Do you remember the first plastic model you assembled?
 

I do. Another thread here got me thinking about it. I was 5 or 6 and it was a model of a 1920s era Standard mail plane. It had about a 10 inch wingspan and was molded in maroon plastic. I was too young and/or dumb to read the instructions. My uncle came by when I was trying to glue the decals on. He taught me how to use water transfer decals. My parents were either too ignorant or disinterested to bother showing me.
From there it was models of fighter jets and bombers for a few years.
Then - CARS!
The first car I did was a black 1940 Ford sedan.
Strange that half the time I can’t remember where I left my shoes, but I vividly remember from 60 years ago how those models looked and how they felt and how they smelled.

Yes! Snap Tite Chevy stepside.
got a P61 Black widow kit one year for Easter, how awesome is that.
I recently bought a few of 1/48 Monogram and Revell WWII kits, cant believe how small they are, guess I was small back then to make them look big.

I don't remember the first. Definitely latter '60s, I recall the Revel Monster models, some cars, a model T and dune buggy were memorable. Probably Revel brand.

Then I started building flying balsa models. A few Sterling 'control-line' kits, .049 powered. Fokker D7 (.35 size) a few ringmasters, first R/C was a Sig Kadet.

One of those Guillow wood models of the Red Barons plane. Fokker I think..

Gosh what a trip down memory lane. I was so little, I mean like five six? A sports car. Something like this:
(But it wouldn't have been a Monogram, it would have been something cheap AF from the five and dime, probably some weird scale like 1 /54.5

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614742135.jpg

Can't remember the specifics. But, I had thei gorgeous model of the Cutty Sark for ever. Never made it. It was past my abilities. I looked at that thing thousands of times. And knew I would ruin it.

How cool was it that I got to see the real Cutty Sark in London a few years ago. My family couldn't figure out why I was all geeked out.

I spent lots of rainy Oregon winters breathing fumes and gluing crap together. Good times.

Also, I think I have an unbuilt 63 impala ss in my storage. Which was my first car - minus the ss!

That's funny. Have that same vivid memory. The smell was so unique. Especially the smell of the rubber tires.

Dont remember exactly which one was the first, was back in the early 70s I had to be around 6 or 7yrs old, but was either The Snake funny car or the Lunar Module. I remember the Lunar Module came in a plain cardboard box. It was from some model club that my mother had signed me up . I think it was either Testors or Aurora, and every few months they would send you another model. Another model from back then I remember building very well was the Creature from the Black Lagoon. After I built it, I was scared of it and wouldnt keep it in my room. :D

Also remember building caveman and dinosaur models that were part of a series.


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The first model I remember was a PT boat, possibly 109, in 1952 or so. Zillions of boats cars planes etc in the next ten years. I probably lost at least 10 IQ points with all the glue and paint i inhaled.

I think it was a Big Daddy Rat Fink model. It was fun to build, and it was blown to bits with Black Cat firecrackers.

When I was about 9 years old I started building WWI airplane kits while staying at my grandma's lake house in Wisconsin. They were pretty simple with a wing span of about 5 inches or so. This Spad is quite a bit larger and I built it about 7 years later during the Snoopy & The Red Barron craze. The helicopter is a model from the Soviet Union that a friend sent me. Wow it was crude with ill fitting parts. But I got it together. It came with a small jar of glue that smelled awful. It is all staged on my small N scale train layout.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614744746.jpg

I was really into plastic models during the late 60's and all 70's. Nearly all cars or 18 wheel trucks, tried some airplanes but total fail on the decals. Also bought and spent 2 years building the Tayamia 935 kit...think it cost $50 at the time which was almost a week's pay back then.

Spitfighter.

Probably my favorite still. I had them hanging on strings from he ceiling of my bedroom, it was my good fun mom's idea.

F4 Phantom II

So when I was 9-10, I was building this model with a friend. I installed the horizontal stabilizers sloped down, and my friend strongly protested. It just looked wrong to him. I showed him the front of the box, and even then, he could not get past it.

I started with battleships, don't recall exactly which one.

I remember taking home the USS Enterprise from Star Trek probably in 1967. It was a big box and I had it under my right arm while riding my 10-speed home. My left hand was on the top horizontal part of the handlebars and I didn't have a handbrake within my grasp. I got run to the side of the road, which was a dirt sidewalk and scraped the rose bushes sticking through the fence until I hit a mailbox and fell into the street, landing in the street under the middle of a VW bus. The rear wheel ran over my arm, breaking one of the bones and scraping some of the skin, all the way to the bone at my wrist. The lady loaded me and the bike into the back of the bus along with a baby in a crib and drove me home. I was okay- had a half cast with a bandage wrapped around it for a few weeks. Still have the scar. The model was okay, so I built it.

I remember the first three pretty clearly. The first was a F-105 Thunderchief I built with my dad. Then I took off on my own into military first. A Sherman tank was #2 then a half track. After that it’s a blur of hot rods, air planes and military dioramas, scratch built starships out of my head,,, sports cars.. Built a few in off hours when I was in the Navy. Good activities during deployments.

When I was 10-12 my Uncle’s let me inherit all of their 50s/60s models that my grandma had stored in a dresser at their old farmhouse. I remember sneaking up there when I was 5 or so to look at them in awe. Their old built ups started me down the path of collecting some AMC vintage kits, late 50s-70s.

Absolutely. Revel's P-51 Mustang. I was probably around 5 years old and instantly hooked on model airplanes.

Not one of my first ones, but I still have it partially painted/assembled in my closet;

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/amt-6643-plastic-model-kit-kenworth-1854032329

I can't say I recall my first model but the one that stands out the most was given to me Nov 11, 1974 I turned turned 10. It was model of something called a 1973 Porsche 911RS. It was molded in yellow and looked similar to my mom's VW bug but cooler and had a little thing sticking up off the back. A few months later in the spring of '75 I was walking to school and sitting in front of the local surf shop was a brown car that looked like my model car. No thingy sticking up and the roof came off and it had a surfboard in the front passenger seat.

I bought that 911 from the owner of the surf shop in 1984 I still have it.

Don't remember the first one I made, but I remember the first one I broke (I was two years old)

Dad's Porsche 904 model.

Other models I have destroyed:
Enterprise (aircraft carrier)- Scuttled with bottlerockets in a lake
Numerous General Lee's
Several Colonial Viper models (The lower wings were weak and would break easily)

I still wish I could undo the 904 model though!

One of the first's
1964 Pontiac GTO, 1/25 scale, 3 in 1, AMC, bought from the local Mom and Pop store for $1.98....

I built this combo in about 1979 or so. I spent hours building 1/25 scale cars and trucks. I entered a few contests and won a few trophies.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614770787.jpg

P-80 Shooting Star circa 1962

I don't remember the first one but I do remember the local Pic-N-Save had a nice selection of Italeri models which were much better quality than Revell and Monogram. Lots of WWII tanks to choose from so I built plenty of those for little money.

Mine was a cheapo model I got when I was about 6-7 years old. I wasn't smart enough to follow the directions and I remember I installed the gearshift on the hood as a hood ornament. I have gotten my 11 year-old into building models and we've built 3-4 over the last couple of months. This is the one I built:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614773011.jpg

1915 Model T molded in light blue, including the wheels and tires. There was a motor to wind but I couldn't get it to work.
The ships and planes were gone many years ago but I still have many of the cars
Best
Les

I can't remember .... Testors was some good stuff! Whatever model it was .... probably destroyed by a firecracker .... M80s would have been excessive :D

I remember 2: 1957 Ford station wagon. My uncle helped me build it. A BMW motorcycle - it was green.

Late 60's Corvette, maybe a Revell kit. I remember the little chrome F.I. unit that mounted on the engine. Also, not being able to wait for the paint to dry, so my fingerprints were on the sides.

Just one when I was quite young.

A Gee Bee R.

Things I don't enjoy:
Painting small parts for a non functional model.
Glueing small parts for a non functional model.
A wonder it ever got built.
It was more my dad not wanting it to go to waste so he pushed me through doing the process.
I don't have it on display, but I could find it if I searched.
A few years ago I sat down with legos and came up with my own Gee Bee.
I do have that out and in view.

One I enjoyed:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614779572.jpg

This kit is on ebay for $99. Sheesh!

As a point of curiosity, did anyone have an outcome as good as what is on the box?
I did get better at paintwork when I was a teenager.
Painted my own RC car shells.
Never revisited plastic modeling.

1958 Revell Regulus II Missilehttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614780075.jpg

I have memories of two models from my childhood, but I don't remember which was first. One was a P-51C, probably 1/48 or bigger, unpainted, with numerous glue fingerprints. Other was a 1/72 Mig-29 that got spray bombed flat dark green, just like the real deals LOL

It was The Red Baron. Not the Fokker Tri plane but the show car.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614780701.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614780966.jpg

I need to stop reading this forum. This thread made me find this kit from my childhood.


https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/-road-buggies/rc-sand-scorcher-2010/2wd-off-road-racer/

Built this one, probably around 1970:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614781135.jpg

Followed shortly after by a half dozen of their 1/12 scale kits. Lola T70 (three times) and the Honda V12, Tyrrell and Lotus 49 F1 cars. Thence onto a 1:32 F4 Phantom (probably Revell) and assorted drag racing cars.

I still have a few of my old ship models. The one I really wish I still had is the Cutty Sark. That thing was huge, with a main mast almost 3 foot tall. There was no way my folks would let me ship it back state side when we moved from Guam so it was left behind in the rent house when we moved. A friend wrote me later and said it wound up on a shelf behind the bar at a restaurant, called the Pirates Cove there on Guam. I honed my ship building skills on this one before I tackled the Cutty Sark. A photo of my HMS Bounty.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614781645.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1614782043.jpg

Probably something along the lines of this guy. military stuff first --cars came later

I probably started with snap-tite kits but then graduated to glued models shortly after. I lived in Japan when I was 8-10 and again at 13-15, so I built a bunch of tamiya models. I think I also built a bunch of Revell stuff when I was in the US. I think I went through a period of WWII stuff when I was in Japan, also a bunch of cars, and then also later jet age planes.