stick it on. A little hook on the front and an elastic band.

 

A band of friends all similarly charged and there were half a dozen of these balsa wood

basic models taking to the air.

 

Just wings and tailpiece slotted into the fuselage. Plus balsa cement for running repairs.

Many hours of fun and friendship for the simplest of boys things.

Laurie

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Airfix B-29 bought for me whilst visiting my Nan in Birmingham and during a shopping trip to the Bull Ring centre in 1976. Had to wait a week to get back home before starting it. Built mainly by my Dad, finished sans paint ("It's already silver") and decaled in two days. Totally mesmerised by all the working gizmos, and instantly employed in the skies of my bedroom over my bedroom carpet battlefield. Many Airfix HO/OO Afrika Korps, Japanese and German infantry bombed into oblivion with the mighty "Joltin' Josie".

 

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

Someone gave me an Airyda kit of Hitlers propaganda fighter , the He 112 for my 5th birthday . A wooden kit with just band sawn blanks

for the main parts . The only tools I had were a penknife , double sided file , one side coarse the other medium and a stiff backed razor blade ,

( I still have the scar ) , it got carved out to a sort of aeroplane shape , I don`t  remember if it got any kind of paint on , but Boy ! was I hooked .

That was in 1940 , the hobby has come a long , long way since .For the past 15 or so years Iv`e only built in 1/32nd and 1/35th .

Have built two B 17s and two B 25s , in the biggies and have a Lanc on order and looking forward to news of the HB B24 . Our lovely hobby

is what stops me climbing the walls .

                                                           Don .

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  • 10 months later...

My first kit was the original Airfix Gnat, in red plastic. Must have been early 80s. I still remember the feel of the plastic, the smell of the tube glue and the amazement at the finished object, complete with roundels, but obviously no paint (don't think I even had any). All built on the dining room table. Was hooked immediately, no going back.

I built the new Airfix Gnat recently in near identical markings, but you can never recapture the magic of kit number one.

Strange what sticks in the memory.

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On 8/25/2018 at 2:04 AM, LaurieS said:

This was the game for kids. Just basics compared to now.

 

Remember the balsa wood kits. Spitfires Hurricanes. Made up in seconds.

 

Came with a nose weight. Stick it on. A little hook on the front and an elastic band.

 

A band of friends all similarly charged and there were half a dozen of these balsa wood

basic models taking to the air.

 

Just wings and tailpiece slotted into the fuselage. Plus balsa cement for running repairs.

Many hours of fun and friendship for the simplest of boys things.

Laurie

Ah yes! I remember those too! My brothers and I had some one time, but they didn't last long once we found that strapping a bottle rocket to them was the way to go! Too bad they were the type that exploded at the end of the ride!:clap:

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21 minutes ago, Nachtwulf said:

Ah yes! I remember those too! My brothers and I had some one time, but they didn't last long once we found that strapping a bottle rocket to them was the way to go! Too bad they were the type that exploded at the end of the ride!:clap:

You terrorists. 😀

 

Ours were preserved & mulitple repaired as we could not afford another money being very tight. Plus

they ran out at intervals.

 

But one thing for sure. From a relatively cheap toy we got absolutely  maximum return from our investment.

Like all boys with zest it was try to hit the other guy's craft or who could get the highest.

 

Finally a band broke. Oh my oh my. Even at 80 I can still visualize my group of friends in an area

where bombs had destroyed the building.

Laurie

 

 

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My first was in 1963, aged 8, Airfix 72nd Spitfire (bagged, and in light blue plastic). Built and decalled, but not painted. Did it on my own as Dad was a 'dyed in the wool' Balsa carver - he even tried to get me interested in making "real" models until I lobbed off the top of my thumb with a Stanley knife (Social Services today would have whisked him off to the pokey if they'd found that one out!). After many years of 'opposition' I finally brought him, dragging his heels and mumbling, into the modern world of plastics. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to make a dent in his stash - would've loved to see him build the Bandai Traction Engine I bought him for what turned out to be his last Christmas 😞

 

Haven't had a break since I started, despite three marriages and divorces, but have lost several 'stashes' due to reversals of fortune at several points. Last 'lost stash' was in 2013. Rebuilding of stash started anew in 2014 and currently stands at 260+ unbuilt kits and there are two new ones waiting to be looked at today, with a 'forward order' of five more already decided. 😁

 

Kev

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I daren’t think of the year but you used to be able to buy (very) rough cut balsa outline models of Bf.109’s, Spitfires and the like as kits.  They had vacform canopies and transfers (decals to you young’uns).  All the builder had to do was carve, sand, and squeeze the balsa into something resembling the real shape, apply balsa cement to the mating surfaces - and elsewhere - push together then splash paint all over, soak the transfers, shove them on the not always dry paint, splash cement on the canopy and there it was ... a Bf.109, Spitfire, whatever.  My best friend of the time (Anthony) and I made and broke loads of the things.  

 

Later I graduated to building scale(?) Models - jet aircraft looking (a bit) like Supermarine Swiffs, or Douglas Skyrays, powered by a Jetex motor.  Propellor driven aeroplanes like Hurricanes, Bf. 109s, P.47s  too, powered by elastic - NOT bands - covered in tissue and doped.  Remembering a row between me, my no. 1 cousin and I, with his dad whether a ‘Thunderbolt’ had a smooth nose profile like a Spitfire or a whacking great radial ...  Cousin Chris and I said the latter, uncle said the former.

 

That led to the ‘scale’ models from Airfix ... Spitfire (what else?), etc. etc. bought for pocket money pennies in Woolworths.  Balsa cement and pushing and cementing  balsa stringers and cutouts onto a plan taped to a board,assisted by pins, gave way to ‘locating and cementing’ and using plastic cement holding parts together with cemented fingers till they sort of hung together unassisted ready for transfers.

 

All wonderful fun.  I’ve never really grown up away from all that.  A hobby I’m grateful to, despite an ever growing stash, exasperated complaints about it from my dear SWMBO, which helped me come into contact with LOADS of like minded people here, there, everywhere.  The number of times I’ve bought a kit and said SWMBO will kill me if she sees it, and being offered an opportunity to put a very reduced price sticker on, or losing the box and putting the contents into a plain bag, and given sympathy ... .

 

What a hobby!

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13 hours ago, Jonny said:

I being offered an opportunity to put a very reduced price sticker on, or losing the box and putting the contents into a plain bag, and given sympathy ... .

 

What a hobby!

Have you tried the wheelie bin trick?

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2 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Have you tried the wheelie bin trick?

...or do what a mate of mine used to do (until his SWMBO found him out, that is) - carry round a book of raffle tickets and a roll of sellotape, covering up the price tag with the raffle ticket and on his return home he would then declare "What a lucky chappie I am!" 🙂

 

Kev

 

 

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My very first kit was a 1/48 scale F-14 Tomcat in VF-84 Jolly Rodgers markings that I received for x-mas or a birthday around 30 years ago...   I've forgotten who made the the kit, and the model itself would have been thrown out 20 or so years ago.

Edited by Guy with a Beer
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Great discussion. I don't think I can remember my very first model but I'll bet it was the Airfix MkIX Spit JE J. No paint, peeling transfers and I bet it got blown up with a banger (firework for those of an overseas persuasion) . It also makes me realise there are a lot of folks on this forum considerably younger than me.

 

One thing that strikes me is the descriptions of how bad most of our first models were, and how we clearly remember them - but we all accepted this and continued, getting hooked and then slowly improving.

It seems nowadays most newcomers expect their first effort to be near perfect, (and many throw a lot of money at equipment and add ons) but if they're not perfect do they continue or move on to something else?

I know that's a sweeping statement but the baby steps scenario doesn't seem to be acceptable anymore, is this the influence of the web, where everything seems perfect?

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I guess the internet has a big part to play in newcomers expectations of themselves and the kits they pick to launch into the hobby.

Years ago, when I started hacking plastic and squirting glue, all I had to compare myself against were the pictures in the Airfix and Matchbox kit catalogues. I started with a craft knife, pair of my mum's nail scissors ( don't tell her) and maybe a handful of vaguely accurate enamel paints and a couple of cheap brushes. The end results were pretty rubbish compared to what can be created these days, but I was happy and probably churned out a model every week or two, in blissful ignorance.

I like to think I have progressed incrementally in the last 30 plus years, without feeling under pressure to be 'perfect' in the slightest.

There seems a lot of online encouragement these days to buy all the latest bolt on extras, etched details, resin replacements and 101 other 'improvements'. The end result being, in theory, a museum quality model. Magazines now have high resolution close up pictures of amazing creations, far removed from the fuzzy black and white images in the mags of the 80s. I know I would feel intimidated if I was starting out in this hobby today. To all newcomers.....Just have fun and let the hobby take its own natural progression. 

Sorry for waffling on!

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No idea what my first build was, but I do remember what got me into the hobby. My dad had some kits up on the pelmet over the window in the dining room. One was an old Bill bus, I remember that. He also built me a Vampire (Airfix of course!) which I played with and which got me hooked on both modeling and aviation. I distinctly remember flying it around the room and thinking "what would it be like to sit in that seat and be able to move around in any direction, with nothing to stop you?". My kits were all Airfix for years, usually baggies as that was all I could afford,  built in the evenings with my transistor radio whining with the atmospherics! Many hours listening to "sing something simple" and the shipping forecast.....cromarty, tyne, dogger....funny what sticks in the brain!

 

Ian

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The first model that I was introduced to was either the Monogram 1/48 B-17 or Avenger. I can't remember which came first as they were so close together. My dad sat in our tiny little dining room in our on base housing and I watched as he built both of them but without paint. They were for me and I "helped" him. I wasn't but 5 or 6 years old. I still can remember observing his technique with the water slide decals on the Avenger.

 

My first model was the Monogram 1/48 UH-1C "Heavy Hog." I was 7 or 8 I think. Different house this time and it had a basement with a living room etc. Anyway I recall rummaging through the storage space and digging into moving boxes. Found this kit and a few others plus a tube of Testors glue. Grabbed the Huey and proceeded to slather it with the model glue until it looked like a completed helicopter. I remember my dad was so wee weed because I did it all without his permission. On the other hand he was impressed that I was able to put it all together without missing pieces.

 

I kept stealing his unbuilt models afterwards.

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I have no idea what my first aircraft was. It would have been some time in the early to mid 1970's with the assistance of my dad, but what it was; not a clue! It may well have been one of the models in this picture from around 1979/80 ( I think ).

airport1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/26/2019 at 1:33 AM, Army_Air_Force said:

I have no idea what my first aircraft was. It would have been some time in the early to mid 1970's with the assistance of my dad, but what it was; not a clue! It may well have been one of the models in this picture from around 1979/80 ( I think ).

airport1.jpg

Winner!! Simply an awesome post! I love how you  covered the faces with the names of the models.....priorities!:cwl:

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I watched on as my dad built 'my' first kit, it was a FROG FW-190. This was followed be another FROG Kit, a Bf-109 which I had a small hand in the construction. After that it is a blur, I can't recall the first I finished by myself. This was in the late 60's.

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It must have been 50 years ago since I built my first. It was an Airfix DH Heron.  A few years ago I found the same kit and built it  just for nostalgic reasons.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/25/2018 at 7:21 AM, Albeback52 said:

Airfix Folland Gnat - one of the bagged kits bought at Woolworth's! 1966. I was 8. I was also hooked from that moment! I even managed to painstakingly cut out the transfers and glue them (backing paper and all!) on to the glue besplattered  model! :lol:.

 

Allan

Blimey! I did exactly the same thing, and painted it with some Woolworths gloss paint my dad had in his shed.

I bought it from Lewis's department store in Leicester in 1967(ish) for 1/9d.

Then I discovered my local newsagents (Nutalls) stocked Airfix and my second purchase was a Tiger tank which

I was shocked to discover has risen in price to 2/3d. I also read the intructions properly this time, and the decals

were correctly applied.

The price rise didn't put me off though, Woolworths was religously visited every Saturday morning to dispose of my pocket money.

Still building them apart from the usual discovery of 'Wine, Women & Song' phase.

 

Regards

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i

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IIRC it was either an Airfix Antarctic Auster (with a steel pin holding the prop on so it would spin), or a Frog Tempest V on which I used a green felt tip to create the camo!  Hmmm, not sure my skills have improved sometimes!

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