First placcy model

[Skunkerama]

I guess it is safe to say that pretty much most of you here have at one time or another made a plastic model kit as a child.

What was it? And have you ever been lucky enough to fly it in real life?

Mine was a 1/72 Airfix FAA Seahawk. I was aged 4 apparantley, and didnt do a bad job after all of the excess glue and paint was scraped of of the lounge carpet.

[ORAC]

Well, have you? :rolleyes:

[The SSK]

I guess it is safe to say that pretty much most of you here have at one time or another made a plastic model kit as a child.
What was it? And have you ever been lucky enough to fly it in real life?
No, it was a ship
Second was a Mosquito followed by a Westland Whirlwind (the WW2 fighter not the helo).
No to those two as well.

[BEagle]

1/72nd scale Frog Venom FB4 in 1957.

Although my father had whetted my appetite earlier with a Douglas F-3D Skynight - I think it was from the 'Frog Comet' series?

Never flew either.

[Wyler]

Mosquito and Spitfire. My dad was stationed at RAF El Adem in Libya. Used to put firecrackers in them, build them, light touch paper and launch them off the balcony of our flat in Tobruk. Local kids loved it. Got so enthusiastic that one day I threw the entire contents of my toytbox into the street. Could not sit down for a week. :{

[Spacer]

My first (and last) one was a Wessex. Built most of it, then it got time to painting, and I decided it would look better in urban grey (read plastic) and so left it at that :)

[Gainesy]

Airfix Spitfire aged 6, using a whole tube of glue and lovingly painted a gopping gloss emerald green and with the decals cut out with scissors and glued on.

I did "fly" it, but it crashed and my brother ran over it on his tricycle.

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!]

My first one was a stealth fighter. It looked very authentic when I finished it, but then I put it down and could never find it again.

[peppermint_jam]

Mine was a battle of Britain kit in the 80's, consisting of a Lanc, a Spit and a Hurricane. Built the Lanc first, trying to use an entire tube of Humbrol's finest polystyrene cement in the process, bigger the blob better the job and all that. Seem to remember that the Lanc had aerodynamic charateristics similar to that of a house brick after it's Maiden (and only) flight from a second storey window. I think the hurricane suffered the same fate, once i'd restocked on glue that is! However I still have the Spit today.

[Doctor Cruces]

Airfix Beaufighter, I think TF X. Not old enough even to have seen one let alone flown in one!!

I do remember it wa a complete dogs bo*****s, tailplane upside down etc and covered with gluey fingermarks, cement opaqued canopies and all. Ahh, the nostalgia of it all.

Built a TriStar many years later and spent many a happy hour in the sharp end of one of these beautiful beasts in later life, although as an Ops manager not a pilot.

Doc C

[TimL]

Plastic kits only came on the scene after I had made wooden 1/72 scale models of the Spitfire and Hurricane. The kit provided slightly preformed lumps of balsa wood which you had to shape with sandpaper and then glue togother. The Spitfire came out OK, but the Hurricane looked more like a Percival Prentice!

[BEagle]

Aye - we 'ad it tough! Used to chisel at lumps o'granite wi' an old ploughshare until they looked like 't Baron's finest ornithopter.

Balsa? Looxury!!

Tell that to the kids of today......

[Rossian]

It was so long ago I can't remember how old I was, but it was a green bakelite model which was assembled for me by a Sunderland pilot (Sgt who was billeted across the road from our house) and it was - surprise surprise, a Sunderland! I must have had some sort of indoctrination that came with it as I ended up spending my entire aviation career in the MPA world. Later, when I built my own, my favourite was a Comet (balsa and tissue paper this time) which turned out Beeeaaauutifully. I fitted the Jetex motor and did several test launches from a small hilltop and it glided perfectly. Summoned Mum and Dad to see the powered launch. Away it went,climbing slightly nose up and as it went the motor ignited the tail area which burnt fast and furiously for about 5 secs and then nosed over into a vertical dive and total destruction. My Mum regarded this as a disaster as it had cost them some ill-afforded pennies, and so she suggested that I find a less expensive hobby.
Eeeee things were hard then.
The Ancient Mariner

[sweaters]

Mine was a Harrier GR1 circa 1972 and I've SH all me life - so it didn't work for me. I can hover for longer and higher though.

[shawtarce]

I've never made a plastic model of a child, but I did once buy a plastic model of a young lady...............:ok:

[L J R]

Jaguar GR something in 1972 (age 10). Never wanted to fly one though.

Saw my first 'real' one in 1991....Red Flag or something.

[adrian mole]

Airfix JU87 Stuka - No, it was on the wrong side. I also went to El Adem and saw all the bits they didn't bomb!......

[orca]

Hawker Hurricane - Sadly it didn't survive my 'Pyro' phase, came a very poor second to a large French Banger i seem to recall.

[Bob Viking]

I've had a few over the years but looking back, I realised with some irony that my first model, a hand me down from my brother when I was about 4 years old, was a Jaguar. I didn't really know what it was at the time I just remember the name.
In answer to your question. Yes I have flown it. Almost daily in fact! Not today though. No jets for me!:(
BV

[ShyTorque]

My first was also a Seahawk! Second was a Westland Whirlwind (not the heli) and the Mosquito came later. Also built the "Scharnhorst" which was later sunk with an air rifle.

[Green Flash]

There's a common theme running here, methinks. Hours of loving work to produce a fine, accurate piece of work, the pride of the owner.

Then it's hauled out of a second floor window and blown to buggery.:E

I'm sure a trick cyclist would know why.:\











Wasn't just me, then.:}

[Navaleye]

In my youth I spent many hours building kits only to shoot them up with my air rifle. Aircraft kits were not really sturdy enough, tanks and ships are much more fun. Ships can be subdivided and "armoured" to make them more survivable. My 1/450 scale Bismarck was sunk, repaired and re-floated on more than one occasion.

Ah happy days....

[Groundgripper]

I do remember some of the balsa wood ones - Baroudeur (French experimental fighter built by SNCASE, launched off a trolley, landed on retractable skids), Javelin (at about 1/48 scale; I spent ages whittling away at a plank of balsa to get the wing shape almost correct but gave up in the end).
As for flying models, I was given kits of both the Canberra and Comet. Neither flew particularly well - I couldn't afford a Jetex 100 motor and the Jetex 50 didn't have enough guts. Also I painted the Comet so well that it glided like a brick. But they both burned very well!
I came across the remnants of a 1/72 scale F-27 in Aer Lingus colours some time ago, the years (and my son) had not been kind to it :(
Mind you, I've still got the balsa wood Golden Hind and Victory on display in the sitting room cabinet. It took me about ten years to get the courage up to build Victory (again carved from the solid) as the finished article is only about six inches long and has very detailed rigging - my eyesight has never been the same since:sad: .
GG

[BEagle]

Can't even imagine digi-yoof being allowed x-acto hobby knifes, polystyrene cement, Humbrol enamel, thinners (OK - who didn't clean the paintbrush in the bottle?) or many of the other things we used at the age of 6 without supervision. That's if they have any interests beyond iPods and drugs. And as for cellulose dope and diesel fuel.... Or even Jetex pellets.

I never dispatched a model with explosives - but the odd one which was beyond repair did get the BSA Meteor .22 treatment!

[orca]

Handy hint - If you ever run out of your own models to schwack, don't start on your (very much bigger) elder brother's collection. Very painful result.

[brickhistory]

First one was a 1/32 (big!) scale of an F4U Corsair from VF-17, "The Jolly Rogers."

Seems my aircraft models all suffered catastrophic flak damage from firecrackers that then went on to ignite with a mighty satisfying 'woomphf' the main fuel tanks stuffed with gasoline (Ok, I grew up on a farm where I had both the room and the gas pump to do this).

Ships were dispatched with a BB gun and diesel. Very realistic plume of black smoke as it slowly sank into a pond.......maybe one of the Learning/Discovery channels can do a special on locating the "Wrecks of Brick's Pond?"

I really did need to get out more then....................

[Rigga]

A DC3 which I had for Christmas! and me Dad helped me build it.
Followed by a whole Ceiling full! (Which I built.)

[Spacer]

I must admit I became "test pilot" to a friend's Tornado model.... damn thing just wouldn't fly at all!

[C130 Techie]

Seem to recall it was an old airfix series 1 'dogfight double' which was the Red Barons Triplane and an Avro 504K I think. Didn't they used to be supplied in a plastic bag?

I've made many since and still make the occasinal one now having just spent 18 months living in during the week.

I still have an unmade Airfix 1;72 scale Hercules kit from around 1975. Still in its original box and it came complete with the Bloodhound Missile kit. The aircraft decals are for XV196 in its desert brown with the white 'sunroof' and no refuelling probe. Looks a little different these days with all its lumps and bumps. Wonder if this is a collectors item yet.

[Yarpy]

Good thread. Circa 1965 I bought an Airfix ME 110 which I proudly showed to my Dad who was a WW2 RNVR veteran. He promptly told me that the last time he has seen one was when he was legging it along the dockyard in Portland Bill as it attempted to cut him to pieces with strafing fire.

After that every Airfix kit bore RAF roundels. I graduated to KielKraft rubber powered models (never go the hang of control line) then flew gliders when I was 16, onto a PPL, the RAF and then the airlines.

Now . . . this begs the question:

What the heck do kids play with these days? Is it all PC games? Do any of them make models?

[diginagain]

I still have an unmade Airfix 1;72 scale Hercules kit from around 1975. Still in its original box and it came complete with the Bloodhound Missile kit. The aircraft decals are for XV196 in its desert brown with the white 'sunroof' and no refuelling probe. Looks a little different these days with all its lumps and bumps. Wonder if this is a collectors item yet.
Oddly enough, that's the first kit I tried my hand on. Only ever pax, I'm afraid, but the memories of long haul Gutersloh to Calgary will haunt me forever.

Older brother had the talent for building them. Once he'd gone to Henlow, they gave me hours of pleasure, 'plinking' away.:E

[Like This - Do That]

Airfix "Golden Hind" in about 1972 .... 1:600 I think. I've just Googled it, it was Airfix's first commercial plastic kit, first released in 1952. Blimey! A classic!

In Oz at the time IIRC most of the easily available kits were Airfix, and the standard line up of 1:72 kits were done - Spitfire, Hurricane, Blenheim, etc.

Went through a brief WWII AFV vehicle phase when I discovered Tamiya kits (including a beautiful 1:35 Panther which met a pyrotechnic end), then back to aircraft in my teens. My pride and joys were a 1:48 F-105D from Monogram, and a 1:32 F-104G from Hasegawa.

Happy days ....

[Dan Winterland]

Airfix Avro504K - a bit ambitious with all those struts for a first attempt.

First balsa model was a Kiel Kraft FW190. It flew very well. So well in fact I had to put another loop of elastic in it to make it go faster and longer. It did, so I put yet another loop in. Got to the final turn, there was a big crunching sound and the fuselage was suddenly four inches long. B%gger!

Didn't fly either.

[karrank]

First was a small scale C-130, moulded in black plastic, brand unknown. It came with a tiny tube of cement that I managed to budget over the whole project, so avoiding the enthusiastic Humbrol SQUEEZE!

Made on kitchen floor, left on kitchen chair for Mum to admire on completion while I scooted off to view Play School. Anguished screams indicated its subsequent termination was not without cost to Mum's fundament.

Have only flown C150 & P28A and built neither!

[eagle 86]

Used to tape a small medicine bottle full of petrol to a firecracker then attach to model mounted to run down a wire from a height - light wick and let go! Also made flame throwers by filling water pistols with metho - squeeze trigger while holding lit match under muzzle.
Of course there was always sulphur/potassium chlorate mix.
Marvellous how kids 12000 miles apart came up with similar fun ideas.
What do the kids of today do now that none of the above is pc? Shoot up heroin I suppose.
GAGS
Eagle 86

[kluge]

Built a 1/72nd Pitts S2A. Tiny. Flew the real thing also. Not much bigger.

[ImageGear]

My first attempt was an Airfix B29, over engineered into existence by my Dad who then sprinted around the living room trying to get the glued props to turn.

I also went the Keilkraft route and although they suffered from "contraction effect" often I was always able to reconstruct the remnants into a passable "frame".

Very useful later when applying my cannibalisation skills.

Imagegear

[Roadster280]

I never dispatched a model with explosives - but the odd one which was beyond repair did get the BSA Meteor .22 treatment!

Can't remember the first of the many, many Airfix models I made, but I do remember the BSA Meteor .22!! In fact, I handed it in to the local constabulary just before I moved to the US just last year. I couldn't live with the thought of some iPod wearing ******** taking someone's eye out with it if I just threw it away. Guess I grew up, huh?

Not like in my younger days of course! It was obvious I was destined for the Army when I found that the heavy artillery of the .22 Meteor made such a spectacular explosion of fuselages and hulls. I particularly remember a Navy Lynx (for some reason gloss blue painted, I thought they were all grey??), and a SAR Sea King going kaboom the best.

I made a model of the Titanic, 1:350 scale, took 6 months to make, all the rigging correct, every porthole painted. It met its iceberg in the form of my mother who sent it plummetting to the sea bottom (floor) while dusting. On hearing the story, my ex-wife promptly went and bought me a replacement 15 years on! Last seen in her house...I'm not making another one!!!

[BEagle]

As one of the $5 prizes in the Incirlik VC10 Det Christmas Draw, we included a model of the Titanic - 'for anyone who thought they had a career' as it said on the card!

Also made sure that the BEngO won the 'Suitable for age 5 or more' snap together aircraft model on the grounds that it might be something even he could fix!

Air rifles! I liked the Douglas Bader story about how he'd been scrumping apples from the vicar's garden as a youngster, when the vicar turned his dog on him. Revenge was achieved by shooting up the vicar's shaving kit etc through the bathroom window!

[clicker]

First kit was an airfix spitfire V.

Needless to say not flown one, in fact not flown anything except for a C150 in a trial lesson before I found out that my eyesight was not up to scratch which cancelled all ideas I had 40 years ago.

Can't remember what happened to the spitfire which was painted in fingerprint camo with glue blobs attached.

[Rakshasa]

Matchbox Hawker Hurricane when they were going through their green and brown plastic phase in the early 80s. Got more mileage out of that one model than most of me other stuff!

Dad once told me it was either the Hurricane or a McClaren!

*Considers at all the money, women and glamour around F1 drivers.....*

Bu**er!


BTW? Does anyone still build 'em? I haven't for years but I do recall Airfix on principle didn't include swastikas as part of their luftwaffe kits?

[kluge]

BEagle - presumbly not shot up from his Spitfire ?

[BEagle]

No -with an air rifle!

[kluge]

wot - from his Spitfire ??!

[Navaleye]

That puts the rat I shot at 30 yds from my bedroom window into perspective :}

[oncemorealoft]

My first model, built mostly by my Dad with my 'help', was a Canadian Air Force Airfix F104 Starfighter. I seem to recall that the flag on the tail was the pre-Maple leaf version with a blue field with something or other on it and a Union Jack.

One summer, staying with my Gran for a few weeks, my uncle (who was only ten years older than me), made a balsa and tissue Douglas Skyraider powered by a Jetex engine. The first flight in Haqppy Valley was a failure resulting in irreparable damage to the centre section. I rescued the bits from the bin and replaced centre section with a solid block of balsa. Then re-attached Jetex using rubber band (!). Second flight was from Gran's council house driveway. Aircraft fell straight to ground, engine 'mounts' failed and Jetex flew over the hedge into allotments, lost forever.

My Airfix Hercules crashed and burned on a special forces mission somewhere behind enemy lines by the local brook. My dog wondered what the hell I was doing.

Dart engines from an Airfix F27 recovered to use as powerplants for self-designed, scratch-built mostly from balsa, commuter liner a bit like a Dash 8. I bet that would have gone some in real life!

How long did it take other readers to break the pitot tube on their Airfix F1A Lightning?

What fun....

[clicker]

That puts the rat I shot at 30 yds from my bedroom window into perspective :}

Arr but was the rat moving and were you firing from inside or outside the bedroom? :p

[C130 Techie]

Airfix Avro504K - a bit ambitious with all those struts for a first attempt.

Never said I made a good job of it and after all it was only a series 1 kit.

[Fishtailed]

NA Super Sabre. Don't Know why I remember that one, But I remember playing with my brothers Frog model. It was in a box with a winding handle that charged the elastic band, the wings were detatchable and stowed in the box along side the fuselage, probably a Chipmunk.
Never flown a Chipmunk or a Sabre.
Shouldn't this thread be in AH&N???

[Pontius Navigator]

Spitfire was popular as it was one of the first Airfix did. Also did the Gladiator. Remember doing a Gannet - sod. Putting the fin strakes on was bloody hard, a tight fit and sharp as a razor; cut myself getting them on.

At least I knew it had two engines and contra rotating props whereas as the Shack had only one engine and contra rotators per pod unlike one senior officer who suggested extending the Shack range by shutting down the 'spare' engines just like the Gannet.

[Spurlash2]

A Sunderland, 1/72, built 1965. Moving 4 point bomb racks under each wing and remained plastic white, as the concept of actually finishing something with paint and transfers was not yet imbued.
Destroyed shortly after trying to escape my first floor bedroom on a length of fishing wire to a nearby satellite airfield, (tree) with a banger, (not a snorker) disguised as, with what I can now redeem myself with, a liferaft.
Those pre-global warming summers were great:)

[bakseetblatherer]

A SM79, the Italian transport (a bit like a Junkers tri motor). I dunno what brand it was but it was rubbish, the fusleage was warped so it never got any where near finished. I turned it into a shot down wreck, just like the one my grandad downed in his Fulmar.

[Letsby Avenue]

Does this count?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/04/ngerm04.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/04/ixuknews.html

[You want it when?]

Those inflatable Spitfires look more like Focke Wolf 190's to my untrained eye.

On topic - A Gnat built and painted in 20 minutes in 1973, it looked horrible - and I got red paint on the carpet.

[clicker]

and I got red paint on the carpet.

I suspect red marks elsewhere when your parents found out? :E

[Dan Winterland]

I vaguely remeber it used to ba an (unofficial) requirement for the pilots of a certain twin engined single seat fighter with no autopilot (which needed the earth's curvature to gain some altitude) whilst on an operation from an airbase 50 miles from the Mediterranean to complete a palstic model in flight on the way to the AOR and back. Apparently, saliva was used for the decals!

[jumpseater]

c130techie yes it probably is a bit of a collectors item, good place to start looking for the value is on the dreaded ebay.
heres one wot i dun earlier
http://greengoscale.fotopic.net/p22414686.html
Started PPL and didnt finish, come to think of it I can think of a few models of mine like that too... does that count? Airguns fire and wire seem to feature strongly in my recollections too, as well as one or two bangers around fireworks night, (they used to make proper ones then), no-one else or just me with those?

My first one would have been an Airfix chippie I think, one day maybe I'll get a go in one!

[Tim Inder]

I don't think you'd fit :}

[Cumbrian Fell]

For his birthday (last New Year's Eve) I bought my lad the Airfix BOB kit of a Spitfire and Bf-110. We duly assembled them and painted them (he is 7 and struggled with the detail - so I bravely stepped in and completed the models). Both models were suspended from his bedroom ceiling and suffered a bit of damage (u/c separation, blade loss - usual placcy attrition...). We moved a month ago to a much larger property with a loft and dormer window. Last weekend I found remains of the Bf-110 in the garden. I looked cross and tears welled up in his eyes - and then I remembered that I had done exactly the same a number of decades ago although hankering for a nautical theme, USS Missouri was sent to Valhalla on a neighbour's fish pond.
Kids and their dads don't change, do they?

[Zoom]

Re the inflatable Spitfires, the Germans would be within their rights to sell inflatable V-1s and V-2s, I reckon, especially as they will stuff us if we meet in the quarter-finals.

Back on thread, my first was a 1-72nd scale Hurricane IIc way back in 1958. I reckon that it was that model that sparked my RAF interest - along with my Dumpy Book of Aircraft and the Air. Flew a few fighters but never the Hurricane, sadly.

[Aeronut]

Back off thread - Plastic was for poofs - Balsa model kits by Keil Kraft were far more exciting than plastic. Beautiful box of balsa bits and wire, tissue wheels etc etc. Took weeks to make and moments to crash!!

Mine was a Keil Kraft Caprice - Huge glider - launched it on Epsom Downs - had to chase it -it flew so bloody well - Amazing performance. Kits go on ebay for nearly £40 these days.

I also built several other models form Keil Kraft and a powered free flight model "Wasp Wings" by Performance Kits, WONDERFUL!

[Strictly Jungly]

Early 70.s....Airfix "Dogfight Doubles"...Spitfire and an ME110. I seem to remember I had a Stuka that ended up with so much paint on it (desert colours to jungle and back again) that when it encounted heavy flak ( a match) over France (my back yard).......it burst into flames. Pilot failed to leave flaming aircraft...........

Ahhhhh happy memories and the only time I have ever come into contact with duck egg blue paint!

[sweaters]

Or was Navaleye on the grassy knoll? :)