A kit you built as a kid GB Chat

[modelling minion]

Did anyone else build any of the armour kits boxed by Humbrol? I seem to remember that they were pretty good and did some great tanks that weren't covered by Airfix and Matchbox.

[Jinxman]

3 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Did anyone else build any of the armour kits boxed by Humbrol? I seem to remember that they were pretty good and did some great tanks that weren't covered by Airfix and Matchbox.

Not me - I remember seeing their Churchill, which looked better than the Airfix kit, but never parted with the cash. Weren't they Esci moulds?

[klr]

47 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Did anyone else build any of the armour kits boxed by Humbrol? I seem to remember that they were pretty good and did some great tanks that weren't covered by Airfix and Matchbox.

 

42 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

Not me - I remember seeing their Churchill, which looked better than the Airfix kit, but never parted with the cash. Weren't they Esci moulds?

Correct, they were all ESCI, and for the most part way in advance of most of the Airfix 1/76 kits.

 

If I had the time, I'd include an ESCI 1/72 AFV in this GB. In fact, the Churchill would be top of the list.

[modelling minion]

36 minutes ago, klr said:

 

Correct, they were all ESCI, and for the most part way in advance of most of the Airfix 1/76 kits.

 

If I had the time, I'd include an ESCI 1/72 AFV in this GB. In fact, the Churchill would be top of the list.

I didn't realise that they were ESCI kits but I did like building them.

I also remember the look of dread on my friends face when I turned up at his house to play soldiers and produced newly completed models of the King Tiger and Jagdtiger which his Chaffee and Shermans didn't stand a chance against!

[fightersweep]

Darn! How did this GB slip by me? It's right up my street as a total modelling nostalgia nerd still stuck in a model shop somewhere circa 1981.

 

I may have to have a rummage through the classic centric stash and see if I can dive in as a late starter....if that's ok of course!

 

Steve

[modelling minion]

52 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

Darn! How did this GB slip by me? It's right up my street as a total modelling nostalgia nerd still stuck in a model shop somewhere circa 1981.

 

I may have to have a rummage through the classic centric stash and see if I can dive in as a late starter....if that's ok of course!

 

Steve

Steve you are more than welcome to join in the fun/lunacy, plenty of time left.

 

Nothing wrong with being stuck in 1981, I knew how everything worked back then (including the world!) and my only concern was where my next kit was coming from.

 

Craig.

[fightersweep]

On 7/29/2020 at 9:22 PM, modelling minion said:

Steve you are more than welcome to join in the fun/lunacy, plenty of time left.

 

Nothing wrong with being stuck in 1981, I knew how everything worked back then (including the world!) and my only concern was where my next kit was coming from.

Hi Craig!

 

Same here! The only worries I had then was getting back home in time for Clapperboard, Crackerjack, Grange Hill etc, what it was going to be for tea, and deciding which kit I was going to buy on Saturday morning. Come to think of it, I'm not sure my mindset has changed that much after all!!

 

Fantastic! I will choose a favourite kit from the way back machine and report in. It's probably going to be something Airfix, Matchbox, Esci or Heller flavoured. Maybe Hasegawa, but they were the hard stuff that my pocket money rarely stretched to. Great theme for a GB though! Just wish I had caught it sooner.

 

Steve

[modelling minion]

3 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

It's probably going to be something Airfix, Matchbox, Esci or Heller flavoured.

Some good choices there Steve, seems that our pocket money went the same way and we sat watching the same TV programmes!

I look forward to seeing what you bring to the party.

[fightersweep]

@modelling minion

 

Looking forward to it....a lot! I forgot Revell of course, but at that time, I used to be put off by the crumby photo boxes they were putting out, especially when the kits inside could be equally crumby. Did have a phase with their WW1 stuff, buying the Fokker DVII first and then nearly passing out when I realised how many paints the Ernst Udet scheme needed...not to mention it's complexity. It didn't get built in that scheme. but I did make it a few years ago as I was determined to build it eventually.

 

Steve

[modelling minion]

9 hours ago, fightersweep said:

Did have a phase with their WW1 stuff

Same here Steve. I was lucky enough to go to Belgium for a week with the school and after visiting the trenches around Ypres and various other museums I found a model shop when we visited Brugges and came away with some ESCI  WW1 aircraft including their Albatros DVa, S.E.5a, and Sopwith Camel that I can remember, there were undoubtedly others too. I remember them going together very well but whether that is rose tinted memories I don't know.

 

[G.E.SAUNDERS]

   hi ALL ,

 

                   I built one of those AURORA KNIGHT Kits  ( The Red Knight ) when I was about 12 years old.

                  I have kept it all those years usually on display and gatherin' dust aka patina.

                   Well I knock him off the shelf a coupla years ago and he shattered on the floor, so I packed him away and always thought

                    I'll put him back together (1)  day,,,,,,,,,, that day arrived yesterday  !

                    Had a thought to repaint him ....... nupe ! .......... I did a pretty good job of paintin' him then back then (60's)

 

                                                                                                       cheery  "stay safe 'n' model " mumbas !

 

                                                                                                                                  Geoff

 

                                                                                                                               F.T.G. 3156

                   

[modelling minion]

I think that as is this is an extremely popular GB that we may need to revisit the theme in a couple of years to give some of us a chance to get hold of some of the classic kits that we used to build.

[Adrian Hills]

I believe someone has suggested ‘the kit I didn’t build as a kid but wanted to’ That would be things like something too expensive for a kid , the Airfix Bentley. Or in my case the Airfix SRN4, which I bought in the early 70s and still have !!

[Paul821]

On 7/30/2020 at 6:41 PM, modelling minion said:

in a couple of years to give some of us a chance to get hold of some of the classic kits that we used to build.

Or save enough money to purchase the required kits on e-bay (other pre-owned sites are available)

[klr]

I have a confession to make ... I've started yet another kit for this GB: The Airfix DUKW. That makes four kits currently on the go for this GB, as well as one for the Helicopter GB. I'll probably give that lower priority until this GB is over in two weeks.

 

And I'm seriously thinking about building an ESCI AFV. Maybe I'm just plain nuts, but for me, this GB would not really be complete without at least one of these.

[modelling minion]

On 8/1/2020 at 8:38 PM, klr said:

this GB would not really be complete without at least one of these.

I have to agree with you there, especially as I've found out that the Humbrol ones I loved as a kid were re-boxed ESCI ones, I have very fond memories of their King Tiger and Jagdtiger amongst others.

[PeterB]

The Esci tanks were good and filled in a gap, particularly in the more modern tanks such as the M48, M60 and T62 (at least I believe they were Esci) but they were a bit bigger than 1/76 scale.. For WWII subjects I found the 1/76 range  that Fujimi started selling from 1971 onwards was also great. I have one of their 1975 catalogues and the fascinating thing is that after showing all the kits they had made plus a number due for release, they show another 6 as black silhouettes - an early Befehlswagen version of the Panzer I, ditto Gigant SP and a SIG 33, togerther with a Panzer II, Wespe and Marder II. AFAIK the one one that ever got released was the Panzer II and that was I think a reboxing from Nitto.

 

Happy days and it was cheap as well! Unfortunately I was over 20 when the first of the Fujimi kits appeard so it won't qualify.

 

Pete

Edited August 3, 2020 by PeterB

[modelling minion]

I was one when the Fujimi tanks first appeared and I do remember building some of them (when I was older than one obviously) and the fact that they did some unusual subjects.

 

I didn't build any of the more modern tanks that ESCI released as when I was younger the only armour I was interested in was from WWII.

[Foxbat]

I've now disappeared down a Fujimi shaped rabbit hole on eBay. They do loads of really interesting kits that no one else seems to. Phone is off the hook for the rest of the afternoon so the bank can't stage an intervention  

 

Andy

[modelling minion]

4 hours ago, Foxbat said:

Phone is off the hook for the rest of the afternoon so the bank can't stage an intervention  

Good man Andy!

[Dansk]

What a great turnout this has been chaps. Some fantastic and special builds and over 6000 posts now with a fortnight to go. So exciting to see everyone’s enthusiasm and energy throughout 👍

Edited August 3, 2020 by Dansk

[Paul821]

@fightersweep commented  on model shops in the proposed "kits you did not build as a kid" as we both shopped in Essex as kids - however looking at his entries in his posts here he is somewhat younger than me. As this GB draws to a close it seems this is a good question anyway - where did you buy kits as a kid? I will start the ball rolling:

 

My first kits were purchased a a shop of a type you hardly see now - a tobacconists! which had a side-line as a toy shop. It probably had other products on sale too. This was in Edmonton North London and on a parade of shops which claimed to have been built in the site where the first bomb landed in London during the blitz.

 

I then became an Essex boy moving to Harlow and for the first few years most of my models were purchased in the local newsagents, whose owners were parents of a friend of mine - but no mates rates in those days, they sold Revell & Airfix One bus journey away was the main shopping centre with four sources of models Woolworths, One sports shop, one pram shop and one toy shop. No one which sold anything but Airfix. On special days I might get as far as Bishop's Stortford or Epping and in both places exotica such as Frog and Heller could be found. Again neither shops were solely model shops. 

 

edited at add - forgot a very important location - all our relations stayed in the North London area when we moved away of the Southgate Model Shop (actually there was more than one) became a destination on visits - it was there that I first encountered Tamyia kits and purchased a motorised boat - having made its way half way across the local boating pond it stopped and attempts to rescue it actually sank the boat! The Southgate model shops then became the start of the Beatties empire, where mu h of my early salary was spent!

 

Where did you shop as a kid?

[modelling minion]

Our local newsagent and hardware store were around a 10 minute walk from home and the newsagent stocked Airfix and Matchbox kits but only the small ones as he displayed them on a carousel, the hardware stocked all Matchbox kits and had Heller ones too.

Our town centre had a proper model shop which sold everything from Airfix and Matchbox through to Hasegawa, Fujimi, ESCI, Revell and Tamiya.

[Jinxman]

So many! Barnbys, the Co-op, and Beatties in Brum centre, the Post Office at Alcester Lanes End, Woolies in Kings Heath and Flints at Highters Heath, and joy of joys, E.D. Models was about a ten minute bike ride away in Shirley. But didn't every shop sell kits then? Our corner shop introduced me to Airfix Magazine, then Scale Models, and my first Novo kit - the wonderful Fairey Gannet, bagged, and scared the hell out of me. I never did build it, but have one in the stash waiting until I am brave enough, (with the Airwaves (E.D. Models) etch of course).

 

Happy times indeed. 😀

[Foxbat]

I had four main sources; the newsagent on our estate had a couple of Matchbox kits in the window to draw you in, but once in the shop, the kits actually lived in a drawer that you had to ask to have a rummage through. I was a regular there. They must have had some Airfix too as I remember saving for ages and getting the Roman fort and later the desert fort which was always a base for the 8th army, never the Foreign Legion  There was a bigger newsagents in the middle of Winlaton that stocked Airifx kits, I remember getting the German Recce set there. Down the hill in Blaydon there was a proper model shop and a Woolworths, both of which fed my obsession with Airifx HO scale figure sets.

 

I remember the model shop owner trying to tempt me with the astronaut set as Apollo missions were still the big thing at the time but I went for something I could use to fight against one of the sets I already had instead. Both the model shop and Woolworths disappeared when the old town was demolished and replaced with a pedestrianised shopping precinct in 1972 (I had to look that up, I knew the precinct was there when I started senior school but not the exact year), so my allegiance transferred to The Model Shop and various department stores in Newcastle.

 

Andy