This is where the rot set in.......

[Stephen White]

Can you remember your first model? Although it's many decades ago that I first fell for a scale model, I can remember it quite clearly. I was about six and my parents bought me this after a short stay in hospital:

The Airfix Bristol Superfreighter, a hangover from the nineteen forties used by Silver City Airways to transport cars and passengers across the English Channel (alias La Manche). Although the original model is long since gone, I've been looking out for one for years. The model was reissued in a number of airline liveries but the original Silver City one is incredibly rare. My nephew, who knows about these things, alerted me on one on sale in the USA and, well, it was too good to resist. I shall build it for pure nostalgia. Without this one, the Armortek habit may never have happened. It's good to know how you picked up an illness...

The pure nostalgia of fading paper and 1960s photos. The kit itself is remarkably good for its day but I always though Airfix were the best.

[Steve Stuart]

Thinking about it, I must have been the same age when I bought an Airfix Spitfire, series one in the poly bag and distinctive header card. I remember the smell of the paint I used to this day!
Steve

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Airfix and Frog when I was younger, no recollection of which one I started with but do seem to recall Frog were awful. I do remember my joy when the Matchbox kits came out with the diorama bases, Their M16 halftrack was obviously very important in my later development

All my family in Yorkshire had been railway men of one sort or another so lots of train stuff on family visits and when with Grandparents.

Best regards

Dave

[Gerhard Michel]

Well, my first self-made model was a..... King Tiger tank. The scale was at about 1/10.

I built it in 1957 at the age of 10 from plywood, bike chains, chain sprockets and parts of a metal construction kit. Drive and turret rotation were made by wiper motors. The RC system was a so called tip tip system (not proportional), the drive motors were controlled by huge potentiometers, driven by a gear motor. The battery came from a motorcycle.The barrel was a real rifle barrel from a carbine K 98. In these times such spare parts of real weapons were available for everybody.

I'm lucky to have a photo:

[Adrian Harris]

The first model I can positively remember building was the Airfix LCM and Sherman tank (no surprises there !)

AIR-3301-2.jpg (145.75 KiB) Viewed 3113 times

I built it on my Uncle & Aunt's dining room table, having bought it in a "Hypermarket" in Luton I believe.

I don't believe I was trusted with paints at the time so the green and grey Airfix plastic was perfect for me.

Adrian.

[Alex Easten]

I remember my first kit like yesterday, going into Fenwicks in Newcastle with my Grandad and my Dad, this was the kit. In its starter kit form. I remember the box art so well.

Looking at Scalemates, this boxing of the Airfix Vb was released in 1995..which would have made me around 4.

Cheers,

Alex

[Charles A Stewart]

Hi all
I was just about to go to bed!

One of the reasons that Chieftain 34 has been quiet recently, is that I sort a sort of therapy(?) in an Airfix kit, He 111. honest truth is that I feel they are a good place to practice/encourage son/fun/etc. ,in the use of an airbrush.

A most interesting subject, photos to follow , if thats ok?

Cheers Charles

[Chris Hall]

I can't remember my first kit, but it would definitely have been Airfix, sometime around the mid-late 1960's. The first few, of course, were just whacked together to play with. It wasn't until the early 1970's that I decided to get serious, and actually assemble them properly and, most importantly, paint them. So I toddled down to the local model shop with my pocket / Christmas money, and found this:

So that was really the first. Many, many more were to follow. I remember a model shop closing down, and selling all their stock cheaply (including some in the old bags !), so I did quite well. I can remember building Stephens' Superfreighter (but from a later coloured box), but this one was a real beauty, and propably lit my ongoing passion for WW1:

Type 3 Handley Page O-400.jpg (104.71 KiB) Viewed 3046 times

(the box art is all wrong, of course. The 0/400 was a night bomber, so attacks from a Jasta of Fokker DR.1's is so unlikely as to be discountable. Super stuff, though ).

Nostalgically,

Chris

[Oliver Brüninghaus]

I also remember the Handley Page. At that time a large and important part of the hull was missing from my kit. There was a note with which you could complain about it and after what felt like an eternity the missing part arrived and the assembly could begin. Later, almost all my models ended up as targets for the air rifle.

But it is very nice to rediscover the old kits especially with the packaging designs of the 50s and 60s.

Best Wishes
Oliver