# If you took a hiatus, what got you back into modeling?



## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I started modeling around 8 years old all on my own. I did monsters, show cars, silly surfers, etc. up until I was about 14/15. Then I became a huge space program buff and turned to model rocketry where you could build and then "play" with them after! I did serious model rocketry for years and only the very rare plastic model almost always space related. Around the time I turned 50ish about 9 years back I saw the Aurora Monster 4 Pack in Toys 'r Us and that really struck a cord remembering building a couple of those in the mid-60s and also remembering Shock Theater in the Tampa Bay area on Friday nights. I bought it and haven't turned back since. I have all the original Aurora's, mostly Round 2 repops but that is all I care about, and also some of those cool show cars, Ed Roth/Daniels/etc., and all the space and scifi models stacked in my workshop to build someday. And or course now with Moebius, Monarch, Round 2 (and all their sub brands), as well as garage kits it is like modeler heaven. Also I have much more significant financial resources so the shop is really setup rather than 4 bottles of Testors namels and a couple of brushes. I never really stopped modeling in one form or another but since picking up that kit a decade ago I have really enjoyed returning full bore to the hobby.


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## The-Nightsky (May 10, 2005)

In short I got back into modelling as a means of therapy after the first gulf war. I had the urge to build a diorama of my vehicle and a certain event that occurred after that I had the bug and haven't stopped since


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

I was real big into models and got out of it around the late 80's in favor of collecting WWII US Army memorabilia. I ended up haveing to stop working because of health issues and had to sell my military collection. About 3 years later I was in a bad wreck and things got worse. Not being able to do much any more I thought heck, why not get a couple of models? Well, about seven years later and five or six hundred kits...

I suppose I could have given a simpler answer by saying, I just love to use my hands to build things. I built models as a child, then discovered girls, got out of it, rediscovered models, got out of it again. But in the end...I came full circle. So, here I am again....building models! Sort of. When I feel up to it.

hal9001-


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## Jimmy B (Apr 19, 2000)

A badly kept secret: I'm a recovering alcoholic

Sober 29 years. The first 10 I was very active in AA but that's only 1 hour.
What about the other 23? Model building helped me through a lot in those years.

Now a married gamefully employed homeowner with 3 daughters all grown.
AA gradually phased out of my life but the model building stayed.

Nightsky - thank you for your services to our country


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

I am back and forth, though my love for the hobby has never waned.

Having tossed my entire collection in high school, I was delighted when Revell repopped monster models in the early 80's. 

Then I bought some from John Green and ebay.

And I met a guy who really knew how to paint (though I still basically ignore seamwork).

Then came more reissues.

Then came the reissue of The Bride of Frankenstein - in glow plastic no less!

Then Monarch and Moebius came along with their brilliant new sculpts.

And I took a dip in the pool with a resin "The Thing" from Solarwinds.

And Monster Scenes were reissued and expanded.

And I bought a couple of Facto B Monsters.

It's not that I'm fickle, I have other interests too. But when something new and cool comes along, the fire reignites. And I'm on it like chocolate and marshmallows on s'mores.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

Like rkoenn, I started building model kits on my own when I was around eight years old in the late 60s. When my older brother found out I enjoyed it, he fueled my passion for the Apollo space program by giving me one or two Revell real space kits to build. And I've participated in the hobby off and on ever since; unfortunately, more off than on lately.

What gets me back into it? It's usually something that's not directly related to the hobby--something I see in a movie or on television, something I'm involved with in real life, something I see on the 'Net, whatever--will trigger a desire to build a particular kit. For example, after working for a company for several years that processed parts for the Space Shuttle, I finally decided I wanted to build one. I have the kit now, but haven't started on it yet for various reasons. Other times the impetus will be directly related to the hobby. Someone will start a thread about their build of, say, the old MPC R2-D2 kit, and I'll think, "I remember that kit; I want to build one again."


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## NTRPRZ (Feb 23, 1999)

Like many of you, I got started as a kid back in the 1960s. I began with the wonderful AMT car models -- specifically a 1949 Mercury my mom bought on a business trip. The car is long gone, but I have one of the many reissues, plus an original box.
i went on to the Aurora monster and TV kits as well as the Revell Mecury/Gemini/Apollo kits. Much of this ended up in the trash when I joined the USAF in 1972. I built a few kits sporadically throughout my 22-year career, but got started rebuilding my Aurora collection around 1986 with John Green, Toy Collector, etc. I'm now retired from the USAF, but still working -- a job as an Army contractor and as editor of the AMC Museum newsletter. I still manage to get a little work in once in a while. Plus I'm working on starting a Masters degree program. On my desk now are the Batmobile, Green Lantern, Zorro and Jupiter 2. 
I'm 57 now and probably won't stop building until I'm six feet under. Trouble is I've got enough kits stashed downstairs to either keep me alive for the next 100 years or provide my wife with a nice income after the auction!
Bottom line is I love to do it. I like having recreations of things from my childhood or of things that inspire me. My wife knows this and no longer rolls her eyes in frustration whenever I come home with a new kit or that package from Squadron finds its way to our front porch.


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## Y3a (Jan 18, 2001)

When "She who must not be named" was asked to vacate my house, I started planning my return to all the hobbies I had been missing. September 26, 2007 was the day the "Former fiance" moved her crap outta my house. That evening I changed the locks and opened up my new coffee maker. I started planning the model railroad, and cleaned out the trash she left out of her office, and the loft, which had been her 'extra clothes room'.

I gave her 2 weeks to claim anything else, then took everything to the dump.

Model RR is progressing, Seaviews, Jupiter 2's Chariots, and RC Helicopters are progressing too.


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## MonsterModelMan (Dec 20, 2000)

Same story...grew up and was building square box Aurora Glow monsters in the late 60's at around 8 or 9 years old. LOVED those kits but unfortunately, they were thrown away...not by me...and I still regret those decisions to clear them out. However, a few unbuilt kits survived (Witch and Hunchback) and a box of instruction sheets / cut tops of box art and extra parts from the glow kits also survived in a Glow Godzilla box and Glow King Kong box as they were slightly larger. 

I still have that stuff today.

Got back into the hobby in 2000 as Polar Lights was at their peak and found the monsters again and never looked back.

I find at this age, 50, that having a hobby away from what you do everyday is very stress relieving and I think very healthy for the soul!

MMM


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## Tim Casey (Dec 4, 2004)

Got into it in 1964 at the age of six with a bunch of glue-bomb Aurora monsters, outgrew it when I got into girls (!).

Then I started seeing garage kits in Filmfax magazine in the mid-90s, which intrigued me. They looked a hell of a lot better than the old Auroras.

Then I found a vinyl Horizon Phantom of the Opera in a toy store while shopping for my little kids. That was about fifteen years ago.That bug bit me hard, and now I tend to do a lot of models over summer vacation. Like others have said already, it's a great way to relax and get your mind off of things.


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## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

Like most, I was modeling as a kid which lasted into late college (~10yrs) when I became a poor college grubber and the hobby was lost to me. About 6years ago in a new city at a new job, I was driving by a hobby shop everyday going to work. I hadn't stepped into an actual hobby shop in nearly 15yrs at that point.

After a few months of driving by, I finally stopped in after work, thinking if they happened to have an Millenium Falcon, maybe I'd buy it for old time's sake. They did, I did and now 6yrs later I've been loving it. The last 2yrs have been a bit of a slow down for life reasons, but I'm looking to ramp up again and get the build pipeline going full speed with having several models in various stages of progress at a time.

It's a great way to idle the hours, learn new skills and face new mental challenges. I'm a big fan of 'process' and models definitely are all about the building process.


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## The-Nightsky (May 10, 2005)

To jimmyB,my pleasure.you're welcome.


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## RossW (Jan 12, 2000)

I didn't take a hiatus per se, but I did stop building figure kits for a number of years while I focused on my Ultimate Anal Enterprise (to use a term coined by Cult). That project was a multi-year thing, stretching from high school to post university, so I gave on figure kits (especially as Aurora had gone the way of the dodo). But while I was in Sydney, Australia (part of my year-and-a-half of wandering) I passed by a model shop window which had a display of all the Billiken Universal monster kits plus the Huiya RoboCop. I was hooked again.


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## Antimatter (Feb 16, 2008)

My hiatus is forever I'm afraid. The closer I got to middle age, I began to wonder what would become of all my "stuff" if I croaked. So I sold everything except a few items and never looked back. I still like to look at others builds though.


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## bqeman (Apr 14, 2009)

I modeled as a teen and had all the old original Aurora models. When I began college, my parents gave them all away to younger cousins. When Aurora stopped making models I stopped modeling. Instead I focused on my comic book collection but grew tired of having to keep them boxed and bagged and not being able to read or display them, so in the late in the early 1990's O decided to sell my comic collection and resume modeling, where i could display what I built.


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## Matthew Green (Nov 12, 2000)

I already detailed this in my blog. [email protected]


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## spideydroogy (Oct 15, 2010)

It's always been the roar of the paint and the smell of the styrene for me. I too followed the same path as you, Bob. The first model I remember was the Lindberg Enterprise aircraft carrier my older brother got for Christmas 1963. Here is what Christmas 1963 looked like.








My first kit my Mom gave me was a Bachmann Dogs of the World Cocker Spaniel, which I uncovered recently while cleaning out her estate. It was for my 7th birthday. 








After that we started building aircraft, tanks and I discovered and loved, the Aurora monster kits. Then we moved into model rocketry and had a blast  with that. Teen years saw new interests and hobbies. I took up guitar playing. Then, school, work, marriage, more work. I am a huge Spider-man fan. I bought a few of the MPC kits, which I have not built yet, for cheap when they went to the closeout stores. I started painting 54mm toy soldiers at this time which really got me motivated to try model building again. Then, I found the Polar Lights Spider-man reissue and built that and I have been hooked ever since. The Internet has really helped to fuel this passion. I think it is so cool that there are forums like this to share and find info on this hobby.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Spidey, great to see a picture like that of Xmas in 1963, it was definitely a different age. Those soft plastic soldiers etc. I remember a buddy had one of the Fort Apache sets with the fort and all the indians and cowboys made of that soft plastic. Things were much simpler and you didn't get electronic gadgets as there weren't any. You had to build some of the things you got and had to use your imagination with other items. Time certainly have changed. Now kids expect to be entertained whereas we figured out how to entertain ourselves and usually with a very modest budget. Just saying.


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## rhinooctopus (May 22, 2011)

Yes! Thanks Spidey for the COOL photo of "Christmas past!"
My wife and I are awaiting the birth of our first grandchild (finally!). It's a boy and I can hardly wait to get him into figure model building.
We are starting to accumulate toys from the days of our childhood..."wooden" Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, Colorforms, etc. for our grandkids. We raised our kids on "non-electric" toys. Our son was really into Legos. We never got him the "sets", we just got him the "bulk" Legos, which really fueled his creativity. I remember him taking a paper grocery bag and making a "fold-up" airplane cockpit!

Phil K


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Hey Phil, my mom bought us Legos too and we built so many things with them. We had an old straw purse holder for them, just a bunch of basic Legos but we did have some with wheels. It was before the current expensive sets where you build up something specific like a Star Wars vehicle. We just created whatever we could between the three of us with what we had. And no grand kids here yet but maybe in the next 2 or 3 years down the line. I'll bequeath my models and stash to them when I kick the bucket and hopefully teach them how to use the stuff.


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## PF Flyer (Jun 24, 2008)

Haven't posted in a while. Been busy with home renovations, vacation, etc. But this thread drew me out. Love the pics. My story is typical. Built models as a kid until I got interested in girls. Got back into it in my 40s when I found one of the Revell re-issue Batman kits at a local store. Now have a PT-109 (a complete departure for me; never done a military anything before) and a PL James Bond underway. Thanks for this thread, Bob.


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

Ah yes, lead Christmas Tree tinsel! Remember it well. Mixed emotions...mom...dear old mom....made us put them on the tree one...at...a...time! And of course we never did it to her satisfaction. The one thing I remember the most about them was the weight!

Too bad the kids today will never know the magic of Christmas the way we did in the late 50's early 60's. Now _that_ was Christmas. A train set packed in excelsior and that distinct smell of the electronics. Remember that? I do, very well. Smell it like it was yesterday.

Those were the days....

hal9001-


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## spideydroogy (Oct 15, 2010)

You are correct, HAL! I can still remember the smell of my brothers HO train set when he had it running.


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## MJB (Aug 3, 2001)

I too started like so many of you. In 1961, I was six when they started showing the Universal Monsters on local Shock Television series. I remember my mom letting me sleep on the couch until 11 pm and then watched Frankenstein. Next memory is her letting me paint one of the arms of the Aurora Frankenstein monster kit. Followed through with all the rest of the Aurora monsters followed by the superheros and then the rest of the TV/Movie kits. Did some of the space rockets as well as the Astronauts. Stopped when I got a steady girlfriend, this was around 1971. In '72, I graduated from HS and when into the Air Force. I eventually settled in Orange County, CA after getting out of the AF in 1976.

My mom did mail me all the kits I had packed up but a move somewhere in the 1980's forced me to dump the boxes. Then in the mid-1990's I started going to Los Angeles to a Silent Movie Theater each weekend for about a year. Almost around the corner was the Golden Apple and they had Garage Kits galore! After learning what the garage kit movement was, that started me drooling about building again. Then, in December of 1999, I was walking in a ToysRUs with my mom and there were the Polar Lights kits repopped kits of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolman and the Creature. My mom had a dementia at that time but she suddenly started remembering all the kits I used to build. That gave me the push to start rebuilding, as I built more kits, it would trigger her old memories and her old self for awhile.

Luckily, the lady I was living with and who has since become my loving She Who Must Be Obeyed, allowed me to start kit building. I've since found model boards like this as well as the aftermarket pieces and thanks to evil Bay, I've purchased again most of the original Aurora kits I had built. I've also built many garage kits. I've joined the OC branch of IPMS and have been the club treasurer for the past several years. 

Although I'm one of the few who build monster and sf kits, I've been honored to have won a few awards at contests. One of my best is a Geometric Cyclops which I was lucky to place on a Mike Parks base that I got from Mike before he shut down his business. It has a skeleton of the dragon as well as a Sinbad figure. Then in a model railroad shop, I found a tiny belly dancer, who with very little changes, was almost the spitting image of Princess Parisa. I won a first at my club annual contest, a 3rd at the 2007 IPMS nationals, a 2nd at another club's contest and this past April, First place for Horror and Fantasy at the Monsterpalooza show.

Michael


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

Between 1963 or '64, at the age of 5, my interest in Aurora figure kits began. Most of the older boys had them, Marvel comics, Famous Monsters, and Mad magazine were huge! I remember getting frustrated, when my models didn't turn out like "your kit should look like this", on the back of the instruction sheets. By 1976, I bought my last kit, one of which was the Fonz and his bike. I gave my built kits to the brother of a girl I liked, and went off to University. Five years latter, my thirst for Aurora kits was rekindled, through an ad for the great John Green, a relationship I kept until he left the business. By the 1990's, resin and vinyl kits were the new Aurora, and after many xcto knife blade injuries later, I began to master them. My kits were now better than the instructions. Kits were no longer .98 cents not including tax, but 1/4 of a mortgage payment. Some of us were buying kits then like an addiction, sitting in closets unbuilt for years. Buying a terrible resin kit at Chiller for $150.00, and months latter saying, "what the hell?" I have really toned it down, buying kits only during my birthday and Christmas. I only buy kits that I will build. So my hiatus was only about six years.


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## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

Tim Casey said:


> Got into it in 1964 at the age of six with a bunch of glue-bomb Aurora monsters, outgrew it when I got into girls (!).
> 
> Then I started seeing garage kits in Filmfax magazine in the mid-90s, which intrigued me. They looked a hell of a lot better than the old Auroras.
> 
> Then I found a vinyl Horizon Phantom of the Opera in a toy store while shopping for my little kids. That was about fifteen years ago.That bug bit me hard, and now I tend to do a lot of models over summer vacation. Like others have said already, it's a great way to relax and get your mind off of things.


 I kept on building despite that fact - interest in girls. Although I did take a few years off to build RC planes, I got back into it about four years after that. I'm slowly rebuilding my RC interest which I'll indulge as soon as I get the rest of the models I have built, and the two kits finished that I hope to make available to the public. The money from those will help me reinvest in guitar, and RC plane making again. Once that happens I don't know if I'll even do any more modeling in the future, or if it'll become a passing fancy once again. 



Jimmy B said:


> A badly kept secret: I'm a recovering alcoholic
> 
> Sober 29 years. The first 10 I was very active in AA but that's only 1 hour.
> What about the other 23? Model building helped me through a lot in those years.


Don't feel bad, I'm a veteran of a different kind - alcoholism. I've been an alcoholic for over twenty five years, and now I'm recovering, but I just recently fell off the bandwagon a couple times. I drink occasionally (two beers) at a time when I do so that I don't get back into drinking all the time. I only do this when I think about it a lot. I _have to, _or I go insane trying to fight it. This only happens with alcohol - not drugs! I kicked all that when I was a kid in my twenties, so that I didn't bring it into the new millenium with me. It's been twenty years plus since I first thought of quitting smoking, but only ten years this year since I did. I'm trying to leave all my bad habits behind, except "Potty mouth" cussing which I've been trying to leave behind with it, but it's very hard to break old habits when you've been doing it for so long - especially when you worship at the "house of alcoholic big knocks"! I've never been thrown out of a bar, or restauraunt, but I have been dragged out so drunk that I couldn't walk!  (It's good to have strong friends!) 



Jimmy B said:


> Now a married gamefully employed homeowner with 3 daughters all grown.
> AA gradually phased out of my life but the model building stayed.
> 
> Nightsky - thank you for your services to our country


 "Gamefully employed"? Is that like GAINFULLY EMPLOYED?  It must be nice - I only have me, myself, and I to live with! 

~ Chris


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## MM2CVS9 (Sep 24, 2012)

Built my last model in 1958 or 59. It was the Revell USS ESSEX SCB angled deck version. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be serving on that ship in 1960 - 66. Actually, it never came to me even then the irony of it. About 3 or 4 years ago, one of my brothers found an ESSEX kit, Hasegawa 1/700, at a garage sale for 2 bucks, picked it up and sent it to me. I started the kit, did some research, joined a local modeling club and was off and running. A lot has changed - kit quality, the internet for research and pictures, materials, tools, finishes, aftermarket stuff like resin add onns and photo etch and a lot more. My stash is growing, my skills are coming along, have 3 various ESSEx's, a wood Titanic lifeboat all in the works and have drawn my grandson (11) into the dark side building aircraft kits with him. 
At the age of 70 - I'm having a lot of fun.

EJ


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Hey EJ, that's great. What a way to enjoy retirement, I know I am. Now if someday I am lucky and have grand kids I will hopefully be able to get them interested. I never could get my two boys too interested unfortunately.


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## modelguy1 (Sep 10, 2011)

*my reason for leaving and returning....?*

Girls and women, in that order.


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## redline hunter (Jan 9, 2008)

I modeled from age 7 to around 16, then moved on to working on cars and cheerleaders. I built all manner of models from cars to battleships to planes and of course sci-fi kits. I'd take them to the extreme, making them as real world as possible aging, rust, you name it. I would scratch build many things as well.

What brought me back is my sci-fi prop hobby and the announcement/issuing of the R2 1:350 Enterprise. I have been building some car models in preparation for tackling the big Ent. build. Good thing too, as I've had a few hiccups (mostly paint issues) while getting back into building. I have brought my 10 yr old son along for the ride, and he is loving it -- "dad, let's go out to the shop and work on the models" -- good stuff!


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

The 3 foot _Enterprise _refit. Once I found out it existed, I _had _to build it.


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## Lloyd Collins (Sep 25, 2004)

What go me back....Starship Exeter. After seeing the first film, I wanted to build the ships from the film, since it was the first new, good TOS film in a long time.


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## wjplenge (Apr 14, 2011)

I started building models as a kid in the 60's, mostly space and sci-fi kits though I ruined probably a dozen or more bat modiles and tried a few figure kits such as the Knights and Zorro. All of them horribly assembled and given terrible paint jobs if they were painted at all, but hey, I had fun. When Star Trek the Next Generation came out and Sci-Fi kits became readily available I started building kits again, this time with a little more care. In the 90's a new friend introduced me to a magazine called Kit Builders and Glue Sniffers and to resin kits. I was hooked. Then in 2001 my situation turned around. I lost everything, including the workbenches for models and electronics with a 20 year accumulation of tools. What brought me back after that was a year or two ago I saw a build up on YouTube of the 1:350 NX-01 by someone known as helipilot27. I was drooling, not only by the quality of his build but that finally kits of my favorite subject matter in a scale that not only allow me to make the mods I wanted but easier on my older eyes. Since then I've been accumulating kits, equipping the new workbenches (more slowly than I hopled) and planning out the projects.


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