What got You started in Scale Modeling ??

[panzerace007]

I'm just curious where & how every one got started in the Hobby ?? So, let's hear it ! Tell TnT your Story of Styrene Madness....

A Modelismo Manifesto

I guess I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember getting an old 1930's style Racing car ( Molded in Green Styrene) from a Ben Franklin 5 & 10 somewhere near Roanoke, V.A. or Blacksburg, V.A. ( My Great Aunt lived up there & We would go see her ), from then on I built a few more & then ran across the Corvette ! I must've build every one in exsistance ( AMT/ERTL , Revell ,etc... ) I had 'em all lined up on a bookshelf , just like a show room.

I ran across a Hobby shop in Cary Town ( an 'Ol shopping district in Richmond,V.A.). I remember building the Revell Purple Chopper ! , But what Stuck out .... These newly arrived kits of WW II Tanks by a company from Japan. Tamiya ! I built a couple . The Store moved, I ran across them in a Mall( I was in Middle School now. '82 ). When I walked in, there were two guys sitting at a table ( Andy Tutka & Jim Huseby ) building Tanks & painting them with an Air brush ?? What was that ? . I talked to them. They mentioned they were there every Sat. & I was more than welcome to join them. ... So , I did. After a few Saturdays I was looking over the Stock of Tanks ( Italeri, Tamiya,etc.. ) One of the owners ( Mike Begol{a great Figure painter, I learned a lot} ) came over & asked what I was gonna build next. I must have mentioned that I didn't have th $$. So he said that it didn't matter ,as long ,as I would do most of the Building on Sat. in the Store. I jumped at the chance & grabbed a Tamiya kit. He also let me grab some paint to shoot through the Air brush. ( The other guys would usually paint th tank for me ( I was 11, 12 ?), then after several Tanks They gave me th brush & said -" have at it ".) Later that year My Grandmother , for Christmas ( Santa, actually )gave me a Pasche VL & a Bager Air compressor. Mike @ Bob's Hobbies hooked it up !In-line Moisture trap , regulator for the compressor. I was set !!! I went every Sat. ( except during L.L. baseball season ) building & reading in their Awesome Book & Magazine section. There I was introduced to Shep Paine. I must have read his Dio book 50 times before I finally bought it ( lol ) ! I was also introduced to Military Modeling magazine , Panzer Colors, Squadron books & this Up-start from Belgium, Francois Verlindin ( have you heard of him ?. I never took advantage of the situation. I was there faithfully, every Sat. building kits ( never taking a huge stash home), Painting them & started building Dioramas. Answering Customers questions, etc.

Well .... that all started to decline once I hit High School( '85-'89) & discovered Girls !!! and Playing baseball, graduation, Then set about to become a Rock Star( I had been playing guitar since i was 8 & loved KISS !). I actually didn't get back to th hobby until 12 years later. Living in Richmond,V.A. & trying to be a Rock Star ( ?? ), it ain't happening. Kudos to Dave Mathews , Lamb of God & GWAR ( they made it ). A friend of mine told me that the Old Hobby store (BoB's Hobby's) from Cary town was now located out in ( He didn't know they were at th Mall)th 'Burbs. I looked 'em up , went in. I found there customary Stock of Armor. Although something was different. There was a New company- Dragon ? Whats with all these little brass pieces in there & how do they attach ? I checked them out. I bought th Kugel Blitz kit. Restocked on paint , glue etc.... When I finally made it there to the counter... there was Mike Begol ( Graham was there too ,noodling around behind the counter) ! I knew he ( Mike ) was there. You couldn't help but hear His Razor sharp wit when you walked in. SO, I'm up at th counter. I ask Mike if I look familiar?. He looks me over,with a faint bit of remembrance, I said remember the little kid that came into th store every Sat. to build Armor with Jim Huseby ? He lit up ... " Holy Sh%t ! Erik !... " We caught up etc. .... I ended up getting an Incredible bargain that day.

I continued to go back. Not to build, per say. To buy more kits. Although when Graham waited on me I never quite got th same discount.( ? lol ? ). After a while I noticed that Mike wasn't in the store as much , & then Ever. ... I was there one day & Graham gave me the News that Mike had passed away ! Oh ! a Sad Time ( I had to step back & collect Myself. It hit me like a Ton of Lead! Mike Begol did a Fantastic job at giving Kids a Chance at th Hobby. His work with I.P.M.S. Richmond is legendary ! Model shows that the Store put on Really brought people into the Hobby. I continue to miss Mike ! Not for the "discounted kits". But for Who He was. He was an Awesome Guy! CHEERS Mike I raise a toast ! Thank you for introducing Me to Scale Modeling & giving me the chance to build, even when the Lawn work wasn't paying. Thank You JIM HUSEBY ( a real Mentor) ! For letting me learn on a Double Action Airbrush ! Andy Tutka & Jim Birdy for letting a 12 year old pull up a seat & learn how to build Dioramas & Armor. ( I haven't forgotten You, Mr. Shep Paine !!)

Now We are present day ! I'm still an Avid Builder, mainly of German Armor, Figures, & Dios, & a member of AMPS. When the Members of My local AMPS Chapter ( AMPSCV )sit around and talk of what got them into the Hobby I always gotta tip My hat to Mike & the rest of the Peanut Gallery at BoB's Hobby Shop ! WoW !, I miss th Hell outta that place !

Thanx a Million Guys ... You done Good !!

So, Guys & Girls this is Me ...inna Nutshell ! Thanx for reading


ERIK

 

[Iron Mike]

What a long, strange trip it's been, eh? I got a Grumman Duck for Christmas when I was about 6, way back in '63! Dad helped me some, but left the bulk of it to me From there, it was cars, cars,cars! I used my allowance, Christmas and birthday money and returned pop bottles to fuel my obsession! We had a variety store up the street that stocked some models and paints, so did the grocery and drug stores, so it always gave us something to drool over.

As with others, high school blunted the edge, I still built the occasional rod or custom, but moved on to other things (my 1966 Chevelle and a certain brunette ). Fast forward about 20 years,my son found a new hobby shop near our apartment. What a place! Look at all these models I had as a kid! Do you want to build one?? Bought my son 6 models for Christmas, hooked him and reignited my fire! The IPMS Plastic Surgeons met at that shop and invited us to a meeting, been a part of that group in one form or another since! They corrupted me, dared me to build a tank and it's been all downhill since. :idonno

 

[jknaus]

Well my Dad did models anI picked up. He had a hobby shop also from about when I was 8. I did everything from trains to boats to rc a/c and u controls. I could build so lite that people kept wanting me to build their planes. Didnt like it much though. Then Dad became the first distributor for helicopters in North America and I build a couple. But plastic was always my favourite thing. Especially a/c and tanks. Got into Historex Napoleonics when I was in my early teens and then joined the reserves and then the reg force. Got a family started and didn't do much for a couple of years. Then started again,with a/c and then tanks but always posted to small towns with no clubs so everything was learned through books. Now I have TNT to help me learn more.
James

 

[DioRandy]

Great story, Erik
Aren't childhood memories often the best!
One of my earliest recollections is of my dad building, yep, a wingy thingy. It must have been in the very early 60s and I thought it was the neatest thing I'd ever seen. He did an awesome job painting it by hand. Later, I found it strange that he would choose a wingy thingy, since he was a crewman in an M18 Hellcat tank destroyer during WWII.
Fast forward to the late 60s and early 70s and there I am building a variety of kits with the money I'd saved from my allowance, which was .50 a week. I built Rommel's Rod, the Snake and the Mongoose funny cars, the Starship Enterprise, complete with working lights, the Saturn rocket and a figure of Barnabus Collins from the TV show "Dark Shadows."
Then came high school, sports and, of course, girls. Modeling faded into oblivion through college and my first marriage with children. Then, in the mid 90s I was laid off from my job. On a whim, I took my young son to the hobby shop and bought Tamiya's Tiger I to introduce him to the hobby, which appeared to be flourishing with kits, figures and, of course, the stunning works of Bob Letterman and Francois Verlinden.
My son was interested, but a little too young. Me, on the other hand, had been bitten once again by the modeling bug. I went on a building frenzy, joined a local modeling club, entered some contests, where I began to be awarded for my work, and began to dabble into dioramas.
My skill level increased and I began to enjoy researching the various subjects I was modeling. As a result, I took advantage of my father's firsthand knowledge of the subject, built a diorama featuring his M118 and dedicated it to him. To this day, he continues to ask me what I'm working on. He's a vibrant 82 years young!
Peace and Love,
Randy

 

[moon puppy]

This is fun.

I think I was six? Really, I can't remember the first model, I think it may have been a thud or a Porsche. Like everyone else, I built up to highschool and took a break. Not much of one. When I went into the USAF interest sparked again. Got around all those other knuckeldraggers and started learning new things like airbrushing. That's when I swapped someone for my first air compressor. Bruce has it now.

When I got married I took a break, we didn't have room in our first house and a Airfix P51 1:24th scale kit taunted me for maybe 12 years we were in that house. It was stored back in the closet. Well we moved to the Casa da Dogwood with the detached garage, some call it a man cave, I call it a garage. There I figured I could create all sorts of obnoxious fumes and just open the garage door and vent it out.

We were vacationing at Gatlinburg maybe 4 years ago. I was cruisein' the book store for something to read and found a FSM mag. Figured to read it to see what's going on. WOW Metal parts?? Resin, what's Resin? I got signed up on FSM forum and then Swanny's and a bunch of others. I have learned more about modeling in those years than I ever did all those years prior. And here we are today...

Still learning.

 

[Jeeves]

As a kid, I think my parents and grandparents gave me models to keep me from burning the house down when I learned to play with lighters...:idonno All I remember was getting this huge B-17 model (it wasn't Revell-- maybe Pro Modeler??

In my 20's, I ended up hearing stories about my grandparents-- one grandfather was a Marine at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the other was in the Army in the ETO and told me stories about his ship being sunk by a U-Boat. And my Nana in the Maquis... so an interest in WWII started with all that. I walked into an MJ Designs craft shop and saw an amazing assortment of models (the clerk in charge of Hobbies ran the local IPMS chapter so he stocked the shop well!!). That was when the Accurate Miniatures stuff was just sort of starting out and I fell in love with them-- especially the Navy stuff...almost 20 years and thousands of dollars later- it is now a good form of stress relief after dealing with teenagers all day

 

[Kreighshoer]

a modeller's confession:

first steps:

hmmmmm ... my bro got a passenger jet as child (1975) and i was curious, terrorized my parents and also got a passenger jet, iirc i applied alitalia decals, then in 1976 i wrote santa a looooooong wish list and there i remember that i mentioned a ship! santa gave me the revell pt boat that i immediately assembled and i was happy ... until our dog - a cocker spaniel - had bitten a large hole in it! (same evening - me unhappy!) after that i fiddled around with matchbox 1/76 armor and asked myself what i would have done wrong all the time when i noticed that the tracks were too short ... and i bought the very cheap and very small easy to build planes (airfix i think ... those with the small clear plastic stands with pivot attachment) but somehow lost interest in modelling ...

that were my very first steps that i don't consider serious modelling!

first try of being a serious modeller:

it really started when i read homer's ilias and i discovered my love for history around 1980! from that moment on i lived for history and was particularly fascinated by the ww1, 3rd reich and ww2 - i can't remember exactly anymore but it was around 1985/86 when i joined the dark side, started to wear black and restarted modelling (what coincidence!) - this time more serious! i continued to work my way through almost every axis tamiya kit there was, built various italeri and esci kits and ... erm ... planes ... the 1/32 revell stuka and twice the revell 1/32 bf-109, a back then way cool esci 1/48 f16, i remember a most interesting double kit from esci - a f15 and a soviet mig23 in 1/48 that i hung over my bed in dogfight config (until the f15 decided to play lawndart and missed my head!)

around 1987 i was annoyed of my figure painting skills and tried to improve that ... about 100 figures later i managed to paint my first figure with shadows and highlights (the brummbär crewman half figure from the tamiya kit! i will never forget it!) and shortly after that i joined the KLIO figure painting society, started to buy puchala, hecker&goros and hornet figures and started to love verlinden stuff! verlinden was my pope of modelling back then! (and i had no idea who bob letterman was! )

then i discovered that strange detailing stuff called pe and got me the one of the first sets for the panther and the tiger, started the panther with shortening the hull and trying to fit the first pe parts but was too frustrated when the drop of glue was bigger than the part to glue on (besides of the part permanently being rock hard cemented to my fingers) ... that was the part when i lost interest and stored away all kits, figures, paints, airbrushes and compressor ... i developed else interests!

second try:

for many, many years all my modelling stuff was stored away and when i moved back to my parent's house after the death of my father since i didn't want my mother to be alone in that big house, i found all the stuff i had stored away and just thought "what the hell! i will never ever build a kit again, it doesn't interest me!" and threw it ALL away! priceless white metal figures that most of you never have seen, all paints, both remaining kits and the pe, all styrene sheet, the superduperspecial nuclear glue (never found anything like that again!), all oil colors, special thinners, brushes, verlinden dio accessory ... EVERYTHING! but not the airbrushes, compressor and books!

that was in 2004 ... and in the winter of 2005/2006 i remember a time when i was bored as bored can be, i remembered my airbrushes, took them out and with a sigh i remembered the modelling stuff i had thrown away ... three days of permanently slapping myself in the face followed and then i walked to my old hobby shop of my choice and found myself in heaven! the smell of the kits, the view of shelves full of wonderful kits, all those verlinden boxes, tamiya paint jars ... it was a moment of ... ecstasy? i think if the light would have went out in that moment, my eyes could have easily acted as light bulbs!

... not so exciting was the bill i had to pay!

it was an enormous bill! i mean ENORMOUS! really! it was a major fortune that i spent that day! but F-word among my prey was trumpeter's "sturer emil" and dragon's premium edition porsche kingtiger - two tanks i always wanted to build! and i was happy (when not thinking of that bill!)

the rest was learning, improving, making friends and enemies and learn who actually bob letterman is!

so i could end this with: hello altogether, my name is laura and i'm a modelling addict!

 

[moon puppy]

Great story, can't believe you threw all that stuff out! During my hiatus I held on to everything. I knew at some point I would get back in the hobby.

 

[Kreighshoer]

Great story, can't believe you threw all that stuff out!

today i can't believe it either and still could slap myself all day long!

During my hiatus I held on to everything. I knew at some point I would get back in the hobby.

the fun is ... my hiatus was for about 11-12 years and all the time i had the stuff stored away, then i dumped it and it took 1 1/2 years until the bug bit me again! :pinch:

but when i moved back and looked at the figures, kits and equipment it was like looking at something from planet mars, it didn't talk to me, it didn't touch me, it didn't interest me at all, it left me cold!

the only veterans from first serious modelling period are my badger airbrushes, the revell compressor and my x-acto handle! i got a new x-acto but use the old one all the time - they are absolutely the same but somehow only the old knife gets warm in my hands, gives me a good feeling, has all the stains, scratches and dents from years of modelling! when i touch the new x-acto handle it stays cold, i got no personal feeling to it!

... when i read this, i think that i should visit my doc!

... and now i remember that i gave away my tamiya 1/350 bismarck and my tamiya 1/350 king george v!

someone please shoot me!

 

[moon puppy]

Really, there's worse things to be addicted to.

 

[Iron Mike]

That's indeed tragic, Laura! I went looking for my old stash upon getting back into the hobby, only to find it had been raided by the younger cousins! Oh well, keep moving forward!

 

[panzerace007]

ALTOGETHER: "Hello LAURA" welcome to the Group !

Great story !

WoW ... threw all your stuff Away ! Well I'm glad to see that you got back into it !

Some times I think WE ALL need a Doctor !!


ERIK

 

[panzerace007]

Cool Stuff !! These Stories ROCK !!! WE are all from different parts of the Western Hemisphere .. THE WORLD for that matter , & yet ... all of our stories are very similiar !!

Good Stuff !!

ERIK

 

[DioRandy]

My condolences, Laura

I kind of know how you feel. I lost all my completed dioramas in one "fell" swoop during my second (and final) marriage.
My second wife, god hate her, had no interest what-so-ever in my hobby. She wouldn't allow me to display my dioramas anywhere in the brand new apartment we moved into. Although we were the very first inhabitants, I'll bet it's now haunted by the spectors of a deceased Otto Carious Tiger I diorama that was featured in Fine Scale Modeler; the Vietnam-era M113 diorama that's featured in my logo and, yes, the M18 Hellcat diorama I dedicated to my father.
Like an idiot blinded by love, I stored them on the closet shelf in our bedroom, beneath her ever-growing wardrobe, which I had, unfortunatley, paid for.
Much to my dismay, we awoke in the wee hours of a Saturday morning to a tremendous crash heard coming from the aforementioned closet. The weight of her wardrobe yanked the supports for the clothes rod completely out of the wall, which was attached to none other than the shelf containing my dioramas. Yep, there they were, resting in a pile of plastic and wood among her clothes. And, all she had to say before she rolled over and went back to sleep, was make sure you clean that mess up in the morning and get it fixed. No remorse, no heartfelt condolences...nothing! Needless to say, shortly thereafter, she became my second ex-wife.
Well, at least I have the photos of each one that were taken by a professional photographer in our club.
Today, Karen allows me to display my dioramas, mostly unfinished, right there in "her" living room, which doubles as my workshop. However, I forsee no wedding bells in the near or distant future. And, we're both just fine with that.
Peace and Love,
Randy

 

[moon puppy]

However, I forsee no wedding bells in the near or distant future. And, we're both just fine with that.
Peace and Love,
Randy

Boy, when you gonna marry the girl?

​

 

[DioRandy]

Thanks a lot, Laura hmy:
But, I'd still rather stand before his shotgun than another alter. :laugh:

 

[Black-Sheep1]

a modeller's confession:

first steps:

hmmmmm ... my bro got a passenger jet as child (1975) and i was curious, terrorized my parents and also got a passenger jet, iirc i applied alitalia decals....


i bought the very cheap and very small easy to build planes (airfix i think ... those with the small clear plastic stands with pivot attachment) but somehow lost interest in modelling ...

AHA!!!! I knew there was a some flying thingies in your past!
I just knew it!!!

i can't remember exactly anymore but it was around 1985/86 when i joined the dark side, started to wear black and restarted modelling (what coincidence!) - this time more serious! i continued to work my way through almost every axis tamiya kit there was, built various italeri and esci kits and ... erm ... planes ... the 1/32 revell stuka and twice the revell 1/32 bf-109, a back then way cool esci 1/48 f16, i remember a most interesting double kit from esci - a f15 and a soviet mig23 in 1/48 that i hung over my bed in dogfight config (until the f15 decided to play lawndart and missed my head!)

I knew there was a reason for that disturbance in the FORCE. Strong with the Dark side you are but I sense there's some good in you still. Come to the Light side. Let go of your hate.

Cool story Laura.
I for one am glad you came back to the hobby, you do some AWESOME work.

 

[S P Hammerton]

Greetings and Salutations Folks

I got into modelling when I was about Five, usually making a complete bull and cow of it, but being very productive.

My late Father - who morked in the motion picture industry - required some set models, so the production staff knew where they were going to put cameras, lights etc. Thus a serious hobby was created.

Despite all manner of other activities in my life (engineering, bike racing, motorcycle training and shooting to name but a few), modelling has always been there in the background.

This has been such a major part of my life, although more so since my road accident in 1999 which left me with way too much time on my hands.

My hands don't work as well as they should, but well enough to build 1/35th stuff without too many hassles.

So 43 years of this, and looking forward to a load more.

Simon

 

[John Short]

I started building models about 11years ago when my wife suggested I get a plane mobile to hang from the ceiling of my son’s bedroom. I was having a look around the local toy shop for something appropriate when I stumbled upon an Airfix 1/24 Spitfire that was on special, thought to myself “I’ll make my own bloody mobile”, brought it & that was that, I’m hooked!!

 

[iambrb]

My older brother was into it and I stole and read his books (OK, I might have been lookig for his "Personal Adult Magazine Collection, " Ahem...) by this dude named Shep Paine, and some other stuff that he used to talk about seeing by this other dude named Letterman. Later on all of the remaining models except two in 1/72 scale took "one-way trips to the rifle range." I never had much in the way of equipment, but the guy across the street was huge into trains and I was sometimes allowed to use his airbrush.

So anyhow I went all thru school with Moon Pup (so he is to blame!), and 20 years later I ket running into him at various places around our home town, that led to emails talking modeling, and THAT led me to buy a little 1/72 skill Russian T-80 kit from Revell, and the fun has been re-ingited - just wish I had a bit more time to develop it!