Remember Your First Model Car?

Im not sure what the first one i built was but it was either a 64 Impala lowrider or a 55 Chevy gasser.

 

A 1/32 scale '46 Ford coupe snap-together kit. My 8th birthday, given to me by the daughter of the guy who let me drive his '36 Chev p/u hot rod when I was 13.

 

Can't say for sure what my 'official' first kit was but one of the earliest ones was a '58 Ford from AMT. I used the Testor's body putty to do some 'Customizing', like filling in the hood scoop, etc. Painted it a nice medium blue and put the 3 bar Fiestas on it. I was so proud of the job I put it in the rear window of Dad's '59 Chevy to show it off. We went water skiing for the day and when we came back to load the boat on the trailer the sun had done a real number on the car. Lesson learned!

I may still have it somewhere along with the 200-300 other kits I have in various stages of completion.

 

I beileve it was either the old Hawk, rubber band powered "Alky Saltzer" Bonneville car or a Hawk 1/32 road racer of some form. They were affordable and easy to assemble as I remember. Ran something like 49 cents at the local variety store. Used to walk there from the barber shop, that was the prototype 50's -60's tonsorial parlor. There were about three places within a block that carried models in the '60's. I still see old Hawk or Aurora artwork and suddenly I am 8 years old again.

 

I can remember my first model but I don't remember what is was. I got in 1962 when I was 6 years old and I believe it was a Lindberg Line model of some car under 1/24th scale. Ended up a wad of glue!

 

My first model car was a Maseratti. My dad picked it out. My dad "helped" me build it, but got so into it that I just ended up watching him do everything and I just sat there and got high on the glue fumes. Then we built Airwolf, which he decided should be painted in arctic tundra camo after the Testors spray can suffered a puking spat and vomited all over the model. We built rockets. We even built a visible Ford V8 model.
As I got older, I bought models and paints and glues, but they never seemed to assemble themselves like they did when I was a young kid.

 

it was a 55 chevy and i ruined it trying to slam it, i was in elementary maybe 6-7 years old

 

yep...Bobby Alison stock car in 1972.....HA

 

Don't remember the model, but my parents gave me my first model car in 1962 when I was 6.

My favorite model, ever, was the AMT 1/12 scale '37 Cord 812 Sportsman I got for Christmas in 1965. I had seen it at a hobby shop and told my mom that's what I wanted for Christmas, but I knew it was a long shot, as money was tight and it was expensive. My mom went and looked at it and said, "We'll see," and then we got in the car to leave. My heart sank as I looked through the window to see the man behind the counter take it off the shelf...someone else had bought it!

Or so I thought. What my mother did was put it in layaway, and it was under the tree on Christmas morning.

It took me months to build it. When it was finished, I carefully carried it into the living room to show everyone, setting it on the sofa. My sister came into the room, not knowing, and jumped over the arm of the sofa, landing on top of my Cord, smashing it to pieces.

 

Yup! It was the 1/32 scale

 

If memory serves...1962...my twin bro' & I were given Monogram "Green Hornet" and "Black Widow" hot rod kits. They look pretty simple & a bit heavy handed now, but back then they were easy to assemble, no paint needed. Loved the box art ! Funny to see them both re-released now...the molds must be almost a half century old !
We built a lot of Airfix 1/72nd airplane kits back then ..the little ones that came in plastic bags..cuz we were living overseas & that was about all you could get except for the occasional Renwal Half-Track or Nike missle kit. But when we headed back to the states we got our mitts on an AMT 3 in 1 '57 Ford Fairlane kit and we started to grasp the whole "custom" thing.
Not long afterwards we entered a local hobby shop's model car contest..we built a Monogram "Little T" kit...shortened the pick up bed a bit and painted it a Lime Gold metalflake...nice clean build for a couple of ten year olds ...the white interior & wide whitewalls really made it stand out on the table. We went to school the following week and found out we had won 2nd place Junior division...still remember the trophy..it was a gold '34 hot rod on a wooden pedestal w/ a gold plaque..pretty cool for a kid ! Don't have the model or the trophy anymore..we were rough housing in our room one day and knocked the trophy off the bookshelf and it broke..got put in a box and probably thrown out when we moved .

 

AMT "3 in 1" '59 Ford Galaxie 2dr hardtop. (In 1959).

I still have a box of models I built in the 60s in storage somewhere. The only one I remember for sure is Revells "Orange Crate". That was a hard one to build back then.
I need to find that box and check out what's in there. Right now I'm working on an AMT '41 Plymouth coupe. Building it as a barn find.

 

Got this at a school fete in 68 or 69. This is what started me off in this crazy way of life.

 

Dueces - is that the Garlits digger - with the clear plastic oil pan?...still have mine...

the first was I thick a 66 Covair 3in1 kit....or the 53 Studependece flip top gasser - still have the box somewhere....kids broke into my storage years ago ad got mine...and my buddies - that I was saving for them until someday...got a few back...

 

My dad is a model car collector and frugal, so I got a 1/25th scale Cord with the chrome missing for my first model. I believe it was a snap kit. I couldn't wait till my dad got home from work to help me, so I built it myself. I used some kind of wood paint to put red ,white and blue racing stripes on the side of the molded in green body. Hideous. I bet that thing is still in their basement somewhere........

 

I started as a very young child with airplane models and a few ships . At some point i got my first car ( can't remember now what it was ) and the rest is history , a very long history I might add !

 

my first kit was most likely a moulded lime green 34 hiboy coupe. not much detail as I recall, no motor, just a scoop coming out of the hood. I'm pretty sure it was 1/32 scale, and I painted the tires black, and the rims and scoop silver.

I also remember the 1/32 1940 Ford sedan, I brush painted it green, and had so much paint and glue on it it never did quite stick together as it was supposed to.

 

The Tom Daniel "California Street Vette"

Carmak
Riverside, Iowa

 

My first was a little blue airplane back in the mid 50's that a neighbor kid Kenny Showers helped me build. Remember it like it was yesterday.
Didn't see Kenny for maybe 40 years, 2 years ago we met again at a local cancer center, we talked about that air plane and other models we built every time we met. Kenny's at the big model shop in the sky now, I'm still hanging on but when someone just mentions the term "Model" the first thing I think of is that little blue airplane & Kenny.

 

With my dad, my first was an AMT Ford Leva Car. It was based on a hovering Ford concept car. Moulded in beige plastic, the model came with a rubber tube that you'd blow through to sort-of make it hover.

My dad always found cool stuff like this for me. I remember him ordering a collection of toy 1962 Thunderbirds from a cereal box. I never asked, he just got me these things.