# Your first kit as a kid



## yorkd (Mar 14, 2010)

Hi everybody.I will be turning 51 this may and I started thinking about how far back when I was just a brat when my dad got me my very first kit.I was about 7 years old with my mom at the dime store and there it was in the front display window the AMT U.S.S. ENTERPISE model kit.I did not even know what a model kit was at the time BUT MY DAD DID and he did not want to mess with having to put a kit together for a show that he could not stand.But with my mom standing over him my father put together his first and only model kit that I will never forget.And if I remember right the nacalles did not sag to much. my dad passed away in 94 but I will always remember how he put that model together for his 7 year old son.I guess my old age gotme to thinking about the good old days and they truly were the best days of my life with my dad.:wave:


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## Manatee Dream (Jan 2, 2014)

My Dad and I never had any shared interests, I am pretty much the polar opposite of him. My first and only model was the Titanic, and my parents constantly told me how I would never finish it and refused to buy me any of the supplies for it. My Dad did have a bunch of paints from the 70s left over and let me use those, but because all I had was a brush and glue it ended up looking terrible. I thought my Dad might end up building it with me but that never happened. I did fnish it and I was proud of it, even if the lines were crookedly painted and it was glossy instead of flat. I was very happy with it, and glad I built it. 

Now my Dad is retired and I am getting into science fiction modeling, he might be interested in coming over and helping me with it.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I can't swear it was the first, but I have a vague memory of taking a small box-scale F-102 (or 106?) model to school for show-and-tell in kindergarten. That would be 1962. no idea what scale or what company made it.

After that it's all a jumble. I can sort of remember a Revell X-15 kit around first grade. Some Aurora WWII fighters.

Dad flew P-47s in the Pacific, and he had the Lindberg P-47N kit, painted in his own markings, hanging from his basement workshop ceiling since before I was born. I guess that was what sparked my interest.


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## seaview62 (Nov 30, 2012)

In 1974, the AMT Enterprise...the first of many AMT Enterprises!


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## jaws62666 (Mar 25, 2009)

I believe the first kits I had were the R2D2 from MPC, and the Star Trek Exploration Set from AMT


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## chuck_thehammer (Oct 24, 2007)

my father went to work one day and never came home.. I was 5. (1956)
my mom bought me a model when I was about 8... a futuristic Ford???.. when she returned home from her fathers funeral in Pa... 
as there was no man in our life.. I had to figure out how to build a model and where parts went ... the beginning of an auto mechanic profession. 
and I have built over a hundred since. and got about 50 waiting..


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## starseeker (Feb 1, 2006)

Grade 6. Mr. Campbell was my teacher that year. For whatever reason, possibly because it was the other grade 6 teacher's first year and we were one Tough school, it was decided that she'd get all the girls and Mr. Campbell would get all the boys. Mr. Campbell lived to fly. He wanted to get out of teaching and become a professional pilot. He was racking up air hours by taking us in pairs on field trips, up in an Edmonton Flying Club Cessna for an hour's tour of the city from a couple thousand feet. Everything we did in Grade 6 science he tied back in to flying, even weather maps based on aerial maps and us plotting in perfect isobar lines.
One day he announced that it would be a good idea if we each brought in a model airplane and hung it over our desks in the classroom. I'd never built a model before and don't even think I knew such things existed. I have no memory of getting it but it was a 1/72 Hellcat. 
I was so proud of that thing - tube glue and stars and bars decals on the bare blue plastic - hanging above my desk, one star in an amazing constellation of aircraft flying in that classroom.
It was quickly followed by half a dozen aircraft hanging from my bedroom ceiling, and then... the Helios. Was there ever a spacecraft model cooler than the Helios? And then a 65 AMT Mustang. A Seaview!! And then... well, eventually every spacecraft and 1/48 scale aircraft available to about 1992. The only spacecraft/sf kits I didn't ever get were the XLS 01 and the Revell Space Station, but who did? 
Still have them all, too. In various states of intact. Somewhere. 
Oh, what Mr. Campbell started.


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## Carl_G (Jun 30, 2012)

I think I must have been about 7 or 8 when one day Dad comes home from work with a big freaking box under his arm that turns out to be the 3-piece Enterprise set (TOS, Refit and Galaxy).

Dunno what possessed him to pick that up for me (model kits were not a thing among any of my family members up to that point), but 20 years of on-and-off modeling later, I'm still glad he did.


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

Christmas 1969 my aunt gave me the revell 1:48 scale Apollo spacecraft kit. It was a total glue bomb but I was proud of it, I think I put the entire kit together in a day. I played with that model for years. Every time there was a moon mission I would get it down from the shelf where I kept it. After the moon missions ended it sat on a shelf for a couple of years until I saw "Moon Zero Two" on TV. I modified the Lunar module to look like what I remembered seeing in the movie, for some reason, I discarded the entire LM shroud part of the kit. Not long after, the Apollo Command and Service modules with the Escape tower got knocked off the shelf and the service module shattered like glass, along with the escape tower framework. I put the Command module in a box with other kit parts I thought I might find useful later, along with the "Moon Zero Two" lunar module parts.
In the mid 80's the kit was re-issued and I bought one with the intent of building it right this time. I remembered the pieces of the original that I still had and decided to incorporate them into the model. I utilized the shell of the Command Module and the only usable part of the LM was the ascent stage. A few years ago I refurbished that model, adding the BPC to the Command Module, adding a more accurate CM/SM umbilical in the proper position, beefing up the LM legs to look more accurate and adding the thruster quad blast deflectors to the Descent stage. This model (parts of it) and a Space:1999 Eagle from 1975 are the only models I built as a kid and teenager that survive to this day.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

In the mid '60s, I'm guessing 67. I was 8 and it was a bright yellow corvette with
crazy stickers to put on it.

I built it with minimal help from my dad, and it looked like it! smeared glue everywhere.


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## Manatee Dream (Jan 2, 2014)

If you still have your first model, post a picture! I would love to see them!


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## RSN (Jul 29, 2008)

Aurora Seaview. Built it with my dad at the kitchen table on election night in November of 1968!


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## WOI (Jun 28, 2012)

Mine was the original AMT U.S.S. Enterprise in the 1960's.


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## Desert_Modeler (Jun 2, 2010)

Summer 1964.. I was 6.. Monogram's TWA Super Constellation airliner..
( mostly my dad did it.. )

Then came Monogram's TWA DC-3 and Piper Tri-Pacer ( you know the one with two hunters and the mountain lion trophy!) I did those myself...with Testors tube cement and no paint..

A slew of Dinosaurs kits..

Then the aircraft.... soooooo many aircraft.... 
mostly the Monogram kits with all the working features...
They were $2.00 kits at the local Woolworth

In 5th and 6th grades, my elementary school had an Activity Period on Friday afternoons. We'd bring in a kit and work on it...

Where has time gone....?


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## steve83 (Aug 19, 2008)

Long box Enterprise built by Dad and me (well, I watched...) over Labor Day Weekend...1969. Still have the pieces of that Enterprise somewhere...


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Manatee Dream said:


> If you still have your first model, post a picture! I would love to see them!


Nope. 

When I left home for the Air Force my parents moved and
that and ALL of my models were pitched.

That was 32 years ago. I'm getting over it though.


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## Desert_Modeler (Jun 2, 2010)

Since we're strolling down memory lane...

How many taped a dime ( $0.10) to the card and sent it to Revell to join the (I think it was called) "The Young Astronauts Club"?

Six to eight weeks ( an eternity when you're 7 ) later, the Postman delivered Revell's 1/48 Mercury/Gemini capsule combination kit.

I must have done that 3 or 4 times...

I'd always break the Mercury's escape tower bracing struts trying to detach them from the sprue...

Did anyone ever build the Gemini with the landing gear deployed..? 

FYI, that same, repopped kit now sells for $17.99.


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## Mark2000 (Oct 13, 2013)

I believe mine was a Monogram BSG TOS Viper. I remember the weird claw stand. Wish I still had it. I would paint it now .


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## Griffworks (Jun 24, 2002)

The first kit that my dad built for me was the 18" Enterprise. 

The first kit that I built all by myself was the 18" Enterprise. I built a lot of other subjects after that, mostly Military planes, tanks and ships, but I took very good care of _Enterprise_ and still have her today. Each of the nacelles broke off at different times and I was able to re-glue them and I had to replace a few of the parts, but she's still in a box somewhere.


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## harristotle (Aug 7, 2008)

My first kit was a 1/48 Stealth Fighter I think. I hated decals for the longest time because of this kit as I didn't know how to blend them into the model when I was young. Built an F-14 and a P-51 as well then didn't touch models for years.


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

1967, saw a Batmobile kit in Woolworth's. It all began there...


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

My first model was a Lindberg Stinson StationWagon airplane. I was around 5 I guess and my Dad let me build it mostly all by myself. Was a tube glue bomb but I was hooked. Built a lot of Monogram and Aurora aircraft and when Frankenstein came out I did most of the Monsters. I even had a Big Frankie my Mom found at a yard sale up the street for 25 cents - still had the paints too! This was late 50's to mid 60's.


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

Desert_Modeler said:


> Since we're strolling down memory lane...
> 
> How many taped a dime ( $0.10) to the card and sent it to Revell to join the (I think it was called) "The Young Astronauts Club"?
> 
> ...


I did that around mid 1970 when I found the ad in the sunday paper for the 1:96 scale Apollo Command, Service and Lunar module. It was the Science Service/Science Program, you got either two or three books with the model kit as well as a library storage box for the books. I remember my dad being really mad at me for weeks over that because he was going have to pay out $1.25 every six weeks for new books in the series. I wound up with 20 or so books along with the library boxes to hold them, I still have the books. I don't know if I have a complete set because I have never bothered to track down a list of the books that were printed.

Somewhere in storage I have the built-up 1:48 scale Mercury/Gemini set that I built when they were re-issued in the 1990's. I bought two of the kits so I could build the Gemini with the landing gear deployed as well as the in flight version.


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## MightyMax (Jan 21, 2000)

Mine was an Aurora Dracula's Dragster. Glued it with the standard Testors tube glue. i left it unpainted in its black plastic glory. I took it to school for Show and tell and broke off his hand with goblet.

When Polar Lights Repopped this kit I bought a couple. My plan was to build one as I did when I was a kid and then build one with seams filled and painted. I guess i should do it soon as it has only been like 15 or so years since it was repopped....

Max Bryant


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## Pidg (Jan 15, 2005)

1964. I was 9. Dad bought me a P-40. He didn't help much unless I got in trouble with it. Don't remember how many glue fingerprints it had.. He built them from Balsa when he was a kid.
Next was a Condor Bomber, Then a P-47. Soon the ceiling had dogfight diorama's held up with white thread and thumb tacks.
Then I saw Star Trek, and everything changed. I built the one with the U shaped retainers for the nacelles. Yes they sagged. Then a Klingon battlecruiser with the sensor dome in the nose instead of the photon torpedo hole they converted it to later. Finally 1969 and the LEM and orbiter.
Today I have MS, and shakey hands don't work, but have one of my two grandsons started. We built the Millennium Falcon snap-tite model. He loved it.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

Mine was Aurora's The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré, the "Fright'ning Lightning" version, 1969. I was 7 or 8 years old, and though I'd heard of model kits I really didn't know much about them. I was browsing the local toy store and the box art caught my eye. I grabbed it, ran to the front counter, and asked the clerk what it was. He took the time to explain the basics to me (read the instruction sheet, cut the pieces off, glue 'em together, and paint it), handed me a tube of good ol' Testors cement, a paint brush, three bottles of Pactra paint (black, white, and red, so I could paint the figure like the box art), and a bottle of Pactra paint thinner. Over the next two or three days I glue-bombed it together, slathered on the paint (black on the coat and pants, white on the shirt, red on the sash--just like the box!), and spent many subsequent nights falling asleep to the warm greenish glow of the Prisoner's skeleton staring back at me.


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

BWolfe said:


> I did that around mid 1970 when I found the ad in the sunday paper for the 1:96 scale Apollo Command, Service and Lunar module. It was the Science Service/Science Program, you got either two or three books with the model kit as well as a library storage box for the books. I remember my dad being really mad at me for weeks over that because he was going have to pay out $1.25 every six weeks for new books in the series. I wound up with 20 or so books along with the library boxes to hold them, I still have the books. I don't know if I have a complete set because I have never bothered to track down a list of the books that were printed.


Those books can go for some good money if they are in good condition and the stickers are not pasted in the books. A complete set would sell at a premium.

Yeah, I has the same experience kit/books. I had to send the books back. Well, most of them anyway. I still have two of them.

Then there was the ole Citadel Record Club. I mainly remember the bright orangy-yellow envelopes they would send your bill in.


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## Bay7 (Nov 8, 1999)

ERTL refit from Star Trek IV whilst on holiday in the US.

It was weird, not only was I not really a Star Trek fan at all but it drew my attention to it like that Green Crystal Superman has in his barn 

At the tender age of 12, those panel lines looked really impressive and never again would an ERTL refit go together as well as this one.

I bought another one recently and it still had the oddly sweet smelling styrene that I remembered. I was disappointed to miss out on the original box art when ERTL were selling off all their Trek stuff a few years ago.

Steve


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## Larva (Jun 8, 2005)

'Twas 1965... it was the Jupiter C rocket. Followed closely by the Batmobile.


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## yorkd (Mar 14, 2010)

After a few years passed I started collecting the Prehistoric Scenes kits.I really loved those and after awhile I had almost all of them including the then exspencive big t.rex.I believe it costed about 13 dollars at Value mart.Iput them all in a big box and plased them in our little trailer in our backyard and kind of forgot about them for awhile then one day I went out to reviset them and they were gone.I suspect a lowdown cousin of mine stole them or I would still have them to this day.


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

Late 60s/early 70s I built a model of Snoopy 'flying' his doghouse/Sopwith Camel. It even had a motorized prop as I remember.


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## Carson Dyle (May 7, 2003)

1968, Aurora Pan Am Space Clipper.


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

Paulbo said:


> Late 60s/early 70s I built a model of Snoopy 'flying' his doghouse/Sopwith Camel. It even had a motorized prop as I remember.


I think many of us from that time had or even still have that model. I have one still sealed in the box as well as one built up.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

I wish to high heaven I could remember what the first kit was that I built. My dad was able to get kits for me from a local wholesaler, so I had plenty to build when I was growing up. It was a great time. That said, I think some of the earliest memories I have are of building those old Pyro dinosaur kits....


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## OzyMandias (Dec 29, 2004)

Wow Paul and BWolfe, that really takes me back. I had Snoopy in the Sopwith camel! The baron in his Funfdekker Fokker, and Flt. Lft. Rif RAF in his Spitfire. They were such fun to build!

My first ever kit was the Airfix Spitfire. I remember my Uncle and my parents complimenting me on the freehand camouflage design I painted on it. I had to ask my Dad what camouflage was for! Once he explained it, I dove in. 

Sci-Fi kits were very hard to come by for me as I lived in a small inland city in Queensland, Australia. My first Sci-Fi kit was the Airfix Orion (It actually had the Pan Am decal set!) I've got two more to build for the nostalgia value now. 
The oldest kits that I still own are:
Airfix Angel Interceptor
Airfix Hawk from Space 1999
Star Trek 3 Ship set (with a medium blue Klingon Battle cruiser!) that was before the days of videotape and long before the interwebs so there was Buckleys in the way of reference available. I painted it using the box photo for reference.
I do have the original short box Enterprise, which my Dad sprayed grey for me, then I meticulously hand painted the windows. Somewhere the decal sheet got lost and the model was broken down and is still stored in its original box. I really need to get it out and buy a decal sheet to finish it.
I still have the Scout Vehicle and stand from my Interplanetary UFO Mystery Ship. The rest of it is long gone.
I had the Star Trek Bridge, Galileo, K-7 and the Exploration Set. They are all gone now sadly. It is great to have had the opportunity to buy and rebuild these classic old kits thanks to our wonderful kit companies that recognise the appeal of the older kits. 
I've hung on to the older kits as a reference to how my skillset has changed, hopefully for the better, over the years.


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## ccbor (May 27, 2003)

I ordered a TOS enterprise in the 1970's from a comic book add. It came in a cardboard box. 

Bor


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## Scott1768 (Jul 19, 2011)

My first was the Revell box-scale kit of the Battleship USS North Carolina. I was so excited, I probably built it in an hour - with every part, I ran into the kitchen describing it in detail to my Mom. There was a special offer to get a record detailing her career during WWII, and I practically played the grooves off that thing.

Not too long ago, on a lark, I did a search. And guess what I found?


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

It was either late 1963 or early 1964. I was at the 5 & 10 cent store, in the window I saw the big six, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula, Mummy, Creature, and Phantom of the Opera. At .98 cents plus tax, Dracula was my first. I was five years old, the girl next door to me, whose brother was a serious model builder of Aurora. I was given his Great Garloo toy, and he got me hooked on model kits to this day.


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## wjplenge (Apr 14, 2011)

Paulbo said:


> Late 60s/early 70s I built a model of Snoopy 'flying' his doghouse/Sopwith Camel. It even had a motorized prop as I remember.


I remember that kit, I even remember my cousin thinking it flew because the prop spun. So she "launched" it across the living room. I think I heard Snoopy yell, "May Day! May Day!" as he plunged to the floor.


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## Dave in RI (Jun 28, 2009)

I'm really enjoying this thread; so many wonderful memories to share.

The first model I got was for Christmas 1974 when I was 9--a General Ursus figure from Planet of the Apes. Although technically this was my first kit, it was a snap-together and it was more like a 3D jigsaw puzzle for me because I used to assemble it, display it for a while and later take it apart so I could put it together again. Later on, my older sister painted it so it remained assembled after that.

My first "official" glue together kit was the same kit some of you built for your first kit: the AMT Enterprise. I was just getting into Star Trek in 1974-75 and an older kid down the street showed me his just completed Enterprise kit and it blew me away in its coolness. I had to have one. So that Summer for my birthday an Enterprise is what I got along with a tube of glue and no real experience. As you can imagine the results were pretty much what you'd expect with saggy nacelles and glue marks all over from sticky fingers. 

I loved that ship so much and after 40 years, I'm currently building another one...


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## Chrisisall (May 12, 2011)

Dave in RI said:


> The first model I got was for Christmas 1974 when I was 9--a General Ursus figure from Planet of the Apes. Although technically this was my first kit, it was a snap-together and it was more like a 3D jigsaw puzzle for me because I used to assemble it, display it for a while and later take it apart so I could put it together again.


I had those Apes models!

My first model (1966 Batmobile) was so much fun to put together, that I asked for another model right away. But in stone age upstate NY the nearest stores were pretty far away, so in my impatience I ripped the Batmobile apart, waited an hour or two, then glued it back together all over again.:freak:


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## jimkelsey (May 7, 2013)

My first kit was the Aurora Ankylosaurus, which I still have. I got it when I was five years old in 1973. I LOVE the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits and was fascinated by how the land bases all went together. I played with them so much as a kid that the ankylosaurus has difficulty standing on it's own because the legs are so loose. It's worn out, but to me, it's priceless.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/307942...cXm-6DZurb-9DvCZz-9Dyw2E-9DyvVh-9DyvXQ-8Yk4GY


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

After years of buying Aurora models at variety stores, I went to my first hobby shop in 1969. The Mummy was on display painted in battleship gray, like walking into Xanadu.


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## Joel (Jul 27, 1999)

I don't remember the exact year, but probably 1971, but my Dad took summer course in Tuscaloosa Alabama for a masters degree he was working on. My Mom and I went to stay with him for a few weeks (we stayed back in Baton Rouge the rest of the time until he came back). I would have still been 5 years old at the time, not turning 6 until that November.

While I was there, somehow I ended up getting 2 models to work on. I distinctly remember a WWII era tank, and a 747 jumbo jet. This was the first time I'd ever attempted building any kind of plastic model kit - with real glue.

It would be a while, but probably within 2 years of that, I began building all kinds of models. The first Enterprise model was probably around '73. Then all the other Trek kits as they came out - Klingon ship, Spock, Bridge, Romulan Bird of Prey, Three Piece Explorer kit (phaser, tricorder, communicator), Shuttlecraft, even that unrelated glowing UFO. But I'd also end up building tons of cars, several airplanes including a big B-52 Stratofortress, all the initial MPC Star Wars models that followed the first movie (except for the snow speeder from ESB that I did get), the BSG models, the Buck Rogers in the 25 Century TV show models, Star Trek Movie models, the Black Hole models...

I ended up building 4 of the TOS Enterprise models over that time. The last one I built in the summer of '84 being the only remaining model I still have in my possession.

I haven't built any kits in years - the last one I started on was making a whole accurate kit from a couple of 22" cut-a-way kits. That was back in '99. That's probably about the time that I originally signed up on this forum. Unfortunately, I never found enough time to get very far. 

I still poke around here from time to time to see what's being built. I'd love to get the new 1/350 TOS Enterprise kit and take another crack at it. But enough free time is still not with me just yet.


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## Carl_G (Jun 30, 2012)

jimkelsey said:


> My first kit was the Aurora Ankylosaurus, which I still have. I got it when I was five years old in 1973. I LOVE the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits and was fascinated by how the land bases all went together. I played with them so much as a kid that the ankylosaurus has difficulty standing on it's own because the legs are so loose. It's worn out, but to me, it's priceless.
> 
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/307942...cXm-6DZurb-9DvCZz-9Dyw2E-9DyvVh-9DyvXQ-8Yk4GY


Haha, you sound like my little brother. The only model kits he was interested in were the dinosaur kits.


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## stryker (May 29, 2012)

I want to say my first kit was a Revell OV-10 Bronco. I remember it was od green and the white around windows from the glue. I think my dad and I made it in an afternoon, 1973ish? Well, he built and I watched. Built a number of Snap Kits, like my Snoopy plane, the next project in the hopper.


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## redline hunter (Jan 9, 2008)

First "real" one that I can remember is...










I needed lots of help with it, but it started my model building.


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

stryker said:


> I want to say my first kit was a Revell OV-10 Bronco. I remember it was od green and the white around windows from the glue. I think my dad and I made it in an afternoon, 1973ish? Well, he built and I watched. Built a number of Snap Kits, like my Snoopy plane, the next project in the hopper.


I have a helpful tip about the motor for the Snoopy plane, if you can't get it to start, take the battery out and re-install it backward and then spin the propeller backward. It may take a few trys but it will usually start, let it run about a minute, stop it and then re-install the battery properly and the motor should run just fine. Don't know why this works, but it does.


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## TonyT (Oct 19, 2013)

First one I built with my Dad was an AMT 53 Ford pick up...still have it, though I had rebuilt it a few times, so lots of Testor's bottle paint brushed on. There were a couple of Palmer car kits before that that I may still have a part or two in my spares box! These I built with a ton of glue on my grandmother's kitchen table. Would have been about 1967-68.


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## SusieQ (Nov 24, 2012)

Mine was the Aurora Viking Ship and the Boeing PGH-2 Tucumcari.


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## TonyT (Oct 19, 2013)

stryker said:


> I want to say my first kit was a Revell OV-10 Bronco. I remember it was od green and the white around windows from the glue. I think my dad and I made it in an afternoon, 1973ish? Well, he built and I watched. Built a number of Snap Kits, like my Snoopy plane, the next project in the hopper.


I remember building that Snoopy Sopwith with the doghouse! Man, I'd love to find another one of those!


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## 1701ALover (Apr 29, 2004)

I got into Star Trek in the mid-80s, when I was about 7 or so, before TNG came around. My first Trek model was the original Enterprise, though I don't recall what box art it had. After that, I got an AMT refit Enterprise from Star Trek IV, which has remained my favorite design of the Enterprise, and despite its inaccuracies and construction idiosyncrasies, I still have fond memories of building it, and several more of that kit over the years (because the bloody nacelle pylons would snap off so easily!). I have one of the ST VI re-issues in my closet, along with a ST VI Klingon Cruiser, both unassembled. Not sure when or if I'll ever get around to building them, but I'm hanging onto the kits for nostalgia's sake.


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## spocks beard (Mar 21, 2007)

I see a few people first started out with that Snoopy and his Sopwith Camel as their fist kit.

If i remember correctly, This was also my first kit as well.
I don't even remember what company issued it, Maby MPC?

I was no more than 5 Y.O. And it was maby 1971/2 And my older brother helped me with a lot of the kit.

I remember not being able to install that little propeller motor either, But thought it was a very cool model.

I wish someone could reissue that kit, But probably the molds are long lost.
That kit and the original AURORA long box Captain Action kit were definitely my first kits.

Back then surprisingly, In the early 1970's, You could walk into the local neighborhood drugstore and there were still a lot of the older AURORA long box kits still on the shelves.

I remember getting that Captain Action kit thinking it was the actuall action figure..The boxes were so much alike.

After those it was An old long box AMT Enterprise with the crude lighting kit, And the Glow in the dark square box monster kits.

Those were good days to be a little kid regardless of how badly most of those kits turned out.


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## wander1107 (Aug 12, 2006)

The first kit I remember being built was by my Dad, I was 6 years old. It was a Revell 1969 kit. We would sit at the kitchen table in my grandparents apartment, he'd spread out the trees and box and tools. The trees were OD Green and I still remember the smell of the glue (not in a paper bag). It was a Sikorsky Skycrane. I thought it was the coolest looking helicopter. He patiently showed me how pieces went together. How he preplanned sub-assemblies and applied decals. The finished kit looked awesome. I was hooked.

I was 9 years old in 74, my first kit was actually two; the Star Trek USS Enterprise and the 3 Piece Explorer Kit. I didn't paint them, I snapped them off the trees, glue them and played with them until they fell apart. I could never get the Enterprise's warp engines to stay put. So I used more and more glue and it never worked. So this was the first time the Enterprise crashed into a planet, actually my back yard.

The Explorer kit fared better, I used it with my Ready Ranger Pack and explored the woods around my house with my friends.

Even though my Dad's been gone for over 20 years, when I sit down at my model bench I still remember him and how he got me started in this hobby.

I've passed on my passion for model building on to my son. He's talented and has a great attention to detail. Someday I hope he sits down with his son or daughter and remembers our times together too, and smiles just like me.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

spocks beard said:


> I see a few people first started out with that Snoopy and his Sopwith Camel as their fist kit.
> 
> If i remember correctly, This was also my first kit as well.
> I don't even remember what company issued it, Maby MPC?
> ...


The kit was produced by Monogram, which is now owned by Revell. A lot of us would like to see the kit reissued but, as I understand it, Charles Schulz' estate refuses to even discuss licensing it again.


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## jimkelsey (May 7, 2013)

Carl G:

I loved dinosaurs as a kid - still do. We took a trip to MT from WA this summer and, thanks to my wife, we took an extra day to travel to Glendive to see the incredible dinosaur museum there. Because I liked animals, my parents bought me the Aurora white tail deer and the Revell Endangered Species animals. I still have the latter, but sold the deer on e-bay, along with several other old Aurora kits, over ten years ago.


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## Bullitt3980 (Nov 29, 2011)

I started building models very early so the actual first one is hard to remember--I think I got a Monogram 1/48 Hellcat for my 7th birthday. My dad was really into building Monogram and JoHann classic cars so he would pickup other kits for my brother and I. For my 12th birthday I let it known I wanted Trek kits and I got 2 Enterprises, a lighted Klingon Ship and the Shuttlecraft. Thanks for sharing the photos of Snoopys Sopworth Camel I think Christmas of 1971 I got that and my brother got The Red Barron-I assembled it and disassembled it many times--great memories


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## spocks beard (Mar 21, 2007)

Zombie_61 said:


> The kit was produced by Monogram, which is now owned by Revell. A lot of us would like to see the kit reissued but, as I understand it, Charles Schulz' estate refuses to even discuss licensing it again.


Oh yea!
It was MONOGRAM that issued that Snoopy kit. Thanks:thumbsup:

Too bad the Schulz estate wouldn't allow this kit to be reissued.
That's pretty lame of them.:freak:


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## wjplenge (Apr 14, 2011)

I'm surprised that the Shulz estate is so toxic on licensing. About the only Peanuts I've seen are in the Met-Life ads. It's been a while since I've seen Dolly Madison cakes, but last I knew they were gone from those too. Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America became Nickleodeon's Universe years ago. It would seem the estate would be hungry to generate some income.


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## mrstumpy (Oct 5, 2013)

The year was 1956 and my father thought it was time for me to advance from Lincoln Logs, plastic bricks (years before Lego), and an Erector set, to start building "real" models. Being in HO trains, he decided that the first kit was an HO scale Silver Streak refrigerator car kit. It was a box of pre-cut balsa wood, and card stock with a few brass stampings and "white metal" detail castings. No decals, the card stock sides were pre-printed with all the markings.

To assemble this thing, Dad provided me with Ambroid Cement, an early "glues anything to anything" glue of dubious chemical make up. Probably would be banned today. It was a sticky, stringy glue which insured that the finished model would have smudges and globs all over it. It was such a mess that Dad didn't have me try kit building for HO trains for two years! But in the meantime, I had started building plastic model cars and airplanes.

Surely with the scif-fi folks, this is the most unlikely first kit anyone has built first! But it has been followed over the years by hundreds of trains, cars, airplanes, ships, rockets, and sci-fi models.

Stumpy in Ahia:thumbsup:


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## Desert_Modeler (Jun 2, 2010)

My favorites were the old (1960's era ... but you can still find them) Monogram aircraft kits with moving features.

Revell made three WW II bombers like that, A B-17G "Memphis Belle", a B-24 Liberator, and a British Lancaster. 

Retractable landing gear, movable control surfaces, rotating turrets, releasable bombs, etc... boy.. the adventures I had with those after building them.. and they help show how assemblies moved...


When I stayed home from school because I was sick, my mom would always bring me home a model to "play " with.. It was either the Tucumcari Hydrofoil.. ( which DOESN'T float BTW... or the Hiller Tilt-Wing. More adventures.....
But the one that was the most fun ( and I know there are you out there would agree) was the big 1/48 Apollo set.... I must have gone to the Moon and back 100 times... 
Too bad our politicians didn't have those ... We'd be on Mars by now....


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## awcmodels (Jan 21, 2014)

*awcmodels.com*



Desert_Modeler said:


> My favorites were the old (1960's era ... but you can still find them) Monogram aircraft kits with moving features.
> 
> Revell made three WW II bombers like that, A B-17G "Memphis Belle", a B-24 Liberator, and a British Lancaster.
> 
> ...


 Just a thought for you...check this out our website if you like old/new school models !!! awcmodels.com


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

My first was probably the 18" AMT TOS Enterprise. Either that or the old Aurora Seaview. Can't be sure. The one I think I played with the most might have been the old Mercury Friendship 7 capsule with Atlas booster and launch base with ramp. :


Revell H1833-250 Atlas sled by trekriffic, on Flickr


hiottatlasa by trekriffic, on Flickr

Gosh it was fun to back the rocket on it's sled up the ramp with the tow truck. Then elevate it slowly into vertical position and lock it in; there were these little clamps that locked onto pegs at the base of the booster. Then it was time for the countdown: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1... IGNITION! LIFTOFF! Before long I was in ORBIT!


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## SFCOM1 (Sep 3, 2002)

My first kit was in 1970, as a "Snot nosed" kid of a tender 5 years of age. My parents for Christmas got me an 18" USS _Enterprise_ from AMT. It was the second edition "Big Box" with out the lighting system. I had that kit for ten years till it broke during a move from Detroit to Phoenix. 

I have had several of them over the years (including 4 of the Round 2 re-pops). I would have to say after 40 years, I have done quite well. A _Jupiter 2_, Several _Constitution_ class (_Enterprise_, _Constellation_, _Exeter_, and _Yorktown_); A 1/350th refit and TOS classic, 2 E-D's 3 E-E's (one _Enterprise_, one _Independence_, and my favorite: USS _Angelfire_ NCC-75025), 3 or 4 Eagles, a 1/350 _Seaview_ and a lot more. I'll have to take pics when I can!


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## DR. PRETORIOUS (Nov 1, 2000)

did they ever reissue the atlas booster kit?


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

DR. PRETORIOUS said:


> did they ever reissue the atlas booster kit?


I may be wrong on the year but I believe it was re-issued in 2002 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of John Glenn's flight. It was also re-issued in either the late 80's or early 90's.


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## DR. PRETORIOUS (Nov 1, 2000)

thanks it would be nice to find this kit


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

DR. PRETORIOUS said:


> thanks it would be nice to find this kit


They are out there and they can get pricey, found this one on e-bay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REVELL-Ever...258545992?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item19e786af48


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## MartinHatfield (Apr 11, 2004)

My first model kit was the HAWK Explorer 18 satellite kit. My Dad came home one Saturday from work with it. I had only been adopted for about two months and my new parents had noticed my fascination with my Brother's unbuilt model kits. I spent the entire weekend working on the kit, and finished it before Monday. SO, the next day I was taken to our local Woolworth's and I was allowed to pick out another model. Of course I chose the AMT Klingon D-7. I was into the villains, even back then.


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## Desert_Modeler (Jun 2, 2010)

I had the Atlas/Mercury kit, too... !! < sigh> those were the days....


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Desert_Modeler said:


> I had the Atlas/Mercury kit, too... !! < sigh> those were the days....


Yep! Those were days of high adventure!


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

Trekkriffic said:


> Yep! Those were days of high adventure!
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUSXGjiBvYE


That is great, I have the 6 Disc Spacecraft Films set covering Project Mercury, a very in depth series that covers everything from early development, Little Joe tests of the launch escape system as well as all of the unmanned and manned flights. I wish we could go back to the days when most people in this nation cared about and supported the space program. Having been born in 1960 I have no real memory of the Mercury or Early Gemini flights. My first distinct memoru of any of the manned space launches was seeing the aborted Gemini 6 launch in December of 1965. I remember being upset because this news program had preempted some cartoon show but when my dad explained what was going on I was hooked.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I've got the Atlas launch pad kit on the to-do pile.... for about 20 years now.


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## modelguy1 (Sep 10, 2011)

My first kit was a model USS Nautilus, no clue as to make/manufacturer. I recall my dad painting the propeller bronze and that was it. I was probably 5 at the time. I asked my dad what the difference between "fusion" and "fission" was and got branded a genius. That didn't work out so well, but the model went great!


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