Art & Inspiration Model Kits that Inspired the young hoodlums

When I was a kid, we didn't have a ton of money, so I would scrounge garage sales and bargain bins for model car stuff. I would spend hours mixing and matching parts from leftover kits etc. Trading parts that were obviously not the right scale, just because it looked Ed Roth like.

I really believe that model cars shaped my simple mind towards hot rods forever. I think that's why kids aren't interested anymore. Models are $35, old guys are the only ones that can afford them.

I have a few that I still have a soft spot for. Post up the ones that influenced your hot rod life.

 

I have no idea how many of these I built, but at one time I had an 8 car main event ready for Gilmore!

 

The old box art was a huge inspiration. It made me dream of what could be. When they switched to actual photos it just wasn't the same. Not sure why they did that, probably lawyers! Modelling was an artistic release for me. But several years ago the hobby changed. Replica stock really took off. And no matter how nice, accurate, and well-built, stock just doesn't do anything for me. I drifted away.

 

My middle brother and I built hundreds of model cars when we were young. We had at least a couple of any car available that was '48 or older. Dad was building a steel '33 tudor in the garage, and we built hot rod plastic in the basement. We never followed the directions, and I don't think we ever finished a car per the intended art.

We had both won prizes at the Street Rod Nationals model contests by the time we started working on real cars (I learned to weld around 12). I still have a few special unbuilt kits, but I'll probably never get to them til I'm old, crippled, and living in the retirement home.

 

inspired whom?

 

Cool! I still have an original big t kit that I haven't started yet... Along with a few of the '05 release.. same with the new big tub kit...

The first kit I started on was this.... Turned it into a glue bomb....
I lucked out when MPC re-released the kit some 40+ years later with the same box art.... I ended up buying 2 more...

 

I never built this one, but I have pondered building it in full scale....
Big Drag!!! Someday, I will build it. It will be my mid-life crisis, wife can't go with me car.

 

I had one (maybe two) of these when I was a kid. I remember they mentioned in there something you could buy to run it on a slot-car track.

 

I always wanted Monogram's Big T. When I could eventually buy it, it no longer came with the wide white walls. It just wasn't the car I lusted for

Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Loved the Craftsman Series!

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I think my hormones were kicking in at that time, I wanted to know what made this one tick..................................

 

I'm 74yo and still have all the models I built as a kid. I have a few I need to finish but life gets in the way. I plan to take a 32 Vickie and make a tub out of it, fenderless of coarse...……………...

 

My o my ! I built so many cars and airplanes back then . I mowed grass, paper route and bought models ! In the 50's and early 60's they cost ONE DOLLAR and ONE Cent tax . Kick my butt because I don't have one of them because of so many moves

 

The Black Widow kit I think by AMT.....

 

My old T Tub

 

Model cars were a major influence for me, although we were mostly poor, when we got to go to town once in a while I darted for the "Soda fountain/magazine/book/cards/model cars" u-name-it-store, and gazed at the model cars.
I soon started selling the GRIT newspaper and the town paper which allowed me to earn money to finally buy a kit.
I'm hard core Hot Rod still to this day.

 

Jo-Han was my favourite kits.. then came AMT, Monogram and HATED Revell and there glue together tires




OOOOOOOOPS not quite HAMB friendly cars... But you should get the idea

 

as changed from building models to building real cars, before I had a drivers license, sadly I blew them all up with fire crackers (lived in Hawaii) - rebellious youth - yes, what a waste of time & money

 

I still have a hundred or so, a lot of them are 40 years old, some even older. Revell tri-fives make good late model stock cars, AMT '40 Fords make nice early ones. '56 and '57 Fords, I thought about building a transporter trailer for both model years, just a boatload of everything, '32 Fords, '37 Chevys, several Tobias modifieds and a couple trailers from the combination kit AMT had in the mid seventies. I break them out every few years, build and repair some, then put them away for a few years. I did threaten to get rid of all of them a few years ago, but nah, won't happen. The prices for kits today are eye opening, but maybe not as bad as we think if we factor in inflation. New vehicles have increased tenfold in price in the last 45 years, haven't they?

 

The original Ala Kart kit is the first one I can remember.

 

These two are my twin brothers favorite kits. Our older brother had them when they were new and we were too young for them. To this day if we're at a swap meet we go and look through the model kits hoping to find a good deal on them.