what was your "model training era"?

[Stikpusher]

geez, I just realized yet another way I differ from "the average modeler"

I didn't quit at any time between when I started at 8 and now at 59

Me neither... 4 1/2 to 50... I have had holds in place due to military service, Basic, AIT, Jump School, Mobilization for Deployment... But I never stopped when I had the opportunity.

[LyleW]

Well, I guess I'll try to put together a coherent paragraph. . . .

I grew up with airplanes... My Dad was one of the first two air traffic controllers hired in Louisville KY after WW2 - 1947. I hung out a lot at the airports when I could drive. I have no memories of my "early years", but I do fondly remember collecting soda bottles (5 cents ea) to cash out at the Winn-Dixie and the go next door to the drug store and buy a model kit - 0.98 cents, I believe. I'd get some little bottles of paint, too. Mostly Revell and Monogram. Did not like the Lindberg stuff. If it was a car, it was AMT.

I would use state of the art tools...finger nail clippers, my mom's emery boards, etc. Used either nail polish remover or lighter fluid for thinner and brush cleaner. None of those survived. Most were either shot up with a bb or pellet gun or went down in flames in my backyard. I think I actually tried to mount an .010 engine on an FW190 one time.

In college, no place to mess with toys. We had guns, if you can believe that. Kept a .22 Cal rifle in my room and we would go out to the woods and target shoot just to kill time. I suspect today, that would be a no-no. Did get in to building some control line stuff, the profile junk. The one I built as a stick and paper flew like a brick.

In the late seventies, I had a space in the basement of our house - had a wife and kid to worry about, too. Had some "mules". Seems I knew I had to fill seams, but had no clue how. I believe they were a Me 262 and an F 80. Not much got finished, if anything. So really, nothing has changed that much. I did have the 1/48 C130 and the Monogram B-52 on the bench when we moved. Packed all that up and it sat for seven years in the garage. When we moved from that house, it was thrown away. I know, I know.....I've fussed at myself a lot about that.

No modeling done for several more years. I'd keep saying, "Buy me an airplane." when asked by my kids what I wanted for birthday, Christmas, etc. A couple of years ago, for my birthday, my daughter shows up with the Monogram Wright Flyer and some paint. She said here is your airplane and it was the "oldest" she could find. That started the current era. Before, I had no funds to buy the proper tools, paints I liked, and so on. Now I had some disposable income...well, Paypal Credit anyway. I also had the space to build a room to work in. So, here we are.

[bubbasparksuk]

My story is about a trip to the Imperial War Museum, Shift Work and a Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb Starter Set, as I never modelled in my youth, I got into it as a 20-something adult.

I went to IWM, got the Spitfire and it spent 2 years gathering dust until after starting Shift Work and having nothing to do whilst going onto a set of Nightshifts, I came across it and decided to give it a bash. Then I was hooked!

My basic skills have developed from there, despite doing some wood and metal work at school, I've never really done too much with my hands, so I've had some bumps and scrapes along the way! I will be trying some more advanced skills like P.E during this year, so things are coming along nicely I think!

Everytime I do a Spitfire now, I still have that same pride as I felt when I completed the first one, makes me tingle a little bit actually

[Stuart]

I guess I should say it’s all those Matchbox kits I built when I was a kid in the 80’s and early 90’s but I don’t remember them that well - I was more into other stuff when I was younger – Lego, 8 BIT computers (and woohoo 16-bit, I still miss my Commodore Amiga!) and toy cars – any models just got played with.
I do remember playing with Warhammer stuff in my late teens (I’d always wanted too and had read White Dwarf for years) – but that only lasted a year or so and was only really an exercise in getting my younger brother into something creative – it didn’t work.

However I’ve always loved models – sometimes when I go to a museum I find them more interesting than the actual exhibits. So I guess my modelling ‘era’ is now – I started ‘proper’ modelling in about 2010 whilst in my early thirties. It’s only really been this period where I’ve been interested in building stuff so that it’s painted correctly etc. The funny thing is though I still enjoy those Matchbox (and Frog) kits I used to ‘play with’ when I was a kid so I guess there is a cross over somewhere – perhaps I’ve always been a modeller and just didn’t do anything about it.

Good subject for a thread Rex!

Cheers

Stuart

[Gary Brantley]

My first model a/c was one of those yellow Aurora Zeroes. My dad helped me put it together; I must've been close to 6 I'd guess. My grandmother sat on it. Case closed.

Undaunted, I pressed on! Soon, I was building all sorts of models, but oddly enough, few ships. I remember building a Boeing 707, Monogram 109 and P-40, and a rather large submarine (seems like it was an U-boat). I don't recall painting being a part of any of those. Slowly, cars began to win most of my attention. Duke and Ayers and Ben Franklin stores sold models and the two stores were almost side by side. How convenient! AMT was the most common car model, with a Monogram here and there. Model paints began to make their appearance around the car era. In 1966, while happily plugging along in 7th grade, my dad came home from his job at ALCOA saying he had been offered a transfer to Australia. Off we went, "a waltzing Matilda" to Geelong, Victoria, about 40 miles west of Melbourne.

I had received a couple different "table-top" slot-car sets earlier in my youth, the first an Eldon brand and Strombecker next. Oh man, did I love that slot-car racing. It was sort of like model cars but it was "interactive". My little hometown of Cameron, Texas was much too small for a commercial-sized track but my new city of Geelong was 100,000 plus, and sure enough, the mid-60s slot-car craze hit down under too and before long, there were 6 or 7 "slot car parlours" opened in Geelong. And, two of them were within 200 meters of our house. One track became "home". It was Avus Modelcar Raceways, owned by an expatriate German couple. It was less than a minute from my front door.

Ladies and gentlemen, Nirvana had arrived! Avus rates were .35 for 15 minutes track time when they first opened. "We" had an 8-lane track, 225 feet long. Eventually one of the worker's husband designed and built an electronic lap counter and timer. We had club night on Monday evenings, with several qualifying heats culminating in a winner's race with prizes! We even put on a 12-hour Endurance Race with 3 hours driven in the dark, so each entrant had to have working lights.

I became a regular, then a defacto employee who took money, helped with car problem, etc. I never paid for track time after that. Looking back at that period, I can see it was one of the most fun times I ever had...well, legally at least. My mates and I hung out there all time, it became our "clubhouse" so to speak. We began "hopping up" those Mabuchi motors, the 26D, 36D, etc. Russkit came along with a belly-pan chassis, vac-formed (read: very light weight) bodies and sidewinder motor. Soon the hot-shoes found one could stuff a rewound Mabuchi 26 in one and have an incredibly fast racer. Our track record for one lap of the 225 foot track? 11.8 seconds! Using the same record-sitting car, a Russkit Porsche 906, which belonged to a fellow-Texas kid, I managed a 14 second lap. :( My own cars were a pair of Cox racers; beautifully done but not in the same league as the Russkit modified.

It was also in Australia that I became familiar with Tamiya brand stuff. Their 1/24 slot-cars were quite nice, and about the same performance as the Cox cars. I remember buying the IMC and MPC brand Ford GT race car models in Geelong and buying my first Humbrol and Airfix supplies. Yep, the same little Humbrol tins..one of those tins still held usable paint 40 years later! Huh! Take that Model Master!!

Returning to America in March 1967, I was just in time to get enrolled in driver's ed. In Texas then, a 14-year old could get a regular Texas Driver's License at 14 with driver's ed credit. Still enthralled by hot cars, I picked up the pace for a while, even building Funny Car chassis from "Pick Up Stix" and aluminum interiors from card stock. My car bodies had scratch-built, operating hinges too. Alas, I think most of that era is gone, perhaps a few bodies still remain. I used Testors and Pactra spray cans for paint jobs. I had a shelf full of drag racers by the time I reached the middle years of high school. But then, real cars and girls began gaining all my attention and models soon felt passe. The last car model I built was the Monogram 1/25 Bugatti Type 35B, back in my hippy "batching" days around 1976. My daughter Ann destroyed that one when she discovered it as a toddler.

Around 1988, I bought the Monogram A-10 from the local Winns department store. I wanted to see if I could build a model that looked like the one on the box top. I was fascinated with jet fighters and thought models would give me a chance to view them comparatively. I guess that's where my OCD about building only in 1/48 began. I bought my Paasche Model H at that time and started earning about airbrushing. I allowed myself to think the old A-10 looked pretty damned good. Until that is, I bought my first copy of FSM, Jan. 1989. We were in Austin, Texas at the still-great King's Hobby when I bought it. Taking it back to the Marriott Hotel. I was just floored by the great work in that magazine, topped by Bob Steinbrun's YP-80A Shooting Star. OMG. Then, I saw what great scale modeling looked like. I've been trying to catch up ever since...

If you've made it this far, thanks! I didn't mean to get so carried away but it's been fun remembering the bygone daze. I'd say we've all traveled much the same path to get here, in our happy model home. Thanks for having me and letting me be apart of this great community.
Gary Brantley

[Stuart]

Oh I love Slot-cars!When I was growing up my dad bought the biggest set Scalextric did - the Le-mans track with two lit 911's. I had it my whole childhood. Never saw a club though or built my own cars - that would have been cool.

I got my Son a set for Christmas - I think I've played on it more than he has

[Duke Maddog]

My "model training era" was in the '70's and '80's. After my mother got me started on models; a friend sealed me in. We used to sit side-by-side at his desk and build together He was the one who taught me about details and painting. Hew was the one who also convinced me that a model collection that was consistent in scale was better, so I stayed locked into 1/72 scale. I was building mostly Airfix bagged kits that I bought at the local 7-11 store. I'd ride my bike down there after mowing someone's lawn and buy a model, some paints, and some candy. I'd ride home and sit in the garage and build my model and eat my candy. Sometimes I'd go with my mom to the Base Exchange on Eglin AFB where she'd buy me a Revell, Monogram or Aurora kit. Many times I bought it myself with money I'd earned from mowing lawns and washing cars. My family always gave me models for my Birthday and Christmas too. It wasn't until I moved out here to California when I realized there were other model companies like ESCI, Fuljimi, Hasegawa, and Tamiya. It was also out here that I learned there were clubs for guys like me who built models! I found that out after I started working at a Hobby Shop and had some of my models on display. A member of the local IPMS Orange County club came in, saw my work and invited me in to attend a meeting. I was hooked. I also started doing far better after learning from some great modelers what makes a great model. I'm still learning and practicing some of these techniques today since I don't think I'm as good as I could be. Sometimes it take awhile for me to figure things out and apply them well. I've definitely improved form years ago, but until I am able to place a Best Of at an IPMS Nationals, I'll still only consider myself a novice to semi-advanced modeler. So my training era started slowly in the 70's and 80's but really picked up once I joined IPMS.

There's my experience in a nutshell.

[Medicman71]

Man my memory is really going. I remember doing a lot of Revell kits. F-5, F-14, B-29 etc. Can't remember what paints I used but I know they were all brush painted and I used Testors Red tube glue.