40 Years of modelling memories.....

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Last Thursday/Donnerstag/Jeudi I became forty-seven years young. In itself not usually a birthday that one celebrates with any great gusto, and so it was with this particular Hunter-Gatherer. However, at the weekend as I was fondling my wife, erm, I mean my current modelling project(s), I realised that it is EXACTLY forty years since I was given my first ever model kit (a 1:72 FROG DH88 Comet racer), which, of course, was built and painted by my Dad.

I thought I'd quickly run thru some of my outstanding modelling memories of those intervening forty years, and if anybody feels like it, then I cordially invite you to drop them into this little thread..... So here goes:

Following the DH88, things went very predictably untill I was arounf 11 years old, when I went to 'big school' I met a lot of other boys who were into 'Airfix Kits' and I was given my first BIG kit for christmas 1974.... the Airfix Sunderland..... WOW 

Around that time I also bought - with my own money - my first ever non 1:72 scale model.... A Revell 1:32 P-51B, a true revelation that was.

A year or two later the (still) outstanding Airfix Martin Marauder was released, and I bought my first packet of Miliput filler. Whilst I filled almost all the gaps on the Marauder, I wasn't quite as efficient at rubbing them all flat..... Hmmmmm. At this time I also started painting the 'insides' of my models, all very professional for a thirteen-year-old.

Then puberty and spots arrived, as did my still continuing interest in the 'female-of-the-species', and in 1977 something else just as profound..... MUSIC, more especially PUNK ROCK. I was one of those spotty, greasy fourteen-year-olds who embraced everything about the movement, so much so that along with a good friend, I bleached (not dyed) my thick, long, light brown hair blonde had it cut short and then used sugar-water to spike it !! (by the time I was seventeen, I had started losing my hair – you have been warned, kids)

Models and modelling sort of 'went on hold'.

Not until 1983 did things in my modelling world change again.... I got my first job (in Southport) and my shop was next door to a sizeable model shop, where I met a bloke called Allan Jeffrey, better known to all here as DORK THE KIT SLAYER, we've been friends ever since and he was (and still is) my first 'modelling mentor'. If it hadn't have been for Allan, I would probably still be painting my bits of plastic with a hairy stick, badly.

Within a year I had bought my first Airbrush – a Badger – been to my first IPMS Nationals (remember Stoneleigh, anybody.... Terry & Kit, I know you-two do). As I now had learned to drive, and had my first car, together with Allan, I started to travel the country in the summer months attending any number of airshows. Mildenhall, Greenham Common, Alconbury and Upper Heyford were 'musts' – Dork, remember the breakfast beers' and Polish dogs at M'hall at 0730..... Ahhhhhh happy days.

But I digress: hobby highlights now were the quality of releases coming out the likes of Hasegawa and Fujimi. The H'gawa Phantom family in 1:48 (£8.99 in Beatties when they first exploded onto the market), the Fujimi A-7's, Esci's superlative F-104's, F-100's and F-5's all in 1:72 and all magnificent, and all will still pass muster today.

IPMS Merseyside & District started-up in 1986, Dork and I were there... Back to Stoneleigh, and I entered the National competition for the first time, and realised that I still needed to work very hard at my chosen craft..... still do !

Despite a few successes in competitions both local and national, I have found the best thing about this (let's admit it) quite 'silly' hobby is simply the folks that are associated with it. I am proud to call folks like Jessie Wright, Ernie Lee, Neil Robinson, Terry Campion, Terry Wong, Dennis Mulligan and of course Dork (and many, many others), my friends.

So am I looking forward to the next forty years, well, frankly, yes I am, should get a few finished by then, as long as Dork doesn't keep taking me off to eat burgers, drink beer and talk utter nonsense.

Thanks for reading, now over to you lot.

Ian

[JayBee]

Stoneleigh. Ah those were the days.

JimB

[Radish]

Nice one, Ian.

I began back in the late '50s and after watching my Dad build a few Airfix vintage cars, I started my first kit....a Kitmaster "Stephenson's Rocket", while my brother (3 years older) was playing a with a bigger engine. We'd always been into trains, O Guage clockwork, huge circuits through the house, trainspotting when steam was around.
While at Junior school I was well into whatever aircraft were around...Airfix Spitfire, Gladiator, etc., and I can remember nipping into town one lunchtime to buy the Airfix Auster. As soon as secondary school years started, I was well into building...mainly Airfix, but in the early/mid '60s, Revell began to produce some interesting 1/72nd WW2 aircraft which the local toy shop stocked, as well as a cycle shop....these also stocked "Profile" books.
An enthusiastic reader of "RAF Flying Review", my knowledge and interest expanded. We discovered that the local Co-op stocked FROG kits and another range became available.
By this time, we had aircraft hanging from the ceiling...lots of Merit biplanes, Lancasters, etc., and peg-boarding supported brackets for lots of Airfix 1/600th ships. My mother worked in a cake shop, and I could fit three of their shallow metal trays under the bed, which meant that when lined with newspaper, lots of models could be stored. Also, dad built a room length display bench/bookcase, which naturally was for homework....or displays of Revell B-24s, Airfix kits of all persuasions and a record player....NOT homework!!
Pride of place was the Pyro() Bristol Bulldog in 1/48th and 19 Sqn markings which my mother managed to crush.
Then I went away to college, and my parents disposed of the lot!

[NARSES2]

I can't honestly remember my first kit - probably the Airfix Spitfire, although it may have been the Golden Hind which went on to face the great bath tub storm and sank  

Oh the joys of the new Airfix catalogue... thumbing excitedly through it and marking up what you wanted.

Worked my way through all the Airfix releases as they came out, regardless of type/period/subject and the odd Frog kit or two. Then when Matchbox came out with their more esoteric types a whole new world opened up. For Christmas I would get 1/48th Monogram kits with working parts...oh the Helldiver   This was followed by an advert for BMW model shop in Wimbledon in the Airfix Mag (I still have most of mine) and a trip there was.... well just......  

For the first time I saw Japanese kits and after market transfer sheets and started on the task of producing whole line ups of unusual Me 109's, CR 42's etc - Hungarian aircraft in the 60's ! This started me off on a long love of the slightly more "unusual" when it comes to markings and subject matter.

Women and wine intervened then and like many I dropped out of the modelling scene. Dabbled with 72nd scale armour a little when I got divorced but soon succumbed back to real life and work. Then maybe 12 years ago or so I picked up a copy of SAM in WH Smiths to read on a work train trip and was hooked  

Soon there was a review by Mike McEvoy of Lee Bagnall's "Padded Cell". I was intrigued, wrote to Lee and subscribed... I was landed.

A year or so latter I went to my first Nationals at Telford and met Lee and a lot of the other lads and that was it !

A late returnee to the hobby sure and my skills were probably better in my teens, but in the relatively short time I've been back I've met a huge number of fantastic people and to be honest a few I try and avoid, but that's life as Esther said.

[Radish]

At college/university, I was more interested in women, drinking, women and women. A few rock concerts, women, women and women filled my time apart from some time studying, parties and women.
After Uni I got married, began teaching and in a brief interlude, took up modelling again.
A frequent visitor to Birmingham, I noticed the amazing things Terry Marriott was doing to his models....he was manager of Beatties Model Shop in B'ham. I was really hooked....Hasegawa were bringing things out too.
A frequent modeller, I joined IPMS and was a founder member of IPMS Stafford. I met many friends (as you do), including Ian Jackson at Stoneleigh, Neil Robinson, etc.. I began to produce and write a branch newsletter, that was circulated far and wide....some things were even translated into Danish and Turkish!! I was a founder member of the What If? SIG and Branch Secretary of Stafford. Modelling....making and dreaming up stuff, was the impetus....it always has been.
I was invited to become a member of Quarter Scale Group....still a member, but membership is now OPEN, anyone can contribute. I made lots of real stuff in 1/48th and a few things that were, shall we say...."non-specific!".
I've made lots of friends, am now 60 and making still more models and friends. I've had articles published in England (SAM, IPMS Mag), Denmark and Turkey. Photos of my models have appeared all over, including French and American magazines.
At the end of the day, it's about fun. Make sure you enjoy your modelling.....and women

[PR19_Kit]

Oh strewth, this thread could run and run............ 

I'd better wind back a few mental video tapes, watch this space.............

[PR19_Kit]

Right, played back the tape and the result is below. Better sit back and relax, it'll be a LONG flight!

Where to start, eh? Probably in the late 1940s, when I was living on various RAF stations and well into flying models, free-flight
in those days of course. My brother and I had a 'squadron' of FROG Mk V Fighters, well three of them anyway, one of which we
fitted with skis (It was snowing and we just HAD to fly!) and one was painted in RAF camouflage, with real RAF paint, none of that rubbish model paint...... 

In the wet winters of those days Dad suggested we try the Veron 'solids' static kits, basic balsa and wood shapes that you had to carve and smooth into something resembling the real thing, the first one I can remember doing was the Venom (Trust me to pick the difficult one....) which was later joined by vast numbers of other types, all of which required serious amounts of PSR work, except we used the dreaded talcum powder and dope mixture for that. By the time we'd moved to RAF Abingdon in '52 plastic kits had arrived on the scene and I can remember seeing the original Airfix Spitfire in the local Woolworths, but it didn't attract me much, despite the fact that my Dad used to fly the darn things! However, sometime in early '53 my LHS broadened its view and got some Lindberg kits, including a MONSTER B-17. Well, it was 1/64 scale so it was a monster compared to everything else I'd seen, and it was moulded in silver plastic! Woweee, the BUSINESS! 

Of course I had to have one, and saved and saved until I could carry it home one Saturday on the bus, showing the monster box to anyone who'd look, and anyone who wouldn't either!  Amazingly I took some care building it, and as it had an almost complete interior, cockpit, gun turrets, waist gunners and all, I painted the interior as well. I'm not sure what paints were around then, maybe it was Humbrol, but Gloy springs to mind too. After that it all went pear shaped of course and I ended up with ZILLIONS of plastic kits of all types but very soon I standardised on 1/72 scale for my main interest of RAF and USAF 'present day' aircraft. I did get the Frog 1/96 scale V bombers but I couldn't live with the wrong scale look alongside my Meteors, Venoms and stuff. I think I gave the Victor and Vulcan away!!!

All through the late 50s and early 60s I still carried on modelling, mostly Airfix, Frog and Revell, with the odd Monogram thrown
in too. Their HU-16B Albatross was a favourite of mine, and I think I built three of them at various times, one in a home brewed
US Coastguard scheme. During a bit of side shift to serious slot car racing, but still building aircraft as well, I met a guy, the
late Derek Vaughn, who ran one of the local model shops in Oxford and ended up helping him out in the shop on Friday nights and Saturdays. He was a serious figure modeller and I looked after most of the serious aircraft and car modellers when I was there, as well as the people from the bus stop right outside who wanted newspapers, cigarettes and ice creams! Derek did lots of business with Riko, who'd started to import Tamiya and other Japanese kits by then, and we knew Riko's Marketing Manager, Glyn Pearson, very well. I commented to him that Tamiya's English instructions were wildly funny, but they did make it difficult to build the models, and suggested that he get a native English speaker to write the instructions for any new releases. Needless to say I got the job!

For some years after that I used to get boxes of Tamiya stuff, of all scales and types, with only the Japanese instructions, and had to write the English text to go with their excellent drawings. I recall that doing their 1/21 scale Tiger 1 tank was a NIGHTMARE! It was so complex, and I hadn't a clue about tanks anyway, that it took ages to do the write-up, and the first kits sold in the UK all had a separate sheet included with my English instructions on, as I'd not finished them in time to be printed properly.

I'd started work by then, and always had a car handy (I spent much of my time as a test driver for Pressed Steel Fisher back then) which enabled me to travel all over the place, and found places like BMW Models and Modeltoys, where I found out about the IPMS. There wasn't local Branch so four of us used to drive up to London for their meets, where I came across notables like Harry Woodman, Les Baxter and Bill Matthews,  was suitably BOGGLED by their work. Seeing Harry's totally scratchbuilt B-P Overstrand was a mind bending experience, I'd never even heard of vacforms before then, but he'd made the model from his own moulds for goodness sake!

About that time (I think) Rareplanes came on the scene, their first commercial kit being the early B-17 (shades of my first model....) and I bought one. Gordon Stephens, who made the masters, was one exceptional modeller, and the detail on that aircraft was miles better than anything I'd ever seen before, but I made a RIGHT hash of building it, and went off vacforms for years after that. Around this time I started to go to the Nationals, as it was known then, and in those days it was held at Maples, a big posh store in London, not the least because Bill Matthews was one of their directors!

I moved up to Derby, changing jobs to work for British Rail (more free travel....) and found there wasn't an IPMS Branch there, so with the aid of yet another guy who ran the model dept. of a shop in Nottingham, I started one, the infamous IPMS Trent Branch. We rapidly became the bete noirs of the IPMS establishment, boldy going where other Branches didn't dare to go, like running an all night exhibition for the local Polish Air Force Clubs in a dance hall in Nottingham. It started at 8 pm and ended at 8 am, and we got dinner and breakfast thrown in!

Around this time the IPMS Nationals moved to the newly opened RAF Museum in Hendon, held upstairs in what is now the art gallery. For the first one of these I entered a 1/144 scale Boeing 737, done in an Aloha Airlines scheme with little tiny decal flowers all over the tail. I'd seen a piccie of the aircraft on the cover of Aircraft Illustrated and loved it, wrote to Aloha, and they sent me LOADS of pics of the actual aircraft, so it just had to be built, which I did with the aid of lots of masking tape, clear pre-painted decal sheet to make the flowers and Letraset for the titles. To my amazement I won the small scale class and forever afterward I've been seen as 'an airliner modeller' as a result.

For a while I'd been doing the odd review kit for Scale Models, kicking off with the Airfix and Revell F-111s, and made a bit of a
mark by saying the Airfix kit was rubbish! Ron told me it was not done to say that in reviews, even if it was true, and I had to tone it down a bit for subsequent reviews. Matchbox had started their range by then, and I did quite a few Matchbox kits,
commenting on their sometimes bizarre colour choices for the styrene and on the work of their in house trench digger! Then they produced their F-104 and I got the review kit of course, but as I said in my article 'If I was going to make a Starfighter I wouldn't start with the Matchbox kit' Ron didn't like that one bit and it didn't get published of course, but by then I'd 'converted' it to an RAF Starfighter F3, with ECM fin fairings, Redtops on the wing tips and large ECM bulge on to of the fuselage. I took it down to the Plastikfest at Farnborough, met Mike McEvoy and the rest, as they say, is history.

We also used to go to other local Branches, like Birmingham and the new Sheffield Branch, which was started by Niel Robinson, and there met our own Jaybee on here, and apparently changed his modelling life!    I was the IPMS Branch Liason Officer at the time (no idea how I got that job, but being able to travel anywhere in the country for free may have had something to do with it) and I tried to go to other Branches for their first meeting, or at least early in their lives at least.

Early on in the life of IPMS Trent we put on an exhibition at the first ever World Flying Scale Model Championships at Cranfield, at three days notice! This came about because I'd seen an announcement of IPMS doing a display there and as it had never been mentioned at any Committee meeting that I'd been to I phoned a few people. It seemed that one of the IPMS guys had agreed to do it some months before and then forgotten about it, much to Ron Moulton's chagrin. Ron was the Managing Editor of MAP, who published the Scale Models, RCM&E, and Aeromodeller modelling mags, so in a moment of madness I 'volunterred' IPMS Trent to put on the show, despite not having talked to any of the members by then!

So we did it, and managed to show 650 models of all sizes and scales and it went down a treat. So much so that we did the same thing at the first World Model Pylon Racing Champs a year or so later. Sadly at that event Prince William of Gloucester, who was the patron of the event, came and spent over half an hour going round our show, and the next day he was killed flying his Piper at Halfpenny Green. He was a 'Total Aviation Person' and was very interested in our models, asking me loads of questions about how we'd built many of them, and staying about three times as long as he was scheduled to do.

The IPMS Nats moved to Stoneliegh, where the cottage industry started to take off, with lots of small scale producers doing
vacforms and white metal stuff, which made our type of modelling so much more possible. I usually ended up bringing back lots of small bags of stuff, and then spent ages trying to sort them out at home later! I changed jobs yet again in 1978 and started to travel the world for my new employers, and modelling took a back seat for quite some time, but I did still manage to do some
airliners and Spoof Models, as I called them then. The Nats had moved to Donnington by then, after one DISASTROUS event at
Peterborough, where I had to get a bus to the venue as all the car parks had filled up by 8 am! I still made sure I was back in
the UK for the event, as it was easily the centre of the plastic modelling world even then, and after its move to Telford things
have gone on pretty much as it had developed for me by then. I'd moved to Gloucestershire and joined a bunch of modellers in
Cardiff called the Cardiff Plastic Aeroplane Club (CPAC) and now spent my 'club time' with them. They're a small club, only 10-12
of us I guess, and over 50% are airliner modellers, so I fit right in. But Whiffs are 'Foreign Territory' there, I turn up with
one and you can see their eyes glaze over!

Who cares though? We have a superb 'Virtual Club' here and the Whiff SIG in the UK are a great bunch too, both groups understand my way of 'model think' so I have no complaints. Since I retired I've had more time to model, in theory anyway, and many of my ideas are slowly being transformed into plastic I'm pleased to say, albeit somewhat slowly, but that's life.

[Martin H]

This has been a pleasure to read Gents. Ive been building for near on 30 years now, and i havent even got a tenth of the experiances you guys have had.

My first kit was the matchbox Dornier Do-18, a ninth birthday prezzi from one of my aunts. Much to my dads displeasure as he was a 76th scale armour builder. It came with a tube of glue, and  I think it was slapped together in a few hours, and lasted about another 24 hours before it fell apart. I discovered that the local news agents shop stocked some of the smaller matchbox kits, and aquiring ones I wanted became even easier when my mum took a part time job there.
I soon found out that Northampton had (at the time) 3 decent model shops and they soon became regular places to vist at weekends. the late lamented Stag models on Bridge street, Taylor & McKenna's (remember them?) in the Grovenor centre and the Model shop on the Wellingborough road (still in buisness today ), via these 3 shops i was introduced to Revell, Italeri, ESCI, Hasegawa and Tamiya. I made a few friends amoung the staff at all three places and started to be tipped off about new releases. I had one of the first matchbox Victors in Northampton.    I built just about anything that grabbed my attention, except cars and large scale trucks...they just didnt float my boat. I didnt have a stash as such as a kid, kits were normaly built within a few days of purchase. and if they were lucky they even got painted!
When I reached 13 (1984) I joined the local aircadet squadron, an assoication that lasted until 2006. To my delight I discovered that they activly encourged modelling. I found a small stash that had been long forgotten about. that contained the first Frog kit I had ever seen (the dart Herald would you belive!) and an odd scale GeeBee racer with the placement for the markings moulded into the plastic. I kept quiet about my discovery at the back of the model room, and made sure it was me who got to build these little gems. I still have both the Herald and the Geebee here, althou both are in need of some serious TLC. the cadets also introduced me to airshows. I became a regular at Farnbrough untill the mid 90's. Around this time my dad was working in Saudi Arabia, and was home on leave every six weeks or so. He found a small model shop in Dahran, and a steady stream of hard to find kits soon came my way.
Some of what I built ended up in "odd" paint jobs and if I recall my first cut and shut job was a Henshall 126 mated to the wings and engines off an Me410...I have no idea where that idea came from!
The thing that realy fired my interest in the spoof/project feild was a Bill Gunston book called Warplanes of the Future, and that was soon followed by a 2nd edition copy of Project cancelled. That was it I was hooked.

by the time i was 16 I had got my first job (weekends) at the local Tesco's. I now had income of my own! A few weeks before I started the job, I was sent by my school for 2 weeks work experiance. They had screwed up my original placement at the local airfield, so i hurredly arranged to spend the time at the Model shop on the Wellingborough road. This was when matchbox released the Chinook. The shop had 4 comeing in, and guess who got all 4? I must have spent a fortune in that 2 weeks. I did all 3 versions, 2 RAF and 1 US army. The 4th was whiffed, I had a wreaked airfix Mil 24, the stub wings were hacked off it and grafted onto the wooka. It was painted in a prety crap version of the scheme spitfire I's wore. It seemed a good idea at the time!.

Fast forward to 1990, and I had started working at the place im working now. I pass my driving test and swapped my moped for a small car. dad was no longer working in saudi and was now back in the road building game over here. His firm won a contract to replace the water mains on RAF Mildenhall, Guess whos name appeared each weekend on the secuirty check list  That lasted 2 years, and came with free tickets to the Airfete. My first introduction to many of the traders we see at the modelshows over the years. I attended ever airfete untill the show was axed.
In 1995 I finaly got off my butt and made the short trip up the M1 to the Nationals at Donnington. One stand that grabbed my attention was the What if sig stand. With one Terrance Campion holding court from behind the stand. I got chatting to Terry and after a while he asked if i was interested in joining the SIG, to witch i replyed  that i was interested but not an IPMS member. He smiled and said "as if that matters" and signed me up there and then.
For the next few years i was a non active member, althou i did finaly join the IPMS. Then in 1999 I built the big Carrier diorama for my cadet unit and a fair chuck of the airgroup. And at that years Nationals (now at Telford) both Terry and Lee Bagnal talked me into takeing a more active role in the SIG, the first result being me putting on a stand for the SIG at the first Milton keyens show, as Terry had his hands full on his club stand. I attended the 2000 Nats intending to do the one day, but was talked into doing both days by Lee. That ment a commute of near on 100miles each way!
After that I booked into a hotel for the following year. Over time i got to know the likes of Geoff Payne, Chris Edwards Kit Spackman and Mike McEvoy amoug others. Then one day i got a phone call from Lee Bagnall pointing out a "new" web site he had joined. That was this place! I followed the address lee gave me, and contacted Tom as i had been running my little msn site for few years, it seemed polite to ask if i was welcome here. Tom was more than happy to welcome me to the fold. From here I got to meet the rest of the UK crew. and 5-6 years ago Terry decided to step down as sig boss, and i was foolish enougth to offer to take over "if no one else wants the job". That realy kick started my travels, as more and more shows were added to the SIGs callender, it was time for us to come out from the closet and take the world by storm. The rest is pretty much common knowlage on here 

ok whos next?

[B777LR]

I've got 13 years

[nev]

Never knew you were so old Ian   you've been modelling for more years than I've been on the planet

Don't remember my first kit, but of course dear old dad was there at the start.  Even though he never took  it up as his hobby, he was my modelling hero, I remember being in awe of him painting a silver cross on the helmets of the pilots for the reflective strips the RAF used to wear.

Mention of the Hasegawa 1/48 Phantoms....I remember getting one for my 17th Birthday ('89) and being blown away.  I'd never seen ejector handles on kit seats before!!!

Ian, you never mentioned your first whiff.....

[philp]

My Dad was in the USAF so I have been around aircraft most of my life.  Remember him building models with me watching when I was 5 and when I was 6, I started putting them together.  Don't remember the first one but was probably one of Revell's 72nd fighters (this would be in '66-'67).  Pretty much just slapped them together as a kid but they always seemed to have some kind of paint on them, even if it was just the props.  My roof in Mississippi was covered with dogfights, all kinds of scales and kits mixed it up.  I recall the Aurora Spitfire and Me-109 dueling it out and a Revell B-24D that my Dad cut some red construction paper in flame shape and we stuck it in one of the engines (still don't remember who the attacker was).  My Mom decided one day while I was at school that they were looking a bit dusty up there so she took the vacuum (old canister and hose type with the round hairy brush) and tried to alleviate the problem.  If you ever put the Lib together, you know the wings are a very tight fit to get in and I obviously did a half hearted attempt.  Much to my Moms chagrin, the wing parted and the Lib took it's final plunge.  She was so sorry explaining when I got home from school and never dusted another one of my kits.  One day at the Base Library, they had a display of larger scale armor kits in dioramas (mostly 35th stuff just on scenic bases, no figures).  This was the first time I had seen decent builds on display.  There were no local shops near me so I picked most of my kits up at a local Mom and Pops store that was close by or the T,G & Y.

In 1971 we moved to Duluth, Minnesota and I found my first issue of the old Scale Modeler and I was hooked.  I started getting every issue and ordered a few back issues.  An ad in the mag for IPMS got me interested so joined up.  Also found a Real Hobby Shop in downtown Duluth where I came across the Airfix 76th scale armor.  So a switch from aircraft to tracked and wheeled kits for a while.  My first semi conversion was the old Matador truck which I took a set of twin .50s from the Revell USS Defiance and added some Lewis type ammo drums from cardboard to them and mounted them in the bed using an old landing gear.  Painted in Desert camo as I had been reading about the SAS and LRDG.

In 1972 we moved again, this time to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.  Had a friend in the same complex (4 house units on base) who was into models and we built a bunch together.  He was more fond of the Revell 32nd scale aircraft and I did a few of them but usually my kits were 72nd with the odd ship thrown in.  Then I found the Tom Daniel's show cars from Monogram and did a stint with them (all lost in my next move but recently bought back from the reissues).

Moved to Great Falls, Montana half way through Junior High School.  Found Hobbyland in the Mall and entered my first contest with a Tamiya 35th scale Stug III that I had added Zimmerit and some concrete armor to.  There was a gorgeous Panther kit entered that even had a commander in the turret so I thought I might have a shot at 2nd but found out I won the category.  I actually asked one of the judges why the Panther didn't win and he said the commander had the wrong color piping on his uniform , my first JMN moment.  The contest helped me meet a couple of local guys and together we formed the IPMS Treasure State chapter (now defunct).  We ran the model contest at the Montana State Fair for a few years and I learned a bunch about modeling before off to college.  Didn't do any building while there but did manage to add a few kits to the stash. Graduated and in 1983 I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.

First thing I did was look up hobby shops and found Douglas Models which was downtown at the time.  They hooked me up with the local Chapter and now I was around a whole slew of expert modelers with beautiful aircraft, armor, diorama's, etc.

Made it to my first US Nats in San Diego in 1989 and have only missed one show out west since going to Seattle, Albuquerque, Phoenix and Orange County.  Also attended and judged many of the local contests including a couple of Regionals.  I started the SLC club site and pretty much ran it myself with my oldest suppling the code, etc as he used it to build his skills.  We always had the first pictures up of the Nationals contest because even if I couldn't make it, someone in the club would be there and send the pics back to me.  Then, in '07, had a falling out when the new club Prez thought that all the stuff on the site should be copyright to the club including my son's code.  Jeff wasn't all that happy and pulled everything off but the main page and the Prez decided to get all legal and sent a letter forbidding Jeff to not only go to the club meetings but any of the shows.  Needless to say, I haven't been to a meeting since.  Still keep in touch with a few of the guys and made a couple of shows but not in any official capacity.  The Regional Coordinator was pretty sympathetic and since the Nats were coming up, I was asked to shoot pics for the IPMS/USA website. I had become an official whiffer by then and through this site, met up with Leigh and Dragon to set up a What If SIG table which was pretty much a success I hope to repeat in Phoenix this year.  

Besides What If builds, I have done some review kits for IPMS, some kits for the Hill Aerospace Museum (they use 1/144th scale kits the club did with scaled buildings so they can see where they can fit stuff if they want to move it around or add a new plane) and the other odd RW build.  The internet has become my contact option of choice and I visit several forums but I always start here.

[raafif]

Other side of the World ...
only been building kits for 42 yrs, my dad musta had something to do with it as he had started doing art pictures in coloured plastic in 1948.  Too young to do kits until after I was kidnapped & forcibly taken by my parents to the colonies.

First kit - 72nd Airfix Spitfire (blue acrylic house-paint), followed by Frog Spit IX & V1 (Humbrol paint), several of us got told off for building kits in "craft" class at school (Airfix bren-carrier & DUKW, but one guy had Aurora cars & knights !!).
Later did a Revell 32nd Spitfire & P-51B (crude kit), then later my first proper tank kit --  35th Tamiya Panzer-II, which kept me building armour till now (apart from a recent commision to build a yellow 48th Walrus).
Somewhere in the early 80's I got hooked on SF3D, converting armour (LRDG 2pdr Portee) & paper prototypes like the Porsche KingTiger (turret at rear), which continued till 2005.

Early on, most kits, including a few 32nd clockwork LeMans racers, came from Woolworths or the local "leather-goods & luggage" shop.  Bought Humbrol's Authentic RAF paint set.  Gloy paint ? I still have one tin, must be an ebay Collectors Item now !  -- Insane bids please :-)  Eventually switched to Testors paints & an airbrush in the 80's.

No such thing as a model club to start with but by 1980 the owner of our first model-shop (an ex-Canadian lumberjack) started one - I quickly became a committee member & organised several model shows. A few years after that closed I started another club which only lasted 1 year as no-one else wanted the responsibility of opening up the school room we used.  A few of us then started a semi-commercial slot-car track (lasted the usual 3yr fad of that hobby) & a few years later a local IPMS was started, of which I was an original committee member (for 10yrs), did the magazine that we swopped with 12 other branches (Greece, Israel, Finland, UK etc). Drifted away from that club as I became more interested in unusual & prototype stuff (the rest were only into standard Spitfires, Tiger 1s etc) and Warbird restoration, my then job.

Don't model anymore, currently live on a 3rd-world island where, again, there are no model clubs & only Humbrol paint is available.  I now research & write history articles on unusual vehicles, aircraft restoration, short stories & do the occasional whif aircraft-scheme on the computer -- still have an interest in modelling (thanks to you guys in the Northern Hemisphere) so might actually do some again one day if I get my patience back -- especially if I get a Whif of something cRaZy.

[slackjack]

Wow, I'll be turning 47 soon, and I think the first model I watched my dad build was when I was a little boy - he got the Batplane for my brother and I, and there were the Viking ships, etc. He'd build fun things for us like that. He built several stick-and-tissue flying kits, too. When I was about 7, I "helped" him a little, and by about 1972, I was 9, and I was soloing with the models with some proficiency. Fun stuff! Dad still showed us new tricks, and we were daring back then.

Since then, it's always been a fun hobby, something I did when I had nothing else to do when I wanted to DO something besides watching TV or a movie or whatever. I'm currently rediscovering the hobby, and I gotta say, it's as fun as every time I stepped away for all of life's little journeys and then came back.

My son is 12, sort of likes it. It's not the 79-cent hobby it used to be.

[beowulf]

eeee....the memories 

started building in late 60's from about 8 years old....older brothers influence.......gave up at about 16 when other stuff became more attractive  ..........took up the malarky about 3 years ago after devorce meant i had time and money to do what i wanted to do without any nagging (the one ive got now actually nags me if i dont go and build!!!)

first kit must have been an airfix spit or hurricane or fw..........back then airfix was predominant in the newsagents and toy shps around me........occasional frog/novo/revell.........when matchbox came along they felt almost exotic since they were in 2 or 3 colours!..........about 13 i discovered Beatties and GeeDees (still frequent that shop  ) and got into 1/35 armour when i got hooked on Tamiya

i have a very distinct memory of getting frustrated at the rotor blades not sticking to the hubs on an airfix belvedere when i was about 10..........course nowadays i would use ca and give it longer than 10 minutes to go off 

also got a memory of the tall glass bottles airfix paint used to come in.............twist tops that used to get welded on with paint

wish i still had all my airfix catalogues/magazines/annuals from back then............gave them all away when i jacked in 30 years ago.....like someone else said, many hours wasted thumbing thro the catalogues making a 'wish list'

[Radish]

Now look what he's started.....

I remember my first, blue plastic Spitfire, Airfix of course....with matchsticks as cannons
I remember a mate's dad used to work at a printers and he came home with lots of decals....very early ones...we're talking 1960.
I remember building the Airfix G-91 with silver paint, with red/yellow painted trim and USAF markings.
I remember building the Airfix '109G, twice, one Saturday, using each set of markings
I remember my Great Aunty Gert having a fit because brother had a He-111 on the table Great Uncle had had a leg blown off at Tobruk.
I remember painting with Humbrol Gloss and decanting dad's petrol from the lawn mower to clean brushes.
I remember the first Airfix Jet Provost with rockets..painted two-tone gloss green.