Remember Your First Model Car?

Can't remember the brand, but mine was a 49 Merc custom, chopped top and sombero caps!

 

Man did I luck out!!!!! I was looking around on the local craigslist and there was an add for models, said boxes full of parts from when I was a kid, some all the way back to the 50's, price? 50 bucks, I called and he still had it, I said I am on the way, so I get there and I buy a full load of models, I mean there is 50 or more models, very nicely built, there are about 20 unbuilt kits and then tons of parts, all very old, there are some really rare kits, several promo kits , man am I in heaven, I already have a bunch in the stripper and have already almost restored a boat, did it with a wood grain deck, and a S.C.O.T. blown flathead in it, red trailer white hull to go behind my red and white hudson convertible. I will get some pics posted tomorrow for your model nuts!! Jim

 

My first model car was a 51 plymouth station wagon promo model that some one gave me when I was about 11 or so. I had been building balsa airplanes up to that time . The only car model I had ever seen prior to the station wagon was a balsa wood Berkley kit for a 46 Ford Sportsman woodie convertable. They were a monster --you had to carve EVERYTHING for it --fenders , hood --face it--- wood modelcars were not practical.
When I was given the plymouth , I chopped the top and did a bit more customizing to it.
Not too long after that Revell came out with the "Highway Pioneers" series which had a hot rod deuce roadster and coupe , I jumped on those! Built a number of them, all modified, one was a drag roadster similar to Tony Nancys 29 drag roadster. I made drag slicks by gluing 2 of the kit tires together , putting a screw thru the center ,turning them with a drill motor to take off the tread and then using body glaze putty to fill the crack where they glued together then turning it again.
As models improved I built many hot rods in 1/24 --1/25 scale . It'sfunny I NEVER built plastic airplanes or boats-- wood was what those should be built of but cars ? ------Plastic was what put model cars on the map!

 

That's Killer !! .......... I have no time for idiots.

 

Check out whats new at: www.revell.com

 

Look up "Jimmy Flintstone" products. They make a 4dr wagon body for this kit, if that works for You?
I have this same kit, and just bought the wagon body for it a couple of years ago. They were about $10,00 at hobby shops then. It comes as the body only, with 1pc fender-bumper-headlight unit, and a similar piece for the rear. These come unplated, but it appears the readily-plated, similar pieces off the Revell kit should fit, also. The body is said to work w/both the Revell ´59 as well as the AMT ´57 Ford chassis. Looks to me the Revell chassis might benefit of a slight widening by the rocker panel line to make it snug with the rockers of the resin body however. HTH.

 

My first was the Red Baron hot rod, I think I was probably in 3rd grade.

 

Monogram also had a bigger 1/12 scale version of this kit....

 

As I recall, there was a souvenir stand in the carland or utopia ride at Disneyland in the 60's, and my dad bought me a bucket t pickup or roadster model, i think by monogram, it was 1/24 scale, i was hooked, i built probably a hundred models when i was a youngster.

 

Thanks man, found a lot of cool stuff on their site tonight!

 

.....mine was the Orange Crate....and the Don Edmonds sprint....but I also had Skippers Critter,and the pie wagon......and also the Blue Beetle model A......

 

My first models were a PMC '57 Chevy wagon friction model in two-tone blue. The one I really remember was a Johan '59 Desoto friction.

First kits, Aurora 1/32nd scale Ferrari, then '61 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. Really made a mess of those!

Here I am having fun with the Desoto in the summer of 1960...

 

^That's so cool!^

 

plus 1

 

I loved my model kits, the first one I remeber getting was Jim Clarks Loutus. My family tooks us to see the Premier showing of Grand Prix. They were selling them at the consession stand with the popcorn & candy. I was hooked. I soon found all the Thom Taylor kits, & built them all. I started hot rodding the kits, mixing & matching the parts & building my own cars. That took me to building & selling replicas of the cars at the local stock car track. What a good time!!

 

Sounds like Monogram's Futura by Darryl Starbird, a very rare kit .

 

I'm really late to the party...first time I've seen this thread!? Oh well, my first, that I recall was an Ideal '54 Vette 1/8th scale. I LOVED that car, so much in fact my parents got me another one the next year. That was '54 and '55, I was nine and ten respectively. Those were the days huh, $4.95 for those kits. Tim

 

The first, actually a promo, not a model, was a 1949 Plymouth sedan from the car dealer when we got a new '49 DeSoto. ...but the first actual models for me were the Revell Highway Pioneers. I recall them being about $0.39 or so, but also sold packaged in sets of four. I built all I could get my hands on. The AMT/SMP 3-in-1 kits, starting in 1958, got me into kustom cars.

 

This is the first time that I've seen this thread. It should be a fun read. I have always liked model cars and still have most of them. I remember my first one was a 61 Ford I got for Christmas that year. I painted it baby blue with white interior. At the time I thought it was the perfect build. I'm not sure what happen to it. I do have a old photo of it still in the box on Christmas morning. It's on the floor. I'm the kid with the flat top. I still have most of the toys that I got as a kid ,but they have that played with, [patina] look. ha. ha. Ron...

 

'36 Ford kit from Monogram. Cordoba Tan. You could build it as a cabriolet, or a coupe. Stock, Custom, or Modified. My older brother was there to help, so we built it HIS way. I had already tossed the directions aside (an omen). Built many model cars in my youth - enough to have my own used auto parts with the leftovers. Great fun, and inspiration. I have a vintage '57 Chevy AMT kit that I plan to build someday when I have the time. Probably too much information, but good memories.

 

I distinctly remember this as being my fist CAR kit to assemble. I had "Krashem" cars and assembled cars, but this was my first kit that I assembled myself....

 

Found it:


Also found my first build in all its brush painted glory:

Also found and scanned a couple negatives of early builds in my back yard "dirt track".

 

Interesting thread. Was in a hobby store the other day and walked down the model isle just to see what is out there these days. Model kits priced at 20-30 dollars. How in the hell do companies expect to get young people involved in building model kits? I realize I am an old fart at 66, but it can't cost that much more to produce kits now than it did when I was a youngster and could buy them for a buck twenty five. Rant over, D

 

And how much was a gallon of gas?
A hamburger?
A Coke?

20 to 30 bucks ain't much anymore. In the '80s when I grew up, the kits were ~7-10 bucks. 1984 was a looong time ago. LOL

 

Come to think of it, was a Pyro model of a Ford pickup. I still have two Pyro builds stored away - the 49 Ford (red) and the 52 Chevy fastback (yellow).

 

AMT GMC pickup. The high sierra kit . My brother helped me build it int he " Baja" version. We two toned it metallic blue and black. I still have the bed and chassis.. Its slated for a rebuild i found a parts kit on ebay

 

I can't say I remember the first model I built... but I do remember the first model I chopped, channeled, and tubbed... a little duece coupe... I built it when I was about 10, some 35 years ago... and I've still got it... It's horrible too.. It is obvious I didn't know what I was doing, but I love it... probably my favorite model in my collection...

If I think about it I'll take a picture of it tomorrow and edit this post with it..

 

It was a Studebaker funny car. I was five years old (1965) and I built it with my dad in the evening. The only paint we had was flat black, in that little glass Testor's bottle. My dad said that we could go to the store the next day and get some spray paint for the body, in any color. Well, I had no patience for that and applied the flat black with a brush. I thought if I applied enough coats of paint it would eventually be shiny, but I used up that entire bottle of flat black and the car stayed flat black. The old man got a kick out of that.

 

Mine was a 1950 Chevy convertible Dealer Promo model. I believe it was aluminum. It was solid metal!