So - what plastic models did you build back in the days?

[mazex]

With the discussions about "what is next" I realized that my desires might to some extent go back to my old plastic models that I started building when I was about 8 years old (?) and stopped building when I was 14, when it was considered to nerdy (even though I wanted to continue)... I started thinking and amazingly I realized that I remembered most of them... Being 50 now I guess that mean that they left an impression. But looking at why we are here and what aircraft we want to try out - it is interesting that some of them go back to the mind of a 10 year old kid. If I could just have seen the simulator we have right now Got a Spectrum when I was 14 years old and immediately started playing "Fighter Pilot" as the first and "Dam Busters" as my second games there...

 

So - do you remember what you built? (note - you younger generations don't realize how big plastic models where in the old days ;))

 

It is a bit scary that I remember them when the only one that survived to this day is the last - a Spitfire Mk V in 1:48. All in the list are 1:72 accept the ones marked as 1:48. And they are in the order that I recall building them (but that is more fuzzy I realize):

 

Spitfire Mk I
Bf 109 E3
He 111 H6
Hurricane Mk I
Bristol Blenheim Mk IV
A6M2 Zero
Bf 110 C
Aichi D3A2 Val
Mosquito Mk IV
Do 17

Fiat G50

Ju 87
Hawker Typhoon
Curtiss P-40
Ju 88
Supermarine Walrus
Gloster Gladiator
B-17G
Hawker Tempest

Fw 190 D9
Saab J-21
Avro Lancaster
P-51D
P-47D
Yak-9D
B-24 Liberator
Fw 189
Me 262
Fairey Barracuda
B-29 Superfortress

A-20 Havoc
Me 163

PBY Catalina
Short Sterling
Fw 190 A5
Saab J-22
Handley Page Halifax
B25 Mitchell (1:48)
AJ-37 Viggen
Fw 190 A8 (1:48)
Hurricane Mk IIB (1:48)
F-100 (1:48)
Spitfire Mk V (1:48)

 

Attaching an image of the last survivor that lived in some box until found a couple of years ago. Some parts sticking out broken off naturally like prop, 20mm cannons etc... The rest mostly where shot up with friends and an air gun when I was 16  Sigh...

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by mazex

[343KKT_Kintaro]

Back in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 (all mounted and painted by me):

 

Bf 109 G6/R6

Spitfire Mk.I

A6M5 Zero

Ki-84 Hayate

Fw 190 A8

He 111 H-6 (but not the torpedo version)

B-17 F Buccaneer

Avro 683 Lancaster("Dam Buster" version)

P-51D

 

Later, in the late 2000s, I mounted and painted a Ki-43 Hayabusa of the 50th Sentai, the one that was flown by Sentai leader Satoshi Anabuki...

 

Sorry if for the moment I cannot provide any photograph, but, anyway, these model kits are now in a sad state of disrepair...

 

PS : all models are built ar 1:48 scale.

 

[Bilbo_Baggins]

I just built a 1:72 Hurricane for September 15th Battle of Britain day actually. Haven't done this in over a decade. Good fun.

 

 

[PatrickAWlson]

1/72nd scale.  If it was WWI or WWII I built it.  The biggest job was the Ilya Muromets, complete with wires.  

[BlitzPig_EL]

Not only did I build a LOT of 1/72 scale WW2 planes, I still have all of them.  In trunks in my garage.  

 

Have not seen them in 44 years.

[Wardog5711]

Back in the 70's and 80's, if it was in the Monogram 1/48 aircraft catalog, I built it. Including the B-29 and the C-130.

A lot of 1/32 Revel aircraft kits were built up as well. Sadly, none of those survived the two marriages and five moves that have happened since then.

Some of my 1/35 armor still exists, but are all in a box out in the garage.

Since the late 90's, I've been building cold war aircraft and armor. Mostly centered around the stuff that was in use when I was in the service.  

Mostly in 1/72 and 1/100 scale. 

[BlitzPig_EL]

I still have USS Essex and the Queen Mary, the first two ships models I ever built.  Can't remember who made them though.

I keep thinking I'll get back to it, but the reality is probably not.  I have a Bristol Bulldog and Martin B10 still in wrapped boxes.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

6 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

I still have USS Essex and the Queen Mary, the first two ships models I ever built

 

 

Too late for you to impress me. You'll never do better than me as "first ever" ship model built. Back in the 90s I mounted and painted the only ship model I ever mounted... French trawler Roc Amadour:

 

[HELLER] Chalutier Roc Amadour - 1/200 (forumactif.com)

 

Yeah... Roc Amadour rocks...

 

 

(note: I took the picture on the internet, my model is somewhere in a box at my mother's house...)

[Raptorattacker]

Started back in the mid-sixties. They were all 1:72 for me back then and I used to buy one every fortnight or so (with pocket money!) and then get them for birthday and christmas pressies as well. THEN I got the 1:24 Spitfire (when it first came out) and I couldn't believe the size of the bloody thing!! It was almost as big as me!!!

Still, over the years I kept on making them and even as recently as 4 or 5 years ago I got a P-38 (1:48), a Corsair (1:48) a Hurricane (same) and a 109E (same again).

I think if I tried making a 1:72 these days I'd needd a microscope to see the bloody thing so I think their days have well and truly gone.

Oh yeah, a 1:48 Camel as well, I think that was my last one, a couple of years ago.

THAT'S why skinning in here is such a brilliant thing to do because you can paint 'em, get in 'em AND shoot at things with 'em (and in my case I can sort of make them as well because I prep the templates for the skinners!!)

Edited October 9, 2022 by Raptorattacker

[gn728]

Well - lol - back in the day was a couple weeks ago - but always loved 32nd for fighters, 48th for twin and 4 engine. Scale was the prime chooser...☺️

 

 

[9./JG27golani79]

Haven´t built much but only a few - among them were:

 

USS Nimitz

Mig-21

Mi-24

 

Not sure why I´ve never built a warbird - maybe I´ll do one some day

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

A plethora of WW2 planes and tanks. I remember my first model ever was a 1:72 Bf110 by Matchbox. Had the Wespe emblem in the nose. It was my uncle who introduced me to this hobby

 

Most hated models back in the day were Italeri. Never proper fitting and a lot of work. Hasegawa was and still is among favorites. Tamiya for tanks. 

 

Should revive this hobby, a partially built Tamiya 1:35 Jagdtiger waits in storage. ? 

[jollyjack]

When i was about 13 years old i alas set fire to all my plastic model planes, and threw them out one by one from the 12m high attic window of my parents house.

Lucky my pa did not catch me doing it; he would have banned me to that attic for a week for an attempt to start a bush fire i guess.

 

But i started building a 1 m wide Piper balsa wood framed fly by wire model plane.

 

Also drove the neighbors nutz from testing the Webra engine in the garden.

 

Think i was the cause for a new law that those engines weren't legally allowed anymore without a fitted silencer, which i had to buy later.

BTW the engine never run properly with that fitted.

[RAY-EU]

The model will be upgraded!…..

Edited October 14, 2022 by RAY-EU
Coming Soon ! Enterprise Carrier CVN65 1:350 in Plastic Modelers

[Guest deleted@83466]

I built what I think is the same model of Enterprise when I was young.  Small aircraft wound up in car seats, couches and bathtub drains.

[BOO]

I used to carefully paint only the side I’d see (usually the left) when I put it on my shelf. 
 

I cant remember all the models I made ( pretty much the whole airfix and matchbox catalogue) but I do remember the one I never made. That was the Airfix Hercules. 
 

it was £3.72. It took me weeks to save for. It was for sale at John Menzies in the Middleton Arndale Centre in Manchester. 
 

And it was during the Ambulance strike of I think 1979 (??).  
 

Went dutifully with mum to Woolco on the top floor then got released. Legged down the elevator to the first floor, screamed into Menzies, hit the stairs to take me to the ground floor and that’s the last thing I remember. Woke up in the back of a police van with a smashed face, a funny looking arm and and painful fingers being rushed to hospital. Seems I forgotten how stairs work and, according to store staff, literally launched myself from the top step and piled head first into the bottom one. 

 

Week in hospital, 1 fractured cheekbone, 2 dental operations, 4 broken fingers and one bust arm later, the Hercules had been sold cheap as Menzies stopped selling models. 
 

I just stood for about 5 mins in front of empty shelves clutching my £3.72. Gutted. 
 

Later I found out that the police van had to wait for my mum. She had heard the tannoy to come to the store ( my name was sown into my donkey jacket collar) but had decided to compose herself first as she thought I’d been caught shoplifting!! 
 

She honestly said that when she was told what had happened she was actually relieved!!

 

 

[RAY-EU]

Edited October 14, 2022 by RAY-EU
Carrier Hornet , Battleship Missouri , Yamato & Carrier CV14 Ticonderoga . In Restauration & coming soon in Plastic Modelers

[mazex]

10 hours ago, BOO said:

I cant remember all the models I made ( pretty much the whole airfix and matchbox catalogue) but I do remember the one I never made. That was the Airfix Hercules. 

 

Seems I forgotten how stairs work and, according to store staff, literally launched myself from the top step and piled head first into the bottom one. 

 

Scary story and glad it did not get worse. Could have been me And at about the same time... You sure wanted that Herc. But I spent many flights in them as a "passenger" when I did my service and lost the love  Terrible sound insulation in the cargo bay

Edited October 14, 2022 by mazex

[BOO]

Just now, mazex said:

 

Scary story and glad it did not get worse. Could have been me And at about the same time... You sure wanted that Herc. But I sent many flights in them as a "passenger" when I did my service and lost the love  Terrible sound insulation in the cargo bay

A freind used to wash em out before servcing em at Marshalls - seems a lot of peple lost their love, and a lot more after taking a trip in one. 

[Vig]

I loved this series, built them all, but I could not paint back then.  Just as well; they were fun to play with. 

 

[Wardog5711]

I remember that kit.  Mine was in the 1970's version box, but it was the same kit.

The folding wings and opening ordnance bay doors were fun until they broke and got glued in place. 

 

[Customizer171]

I also build model aircrafts when I was young.

Not long ago, to my joy, I found lots of unbuilt ones at my parents house. I brought them home and I intend to build them some day, maybe not all but certainly some of them.

There was a Bf 109 and a Spitfire in 1:24.

Heinkel 111, Lancaster, a B-17 and many single engine aircrafts in 1:72

I am really looking forward to this, I will soon have the time to do it and it will be fun!