What was your first plastic kit?

[FierceKitty]

I remember those plastic bags. The game has changed a bit, hasn't it?

[andys]

An Airfix Zero, something like 58 years ago. when I was around 6 years old. My Dad made it for me one evening and it was waiting for me when I got up the next morning. Don't recall it being painted but it had the transfers on it.

We used to go to the local toy shop religiously every Saturday morning and the bloke who owned the shop would get most of his stock out on the counter for us to pick which model we wanted that week The place was crowded out with small boys and their Dads. The models were those in plastic bags with card top bits bearing artwork of the kit in question. Think they were 1/- or 1/6 or 2/- or maybe even half a crown. Happy, simpler days.

[fsn]

I remember encountering Airfix WWI figures in a toy shop in Germany. The owner had "painted" all the casualties with copious amounts of red paint. He also had only one eye, and the shop was quite dark. Scared the life out of me!

[Raider4]

I think mine was in a blister, but may have been a plastic bag :-

Ahh, the old Series 1 blister pack. Remember those well. Most of my kits came in those.

Could never work out what the difference was between some Series 1 & 2 kits. IIRC The Tiger and Panther were Series One, but the Pz.VI was a Series Two? Why?

Think I may have had a couple of Series 3 or 4 ship kits - Graf Spee, Ark Royal and HMS Suffolk(?).

Don't think I ever got to the dizzy heights of a Series 5 kit (or higher? Did they go higher?).

Also remembered my first tank was a 1/72 Matilda. Happy memories . . .

[FierceKitty]

IV, not VI, I think.

[Raider4]

IV, not VI, I think.

Doh!, Yes, of course.

[d_Guy]

Likely it was the Revell XSL-01 manned space ship or one of their WW1 bi-planes.

[Sunray]

An Airfix Sherman - I burnt myself welding the tracks with a hot screwdriver! 

[FierceKitty]

Doh!, Yes, of course.

Even I am a blithering idiot at times.

[fsn]

Even I am a blithering idiot at times.

Come, come. Don't put yourself down so.

[toxicpixie]

I'm not sure... I know I must have some when living ooop north as I recall the covering the Airfix Pontoon bridge bag in the newsagents at the top of Shear Brow (not Hole-in-the-Wall, past the technical college). Bonus non-point if anyone can tell where that is without google But I cant recall what.

When we moved to the benighted south (West Midlands) I'm sure I had in fairly short order a Tiger, the kubelwagon & Sdkfz222 set, a Sherman and a Churchill. They all got kit bashed, because I was cr*p at assembly and easily distracted

I rapidly changed tack to using my Airfix commandos & paras to seize my model railway trains which were run by evil Nazis who tended to get their just desserts by then being dumped on the track and run over

[Raider4]

I rapidly changed tack to using my Airfix commandos & paras to seize my model railway trains which were run by evil Nazis who tended to get their just desserts by then being dumped on the track and run over

Hmm, not quite in the spirit of the Geneva Convention. Remember, we're the good guys in this one.

[toxicpixie]

"Youthful high spirits"

[FierceKitty]

Come, come. Don't put yourself down so.

Momentary aberration. Thank you for the words of comfort.

[Terry37]

Oh my, that was far too many years ago to even remember. I started modeling in the early 50's and at that time there were only balsa and tissue,  and a few solid wood kits. I think my first one was a solid wood F-86 and made by Stormbecker?   The various parts were roughly shaped and you had to sand them down to the proper shape.  My father, pilot,  was stationed at Clark AFB during the Korean Conflict and that was the type of models I was able to get at the time. I didn't see a plastic model until we returned to the States after the conflict was over - and the first plastic model I saw was an Aurora B-25! Wow! What memories!!!!







A bit of trivia for you - my fathers bomber, B-25, from WW2 is on he cover of one book, in numerous other books and the box art on 4 different model kits.

http://www.ww2wings.com/wings/heroes/allanwebb/allanwebb.shtml

Terry

[paulr]

Good to see that 13 was lucky for your father

Interesting to see the Crew Chief's name on the aircraft as well as the Commander's

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Wow, cool page.

[Terry37]

I had wanted to write a book about my father's plane, with the title - "Peggy Lou and the Men Who Flew Her". I found and wrote to many of the men, but except for Fred Lawrence, the crew chief, I was not able to really get very much information. I have pictures of the plane from the day it arrived on the Squadron to the day it crashed, including the crash report. Ended up that I didn't feel I had enough material to achieve what I really wanted so dropped the idea. It's a funny story why the number 13 was put on his plane. Long story short, the ground officer had it in for Fred, so did that to spite him. backfired, as it turned out to be a lucky number!!!

Another piece of trivia, of all the art renderings of the plane not one of them has ever depicted the plane correctly!!! One book even lists the pilot as a fellow that was never in the 445th BS!!! She had four pilots assigned as aircraft commander during eh war, My father was the third.

Here's another piece of trivia. The nose art was a nude girl, but Fred did not want his plane flying around with a nude girl on it, so he painted the outline of an umbrella over most of her!!!!

Terry

[Westmarcher]

Great story, Terry. 

[FierceKitty]

What was wrong with this aerial eunuch?