What was your first plastic kit?

[grahambeyrout]

If Wikipedia is to be believed I bought an example of the first Airfix kit sold in Woolworth, namely the Golden Hind. It seems I have secured a place in history

[Aksu]

Airfix 1/72 Fairey Firefly Mk V.
Assembled it with me dad and wad disappointed when it did not have decent gliding abilities when thrown. I must have been five.
Cheers,
Aksu

[toxicpixie]

Aksu, I bet *everyone* here tried that with at least one kit!

I think mine was a Mustang, which certainly did not have it's real world performance, being akin to a lawn dart.

[Raider4]

I think mine was a Mustang, which certainly did not have it's real world performance, being akin to a lawn dart.

I had an F104 Starfighter which behaved like a lawn dart. Which mirrored reality quite well, from what I can gather.

[jimduncanuk]

I had an F104 Starfighter which behaved like a lawn dart. Which mirrored reality quite well, from what I can gather.

I was at an air museum in the States a few years ago. One of the exhibits was an F104 Starfighter.

'Some folks called it a lawn dart' the elderly guide said.

'I've heard it called a widow maker' I said.

He got a bit grumpy thereafter.

[Aksu]

My aerodynamic experiments did not result in tragedy as I had used thick yellow house paint to finish the model. Virtually indestructible it was.
I have seen some marginal improvements on my models after transitioning to Vallejo acrylics.
Aksu

[toxicpixie]

I have a soft spot for the old house painted figures and models

Had a TIE Fighter one I did in gloss metallic drain pipe paint I think.

Boy did it stink, you could reach orbit with a "weeeeeeeeee" off it

Jim, that's about right - I think the Bundeswer Luftwaffe certainly called it the Widowmaker, they had a terrible time with it

[ianrs54]

The downward firing ejector seat was a great help !

[toxicpixie]

You'd wonder how and why anyone bought them, let alone so many, but a/ the performance was exceptional, and b/ don't mention the massive bribery and corruption scandals.

[ianrs54]

The massive bribery and corruption scandals !!!

It was also used as a strike aircraft at low level,  when designed as a high altitude point defence interceptor  - good call 

[toxicpixie]

"Hey this looks pretty good, but it's got some competition, and we don't need a point defense interceptor"

*Lockheed rep slides briefcase of cash to buying officer*

*Airforce buys two hundred of them as fighterbombers*

[chrishanley]

A couple of points to add in this thread. In the fledgling post war Luftwaffe, the F104 Starfighter was simply the wrong aircraft for the task. The sales team at Lockheed, with the aid of a substantial bung, sold this supersonic high altitude interceptor as an all weather ground attack fighter/bomber. It is doubtful if any post war aircraft was more unsuitable for the task it was used for.
Meanwhile, back to my first plastic kit...
Mine was a 1/32nd scale Airfix Renault Dauphine bought by my Grandmother, anything with guns would have been far too violent...
I know I made a complete mess of making it, got glue on my trousers and got told off. Fortunately my Grandfather was a wonderful kindly man with great patients and lots of encouragement. Every time they came to visit he would insist on seeing my latest creation.
From then on I was mad keen on making "Airfix" models, but the problem was the instructions. Unlike the multi-national step by step pictures with arrows and symbols of today, the early instructions had an exploded view of all the parts and a numbered sequence of descriptions.
For example, and this is a direct quote from an Airfix kit, circa 1966.
1. Locate and cement window transparencies (1-4) from inside port and starboard fuselage halves (5,6) applying cement to window surrounds only.
Huge points for anyone who can guess the kit... Clue, it was a Dogfight Double.
As you can imagine the instructions were quite a challenge for a young lad, so needs must and I therefore learnt to read by making Airfix models...

  

[paulr]

Me109 maybe

[Aksu]

In these ikea times you have to admire the youngsters of old! Of course it probably does good for the old grey brain cells to decipher verbal instructions. I've also heard that early Meccano instructions had intentional mistakes in them to make the child learn problem solving. You just couldn't build the model if you slavishly followed the guidance.
Cheers,
Aksu
PS never built a Starfighter, but for what it's worth I've always thoughg it is one beautiful plane.

[FierceKitty]

I found the verbal instructions very helpful, in fact.