Mine was in the late '50s early 60's. My dad and I built an Aurora (Comet?) F9F in what was nearly 1/48 scale. Engraved decal locations, pilot head molded into the fuselage sides. I don't think it even had landing gear. Been largly hooked ever since, with the breaks for cars, girls, beer, college and kids in between. First AFV was some sort of bridge laying tank, was it a Renwal kit, back in the early '70s.

The first kit I remember was an Airfix Walrus my Dad made when I was about 4 (1961). He had worked on seaplanes (Sunderlands) in WW2, but he painted it blue & silver! The next one was the Flying Fortress (same maker), which was quite a kit @ the time, he really went to town on this one. The first one I remember as being "mine" was the Sunderland, I bought it with 10/6 (old English pre-decimal money) I'd won on a "one-armed bandit" @ Dad's golf club! Dad helped with that one & it was painted all white (like the one that was @ Pembroke Dock for years).

My grandad used build kits for me,everytime I went to see him I would come home with a built aircraft to put on my bedroom ceiling,all Airfix B17 ,24 etc.
My first own build was the Airfix 1/72 "bagged" Hawker Demon with the colourful red and yellow decals(applied without painting!!).
My first "own buy" was the the Revell Santa Maria which cost me 15/6 OLD MONEY!!! from the newsagents across the road,took me ages to save my pocket money for that.
My first 1/35 armour kit was a Tamiya Jagdpanther,the one with the control box with two levers attatched by wires,this was built in record time some long ago xmas morning...

The first model I had,and may have built was from the very late 50's.
It was the height of the space race when the Soviets had Sputnik, and we had launchpad blowups.
It was an American rocket,with a ganrty next to it.It was of an explorer or similar one,NOT the Atlas/Mercury one.
As far as the first one I built by myself,I am thinking it was the Revell box scale B-24 with the raised rivets,molded in brown I believe. (++) (++)

Wow, more responces than I though! For some of us that "1st one" would be quiet the mental reach due to time passed...I'm only 40 and I was 9 when "I" built that tiger snap kit...dad labeled models as a waste of time as he spent all of his time talking on his ham radio...to each his own I guess. I modelled everything back then and had a deal with the lhs that I buy a kit or two, make it a dio or ceiling hanger and trade that in{was a fairly new shop} for new kits...was quite the nice set up till he went out of business years later. I loved the feeling of accomplishment that building them gave me...kinda like now. What better way to spend ones youth building models, comparing them to your friends builds, swapping kits, watching speed racer, riding our swinn sting rays all over the neighborhood and playing kick the can....I hope my son will do the same, but it'll be without speed racer on TV and no stingrays...or crates{knew I should've bought one afew years ago when they re-released them again!}. Kits I got though...some 40 on the shelves waiting for a father/son build date when he gets older{he's only 6 months old...I got awhile I guess}. :-)

my first model would have to be the airfix vampire 1/72 then in armour it woud be the airfix sherman also in 1/72 then since building that i have almost every airfix kits in 1/72.i also have a few more 1/72 planes like a lancaster,b-17 mephis belle and i am planing to have all the american planes in 1/72.Then my first 1/35 was the academy M-12 then it went tamiyas panther tank,dragons king tiger-acadmeys battle of the bulge figures and a tiger tank and half track. all up i would have over 250 figures 95% are 1/72 and about 40 something tanks.

matt

The first kit I´ve ever built was before I got my first kit on my own. I built a Matchbox F-86 in 1980 for my little brother when I was six years of age.. Shortly after that, I bought my own first kit, which was the Matchbox Folland Gnat. My first armour kit was a Matchbox Wespe. I found it so cool that they included a diorama scene with it, especially the skull really impressed me.

Thomas

Gee? It was long ago, like 1973 or so. All I remember was there were about three or four little military vehicles in a set. They were like 1/72 scale. I remember not leaving the table for like two days and glue was everywhere. lol

My first fully completed and painted (with brush) model was Tamiya's 1/35th Jagdpanther. I made it in the early 80's and I was around 12 I believe.

That was the start of my modelling career/obsession and have enjoyed every bit of it.

I'm pretty sure the model is in a cubboard or box somewhere at my parents house still.

To the best of memory it was in 1968 at RAF Rheindahlen in Germany, I got 3 Marks pocket money and went to the NAAFI and bought an Airfix Spitfire and ME109 and a tube of glue that was more air than glue and built both in about 40 minutes each [Opening the polythene bags and reading the header card took longer], I had to wait until the next day to put on the decals under supervision [sharp scissors] and then realised that the spitfires wings were on back to front.

About 6 months later I got my first 'Dogfight Double'.

Now if only I could remember recent things with such clarity.

John

Ah my first time...

I remember it like it was yesterday, i was sitting down on my bed and she was sitting on my lap, the excitment ripplying through me, getting more and more excited................



...........by the way it was a F-15 kit and like everything it was built and over all to soon!!!

My first armour kit would have been one of the 1/48 scale Aurora kits. You could look through the main hatch and see a "combat" picture of the tank. My first 1/35 scale kit was Tamiya M42 Duster that has been recently released again, it was so cool because it came with figures!!!! I even remember buying it from the Hobby House's old location in downtown Ottawa.

My wfie can take the blame for getting me back into the hobby. She suggested I take it up to relax after work. So it is all her fault!!! lol

Darryl

My frist was a set with a f4 and a mig. You could model the mig with battle damage. I dont remember who put that kit out but many moons ago. I managed to over paint and over glue the wole kit.

Model Kit? It may have been a T-Rex from Jurassic park. Vinyl, possibly. I was in way over my head.

I dabbled in airplanes for a long time, but I never actually finished a kit. I think this period lasted from 6-10 years old.

At 14, I entered miniature wargaming. I primarily painted miniatures. I still do (I'm 18 now).

Last year, I bought the Fine Molds Jedi Starfighter. Still working on that one (primarily painting - I'm too cheap to buy an airbrush, and I consider myself pretty good with a traditional brush, which I assume

Just last december, I bought my first armor kit (Tamiya Panzer IV) and found it so much more enjoyable than aircraft. After that, I bought that Tamiya OIF Abrams, 1/72 Trumpeter JGSDF Type 90, 1/72 Hasegawa M1 Abrams, and 1/72 Revell Warrior MCV, all for 30% off.

It means 'Killed in action'

My first mdel was... Ummm... I can't remember!


Hmmm.... Oh yes!
It was the Monogram 'snap-tite' F4 Phantom! I had a great time building it with my dad about 7 years ago. This got me interested, and later, around grade 6, in 2003 i had built a small diorama of a german sneaking up on an American sergeant. I had received many MANY comments on it at school, not one of them being negative, and this really kicked off my modeling career!

If my memory isn´t failing, my first one was a Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldog...after that, a very short travel through airplanes and then back to 1/35...

cheers

I was about 6 or 7 and my first model was the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.



This is the box from the 1972 version which is about right for my age at that time. Ive actually got a picture of me with it, but its at my mothers house. Next time Im over, Ill try to get it. :-)