Your first aircraft model ?

[wamwig]

Mine was an Airfix 1/72 Lightning F1, around the mid 60s

[Shalako]

17 hours ago, nheather said:

 but I procrastinate and find it hard to get started.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

You're not the only one Nigel !!!

 

Cheers

Bill

[Nachtwulf]

Wow! I did not expect so many responses to this thread. I just wanted to share what was such a profound experience in my childhood that I have never stopped feeling the wonder and awe of my first memory of model building. In the fifty odd years since then it has led to so many experiences and learning opportunities that I can't fathom what my life would have been like without these experiences/ lessons. I hope others have enjoyed reading these as much as I have.

 

 

[fastterry]

Whilst I'm logged in I might as well add my bit. My first model was a balsa Catalina purchased from a hobby shop in Geraldton W.A. in Jan. 1957 when I had just turned 9. This was typical of the time, you know blocks of balsa wood which you had to carve into shape from plans in the box. I think it had metal engines and props and was probably 1/72. That was the start of a long journey and many thousands of dollars spent and a size-able stash which I'm trying to reduce to as near to zero as possible before I pop me clogs.

TRF

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Nachtwulf, thank you for starting this thread.  I added my two pennyworth back on page 2 of the thread. It is fascinating to see how so many of us came to the hobby and how many stories are so similar- but different .  This thread is always a good read and i keep coming back to it for the latest installments.

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

On 08/05/2017 at 09:36, The Cameraman said:

Hi Guys n Gals,

 

my first model aircraft that I made when about 6 years old, was Little Nellie.

 

 

This kit , original box , is a shed load of money these days on Ebay! The actual pilot , Ken Wallis, who flew the aerial sequences for the Bond film was still flying in to his 90s i think!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wallis

 

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Love the Memory Lane walk this thread is.. i think my first may have been an Aifrix Mk1 Spitfire from Woolworth's in a card and plastic bag .. probably around 1970. Think we had 'Old' money then still? so something like 2 Shillings and Sixpence! maybe 16 New Pence!

 .. Not bad as my pocket money i do remember at this time was  2 Old Pence ! Must have grizzled and cajoled my Dad to give me the extra to shut me up!  Canopy was frosted with glue no doubt.. 

If we could do a THEN and NOW RFI  first and latest comparison that would be quite amusing!  All our first models must now be in landfill... 

 

[Tojo72]

It probably was around 1982-83 it was the Matchbox 1/32 Me109.No special memories as I was already an adult getting started again.Don't remember building planes as a kid.

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

This thread has some amazing human stories and memories. 

My Dad decided to celebrate one of the Moon landings, not Apollo 11 but a later one. He bought and made the Airfix LM kit and made both a lunar diorama and display case. He gave it to my school and it was displayed in the Main corridor and was the first thing visitor would see when they came in through the Front Doors. Imagine the Qudos i and my twin brother got from this. Our 'stock' sky rocketed in value as we had such an Uber cool Dad who could make the stuff of every schoolboys dreams! 

Thanks Dad! 

 

I always wondered what happened to this ?

[Lightningboy2000]

My first model was the Airfix 1/72 Yak-9D in the blister pack. I can clearly remember buying it from a sale in Sudbury Town Hall in Suffolk.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-01034-6-yak-9-d--130091

Looking at the release date of the kit it surprised me how far back I can remember. I must have been threee years old to choose this & I can still remember building it without being shown how. I can vaguely remember ending up with glue all over the carpet & the canopy! 😆

After that it was always newspaper on the carpet in front of the telly.

The reason it being my first, as my sister was born in 1974 & I can remember having built the Airfix Apollo Sea King before she was born & during mums stay in hospital I built the Airfix 1/144 Pan Am Clipper which had the clear plastic sprue missing & posting off the little bit of paper with Dick Emery's laughing face on it!

 

My return to the hobby was back in 2008 with the re-released Airfix Sea King.

 

Martin

[Ray_W]

I struggle to remember the first but I recall three when I was very young - bf-109 E (light blue plastic), F4U (dark blue plastic), and P-47 (dark green and the hardest plastic imaginable). I think all were Fujimi with the best memory starter imaginable included in the packet, the smell of that small tube of cement. All were never painted - glue and decals. No hobby knife in sight just twist off and glue. My mother used to buy them for me when she had her first florist shop back in 1967.

 

I also know how my interest was originally kindled - my father building the Empress of Australia on the kitchen table and my uncle's Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk IX in light blue plastic with a very glue crazed canopy. I thought the Spitfire was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. My view on the Spitfire has never changed in all these years. 

 

Ray

[alloydog]

1 hour ago, Ray_W said:

F4U (dark blue plastic)

Snap! Mine was the Airfix F4U Corsair (dark blue plastic) and the Airfix Curtis Helldiver.  I was probably about 6-years old, as we were still living on the Lethe Grove army estate in Colchester.  We moved off of it when I was seven.  Both were built without painting.  The first model aircraft I tried to paint was a Matchbox Hurricane.  I remember putting the decals on first and trying to paint around the roundels.  I was seven then.

Edited September 23, 2020 by alloydog

[wellsprop]

Must admit, I really don't know....

 

I "helped" my day make a 1/48 FA18 a long time ago, as well as a Typhoon and Tornado. But I don't know what the first aircraft I made was - probably a 1/144 Typhoon or a 1/72 Spitfire.

[Shorty84]

Well, first kit really depends on the definition. The first kit I built (which got me started with modelling) was a Revell EFA (the future Eurofighter Typhoon) in 1/144. A friend of mine got the kit and had no idea what to do with it so he asked me to build it for him. I had no idea either, not even that kits existed at all and built it with tube glue intended for paperwork. It looked horrible but this really got me into scale modelling.

The first kit I bought with my own money was a Revell Su-34 in 1/72. At first assembled without paint I later painted and decaled it. This was my first "proper" kit, done using correct Revell glue and paints.

I still have the kit, disassembled and stripped of the old paint, waiting for refurbishment. It must have been 1996/97 when I bought it...time flies.

 

Cheers

Markus

[fishplanebeer]

Mine was an Airfix S6b floatplane when I was around 5 years of age (56 years ago). I was just left to get on with it myself with a tube of glue so god knows how it ended up, but I do recall an argument later between my parents about 'stuff' on the carpet.

 

My second was a Frog Sea Fury, by which time I was allowed some paints which I think were blue and white for the body and wings, and some red for the spinner. This was probably 12 months or so later but had the same result, this time with paint 'stuff' on the carpet. I can't remember my third kit as I suspect my parents left it a while in order to save up for a new carpet!

 

 

Regards

Colin.

[carlstavros]

I remember being bought three 1/72 Matchbox kits for my birthday one year by a family friend. A Warhawk, Northrop F5B and a Mirage III. My dad started to build the Warhawk and I eventually got fed up with waiting for it to be finished so did it myself. I wish I had that inspiration these days! 🙄 

 

One day I’ll buy them again if I can find them for old times sake.

[Sky Keg]

What an excellent topic.  It has been going strong for almost four years.  I enjoyed reading each and every posted trip down memory lane.  I remember because I was an aviation “enthusiast” ( aka nut job  ) in my younger days, I would beg of my mom to build me a model airplane.  Frustrated by my never ending insistence, she ended up teaching me how to build a model and pretty much the rest is history.  While my memory is a bit hazy, I am unable to recall the exact scale of the kit.  I still remember with much fondness sitting at the kitchen table with mom, having spread the previous day`s newspaper as a cover and working on assembling the Voodoo..........without being painted of course!!!!!! 

 

Mike

 

 

 

[phat trev]

My first finished model was an Airfix Sturmovik, painted in green and brown paint (for textiles), I thought it was a super looking finish at the time. Also I have a vivid memory of visiting a model shop in Harlow (very early 90s or late 80s?) and being in awe of the shelves stacked high of models, eventually spending my saved pocket money on an Airfix Kittyhawk.The shark mouth sold it at that moment, it was that or an Airfix RAF Harvard, which to this day I have wanted to build a Harvard!

[ckw]

It really annoys me that I just can't recall my very first kit. I'm pretty sure it was something silver (possibly an F-86), The first one I have a real memory of was a 737-??? in CP Air colours (bright orange). This one sticks in my mind as I used a ton of poly cement to secure fishing weights in the nose. The nose of course melted. First modelling lesson learned.

 

The next one I have a real memory of was a 1/32 Monogram F3F (the one with retracting under carriage) - this came shortly after my Dad and I had discovered the Squadron mail order shop in the back of a magazine, Was probably 1972. Never has a postman been so eagerly anticipated! I must have had a few other models under my belt by then as the F3F is not that simple a kit - I recall being so proud that I actually got the landing gear to work. After that my abiding memory was our local news agent stocking Matchbox kits ... I would attempt to sneak in unobserved by friends as model building wasn't exactly cool at the time!

 

Cheers

 

Colin

 

 

[HansReggelsen]

I'm not sure I can remember what my first modelairplane was - I think it was a Revell 1/72 Zero in palegreen plastic OR a Revell 1/72 P-51 - the one with a red fuselage! 

But then again - I can't even remember if I have answered this tread before! 

 

Cheers 

Hans J

[Johnha]

Mine was an Airfix 1/72 Henschell (126 I think - canopy but open at the rear?), can't remember much more about it. My Dad was instrumental in showing me what the various glue/don't glue symbols meant and very particular about making sure props would spin once the cement had dried. Next was an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire & Bf110 dogfight double - I bought another a few decades later and still remembered the horrendous fit of that Bf110 nose cone.

[-Ian-]

Not 100% sure but I think it was a 1/72 Matchbox Red Arrows Hawk in the mid 80s, painted (of course) with Humbrol enamels, also the only aircraft I ever built two of in my first modelling era.

 

When I returned to the hobby in 2016 after a 25 year gap, my first was a 1/72 Airfix mk1 Spit.

Edited February 3, 2021 by -Ian-

[alanbeeb]

Think it was F-84 thunderstreak,  mid 1970s, no idea what make it was, maybe Revell.... I was about 5 or 6, badgered my dad into buying it in the shop because he was getting my older brothers proper gliders - big kits made from balsa and doped paper for line launching  Anyway I made a right mess of it and covered it in some old green gloop from brothers kit box.    After that I'd occasionally get a kit then hassle my eldest brother into making it for me - he was quite good at it (he's nearly 60 now and is a very talented amateur painter and also now has a full blown train set in a spare bedroom!) .   Got a bit more serious when given an Airfix model of the Moskva (Soviet Helicopter carrier) about age 10, and decided I'd try to do it properly, having learned a lot from my brother.   After that came a Hasegawa F-4E in Vietnam USAF colours which even my dad said was quite good.  😆     But by mid-teens....music & girls were becoming too distracting.   All downhill from there, until now.

[HansReggelsen]

15 hours ago, alanbeeb said:

But by mid-teens....music & girls were becoming too distracting.   

I think that many of us have been there, done that, bought the T-shirt  

 

 

Cheers 

Hans J

[Lord Riot]

I just can’t remember specifically, but I do recall having an Airfix Heinkel 111 in that pale blue plastic, and a few years later (mid 80s) building those 1/96 Vulcan and Victor as I was so desperate for V-bombers. Oh and trying to ‘convert’ a Lancaster into a Shackleton by basically painting it grey and getting rid of the gun turrets. It must have looked awful! 
 

I also remember first spotting the old Matchbox Victor in a newsagents and persuading my dad to buy it for me! I must have built well over 100 kits in my early teens but I’ve donated most of them now.