forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
WW1 Aircraft Modeling => Hints and Tips/Questions about modeling => Topic started by: skeeterbuck on September 26, 2015, 12:10:51 AM
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This is the first kit I ever built. With those MG's blazing away what was there NOT to like about that menacing sharklike Hun machine! ;D I remember the fit being rather good and it going together rather without a hitch for a biplane kit. Of course no rigging and a minimum if any painting as the goal then was to get it ready for "play" flying. The pilot glancing off to the side as the ground crewman prepares to spin the prop when he hears the call "contact"!
This kit to this day still brings back fond childhood memories of long ago. :'(
Note: "play flying" is moving the plane around in one hand while making motor and MG sounds to simulate combat dogfighting! ::)
Chuck
(http://www.oldmodelkits.com/jpegs/Aurora%20104-79%20DIIItear.JPG)
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To the best of my recollection, my first WWI aircraft models in the days of my youth were 1/72 Airfix kits. The three I remember having were the Roland C.II, Hannover, and deHavilland DH.4. Which one I actually built first is something I can't recall.
As for the first built as an adult, that took place 6 or 7 years ago and was a 1/48 DML Fokker Dr.1
(http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg61/elarson1123/PB050002.jpg) (http://s245.photobucket.com/user/elarson1123/media/PB050002.jpg.html)
Cheers,
Eric
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When I was a kid in the 1970's, I believe it was either the Testor's Nieuport or SPAD 1/48.
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I believe my first one was also the Aurora Albatross D III. After that would have been the Revell 1/72 kits. I think, it was 50 years ago.
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Can't remember for sure, but this set was one of them:
(http://www.oldmodelkits.com/jpegs/Revell%20G293-500%20Dogfighters.JPG)
also these were memorable:
(http://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/renwalwwiboxendsall12.jpg)
(http://www.internetmodeler.com/awn/98-august/renwal_aeroskin.jpg)
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pretty sure it was a Revell 1/28 Camel or maybe the DrI - my finish results were shall we say, "poor" lol
Really got rolling on WW1 stuff in maybe my mid teens when I went to a wargaming convention and they had a air combat game that used various Revell and Airfix 1/72 kits built attached to tall rods on bases to depict elevation above ground - that got the interest really going....
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Hi all;
September, 1965; the local drugstore which had never carried models before got in some of the Revell 1/72 WWI and WWII kits. I ended up buying every one of them ( Espanola is a small town and nobody else seemed to be interested) over the course of the next two years, starting with WWI and the Fokker D.VII in particular. I got my first Aurora kit when those ran out in 1966, the Nieuport 28.
Jamie
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My where an old Faller kit the Fokker Dr.I in 1:100 scale.
Cheers
Martin
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Well, it would have to have been one of the early Airfix range, though I guess that my nose might have pressed against the local model shop window more than once gazing in wonder at the alluring but simply unaffordable Aurora models.
Best wishes
Nigel
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Great topic, Chuck, really starts the memories flowing!
I can well remember my first model. I had an older brother and my folks bought us an Airfix Gladiator and a Spitfire. He pulled rank and claimed the Spit and I got the Gladiator. I reckon I was about 5 so it would have been '58 or '59 and I remember the canopy melted cos I filled it with glue. Some things never change!
This hooked me on models though and all my pocket money went on Airfix kits, either from Woolworths or the local joinery shop who started stocking this new craze.
You used to get a packing slip in the bag in case of any missing parts and on the back was a list of all Airfix kits. I think the Gladiator had about a dozen other models listed and every new kit I got immediately necessitated a look at this to see what else was being released.
My first WWI was either the Camel, Albatros (lovely blue plastic), or the RE8 or F2B. I remember the RE was a pig to get the struts aligned.
Then the local newsagent got the Aurora Playcraft WWI range and suddenly we had black plastic wheels and guns as well as groundcrew, not to mention struts that actually supported the top wing. Nirvana! That was it for me, WWI all the way ever since.
I still did build everything else under the sun, but WWI always had a special place thanks to the Aurora Dr1, Camel, SE, D7 etc. (Never liked the Albatros - looked too bloated compared to the graceful Airfix one!)
S
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Aurora Nieuport II. Bought it at the drugstore in my grandparents home town when I was spending a couple weeks with them. This would have been the mid to late 60's. Great memories!
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Skeeterbuck,
The Aurora Alb. D. III was also my first WWI. Bought it from the local five & dime because I liked the lurid cover art. I think I painted it all black, no rigging of course.
Great memories!
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Like most of us old guys here, I started modeling way back in the mid to late 50's, so I built whatever was available at the time in my small town.
Des.
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Airfix RE8 back in the sixties using black cotton thread for the rigging,Awsome!
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De-lurking 'cos I can't resist the memory lane thing. My first WWI kit was actually an Airfix dogfight double, the Bristol F2b and Fokker DrI. I still have the Biff top wing, and a couple from the triplane, so I can state with certaintly that I didn't paint the latter, but the Biff had Airfix silver paint slapped all over it. Must have been around 1965. The first thing I rigged OTOH was an Airfix Avro 504K, with black stretched sprue, in 1972 or 3. Still got most of that in a box somewhere except the top wing.
Paul.
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Searching my memory. I'm not 100% sure, but it must have been the Airfix 1:72 Sopwith Pup in the second half of the seventies. Either the Pup or the Avro 504 which was around thesame time. Before that time my models were mostly ww2 planes and my selection was mostly based on the number of parts in a kit. That time building was more important than the model.
regards,
Ivo
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My first WWI kit was the ancient Hawk SPAD XIII. Actually it was a Father and son,and mostly my Father.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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My very first plastic model was a WW1 Biplane
an olive green Revell Nieuport 17 in 72 which was enclosed in the first weekly issue of "Storia Dell'Aviazione". They gave some 40 models along the 120 issues needed to complete that enciclopedy - all Airfix series 1 and revell red box fighters.
My father decided to take a slow path in building that model, so he joined the two fuselage and left them to dry out, but the day after, when he pressed the cowl in place the fuselage was broken since the glue had beefed up the model.
It took more than a year for him before buying another plastic model for me.
In the meanwhile he bought some Edison die cast biplanes for me and this is how it all started...
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My first WW1 model was a Revel DR.1.
My first ever model was an Airfix spitfire. On the couple of occasions when I've taken a lengthy break from modelling my comeback kit has always been an Airfix Spitfire.
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De-lurking 'cos I can't resist the memory lane thing. My first WWI kit was actually an Airfix dogfight double, the Bristol F2b and Fokker DrI. I still have the Biff top wing, and a couple from the triplane, so I can state with certaintly that I didn't paint the latter, but the Biff had Airfix silver paint slapped all over it. Must have been around 1965. The first thing I rigged OTOH was an Airfix Avro 504K, with black stretched sprue, in 1972 or 3. Still got most of that in a box somewhere except the top wing.
Paul.
Glad you decide to take the plunge Paul. Welcome aboard! I'm a sucker for the "memory lane" thing myself. ;)
Chuck
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It was one of the Aurora WW I planes either the D VII, Triplane or Ald. D-III. Like Des it was in the '50s...
Ed
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My first WW1 aircraft build is Eduards SSW D.III when it was first released in 95 . Second one was the Hannover .
Terri
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Don't remember exactly which was first, but it was one of the Aurora or Hawk kits. Know I painted the Albatros D III all black of course and Fokker triplane all red even though plastic was red to begin with. They all eventually went down in flames with a dab of glue, a firecracker with shortened fuse and a match. It was in the mid 50's.
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Mine was the Revell Fokker Triplane in 72nd scale. That would have been 1982 or 83.
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I came late to the party. My adventure with WW1 is now 9 yrs old, compared to overall 37 yrs of my modelling it is nothing. My first was this (Roden, Curtiss H.16 1/72)
(http://www.ikb.poznan.pl/przemyslaw.litewka/modele_pliki/h16-10.jpg)
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I came late to the party. My adventure with WW1 is now 9 yrs old, compared to overall 37 yrs of my modelling it is nothing. My first was this (Roden, Curtiss H.16 1/72)
(http://www.ikb.poznan.pl/przemyslaw.litewka/modele_pliki/h16-10.jpg)
Very nice too Prezy!
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That would have been in the mid, or maybe even early, 1950s. I had fallen in with another nerd in grade school who insisted that we both buy a Guillows (?) balsa and paper airplane and build it in one day at his house. We did. It was a Fokker Dr.1 covered in red tissue paper. It was like smoking pot. Just led to more and more...
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when i was young i built 1/72 tanks mostly. first ww1 plane which got me back into modelling as well as started on the path that led me here was the guillows fokker dr.1 balsa tissue model 1/12 scale in mvr 425/17 livery. i knew so little that i added a control panel thinking it must have had one.the gauges were hand painted.it broke a few years ago in a move. second and 1st plastic was an eduard 1/48 nieuport 17 followed by an eduard pfalz d.iii
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SPAD VII, Airfix 1:72. Bought it for my pocketmoney (1,75 DM) at the local stationary-shop. Must have been in 1973. I was a schoolboy and had just read Gunther Plüschow's "Der Flieger von Tsing-Tao". Next book I read was Hans Baur's autobiography and I loved the chapter of his time as a Hannover Cl pilot with a bavarian artillery spotting unit: He managed to shoot down nine or so EA, once six SPAD in a single fight! I then was more than happy to find that Airfix had a Hannover Cl IIIa too. And a Roland C II! And an Albatros, a Sopwith Pup, Avro 504... I bought and built them all and there's still a deep feeling of home and happiness, when I think of all those weekends I spent diving into my Airfix catalogue...
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LOL WarrenD ! Ten, Twenty, Thirty or more the Bloody Red Baron shot'em down. That's a great spirit lifting trip down Memory Lane. I think I may still have that 45 somewhere.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
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I think my first WWI Kit was the Aurora Ni 11 with the rockets mounted on the "V" Struts. I had built the Aurora WWII kits starting with the Hellcat, the release of WWI subjects took care of my paper delivery wages for the next several years. Great memories, and the Kits were a real step forward for the day, longer ago then I wish to dwell on!! :o
Cheers,
Lance
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I started modeling back in the Fred Flintstone era with Aurora and Airfix WW1 kits in the last 1950 and Revell (1/72) WW1 kits in the early 1960's. I remember the pricing; Aurora WW1 single-seat models were 69 cents and the two-seaters were 98 cents. The Airfix Triplane was 29 cents and the two-seaters were 50 cents. You'd hit the library and checkout the hardbound Profiles books and look over the various color schemes. Small bottles of enamel and tube glue were 10 cents each.
I probably built the Fokker DVII by Aurora first. They were designed for kids to built; low parts count, two different plastic colors just in case you didn't want to paint it and the locations for the decals were etched on to the parts just to make sure you knew what you were going. I remember building the S.E. 5 and Camel early on as well. I remember painting the loz pattern on the Fokker DVIII wing to match the cool box art and then seeing the Profile sans the loz on the wings - early lesson in checking your sources before painting.
Charlie
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Coo, this is testing the grey cells :).
I do remember my first plastic was the ubiquitous Airfix blue Spitfire in the polybag - two shillings (?) from Woolworth ('Woolies') but first WW1??? Hmmm not so sure, Definitely the Sopwith Camel as far as those Keil-Kraft flying models were concerned - but I don't recall anything Airfix except perhaps the Bristol F2B. I think my first successful WW1 plastic was one of the Merit 1/48 range - still available I believe.
I do remember making an Airfix DVa for a 'plastic' competition at our model flying club in the late sixties. I scratched an internal structure from sprue built over the scale drawings in the Aeromodeller magazine and rigged it with 5 amp fuse wire !! Finished in the colours shown inside the cover of the relevant Profile magazine and mounted on a cigar box lid covered with stick back green baize ::) it came second because the judge (the local model shop owner and in later years a really great friend, Stan Gooderham) thought the purple and green camouflage was fictitious. My first experience of competition and 'judging'. Oh how I wish old Stan was still around.
Thanks for the nostalgia hit guys
Regards - Tug
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Aurora Albatros. Don't remember the model though. Early 1950s I think. Been partial to the Albatros since, just behind the Eindecker though.
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Back in Junior High School around 1966 or 1967 I built a SE5a kit. Seems it was about 1/72 in scale. Don't remember the company who made it. Been too many years ago.
Glenn
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My memory on this is very good - my first WW1 kit is the WNW Snipe and I'm still building it ;D. But I started model making back in the 60's - Airfix and the occasional Tamiya - everything - planes, cars, ships, tanks but never anything from WW1 unfortunately.
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My first WW1 plane was one of the venerable Revell 1/72 kits in the late 60's. Couldn't tell you which one, but I built them all. Then it was moving uo to the revell 1/28 kits.
Sean
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This is a great topic, guys, thanks for creating it!
I got into WWI modelling when I was 15, i. e. 20 years ago. Not very surprisingly, my first model was a scratchbuilt Eindecker, made of paper and steel wire. :) Already then I was clear about the scale of my heart, it was 1/144.
Cheers
Ondra
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My very first WWI model was a Guillow Camel my dad and I (well, mostly my dad) built. Crashed it (rubber powered free Flight).
My first successful build on my own was a Revell 1/72 Albatros. There were some failed attempts at Revell 1/72 and 1/28 before the Albatros happened to me.
Present day, getting back into it, first kit is bought is the Encore/Roden McCudden Se5a. Doesn't ship outside the US so it may not be my first WWI build upon returning to modeling. Based on threads I read on Aerodrome, it may take a few decades before I have any idea what pc-10 is...
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Only relatively recently for me, when I was getting back into modelling. It would be the Airfix RNAS Pup in 1:72 as part of a box set of naval aircraft through the years.
Needless to say it wasn't a great build!
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Airfix Arvo 504 nightfighter conversion from a Airfix magazine early 1970s
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Airfix Roland Cl II in the mid sixties
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Airfix Roland Cl II in the mid sixties
I've been racking my brain, I think that was my first too. Unpainted, light blue with glue splodges
It may have been part of a Dogfight Double
Richard
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I'd have to say probably an Aurora 1/48th Nieuport 28. Probably around 1962 or 1963.
Tim Pivonka
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Hard to say for sure at this late date, but the best candidate is a Revell 1/28 S.P.A.D. XIII --- I have a strong memory of the pieces, the motor in particular, and a place I was living in the late fifties....
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I'm pretty sure it was this kit by Revell, a 1/72 S.E.5a. Purchased after watching the 'Aces High' film.
(http://www.danskemodelbyggere.dk/forum/gallery/7698-100717074843-119462354.jpeg)
I think it was around 1977. At the time I planned on building a Squadron of S.e.5a's...
This dream was finally realized this year, 40 years later, but in 1/32 scale.
Regards: Kent
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Hard to say for sure at this late date, but the best candidate is a Revell 1/28 S.P.A.D. XIII --- I have a strong memory of the pieces, the motor in particular, and a place I was living in the late fifties....
I have fond memories of that model. It is one of the first I finished 'properly' - painted, transfers, the lot. Well, perhaps not the rigging
I can remember repairing it too
Richard
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Hi.
New member inspired to buy (but yet to build!) the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Snipe Late.
This will be my first biplane model.
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Pretty sure it was Aurora Albatros painted all black. Built mid 50's.
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I guess I should chime in here. Close to Des and Ed, Mine was probably built in 1959 or 1960. I remember building the Lindberg Jenny in one afternoon and sitting it in the rear window of my fathers car. As we traveled home I watched the wing collapse forward from excess glue and window heat! After that it was Aurora and then Revelle and Airfix kits. I remember the Airfix fighters were $.29 at the local drug storein the late 60s'!
RAGIII
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I reckon mine was this one... and the rest of the series thereafter.
I know I must have made some WW1 Airfix kits but can't recall which ones ???
(http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac29/Gisbod/f00c6743caf522770eee2bd1968a521e.jpg)
Guy
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Mine was the Airfix 1/72 Sopwith Pup.
Made it in mid-70s I recall (when I bought a kit, took it home, glued, painted it and hung it on the ceiling all in the same day!).
Cannot recall its demise, but no trace now exists...
Matt
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My first plastic WW1 kit was the Lindberg Curtiss Jenny, sometime around when I was 8-10 years old back in the early 90's. Second plastic one was an Eduard Sopwith Triplane. Also very close to those in time was a Sterling Sopwith Camel stick-and-tissue free-flight model, which I remember being a great flier. I still have all 3, though the Camel's flying days have ended. My very first model ever ever was a 1:25 AMT 1927 Ford model T when I was 6 years old, and since it did not survive the rigors of childhood I have since searched out another to build and have it waiting in the car stash. Airplanes come first though!