Remember as a kid building a Plastic Model Kit ?

[Dave Lehnert]

Remember as a kid building a Plastic Model Kit ?

I was working with a guy at work yesterday on a project and he made the comment I must have been good at building model cars as a kid. Fact was I was not very good at it. Got me thinking, I'm going to to get me one and give it a go. Been 30-40 years since I built one.
Stopped into the local hobby store today. WOW! $29.99. I think they were $5 years ago. Picked up the kit shown in the video. Look forward to building the truck.

Anyone still build plastic model kits?

[William Adams]

Yeah. I was rather disappointed that my son wasn't interested in them.

He did make a model rocket at school, but aside from wanting it hung in his room, never was interested in building more, or even launching them.

Did have good success helping my daughter with a soda bottle rocket for a class --- helped her put a full nose cone on it which got her a school record for altitude (and almost impaled the kid who chased it to catch it --- plunged several inches into the ground (w/o significant damage) and may have been why they quit this program).

[Peter Christensen]

I might if they made model woodworking tools.

[Dave Lehnert]

What does everyone think?

Paint it blue like the builder did in the video or paint it blue with orange fenders like the photo on the box?

[Lee Schierer]

I built models with my son, but the new non-toxic glue didn't work very well so assembly was difficult and didn't always work. I still have a box full of models up in my attic from when I was a kid.

[Frederick Skelly]

Blue like the vid!

[Stan Calow]

Joy of my childhood. I bought a couple of airplane kits at a garage sale. Someday will get around to it. Yeah, I was crappy at it too. Now that I have tools I expect to do better.

[Steve Eure]

I used to get the WWII model airplanes in the late 60's early 70's. Absolutely loved building them. Had them hanging from the ceiling as in dog fighting and bomber squadrons. I always wondered what happened to them after I moved away from home.

[Jim Becker]

That was my thing as a tween and young teen...I even won a number of contests as well as built a really amazing replica of the AutoWorld CanAm car. Sadly, all my precious models were accidentally lost while I was away at Penn State in the late 1970s and I don't even have photos of them. We got pretty detailed back then including adding "wiring" and other things under the hood and sometimes working lighting, etc. I did some special effects painting, too, including a neat pasley effect in the middle of a sunburst that resulted from inadvertently mixing lacquer with enamel. Sadly, there's little interest in this kind of thing these days. Same with R/C flying (which I was also involved in) and other creative hobbies. It's all about sports and video games now.

[Bruce Page]

I built dozens of them when I was a kid, I remember them costing a couple of bucks in the late 50’s (~4 weeks allowance). I won a few contests at the corner hobby shop. Revell was my favorite brand.

[Van Huskey]

I did some 1:35 armor kits in the last 10 years. I have always been a scale modeler of some sort, mostly trains. The best armor kits (Tamiya, Dragon, Trumpeter etc) had gotten to about $50 for a main battle tank or similar size and that's before you started adding photo-etched detail parts. I would guess I spent ~125 per kit all in with a small diorama. However, for the time it takes to do a quality build then detail paint and weather them the cost per hour spent is pretty small.

You have to be careful buying kits though, some are re-releases that are being shot into worn out molds so the fit and flashing can be horrendous. I learned to seek out the best kits (joke is you put the glue in the box and shake it and it is assembled) even if they weren't my absolute favorite model.

Also if anyone wants to (re)try their hand at models don't come home with one adhesive (especially if that one is the familiar solvent based gel in a tube AKA Testors for the kids of the 60s and 70s). I would have 10 or so adhesives on hand for any build.

Tenex 7R liquid (the main solvent "plastic welder") almost always applied using capillary action
Testors liquid
Several thicknesses of CA
Micro Krystal Clear for filling small apertures to make windows
White Glue and Testors clear parts cement and window maker
5 minute epoxy
Then some one and two part water soluble putties
And finally some Duco plastic cement (similar but better than the old standby Testors in a tube).

Also if you only buy one model making tool make it a quality sprue cutter!

[John K Jordan]

I might if they made model woodworking tools.

Here ya go. Universal plastic model kit.

lego_woodturning.jpg

JKJ

[Bruce Volden]

Me too, built lotsa them, cars, trucks, planes.
Hadn't really thought much about it until I read your post Dave!!
Also back in the 60's I bought and assembled lotsa 1:24 scale slot cars and raced at the "Dad's Club" track at Schofield Barracks Army base in Hawaii. My favorite was the Tijuana Taxi with
slicks--that thing flew!! Memories--I sometimes forget!

Bruce

[John Terefenko]

Oh man I built many over the years when I was young. I remember when my Dad bought some metal cars to build. I must have painted those things a dozen times changing colors. Then and now I will wake a few people up when they started coming out with truck models such as The Moving ON Kenworth with Claude Atkins if I remember his name. The big rush was the song Convoy. Then all the trucks started showing up with Ertle having some of the neatest well detailed trucks of all kinds. I was much older then and I would really make those look real with working lights, leather seats, real pinstripes. made the lights in the overhead console work as well as dash board lights. Man that brings back memories. I sold quite a few unmade models for $20 each and now they must be worth a fortune.

[John K Jordan]

I've been building models lately, not from plastic but from the Metal Earth kits. Great activity with kids.

We recently assembled a grand piano and C3PO.
http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth/star-wars/c-3po

JKJ