Remember Your First Model Car?

1956 Chrysler.....the kit was missing a wheel cover so my Dad fab'd one out of tin foil!
I was 7 or 8 years old........that was the start for me......built many more after that one.

 

First model kit-'40 Ford coupe ( I bet I built 5 of them!). ( and '32's)
1st real car? '40 Ford coupe Deluxe, '56 Olds V-8 with tri-power
Age?- 15, no license
Cost?- $150. ( 1964)

 

It's one of the few things I remember from my early childhood. 32 Roadster by AMT with help from dad.Built a lot more in my teen years before I got my first real car. Amazed I never got hooked on that glue.

 

I wish I could say that! Model Car glue, my drug of choice. Ron...

 

Wow. "Baron's Hobby Shop" on E. 222d Street in Euclid, Ohio. Right up the street from my grade school. He would sponsor a model car contest very summer. Of course, you had to buy the kit and all the supplies at his place. Boy, were we gullible. There would be five of us all working on different cars at the same time in somebody's basement! (Man, I can still smell that Testor's glue! Yikes!) Our group policy was, "Hurry up and finish it so we can see what it looks like." It mattered little as to how much glue we slopped on the chrome pieces or windshields. It was cool! I remember turning a VW Beetle into a rail job dragster by extending the frame with pieces of coat hanger wire. Good times! I can't believe how expensive models are now. Surprisingly, there's a drugstore in my neighborhood that sells them. I have a couple unassembled ones sitting a shelf waiting for my retirement. Can't wait to dive in. I think I will take my time this time.

 

1/10th scale XKE

 

Even though Mr. tomato head is 11 years older than me I still had plenty of time to waste my paper route money at Barrens hobby shop. The place was so cool I can't even stand thinking about it. Model kits, HO/Lionel/N gauge trains, rockets and gas powered airplanes and cars. Always had a killer window display. Building is still there.
JT

 

_____ 1967: My uncle, had a fantastic collection of model car ''parts'' he'd been storing and collecting for years of various model cars. He hid the multiple drawer, pull-out drawer hobby box from me, because I was always into everything. I found it!!!...........it had everything, from fenders, wheels, hoods, and anything to build several cars that he'd picked up at yard sales with his paper route money. I figured out what things went with what "sorta'', with grubby fingers of mine digging into every nook and cranny of that big old box. With glue, scotch tape, and sticky fingers, I remember I put together a 40' Ford coupe....by definition anyways!
When my uncle found out I'd found his stash, and glued a car together....he was a bit ''miffed'' and didn't say much to me (my mother was standing behind me), and I remember his ''red'' face....I was scared! But, when we went to visit a few weeks later, he pulled me aside, and gave me my very own model, the ''Red Baron'', that I could build without ''hiding'' in the closet, ingesting an open tube of glue, ...and allowed to build it at HIS WORKPLACE in his bedroom! He helped me, and showed me ''what'' I was supposed to do, and I will always remember his ''tolerance'' to me during ''that moment'' ....I think he figured out I had the beginnings of a ''car guy'' and didn't retaliate & beat me to a pulp (like usual).............he still yelled at us for screaming and running of course, but never said a thing about what our new found ''car thing''....I went on to build lots of models, and he eventually ''gave'' me that big old box of parts of vintage car parts.....great memories--- Ray

 

I have 98% of all the models i have ever built since i started in 1969, here's a picture of me in 1972, i was 12 at the time and still have every model in this picture in the same exact condition. i wrapped them all in napkins and put them in the plastic bags the parts came in, in the kit after i built them ! i have 54 year old napkins too now !!!!! lol. i have about 200 models that are all at least 45 years old, i go to model shows and take a few of them and people are wanting to buy them really bad, but i just love them and they are worth more than money to me.

 

Still building them occasionally....

 

They are the Gateway Drug that leads to the addiction of the real cars (1to1)...

 

Even Santa gets into it....

 

I also had this model it was big. Bigger than the 1:24 scale


I had several Ed Roth plastic models kits too

Unfortunately, like many of you, I had the fire cracker/cherry bomb stage of my childhood also

 

59 Ford Retractable hardtop. I think it was a Revell kit, and it must have been about 8.

It was a father-son project, but my dad only wanted to do one step per evening. He wasn’t very good with his hands, either.

I think the one step per dat lasted for about a week. I ended up finishing it by myself. It really wasn’t a great beginner model, with its multi piece body and complex top linkage.

By the next year I was in fourth grade and we had a weekly, or perhaps biweekly hobby time for a half hour. I was regularly building models at about one every two weeks, mostly AMT kits like the 1960 Ford and Chevy convertible , etc Sort of ticked off my mother over the cost, but there wasn’t much she could do to stop it.

 

Age 6 a present that my Mother comandeered and assembled.
Made me watch the process, her tech was fastidious, and neat. ( '54 Pontiac )
Then I had a 1910 Autocar freight wagon. Did it pretty good.
Nothing for several years 'til a '56 Revell Buick showed up.
The body color was maroon metalic. I managed to get glue smears all over the body panels.
When I began to have (12 yrs) my own jingle in my pockets,
( remember when coins were silver and made music in your pockets and hands )
I dove into AMT '32 roadsters must have built and customized six of those bad boys.
The Folks began to ride me about wasting money.
Then came the '25 Model T 3 in 1.
I am certain, at this point, that the glue was doing the magic.
The gamut of Models escapes my memory, just to say....
Stromberg Aurora Hubley AMT Monogram Revell all got my support.
Two decades Later one of my drinking buddies saw the big carton of cars and parts.
He was so struck that he had to beg that I allow him to use some of the pieces.
I just said "Here take it, Its yours"

 

Thanks for bringing this thread back from 2016! Nice model collection you have. Still have most of mine, will post some photos in a day or two.
Bob

 

I have a few of those kits...
Including the big drag....

 

Now 80 years old, I probably still have some of my first possessions, at least parts from them.

 

My first Model was the Stone Woods & Cook willys.

 

.

 

i had the SWC willys too
Still have a modified '59 elcamino made into a Gasser with a 392 hemi ,. Also still have several truck models, Peterbuilt, Kenworth, Autocar, Ford flatbed tow truck, I remember I had a 53 f100, mothers worry model, etc

 

First was a 1960 or 61 Ford Starliner, the paint color was my favorite (at the time), I think Ford called it Meadowvale green, actually, it is kind of a forgettable color but it really turned out nice............after two repaints (my first experience with paint runs), it ended up being pretty thick.
Was kind of like this one.


I do remember the last model I built, it was a 1966 Nova SS, after our 67 Nova was painted (Bolero Red) in the late 80's I went looking for the model but only the 1966 was offered, they are nearly identical, still have the model, we bought the car in 1983 and still have it.

 

Off topic so no pic. Jeb Allen’s Praying Mantis rear engine T/F Dragster.

 

First I can remember was an AMT 57 Chevy when I was seven summer of 1991

 

The last car was a 3 in 1 57 Chevy kit. I shaved the body smooth and painted it yellow. I used the Buick grill and Hot Rod wheels to make it a 3 in 1 all around.

 

I'm fixing up an OG AMT 1949 Mercury that someone in the model club gave me. It came apart easily, obviously adult built. It was never painted, just polished bare plastic.

I have the body in primer. This was never finished. Someone stopped short of putting the bumpers and tires onto it.

 

1968 Camaro snap together kit, that was in 1968. I was 5

 

You can still get new ones...

 

Mine was a 40Ford coupe painted a dark maroon. I would look at it for hours saying to myself "when i grow up im going to get a 40coupe. last i counted ive had 6