Funny About Model Car Kits

[john2]

   Waiting for  the modified kits. 

I remember way back when we all anxiously awaited for the midget kits to come out.  All the talk and anticipation. 

Finally they did and some guys bought them by the case. 

Very few were actually built, at least by what I saw on the forums I was on.

I built 2. 

[Brian Conn]

  Waiting for  the modified kits. 

I remember way back when we all anxiously awaited for the midget kits to come out.  All the talk and anticipation. 

Finally they did and some guys bought them by the case.

  allegedly

Very few were actually built, at least by what I saw on the forums I was on.

  I suspect that there will not be a whole lot of them built....just like the midgets when it comes down to how many say that they are buying multiple kits and how many actually build one.
  At least the price is in line...for the time being.   

[Maineboy]

As best as I can remember the first model car kit I built was a late 50's Thunderbird. Can't remember who made it but do remember taking it to school and displaying in on the chalk board rail in our 6th grade classroom. I had been building some model airplane glue bombs before that. Soon I got into building more car models of that era. The biggest dept store in our town was JJ Newberry and I can still see that great shelf stacked high with AMT 3n1 models. It was a great delight to see when the new 1-1 cars came out just who was going to build what model kits of them. I still have an unbuilt Orange Krate from that era. Had a 32 Ford 5w coupe that was AMT's but sold that a few years back. I built more 39-40 fords and coupes than any other.

The anticipation for new models then was huge among us kids. But I don't remember anyone buying more than one. AMT kits were $1.49 back then so times have definitely changed. I don't buy kits now to build them as the designers intended. It is way more fun for me to acquire a particular kit and imagine what can be done with some of it's parts, and parts from others, to make cars that nobody builds a kit for. To each his own.

MB

[Dirtman]

I started somewhere in the 50's modifying toy cars. These were not models. They were toys made to look like real cars. I remember  a '46 Ford coupe and and International Pickup. Models came a little later for me. I remember  melting plastic with a wood burning tool. Extended fenders on a '56 Ford, and fitted it with a continental kit. Took me about a month of sanding!

Rett

[Fordguy01]

I have bought two of the midget kits, one each and at this time have only built the flathead powered version although I have the Replica and Miniatures parts for the Offenhauser version and BTW Tim Boyd did an article on building that version several years ago in Scale Auto.  They are like working in a smaller scale.  Some of you have gone back in your modeling history I thought I would share one of mine.  A local druggist was interested in helping us kids stay out of trouble, so he dedicated one wall of his drug store to model cars and supplies.  He had a contest and I being interested in dirt track stock cars chose the ole AMT 40 Ford Coupe for my entry.  The car was supposed to be a replica of one of my favorite cars complete with dents, a bobbed trunk and cut down door.  Hand painted from the little square jars of paint, red and white with hand painted numbers.  It was roman numeral 11 (XI).  It was my first contest, and I received an honorable mention.  It sat on top of our T.V. set for several months amassing dust until ma told me to take to my hobby room.  I was very proud of that build.

Al

[TonyK]

I think I bought about 6 of the Midget kits and have built 3 or 4. Really enjoy them but run out of ideas to build one different from the previous one.

Will probably just get a couple of the Modifieds.

Always easier and more fun to buy kits with great ideas and anticipation but then you have to get right down to building it.

[Volzfan59]

In the 60's I used to go to Woolworth's in Oak Ridge, TN and buy models. As a kid, it seemed like the model isle went on and on forever. Model kits cost $2.25 back then. I remember the first hobby store I went in as a kid. The Laughing Monkey again, in Oak Ridge, TN. I thought that I had entered model car nirvana!

[Brian Conn]

...The last time I bought a kit as soon as it hit the store shelves.....

 
1983, still have the car

  Recently, this was the must have kit upon release.....

 
2022, almost 40 years later.
 
  When I was 8 years old, I can remember my first build being the USS Arizona.  For the next couple of years, I built  armor, military aircraft and naval kits.  Somewhere during that time frame I belonged to the Lindberg??? model of the month club...that lasted about a year.  The military builds was just a phase I went thru ...I guess...I can remember when I started with cars,Ford stock cars in particular, I was 13.
  I'm starting a new chapter in my model building career....I'm going to try my hand at trucks....not the big rig 18 wheelers, rather the commercial type and fire apparatus.  I have another stock car build other than the '73 Gran Torino that I want to put the wraps on and then take a break from the stock cars for a while.

     

[Olderndirt]

 I got started in the mid ‘50’s when a small variety store had a fire, and corresponding fire sale. Got a bunch of small scale model antique cars that suffered fire damage. I had to kit bash them to get some shelf models. And I had to paint them because they were all molded in different colors. I’ve been kit bashing ever since. in fact I don’t think I could bring myself to build a box stock model.
 I also built a ton of ‘40 Fords, and still am. I think I am so familiar with those kits I just naturally gravitate to them. I’ve built a lot of old dirt track cars from them, and yes I used the wood burning tool to simulate damage, and rework the trunk area to look like the cars on the local track.
 I used to buy Jo-Han kits from the Mom and Pop grocery stores when they got to shop warn and were marked down. They never seemed to mark down AMT kits or Revell kits.

Olderndirt

[Duane Garner]

I got started in 1960 with a glow-in-the-dark skeleton, which I still have! Bought it at the corner Rexall Drug Store for $1.29. Thousands of models since then, never a dull moment! I've been all over the world and bought models as a result. I've  found that modelers are universal and we speak the same language. These forums are a God-send. Thanks for sharing y'all

[Fordguy01]

Duane, you said you have been all over the world and built models, were you in the military? I built models while stationed in Italy in the early 70's parents sent them to me in the mail, then again in Ramstein Germany in the late 80's.  I went to swap meets/contests and several back-room hobby shops in Germany.  Even though the German guys built mainly military the workmanship was top notch.  I built street rods at the time and even though there was a language barrier...to some extent, we were able to show appreciation for the workmanship.  It was tons of fun, and we could connect through this hobby of ours.

Al

[Duane Garner]

Yup, 20 ys in the Air Force. Was stationed in Guam, Thailand and Saipan. Multiple TDY's everywhere else like Japan, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others. Modeled everywhere and like you said, even though we didn't speak the same language, we could communicate through our modeling

[Volzfan59]

Back in the 60's, there was a tv show called Safari or something like that. They used an open Land Rover of some sort on the show. My first model was that vehicle and a Jaguar XKE. I can remember my dad explaining the directions and helping me. That was in Guntersville, AL. My first solo model was the Chevy Impala modified stocker. Good times! I'm really enjoying this thread.

[john2]

  Meanwhile ............  back to talking about kits ................  that didn't get built ...........

[TarheelRick]

Duane, when were you in the USAF? My tour was '68-89 with stops in Thailand, Shemya, AK, Korea, TDY to Germany and England. My first model was a 40 Ford Trophy kit I got for Christmas in '59. Put together over 100 kits in the ensuing years, didn't really build much of anything.  Got tired of packing them up and moving them on my many moves in the USAF so I sold them all. Kicked myself many times over that bonehead move. After retiring I began buying, still very little building, but have acquired 250+kits. Trying to get my work room back in some kind of order so I can get back on the bench, I have at least four or five WIP's I want to finish up and of course a couple more hundred I want to build. Even though I have been dormant, I still get a thrill from watching WIP's on the forums.