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What got you into the hobby ?


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My mother got me started at about age 7, built crap and didn't progress through about 14. Quit then because cool (ha!) high school kids don't model.

Got back into things about age 21 after college, read (Verlinden and Shep Paine were my bibles), learned, progressed and now at 48 my kids say my best work is behind me... :rolleyes:/>

I always had a huge interest in aviation, ships, and trains, so transportation, with an emphasis on military aviation. So a love for the subject matter was there from the beginning. Oh, and a big interest in history also.

Edited by volzj
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When I was a kid my dad would bring home a model to help pass the time when I was home sick from school. That gave me the modelling bug which I carried into my teens. Occasionally I would buy myself a model when I was in my early 20s but got right back into it in my early 30s. Getting married and having kids modelling gave me something enjoyable to do instead of going out all the time.

I love the hobby and tried to pass it on to my kids but no luck. Maybe it'll be something they will come back to at one point in their lives.

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I started building car models as a kid, but was also watching a lot of WWII movies from the 40's. After high school and service in the Army, I started building models again, but only WWII aircraft instead of cars. I had some good basic skills and don't remember trashing any models when I started again, but the paint jobs on the first few were really bad. Bought my first airbrush in the mid 70's and paint jobs got better (a learning process that continues even now). Still have a few of my first builds from 73-74, though they've since been re-painted.

BW

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My Grandfather served in the 2nd WW & gave me a healthy interest in everything military, thanks to this & Airfix's splendid box art I was always nagging him about them every time we were in a shop selling them (I was 6 or7).

He eventually gave in & bought a 1/72 Spitfire & Me-109 & we built them together - mine was a disaster & I was convinced that there was something wrong with it as I couldn't see through the canopy (much glue & many fingerprints), while his was crystal clear.......

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My dad got me started. During the late '60s, when I was 5-6, we lived near the end of one of the runways at McConnell AFB, KS, where they did F-105 training, and had B-52s, "new" F-4C/Ds, F-100s, you name it, constantly flying over. He brought home a Revell F-105 (tan plastic, one big bomb on each of four pylons), and we built it at the kitchen table. I only stopped building during my first 3 years of college. I still prefer post-WWII subjects, probably since they were always flying over my head during my formative years.

BTW, I'm still mangling kits! :D

Ben

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Born in 1936, as a little boy, I watched my older brother and uncle carve them out of solid wood., there were no plastic kits. During the war, built several cut out and fold paper planes, and a couple of Strombecker solid pine kits. postwar, kept building carved balsa, Strombecker shaped pine, and stick and paper flying models, Comet comes to mind.. Plastics came along in the early to mid 50s, and I was off and running with hawk, Aurora, Lindberg, revell, and finally Monogram model kits. I hung around with other kids that did models, and we'd have joint building sessions.I did planes, ships, armor, antique and Classic cars. If it was plastic, and came disassembled in a box, I bought and built it. 77 now, and never stopped, still going strong. Hal Sr.

Edited by Hal Marshman Sr
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My father was a submariner form 66-68. My grandfather served on the mighty mo. my father was also a huge star wars fan. i grew up with models being built. my first memory is building an old lionfish model and an x wing. then, somewhere around 6 or 7 i decided i loved airplanes. i must have built at least 20 monogram phantoms and tomcats, as well as hasegawa 1/72 harrier gr. 3's before i gave it up about the age of 14 because, well, you know, girls dont care if you build model airplanes. about 4 years ago i really started to miss the hobby and jumped right back in to mangling all the styrene, resin, and photo etch i can. thanks dad.

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Cub Scouts; 1971.

Our whole den went to the local base exchange (Military version of Wal Mart) and we all got to pick a model.

I picked a Revell 1/72nd scale B-24 that was molded in a 'royal blue' color.

Edited by Check Six
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My dad first bought me a couple of kits, but i was to young to build them properly. Bought a few as an early teen, but quit around the age of 14. Picked it up again at the age of 24 after finding a nice model (Hawker Hunter) in a store. Kept building them ever since. Have recently asked santa for a Hawker Hunter again (and got it) just to see if i progressed in these years. Will be building this one this year.

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My father got me started - my brother was not really interested. I relied on my dad for cash until I was a little older, at which time funding for the hobby came from cutting grass for my neighbors and Ontario Hydro sub stations during the summer and shoveling snow for neighbors during the winter. That gave me more than enough cash for the kits that were available during the late 1960's and into the 1970's. Then came a very long hiatus after my late teens and Air Cadets. I got my PPL in 1996 which rekindled my interest in the hobby. By this time I had the cash to do whatever I wanted and buy whatever I wanted. The last three or four years have seen very little in the way of modelling - not for any particular reason, mind you. I am still very keen on the hobby but just not getting anything done. I have considered calling it quits just from the sheer frustration of inactivity.

Cheers,

Tom

Edited by Tom
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Mom brought home a .49cent Hawk T-6 Texan and we built it that evening on the kitchen table. That was in '64 and I never stopped building, save for a few years back due to cataracts. All GF's and wives had to put up with my hobbies too. My current Wife is creative and we share things like jewelry making and other crafts.. My workshop kinda fills the whole house now.

Life's Good.

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My dad got me started seriously modeling. I had built a few models when I was too young to do much, I remember the Aurora LIS Robot which I gooped up really badly, especially the bubble head. And then a Hawk F-104 and Aurora Swedish S Tank that I attempted to glue with Elmer's Glue, as ISTR in the '60s there was a restriction on buying/selling real model glue. Anyway, in 1970 and I was 9, my dad and I attended the local Labor Day weekend airshow. He had just started flying lessons a year or so earlier so was more involved with the local airport than non-flyers. Corky Fornoff flew his Bearcat as one of the displays. There was a mom and pop convenience store my dad and I would go to on Sunday afternoons and my dad and some of his buddies would sit around and drink beer and I would drink a Chocolate Soldier or two and buy a comic book. The store also sold a few models, mostly Hawk kits. One they had was the venerable Hawk 1/48 Bearcat. My dad asked if I thought I could build it and do a good job. With the exception of not painting the canopy frames and getting a tiny bit too much glue on the canopy, it was beautiful! I think I'd be proud of it even today. What started was a weekly purchase of 1/48 Hawk and Monogram (from other stores)by my dad for me to build and then out of my allowance money I bought all sorts of models; Revell 1/32 kits, Tamiya 1/35 armor, Monogram 1/32 armor, all sorts of the Aurora Prehistoric and Monster Scenes kits as well as the Aurora mostly 1/8 Monsters and the box scale aircraft. Up until about 10 or so years ago I built models all the time. Now, I have more time to buy than to build. My preferred scale is 1/72 in most all kits, but I still have a fondness for 1/32, especially with the likes of kits coming out the last few years and I still like some 1/35 armor and monster models, especially if they are Frankenstein oriented, as well as ships, generally aircraft carriers and subs. For the last 15 or 20 years I have also collected 12" action figures and one of my most favorite toys from my childhood, Major Matt Mason, and I have made quite a few vehicles for them, especially MMM which had some unmade prototypes or I enlarged smaller '60s space toys to suit MMM, and I call them "modeltoys" since they are really that, models of toys.

Edited by famvburg
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When I was 5, I helped my dad build a model kit of the USS Arizona. After that I was hooked. I worked in a local hobby shop through high school, and learned the ins and outs of the business and got to see a lot of what was out there.

I took about a 15 year break from building models because I went to college, and then moved for my first 'real' job. It wasn't until my wife and I settled down in our new house that I started up again. That was 9 years ago.

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I picked it up from my dad in the mid 70s. He was avid...but he'd admit not the best modeler. Both of us were/are pretty big airplane geeks...books, airshows, subscriptions to Air Classics, you name it.

I started "building" being the guy who glued all the bombs together...my dad never put bombs on his models.

My first kit was an Airfix 1/72nd O-1E Bird Dog, in the old "blister" package.

The result was a glue and Pactra Olive Drab covered mess!

I found the same model on eBay a few years ago and built it for old time sake. Great little kit.

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What got me into the hobby? Dad buying me a little Spitfire a couple of days after seeing Battle of Britain in the movie theater about 45 years ago. I built it in about 12 minutes and I think there was more Testor's tube glue on the outside of the model than there was in the seams. I have managed to butcher every model I have built since that time to some degree.

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Both my dad n his best friend built n collected models. I also used to love building things. My favorite toys growing up were the GI Joe vehicles and I would take them apart and put them back together repeatedly. Built models with my dad till mid-late teens. Then took about 10-12 years off and found this site and I got right back into it. Now it's a great stress relief and also brings back that joy of building.

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