how many here started out building models ?

DITO!!!!

 

Add me to the list. I started in the early-mid 60s. My Dad's brother built 'em, and I thought he was cool. Monkey see, monkey do.
I still have most of my models put away in boxes.
I learned how to build without instructions--and it's a good damn thing cause I have about 20-something full size projects(and they don't have instruction sheets!)
Ironically, one of my first childhood memories of a toy was one of those big plastic pickup trucks with a wrinkled removeable front fender and a wheel/flat tire and 4-way lug wrench in the bed.....now I own a body shop--go figure

 

Me too. I started off with Hot Wheels cars, then model cars (and WWII aircraft).

I liked modifying the models to suit my tastes. Then I started reading car mags at 11 or 12..then got my first car at 14, and then...well, I'm 40 now and still at it.

But ya - building model cars was a big part of why I'm into this stuff today.

~Scotch~

 

When I was a kid I loved to build models.

Now that I'm older I prefer sleeping with them.

 

built some models...general lee...hawaiian tropic car...but they couldnt do anything....could not handle jumps...and the wheels always flew off...then got into RC cars(back when you had to build them)...had FROGS and BLACKFOOT trucks...they were cool, hauled ass, and were super durable...you had to built every friggen part,it was a good time...and a great learning experience...now you go to a hobby store and ask for one to build and get looks like your lame...half the fun has been taken away, and all the mechanical experience...

 

I used to buy other kid's already built models and tell everyone I built 'em...

Ha ha.... actually, I'd tear them apart and build my own creations... "scrap models" I called them.
The earliest form of Rat Rod...

They really took the fun out of it for me when they went and replaced the "good" glue with the lemony scented stuff...

My first model was either an Apollo (Saturn V) rocket or a U.S. Huey helicopter...
I think I remember my first model car was a '69 Camaro dirt-track stock car. It was purple with JEG'S decals. I was 6... I had no idea what a JEG was...
It was so cool. It even had angle siped tires. I did know what those were.
All around 1969-70....


JOE

 

Me too! I still collect kits too. I remember buy a AMT deuce kit at Uncle Bill's discount store for 88 cents. That kit would be a couple of benjamins now.

 

Built a ton of car models when I was young. Remember the hardest one I built was Ed Roth's Mysterion. Probably built it when I was 8 or 9. Came out like crap.........I'm 32 now and I still have that piece of crap Mysterion. Brings back some great memories of me and my dad building models.
I have allot of my dads old car models and slot cars from when he was a kid. One of these days I'll have to display them.
I still build models.....errr....rather I buy allot of models with the intention to build. Can't seem to find the time.

I credit building those models back-in-the-day for my love of real cars today. It's a shame allot of the hobby stores aren't around anymore. Seems like kids these days just want to play video games.

 

Started in the late 50's & still haven't kicked the habit. Must have several hundred.Lots of vintage unbuilt kits too.I like that they are re-issuing a lot of the old kits.

 

Absolutely!

Everything from model kits to slot cars, Matchbox and Hotwheels re-paints, cutomized Tonka trucks even.

I can even remember my brother and I building "models" of cars from modeling clay. We'd design and build race cars complete with all the parts and even a clay driver.....then we'd drop them off the staircase to simulate a wreck and see how the driver faired.

 

How about building fences out popsicle sticks at the bottom of the slide on the swingset,coating it with glue,lighting it on fire & sending our dented up stockers crashing thru it? Some heavy influence from Joie Chitwood there.

 

I too was playing with them before they made kits. I don't think 3 in 1 kits came out until '57 or '58. Here are 3 models I built as a kid. These models still have the metal chassies and they came without an interior and some even came without windows (like that red '58 Chevy BelAir). They did have a friction motor (the '58 still has one), the '52 Ford was a "remote control" a long wire from the car to a small hand held control. The '55 Dodge has the interior from a '60 Chrysler 3 in 1 kit. The '58 Ford was in bad shape with missing parts it was put together using '57 Ford 3 in 1 kit.

 

Yup.
Started building them in the early 60s. went thru a resergence around 1980. Still have most of what I have built. Have quite a few rare originals in boxes today from the late 50s that I aquired after a friends Dad passed on.
Still would like to build a few but what the heck woul I do with them. Can't drive those.

 

Yes, it's in my blood My father built planes and ships.I built cars and monster models.I remember building the Visable V8.It was a tough build but it actually ran when completed (I really liked how the sparkplugs would light up when firing)

 

yeah, count me in too, that's where i got started over 50 years ago. i would save every nickel dime & penny i made mowing lawns & doing odd jobs. couldn't wait to run uptown to buy my next model kit & spend days painting, modifying, building it the way i wanted it to look, once done the cycle would start all over again.

 

I started at the ripe old age of 4 or 5. My dad got a model T kit for him and I to do together....long story short, him and my mom went out that night and I was told I could look at the kit, but that was it....the story goes I kept asking my grandmother (babysitter) what this was or what that was with the instruction sheet...when my dad got home the kit was put together..glue all over the place, but basically all together with most parts in the right places. He was both pissed and happy (pissed that I didn't listen, but happy I got it together as good as I did for my age).

I still do some models from time to time (mostly when it's to damn cold to go to the garage)...I do collect some odd ball kits too when I stumble across them.

 

Here's a few

 

i was 7, it was 1982 and my dad and i built a 1977 trans am. Black and gold. I still have it. From then on it was a model a month, with my dad. Thats how it all started, as i got bigger so did the cars. & years later at 14 i bought my first car. Every model i built i did it my way and never like the picture on the box. My son is 2 so in a few years we will start, him, me and my dad. Buying Cartoon's magazines and having an older brother facincated with drag racing helped too!

 

Yeah I'm guilty. The first ones that I remember were the Highway Pioneers. Nothing hot roddy...curved dash Olds, an open Cadillac, Stutz bear cat. Marketed to young kids with instructions to put the wheel on the axle and then heat the axle end with a match and mushroom the end to keep the wheels on! I think they were Revell. 98 cents with 2% sales tax...an even buck or 4 quarters from the washing machine shelf.

I think I built every one of the 3 in 1 1958 AMT kits. Damn they had cheesy decal flames.

 

I started with the amt "Double T" kit and the Monogram "Red Chariot" in the early 60's. I still build when I have the time but like most folks other things (full size) take up a lot of my time. Here's a couple of pictures of some of them...

 

I built a lot when I was a kid. I tried to do some as an adult, but I just couldn't get into it like I had after I got a full-size car.

 

Yes

 

My first attempt a model building was when I was 7 --a Comet kit Ercoupe --- cut it out with a DOUBLE edged razor blade--- I had no idea that single edged blades were made at the time . It never got finished--- Comet kits always sucked in quality--- I did build some later--- then I found the Speedi-built kits by Monogram, great kits, built a ton of em.
The first car I tried was a 48 Ford sportsman -- A balsa kit made by Berkley or Strombecker -- wood car kits just were not satisfactory . My first plastic car was a 50 plymouth station wagon promo that some one gave me --- it got chopped & nosed & decked .
Then came Revell & the "Highway Pioneers " -- I was not much for the real old timey types--- BUT when they came out with the 32 roadster & the coupe --jalopy kits ---WOW!! From then on it was CARS !!
These were 1/32 scale & pretty crude by todays standards but I built a bunch of them . I used to make slicks for the drag roadsters by glueing 2 tires together & filling them with bondo & using a drill & sandpaper to smooth the seam.
I always have prefered Balsa for airplanes , but plastic injection moulding is the real lifesaver for model cars.
I have over a hundred 1/25 car kits , all 30s -40s & 50s waiting for retirement !!!

 

Oh hell yeah...still do ! My youngest son (21) and I do it and we race slot cars all the time together. We build on our real cars together too. Damn.....now I gotta go put some paint on that 49 Merc. sittin on the bench ......

 

Yep! models is where I started. Well first was me looking at Dad's Hot Rod books, then models. I plan to gather some of them up and show them on the HAMB some day.

 

We used to destroy our models as we got bored with just looking at them. Had Dirt races, put fircrackers in em, even mounted a model rocket engine on one and sent it down the road. I had a box of parts, wheels, trans/motors and all sorts of other stuff. I think at one point I built a model just from spare parts. Alas, I have not done one in many moons.

 

Yes I did!

 

Grew up building models during late 70's-80's. Still build one on occasion.....have a bunch (@75-100) that are either still new in box or partially built......

 

My dad used to tell the story if my first model. I was about 5 or 6, it was a WWII war bird. He said I was soooo proud of it. He said I used so much glue the wings were drooping and melting away before his eyes. (Hmmm, a 5 year old and testors model glue?)
I got better. I encourage my kids due to the fact it's still a reletively cheep hobby and it challenges their creativity, plus it's a great "shared" project with the old man. Oncve more, today kits are so well detailed. Ian, my oldest is most proud of a '58 Chevy custom we built, followed by a Hot Rod '29 full fendered RPU. We're currently building a '50 Chevy "lake" P-up.



Here's a '59 Caddy:

 

I started in grade school. The place where I bought my model had contest a couple times a year. I won several throphies. Then as I got older the lady that ran the store had me judge the models, now 45 years later I`m still judging real cars. I still have several boxes of new and half built models. I don`t have the patience that I had or maybe it`s the orange/lemon sent glue that they have now. I guess I`ll turn them over to my grandson.