What was the first model aircraft you built?

First I had was a Revell Spitfire MKII which my dad bought at the newsagents opposite the printers where he worked. He built and painted that one and the Sopwith Camel and a Brewster Buffalo which followed.
I was eventually let loose on an Airfix ME-109G which I built and painted around 1964/5 aged 9 or 10 which was the first of many. The local newsagent began stocking the Frog range which included some of the lesser known types most of which I built including the Oxford, Barracuda, Magister, Tupolev SB2, and Gipsy Moth. I also built a Keilkraft Nomad glider which I could never get to fly because I didn’t understand how to adjust the trim followed by the rubber powered Ace which barely flew because I had no idea how to carve the prop and an Ajax which flew quite well. I had a Hales Froglite balsa sheet Tiger Moth which I got by saving up crisp packet tokens which flew very fast meaning it needed repairs after every “landing” and I also built a Dolphin glider and got a fair way through a Minimoa but the stringers and spars were very thin and delicate and I kept breaking them so it never got finished. Later I built a sheet balsa towline glider by St Leonards Model Supplies which flew much too well for the space available in the local park and spent a lot of time stuck in the park trees.
Seems a shame most youngsters never get to enjoy the achievement of creating something which flies rather than spending their time staring at a computer games screen. For most now the everything has to offer some kind of instant gratification.

A (matchbox ?) P47D, no paint, just glued it with that little silver tube.. Must have been 11 yrs old, 1975..

Man I was so proud of it , I took it to school to show me mates and the teacher, was granted permission to have it sit on my little desk for the day..

The smell of plastic from a freshly opened box and that glue can still provoke the same memory 🙂

LOL, the Johnnie Johnson Spit was the first I built entirely on my own. First overall was, of all things, a Blackburn Skua (I know, I know…) which Dad and I built together.

On reflection, the effort Dad put in to building and, especially, painting the damn thing must have been gigantic – he hated fiddly stuff.

I too still have on old Frog kit downstairs, an He 219. Also bought a Tamiya Mossie, too much family stuff to get round to it. (Daughter wants me to take her fishing! :D)

:)My first kit………………. Airfix’s Spitfire Mk IX, Jonnie Johnson’s aircraft. Painted in Airfix Dark Green- From a Bottle & Antique Bronze from a tin.:)

although my Father had built various flying models from Aeromodeler plans in the late 40s I think my first model was a Kiel Kraft piper super cub followed by various Kiel Kraft jets powered by Jetex motors,

Mine was a small scale Boeing 707 followed by a DC8. This was in 1956 when I was in hospital with pneumonia. Dad brought them to keep me in good spirits. They were the snap together type with transfers for the airline logos, no paint required ,or maybe none allowed in the hospital.
Up to that point I had never had an interest in aircraft but those initial gifts set me up for a lifeline interest in aircraft, now aged 66 its getting better all the time, although I have to confess I havnt the patience for making models these days

I can’t remember which kit was first, but I do remember spending lots of time building kits on our summer holiday with my mums parents. We used to get a beach hut in Frinton-on-sea in Essex. The local toy shop used to sell Airfix and Frog kits. I still have a few Frog ones in the loft in the ‘one day I’ll build it’ box in the loft. The days were great. Stick some bits together, play on the beach while the glue dried. Stick some more bits on, more beach. All day long.

First kits i can remember building were an Airfix Spitfire IX, DC-3 and B-25, although my build standards left much to be desired. And i used to love the diversity of the old Frog / Novo kits, although for some reason for me they were not as easy to get hold of as Airfix and Matchbox etc.

At around 12 or 13 yrs old i developed an interest in the look of gate guards and scrap airframes. This resulted in a Westland Whirlwind 1 being finished and mounted on a small slab in the garden under a tree as a sort of ‘gate guard’, and was left to hopefully weather over time. Sadly that one was attacked by a pigeon and didn’t last long. Then another airframe (possibly Hunter) was painted then sunk to the bottom of my dads garden water butt and left, also in an attempt to weather it authentically.
My final attempts resulted in a Gannet and Sea Vixen being built and painted, then being shot at with my air rifle, glued back together, shot again, then briefly set on fire with meths. This resulted in a pretty good ‘bombing range / fire dump’ look, even if i say so myself 😀

Rob

1:72 B25 Mitchell, matchbox I think, was about 1978.
I still love my modeling too 🙂

Matchbox B-25H/J here as well. 1976-77 most likely.

T J

Airfix Saunders Roe 53. It came in whit plastic so that you didn’t have to paint it!

When I was about 6, my Dad took me and a friend to our summerhouse, and to make us sit down at least some time, he had bought us a kit each:

Frog 1:72 Spitfire QW-K and Gallands Bf-109. He helped assemble and paint them, but we still got the feeling we did it ourselves. We played with them the whole weekend.

As other has stated – the first of many. Last one a 1:32 Revell Spitfire.

Now, I am looking for a Revell or something 1:32 Mosquito at a good price – hopefully around £25 – at ebay. Either I will paint it as one of the “Operation Carthage” machines, or as Piotr Skuts (Schyyh in danish) plane from Tintin.

Jon

Arms Race

Not at X-mas, as You might have imagined. But a “sale” at the local “photo-shop”, which dealed in a lot of things. We three brothers got each a kit from my dad, and he accidentally started an “Arms Race”, some of You may have experienced as well, I’m sure! I got the FROG Oxford, that he 15 years earlier worked on as an aircraft mechanic.

My first kit…

Airfix Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter Series 1 (blister pack)….

A Kielkraft rubber powered balsa kit in the mid 50s. Can’t remember for sure what it was perhaps, the Pixie.

Regards

A solid balsa kit of the DH 110 in 1/72 scale which I wanted to paint black like the second prototype. An expert modeller said it would need about twenty coats of clear then coloured dope to get a high gloss finish all rubbed down between coats. I did exactly as he said and it gleamed. Then I made a big mistake. I buffed it up with a coat of wax floor polish (even better) followed by one more coat of thinned black dope. It bubbled before my eyes and was ruined. I have since improved.

Airfix Lightning F1A, for me it had to be a Lightning, it also helped that you could pretty much get away without painting it! The model survived for quite a few years but eventually got damaged and then survived as a ‘cockpit-section’, alas I dont recall seeing it for quite a while, so I guess it is currently waiting in an uncrated state at the local tip waiting to be dug up in future years!! 😀

Ah yes, I remember it well – the first of what must be approaching a thousand in the last 56 years.

A FROG F94 Starfire – 1/84th scale – in 1956. One of a number of Comet moulds of US aircraft that FROG leased or bought in around that time. Around 10 or so parts plus a tiny tube of cement. Took all of 10 minutes to assemble.

Bought for me by my grandmother whilst I was in hospital having my tonsils removed.

I do 1/23 th or 1/9th figures these days, when I tried a 1/72 I realised my fingers had grown up, were now like pigs t*ts and what as a five year old felt huge was now a struggle to hold and assemble.

A Pièce de Résistence brakedwell! Happy Christmas.

As far as I remember the first model aircraft I built was a 1/72 balsa wood model of spitfire arund 1948. Over many years I progressed to large radio controlled scale models, the last being this scratch built 84″ wing span Anson 19 completed in 1988.

Wow! That’s a belter!