Your first aircraft model ?

[noelh]

Somehow I missed this thread until now. I've read almost all the posts. Really fascinating. 

 

My first model was brought in Woolworths, of course. Airfix of course. It was the Wildcat Dad built it for me but for the first time I inhaled model glue and I was intoxicated. I chose the red white and blue transfers, not the less colourful white stars in a blue circle. I really had no concept of what country they represented. 

 

Later I decided to use the stars so I cut them out and glued them on. 

 

The first model I bought myself was of course a Spitfire. The very basic Frog version. It was also the first I built and painted. It cost three shillings which I begged off my Mother. Too soft she was. 

[Hamiltonian]

The 1/72 Airfix Lockheed Hudson 1, 1964.

Kitchen table with my Dad. I pretty much melted the fuselage halves with glue, at which point my father said, "You're ruining that, son. Give it here," and proceeded to build the thing himself. (I don't think "supportive encouragement" was actually a thing in Scotland in those days. Too much danger of your children relaxing.)

 

[gengriz]

Ah, the memories! 

 

My first ever kit was the Airfix P1127, built for me by my dad in 1968.  A friend had one, plus a 737 and an old (Frog?) Vulcan; I came home espousing their virtues and the very next day dad came home from work with a P1127 for me! I've been obsessed with Harriers ever since (still the most numerous type on my collection - 25 built, another 15 in the stash).

 

My first "self build" that I can remember was the Airfix SM.79 at about the age of 7 - goodness knows what it looked like when I finished because its not an easy kit - and it was definitely finished in a paintless light Airfix blue.

 

First model of the "back to modelling after a break" era was, predictably in 1984, an ESCI Sea Harrier just after I finished my degree.

 

First model of the "kids have grown up" era was an Italeri Merlin HAS.1 in 2000. 

 

FredT   

 

 

[modelmaker]

I do have a masochistic enjoyment in making some of those old kits. Mrs D and I went to Malta a few years ago and stumbled on the Valletta model club’s annual show!  As soon as I got home I broke out an Airfix SM 79 myself. Looks pleasing to me. I’ll maybe post a picture if I can remember how!

[Max Headroom]

I think it was the Airfix Ju-52.

 

My dad built it with my ‘guidance’. I liked the look of the Swiss markings. I also liked the float option!

 

Trevor

[Nigel Bunker]

Well it was the early 1960s, the Beatles hadn't had their first number one single yet and Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister.

 

A trip to Woolworths in Reading (remember when Woolies stocked the entire Airfix range in their shops) and after much deliberating I came away with

 

 

plus the obligatory tube of

 

 

Does anybody else remember how it always took a tube of glue to complete a model?

 

Happy days

[James G]

Some of the earliest I can remember are the 1/72 Airfix Mosquito, and also the Airfix 1/72 Superfortress (built with my dad on the dining room table)!

[ratsmitglied]

Earliest model I can remember was a Ju-87 that I 'helped' one of my uncles build at Christmas one year...I was probably no older than 6 at the time.

 

No idea what brand it was, but I do remember that it was missing a part, and I seem to remember the box being mislabled as a Ju-88 (but I don't know if that is correct or just I've misremembered...)

 

Not actually sure what the first model I built on my own was, but I probably have it in a box somewhere.

[LaurieS]

8 minutes ago, ratsmitglied said:

Earliest model I can remember was a Ju-87 that I 'helped' one of my uncles build at Christmas one year...I was probably no older than 6 at the time.

 

No idea what brand it was, but I do remember that it was missing a part, and I seem to remember the box being mislabled as a Ju-88 (but I don't know if that is correct or just I've misremembered...)

 

Not actually sure what the first model I built on my own was, but I probably have it in a box somewhere.

JU 87 Remember them well. They dropped bombs around me when I was about 2 years old.  They missed.

Laurie

[ratsmitglied]

On 3/26/2020 at 11:15 PM, LaurieS said:

JU 87 Remember them well. They dropped bombs around me when I was about 2 years old.  They missed.

Laurie

I'm sure there are a lot of people who are very glad they missed!

[LaurieS]

2 hours ago, ratsmitglied said:

I'm sure there are a lot of people who are very glad they missed!

Yes my mum & dad thought that i was clever in avoiding them.

 

Actually, bit of history, we were relativley safe in a shelter dug in the ground. Dad made bunks.

Lots of bedding. All four of us mum dad & sister. Despite all going on it was very comfortable & cosy.

 

Laurie

[malpaso]

My first was JEJ in pale blue built with (probably mostly by) my dad as I was 5 or 6.  Soon after I built another but I painted it silver with gloss green camouflage as those were the two Airfix paints I had (in the glass bottles).  Soon after Airfix changed to tinlets and the very smart blister packs - though my friends and I weren't fooled that some kits had moved to pocket-money-unfriendly boxes as a result, with no extra parts or decals!

 

I too recall the pin in the tube glue, and the ads in comics for Britfix that wouldn't string (yeah, right).  But somehow, possibly in one of my cousin's railway mags, I learned of liquid poly and in those pre-glue-sniffing-media-panic days it was easily available to pre-teens.  Luckily I still have the bottle to decant the stupid inoperable lidded modern Humbrol version into.

 

Needless to say there's a JEJ in the stash, though I think I'd rather redirect  the effort needed for a decent job to an Eduard IX nowadays...

 

Airfix Spitfires must be genetic as my daughter's first was the Vb which she did mostly on her own with me advising.  She's only built a few more kits, but is very artistic and was the object of envy on her Uni course for the box of greeblies (mostly Spitfire spares and jet ordnance) I gave her for their sci-fi set project.

 

Cheers Will

[SAT69]

My first plastic model was the old Monogram DC-3 in TWA markings and my mother built it for me. I was about 6 or 7. The first model I recall building was a Comet kit, but don't recall whether it was the Cougar or the Starfire.

[frogmodeller]

For me my first aircraft was the Frog Blackburn Skua my Dad gave me, possibly because the box was damaged and my dad already had a load of other stuff yet to make up. Possibly the very first kit I ever did was the Airfix Engine Shed for my model railway! 

[Brigbeale]

Matchbox PK-11 Hurricane IIC.

i must have been about 12 or 13 years old.

Didn’t paint it once it was built. Just decalled it.

I remember the box art of two Hurricanes shooting up an enemy airfield with a hangar in the background.

I also remember coming home from school one day and finding it mysteriously broken - stamped on.😡

Thats brothers for you🤨

[Web99]

My first aircraft kit was Revell’s 72nd F-16 with the Denmark Air Force anniversary markings with the spitfire on top. I didn’t paint the main kit apart from the cockpit black as I didn’t have any paints. I remember absolutely destroying the decals too but I was happy with the plane at  the time and a few years after it had a mayday into the bin! 

[dov]

My first model was made from paper or carton by my father:

B-377 Pan American Stratocruiser

My first plastic kit, built from my father:

1955 OLD FROG MODEL KIT WESTLAND S55 WHIRLWIND HELICOPTER 1/72 no.322P RYB BOX

My first built by myself:

FROG 1/96 353P VICKERS VALIANT

After that a lots (approx. 100 a/c) from paper in 1/33 from GELI:

https://www.geli-modellbau.net/

Since I only could affort this paper models, I started to join plastic modelling right after I finished university.

Happy modelling

 

 

[danbuoy]

Matchbox A-7D Corsair II for me, sometime in the late 80s when I was 8 or 9 years old. Dad did the cockpit for me but I did the rest, whilst he built the Matchbox A-10. I remember enjoying doing the 3 colour camouflage scheme but there were an awful lot of bombs! And I still have it too, hanging from the ceiling in the office/man cave!

[alt-92]

Airfix Gloster Meteor III in the red striped box, at about 7 or 8.
I must have repainted that at least six times (enamels of course, slathering it on) through the years until it was a nearly unrecognisable plastic/paint blob that looked like an airplane.

 

For nostalgia's sake, I've re-acquired it.

 

 

 

[Kes]

Airfix Lightning F1a 1/72, must've been late 60's. just loved the shiny metal jet in the fluffy white cloud blue sky box art, still my favourite

 

[JosephLalor]

On 8/10/2018 at 10:21 PM, Trenton guy said:

Hawk P-51D, in July, 1952. Easy to remember the date because it was purchased for me by my aunt, while my mother was in the hospital having my third sister. Recollection is that it was about 1/48 Scale and not much more tha 9 parts. Said goodbye to 1/48th forever when Airfix appeared in my local 5&10 store. Summer of 1960.

Your purchase was a year before I was born!  Would I read 5&10 as 'five and dime'?

[Trenton guy]

Yes, five and dime. Actually it was a  J Newberry. The Woolworths next door didn’t carry Airfix.

[Johnny Tip]

a 1/72 Revell Fw190, painted withone of two colours I had - some drab, and metallic blue🤦🏼‍♂️

[nheather]

My first modelling experience was back in 1968 when my dad presented me with an Airfix Spitfire and a Ju 87 that he had built and painted for my 5th birthday.  I remember that one of the party guests grabbed the Spitfire from the front and broke the propeller blades and me bursting into tears (it’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to).

 

My dad fixed it and they became the start of my collection.  I used to buy models from the two shops in the village with my pocket money and would usually complete a build over the weekend.  It was mostly 1/72 WWII aircraft, initially with gear up hung from the ceiling, but later with gear down to display on a rack of shelves in my bedroom.

 

I was fearless back then, buy a kit and launch into it with whatever limited paints I had, I remember there was often a lot of mixing done to get approximate colours.  Now I can afford more expensive kits and all the gear but I procrastinate and find it hard to get started.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Johnny Tip]

15 hours ago, nheather said:

 I remember there was often a lot of mixing done to get approximate colours. 

where's the difference to contemporary Revell planes? 😂