Art & Inspiration HOW MANY CAUGHT THE OLD CAR BUG FROM AMT?

Most AMT kits were not of old cars at the time.

 

You have some outstanding talent there my friend. I bet your friend flipped when he saw what you had done! I only wish my old eyes and hands were good enough to build one half as nice as your conversion. Thanks for sharing !!

 

I got my first kits for Christmas at 6 years old and have been building/collecting ever since. I don't have the resources for 1:1 scale so I satiate my car addiction with scale models and art.

 

Wow,that 55 looks just like my 55.Mine is a stick 6 too . What a neat build!!!

 

Thank you Mr. Buick and Mr. coupe, for the kind words.

 

I was a really impatient kid , my models always ended up with glue on the windshields - broken up everywhere and the paint all f@#*ed up. I would always end up on the ragged edge of a nervous breakdown - then my old man would come over and start laughing his ass off at me! So after awhile I just left the models unbuilt in their boxes displayed in my room - I wonder if that is where all the unbuilt models come from nowadays?

 

I didn't catch the bug from the AMT models as I think I got it following my dad around when I was little and the deal killer was my step father's 52 Ford Victoria with a 56 Thunderbird Special in it with a 3 speed overdrive when I was about 10. I was around 12 on Bainbridge Island when I started buying models at the Variety store next to the grocery store there. 1.50 of hard earned money each then. I did chores for a couple of the neighbor ladies to get the money for most of them. 2 gallons of small native blackberries would buy a model then.

 

Uh, let's see: 3 X 8 is 24. 1/8 scale!!!
Just kidding, @ Loudbang...Your posts here are dead-on, but let me say...
My first venture into BIG scale was like, 'surrealistic'! My first wife bought me a 'Big T', because she was sick and tired of my wrath of early Ford parts!
I had 5 '37 V8 60 tube axles, some Halibrand 'Quickies', and a plethora of early Ford 'bells'. (axle housings)
The '32 grille shell collection drove her bonkers, as did the '32 rails. (20 lefts, 20 rights)
I had Ford parts 'Hanging'!
The Big T was my saving grace. I built the 'Kookie Kar', but with a Pontiac engine.
1/8 scale, cool enough. I couldn't believe such accurate depictions of FORD GOLD could be made.
It was like...a gift! Thank God & Monogram... Big Deuce came next, (Starbird's version, with the horizontal 'kustom' grille bars. (Yeccch!)
This was way back, around what, 1961? Gads, surprised I survived that!
Got rid of that first wife, and the second. Present wife is 13 years younger, volumes smarter. She builds, too! 1/25, 1:1. Yes, I'm blessed.

 

Growing up in the 70s if like me - you were one of those kids like me who didn’t have his shit together enough to put a model kit together there was all kinds of car related toys to hold your imagination. I loved slot car tracks,those orange clip together tracks your hot wheels road down and one of the best was a toy called - smash up derby -anyone remember those? I truly believe you are born a car guy and model kits and all the car related toys are just a way to get your car fix before you are old enough to own a car - who of us even bought a car at 13 or 14 - now that’s car crazy! Now if I could just find a - smash up derby - toy still in the box.

 

Smash up derby toy - the only model I was capable of putting together.

 

Not going to read through this many posts.
But I did want to reply and comment that AMT, Monogram and others IMO caught the so mention "Bug" from the older generation of guys my age and 10 to 20 years my senior. Growing up in the 40's and coming of age in the mid to late 50's is where these came into the picture. If I'm not mistaken it was the production of WWII military airplanes that started the craze right after that war. Plastic "put together" cars were a product of the very late 50's and early 60's and it is amazing what some of the "artists" have done and can do with there talents. This is just my 25 bits worth, and maybe I am mistaken on the dates, but my point is it didn't this didn't originate with AMT and the bunch it came from the "old timers" out of the 20's, 30's, 4o's and early 50's. AMT, Monogram and the like were late to the party, but they caught up pretty damned fast, and I built a lot of them in my late teen years, mostly airplanes then, but got into cars in my mid 20's and incidentally causing my wife to comment, "will you ever grow up"?

 

Didn't catch the "car bug" from AMT..I caught it from my older brothers and their cars, and my desire to have one also.
AMT came into play as it was the closest thing available as a young kid, in which to fantasize about owning/building my own real car.
Built many, and AMT were my favorite kits.

 

I had this set and played with it for hours upon hours

 

I got word that Atlantis found the molds for this one and they plan to re-release another batch of kits..... Hopefully with the same box art.... First release was in 1960 I believe....

 

Somebody built a full sized one, or they used this as their inspiration for the model.

 

Yep! Mr. Starbird and Monogram got together for this one..... Here's mine from '62 I think... Still waiting to assemble it....
Sorry for the upside down pictures.... My bad!

 

Good work, great result!

 

Got to ride in Tommy Ivo's "T" when I was 13, got the big "T" for Christmas, a kid livin' large.

 

Once in while, the song from the commercial gets in my head : "Smash! Bang! Crack'em up! It's Crash car time my friends," Smash Up Derby set comes with ever'thin' you see right chair!

 

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64 Bonneville..

I building a Aurora race track now..

 

Back to building little ones !

 

To me it was not AMT but Monograms '53 Chevy back in 1975. There was no turning back.

 

AMT, Monogram, MPC, Revell, JoHan, they were all great! Sadly my favorite hobby shop from when I was a kid closed about 10 years ago and I never had a chance to take my son there. I guess kids today just aren’t in to good hobbies like model cars. Models taught me a tremendous amount about cars before I was old enough to start working on real cars.


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My older Brother and I caught the plastic model car bug together back in the 50's. Our Dad would often give my Brothers, Sister and me old silver dollars. My Sister still has some of hers, My one Brother and I spent ours at Hermans Hobby Shop buying model cars. It did not take long to accumulate a collection and lots of spare parts. We had a lot of kids on our street and most of the guys were also into building models. Each fall we would walk down what we called the "LA Strip" where all the new car dealers were and get free promo models the dealers were giving away. Of course we usually came up with our own ideas and customized some of them with our stash of extra parts. The ones we were not fond of usually got traded off, were used in a build and drop competition we would do with our buddies and a few got blown up with firecrackers.
By the time I started High School I had a collection of over 75 plastic models. Since our attention had turned to working on real cars I eventually I sold off some of my collection and gave the rest to my younger Cousin. That Cousin who is now a TV traffic reporter later gave me back my old models that he still had. By then I was married with a Family, building my own Streetrods and re-developing an interest in toy car collecting. While most of my current collection is diecast and tin, I do have a few plastic models of some real cars I have built and owned.
There is however one very special plastic model with some fond memories that I built when I was about 8 or 9. That car is a 1957 Chevy figure 8 race car. When we were kids we loved watching the figure 8 racing on TV that was more like a demolition derby. Several of us decided to custom build one of our models to look like the figure 8 race cars was saw on TV. The 57 was my choice and I started by using the hot knife method to put the desired dents in the plastic car. Dad was not to pleased when he got home and smelled burnt plastic and saw one of the kitchen knives permanently discolored from being heated up. I used other pieces from my spare parts and even the plastic that holds the parts was used to make structural supports in the car. Out of all the ones my neighborhood buddies made, they picked mine as the best. I am happy to say that almost 60 years later I still smile when I look at that 57 Chevy race car on display in my home.

 

I don't think I caught the bug from AMT. Because my parents told me that I was born a Car Nut. But I started building model cars around 8 years old? Still do, and have most of them. I loved the AMT 3 in 1 kits the best! It's the only way I could ever afford to build all the Hot Rods, that I'd like to have. Ron.....

 

Both of my early car experiences were acronyms, AMT & AFX.

 

...still like the models,..

 

LOL I caught AMT from the car (and bike) bug. My dad bought me a model airplane a Dauntless as I recall. I told him I want a car or a motorsackle (SIC) and he got me a 40 Coupe and Triumph Drag Bike.

 

Many hours of chasing parts all over the place with these.
Then my mom giving me shit for all the dents in the walls & base boards.
The cat frickin hated these things!