Art & Inspiration T.V. Top Treasures

I was TERRIBLE with models,,, I always touched the windows with the glue and ruined them,,, the pieces broke when I removed the from the tree,,, globbed too much glue,,, then the paint! OMG,,, so most of my models were lost in the 'war',,, fireworks make great land mines and bombs that drop from the air

 

If it weren't for my dad and uncle feeding me model kits as a hobby to keep my hot rod fevered mind busy, I wouldn't be where I am today, or have the patience to work on cars. I still build models when I get a chance. There's something satisfying in being able to complete a project in less than a week. To be alive in the golden age of hot rodding and model kits must've been something else!

 

I used to like building models, but transitioned to real thing pretty early and never looked back. My oldest boy just found the box with the ones I saved and has been rummaging through them. Speaking of messing up models, I figured out I could put my General Lee model in the oven and get it hot enough to smash it making it look more realistic under one of my monster truck models.

 

The photo that Joey shared brought back some good memories! My modeling career started humbly when I was five. My dad was building models into his mid-twenties, and I got to have the castoff parts that he didn't use to make my own creations. It was tough going at the start as I didn't have any real model glue. I had to use Elmers glue and can remember globbing it on pretty thick to get stuff to stick together! It didn't take to long before I graduated to real model glue and I never looked back after that.

I haven't touched a model in years and I have a few unopened kits in my work room in the basement. I keep thinking about starting one but something always seems to get in the way. Maybe 2021 will be the year that I get back on the horse?

 

I still have my 1/8 scale 65 vette that I built with my dad to look like the one he owned at the time.

 

I built models from the time I was 6 or 7 in to my twenty's. As a teen I would spend all weekend working on them from the time I got up until I went to bed. I got my first car at the age of 14 so I would work on that also plus a job. I got to be friends with the guy that owned the hobby shop and would display my built cars in his store.
My involvement with cars over my lifetime including the ones I've built and rebuild, my line of work are all directly related to building models as a kid.

 

I've been building models since I was 5. I took breaks for college, and when life got busy, but I always return. Recently I started building again, and bought a display case from IKEA to keep them safe from the kids. Here's a pic of the display case, complete with 2 Big Deuce builds, as well as pics of my 2 most recent builds after a 2 year break from modelling. View attachment 4965869 View attachment 4965870 View attachment 4965871 View attachment 4965872 View attachment 4965873

 

I built models non stop from age 6 or 7 till I was 14 . Entered the local model contests in summer and winter every year. We moved from Kansas City Missouri to Lincoln Nebraska when I was 14 and some how the models didn't make the move . I wasn't upset about it then , but would like to have a few now .

 

Here's some of the models I built in the early '70s:

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Which included all five of the @lil' john Buttera models:

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... and my attempt to replicate my parent's daily drivers:

'69 Dodge Charger RT/SE (w/ 440ci "Magnum") and '72 1/2 Datsun pickup​

 

Oboy, model cars...Many times revisited, started when I was 7 or 8, 'Highway Pioneers' had some nice old classics, I built 3 or so...Then came the 69 cent Hot Rod, same series, all in 1/32 scale. My bud Shannon was building also, so we were in fierce competition...
Our model car building wavered when we discovered U-control model airplanes, around age 12...
But the model cars resumed around 1959, when AMT came out with the 1/25 (BIG!) scale '40 Ford coupe, then the tudor sedan. Monogram's '32 roadster was right about that time, then so many others in the 1/25 size.
We had buds that were building, around 6 in our group. But the funny thing was: Some of us had acquired real cars in this same time frame! I got my '36 Three window in '55, age 13.
But the models were constant.
Gradually tapered off after '64, but in '78, a customer with a '32 roadster (bought it from an estate, to attend '50s nite. Guys down there told him to come see me, and lose the fenders. The guy couldn't see the sketch I did on my blackboard, (visual impairment)
I stopped by a hobby shop on the way home, found a Monogram '32 roadster, full fendered...Bought it, took it home. Bummer...Fenders were molded to the frame, so I had to cut them off...Yep. I was 'Back in the Saddle' with model building! I built a neat fenderless highboy, my bro gave me some parts, a SBC engine, some F100 wheels, so it was 'scale' as far as what the guy had.
When he came back by he flipped. "YES! That's it! Can we start right away?"
I wrote a repair order, and got a nice job out of it.
Had to give him the model...
But now I'm back in it, just assembling the parts to make Blackie's 'Shish Kabob', 2 sizes: 1/8 and 1/25.
The 1/8 scale was interesting: '32 frame in the big deuce is great...but Blackie used a '34 frame.
My bud Mark Codd was doing a 1:1 '34 Five window at the time, so I hung one of his frame rails on the wall of his barn, photographed it, and photo-enlarged the pic to the 1/8 scale size.
Evergreen plastic sheet cut to the size of the pic then the top and bottom strips, presto: '34 frame!

 

I also built models as a pre-teen. First one I remember was a gray 1/25th, scale plastic 55 Buick hardtop. It was already put together. I must have been 7 or 8.
Then it was a long string of AMT, 3 in one kits. The only one I remember was a 59 Pontiac convertible I did in red with a white top.
Before I began building my real 34 five window I bought a couple model kits to see what looked good before doing it in metal. Just slammers to help visualize the chop, maybe with fenders etc. I really screwed up the chop job as I didn't need to see detail. I still have a couple complete AMT 3 in one kits to build...a 61 ranchero and a 61 corvette

 

A couple months ago I found a red metal toy car at a garage sale. I had a blast opening up the wheel wells, painted it brown and used some 1/25ths wheels/tires under it It sits on my entertainment center.

 

It's funny this subject should come up. I built a ton of model cars when I was a kid. The first two I ever did were with my dad when I was pretty young, a '62 corvette and a '57 chevy. Both models were of cars he had before he got married. Of course time took it's toll, and they fell off the dresser and got pushed around the floor more times than they should have. Even though they weren't the best built models we ever did, they were the first, and I never had the heart to get rid of them.
In December I bought a couple of unbuilt kits to rob some replacement parts from, polished up the unpainted plastic, and tried to give them a sympathetic restoration without replacing every worn part. They came out so good I made shelves out of a couple of grilles I had on the wall. The one grille is from my car and has models I built of my cars, the other grille was from my dad's car and now houses some of the models I built with him.

 

In my early teens a big part of my spending money went 1.50 at a time for model car kits. I remember swapping parts with buddies at school when one of us wanted to do something different than what came with the kits we had.
I've got two unopened Chevy AD pickup kits out in the cabinet in the garage that I bought years ago to build a representation of what I want the 48 to look like but my hands have a hard time doing fine work anymore. That and I have to drive 20 miles to get some of the stuff to work on them with as the stores here don't have any modeling supplies. That may be a big part of the issue in it's self. We could get kits at the variety store or the drug store by the grocery store that mom shopped plus the glue, paint and other stuff. Now about the only place you can find that stuff is Hobby lobby or another hobby store.

 

Cool thread. The kid in the photo could probably have been any one of us. It easily could have been me. First it was the top of the TV. Then it was my dresser, then the fireplace mantle, and then I added shelves, etc. etc. I started building model cars at eight years old. My first was a 1961 Ford Fairlane. I bought my first real car a 1931 Chevrolet at age 14 for $30. I had it towed to my grandads farm. I tore it apart, but never got it built. I never stopped building model cars. It has always been a cheap and easy way to build and collect all the cars that I couldn't do for real. A { Story } Mark you said that your going to build the 1965 1/8 scale Vette. That was my first big scaled kit in { 65 or 66 }? My friends dad built him the first Big Deuce model. One day after school I went with him home. When we got to his house. We found his mother crying. She told us that she had accidentlly knocked over a large set of bed springs, and they had landed on the Big Deuce model. It was smashed beyond repair. So I traded one of my 1/24 scaled cars to him for the crashed 32. Long story short, I took the 389 Pontiac mill, and the Halibrand Q.C. and put them in my 65 Corvette. A Q.C. in aVette! lol I still have it, but it's at my dads, in the attic, with some other old 1/8th kits. I will dig it out, and post some photos on the Sunday models thread. I'll never grow up! What fun would that be? Now I play with the grandkids. Ron........

 

That Roth 55 Chevy is amazing. Any chance you could open up that case sometime and get some close ups of it?

 

I built models from like 7 to late teens.

I was a serious builder, take a razor blade and slowly cut off the trim off of the entire body, wet sand down the body to remove every trace of trim. Run thread for gas lines and spark plug cables. Take a tooth pick and paint all the knobs and gauges on the dash and trim on the inside door panels.

My favorite was a 50 merc, countless hours into it. Usually had over a 100 on my wall at any given time.

Never could get my dad to let me enter any model contests though, always said he was too busy for such foolishness.

Got into ww2 military models later, complete with mud, snow, bullet holes etc....

 

My first car was a first generation Cougar, it was the same color as that model one. I would like to have it back please.

 

My uncanny knowledge and skills are completely based on the plastic models I built as a kid.
It takes 2427 bottles of Testors (give or take) to paint a chassis. Not a lot of people know that.

 

I started building models in the early 1970's as a little boy and still build them today, at least in part as a replacement for not having the resources to play with full size toys but I've always enjoyed them in their own right. A few years ago I bought a collection of models built in the 1960's by a teen. I recently took one and rebuilt, here are the before and after pics.

 

I remember spending hours building model cars closed up in y room, I now know why I use to get those awful headaches - the testers glue.

I loved building the AMT and Revell models, later on I started painting them and reading model building magazines I started adding string for spark plug wires and using some of mom's material and covering the seats and interior.

When I got married I gave all the models to Brenda's little brother, I have one original unopened 1962 Falcon pickup model sitting on the shelf.

BTW - my signature line reads " Growing up in the rural south I was drawn to HOT ROD's at a young age, like a moth to a flame, first with the printed word and plastic models, then later the real things." HRP

 

I built lots of them. The AMT 40 Ford coupe was my fav. must have built 20 or so.I eventually would put matches or lighter to them to make them look like beatup stock cars.Great fun for a 10 year old.

 

Earlier was mentioned the General Lee...
I was jogged back in time to recalling Ricky Nelson's 32, in model form.

 

I did a few model cars in the late 60's early 70's. Didn't get real detailed other than thread for spark plug wires and fuel lines. Taught me alot about the anatomy of cars. I liked the Revelle kits. They seemed to be better quality that the AMT and MPC kits. I have 1 complete one left on the shelf, a 73 Vega Pro stock. I have 1 other that Ebbsspeed built, a 51 Chevy 2drht with a Jimmy and 12 port head he built as a kid.

 

Models. My Mom will tell anyone I was born with zero patience. Never could do them even though I would buy them from time to time and if they were finished and they were they looked like Mad Max mobiles. I was real good at blowing them up. A friend gave me a box of old broken ones a few months back. I'll never touch them. Anyone want a mystery box of old car and truck models along with extra engines and parts? No pictures,no questions asked. I will say they are all H.A.M.B. friendly. Just pay the USPS Large Priority Mail cost of $21.90. Who's adventurous? Edit:Someone was curious and the models will be off to a new home Monday.

 

Put together lots of models in the 60's and 70's. Had them on shelves in my bedroom for years. Have absolutely no idea where they are today.

 

True story, when I was building my Willys frame from scratch I used a model kit (41) for reference.
Pretty much finished and looking like a giant model I'm satisfied.

 

When we moved to our new digs we found a box of old models from my late 50's building. Also have a Big Deuce still sealed in the cellophane wrapper. I think I'll go to the hobby store and see what they have, maybe at 75 since I'm building my last full sized car it's time to do a little car?