Oldest Surviving Model

[tigercat2]

For those of us who have been at this hobby a while, what is your oldest surviving competed kit?  For me, it is this 1/72 Lindberg DO-335 (in a What If scheme); I remember building it in March 1969 while in college.  That makes it 40; I have a few others (Frog P-51A and FW-190A) that I recall building in the Summer of 1969.  This DO-335 has been knocked around a bit, has had both props and the nose gear replaced, but it is still hanging in there, and the decals (stock) have not yet turned yellow.  I recall building a number of kits prior to this particular DO-335, but they all met their demise in a household move or were subject to "battle damage testing" with firecrackers.


Wes W.

[sequoiaranger]

**IF ONLY** I still had some of my early builds! I built stuff in the mid-1950's with acetone as cement. "Gowan and Gowan" stuff (Pre-Revell), Comet, Strombecker, Renwal, Aurora, etc.  Carriages, old car kits that you hot-knifed the axle ends to let the wheels turn. In 1961 I went with my mom to Britain, and packed my suitcase with the two-shilling Airfix/Frog stuff and began my first "surge" of modeling.  A huge purge after high school ('66). Then off and on for some fifteen years, then a twenty-year hiatus. A move saw all but the best of my built-ups trashed at the dump (trash workers salvaged a few for their kids). I do have a couple of early-60's builds that are merely "painting dummies" devoid of all fiddly bits. Really not worth photographing.

[philp]

Hmm, my oldest surviving model is probably my Airfix Sam 2 on launcher which was probably built back in '71.  The kit suffered a fall a few years ago but when I was sorting through the storage the other day, I found all the parts.  Still have the truck and trailer that came with the missile unbuilt in the box.  Always wanted to do a Sam site in Egypt but never found a Fan Song trailer.  Seen a couple drawing but no scale plans.

Most of my stuff didn't survive the moves I went through as an USAF dependent.  There is most of a Frog Me-110G in one of the boxes as well as the Frog V1 from the Spit and Diver kit but none of these is on display.

[PR19_Kit]

I've still got an Aloha 737, from the Airfix 1/144 kit, that I did in '66 or '67 I think. It was the first airliner I'd ever done in a non-OOB scheme and I got my inspiration from a cover shot on Aircraft Illustrated.

I also have my first Whiff too, the RAF F-104K Starfighter F3 that I did in '72 or so and I've just broken the first bit off it. One underwing tank has vanished behind my couch and I'm darned if I can find it.

[B777LR]

My first kit was a 1/144 Avro RJ-85, by Revell. I built in 1998 when home on a holiday in Denmark. We flew from Dar-Es-Salaam to Copenhagen with Swissair, and the Zürich - Copenhagen stretch was on a Crossair Avro When i saw the model in the shop, i just had to get it. It has survived all the way. At first it got the in-box Crossair decals, later i decided to actually paint the plane white, and it turned into Lufthansa. Recently, thanks to Captain Canada, i was able to restore her into her original Crossair scheme. Here is a photo of it before the decals came on. So far my best airliner model



And with Lufthansa markings:



But the oldest model in my collection was built by my dad some 40 + years ago, an Airfix Mirage III. Recently restored into a South African example:

I have a few others (Frog P-51A and FW-190A) that I recall building in the Summer of 1969. 

I recently built the Frog P-51A. Nice and fun kit, went together nicely

[tigercat2]

They look great!!  I suppose if a model has survived 10+ years, it should be good for another hundred or so.

What scheme is the Frog P-51A done in?  In the attached photo, the brown/tan P-51 is a Frog kit and the blue FW-190A is Revell, IIRC; both built in summer 1969.


Wes W.

[B777LR]

The P-51A is olive green, like many early war US fighters

[Hobbes]

Last year I finally threw in the towel on most of my childhood models. I binned most, kept ~ 4 for experimentation. One got rebuilt for the Piston Perfection GB.

[Rafael]

Mine, still in the shelf, assembled and under a years-worth of dust, is a Matchbox F-4M, dated 03-Jun-1974, my tenth birthday, a gift from my mother. Along with it is an F-14A, already retired.

Rafa

[tigercat2]

Last year I finally threw in the towel on most of my childhood models. I binned most, kept ~ 4 for experimentation. One got rebuilt for the Piston Perfection GB.

Your Tigercat is FANTASTIC!!  What a concept.


Wes W. 

[Eddie M.]

I'm lucky that I had a good place to store my models after I went into the Navy. These where built in the early 80s, probably around 1984.
The F-105 was my first whif of a model I had already built. The Shuttle is 1/200, the Zero and MU-2000 are 1/72. The rest are 1/48.

[tigercat2]

Your Thud is super!!  Where did you get those decals?


Wes W.

[Ed S]

Here's my oldest surviving model.  I built it about '69 or '70, right after the movie came out and the kits were available.  It's not in the best shape.  I keep thinking about stripping it down and redoing it.



Ed

[Eddie M.]

Your Thud is super!!  Where did you get those decals?


Wes W.

Thank you! I took the Tiger decal from a Revell 1/32 Phantom and the rest were cobbled together from another Thud, A-4 and F4U Corsair. This was my first attempt at scratchbuilding as well. I added a nuke to the bomb bay I built.

[ChernayaAkula]

Cool topic!

My two oldest surviving models (one of which is even a whif! ):

RoG 1/72 F-4F (Italeri mould, IIRC):



Built it about twelve years ago in Kenya. Colours were a hotch-potch of Humbrol colours, eyeballed after the box art and what I thought looked cool. As you can see, seams were not an issue to me then. Just build 'em and have loads of fun.  Ah, those were the days... The decals have also seen better days. They simply flake off now. I'm thinking about giving the model a good wash and get rid of the remaining decals. give it a coat of Future and some new decals. As it is my oldest surviving model, it means a lot to me.

Next is the RoG 1/72 Leopard 2A5 (the gun barrels went AWOL at some point):



Painted to resemble a Danish IFOR Leopard 1A5DK I had seen pics of in a modelling magazine. I thought that Danish Leopard was the coolest thing ever to run on wheels tracks, so I had to have one. Only I had just this Leopard 2A5 at my disposal. And you could only find Airfix aircraft kits in Kenya, so this one had to do. Never knew about whifs at the time.