Full Circle?

[eindecker]

I can still distinctly remember, back in the 1950s, when I discovered plastic scale modeling. A couple of the 'five and dime' stores in town, in fact, the only ones, had a small collection of model kits for sale. I used to spend hours looking them over, trying to decide which one to buy that week. I remember seeing my first WWi model kit, an Albatros i'm sure, although I don't remember whhich model company made it. Aurora? Monogram? Anyway, I was totally smitten. i built that one and every one I could find after that. I can remember building one of those large scale Revell SPADs (I'm pretty sure it was...) with the shiny, silver twine incuded for the rigging. Must have been about 1960.

After getting back into it about 15 years ago, i discovered Eduard and built many of their WWI kits. The very first kit I bought when i returned to modelig was their 1:72 Fokker F.1  I remember being surprised at how small it was.

Now, since Wingnut Wings has been producing WWI kits, I have discovered that i'm really not interested in most other types and eras of aircraft. i've built lots of different ones, of course, and have a few - very few- non-WWI and non-WnW kits in my stash. A big scale Tamiya F1, a Porsche 917 Le Mans (from the McQueen movie), wooden ship kit and a few others, but now I find I am really happy with the intersection of WWi history, WnW kits and my increasing involvement in developing my skills and building slowly and carefully.

All this to say that I'm living my 1950s modeling dream now in a way that I never thought possible. And, that this forum is an integral part of that since, like some of you, i live in a modeling wasteland with almost no interaction from actual people in my little town who have any interest in modeling at all.

OK. Now, back to plotting which Wingnuts Wings model I need to order next, and how to pay for the thing.

[Michael Scarborough]

Well, Herr Eindekker, this is a delightful story and a well written read to enjoy over one's first cuppa in the morning.....it would be any time of day. Bless you for posting it.

It's interesting how seamlessly your history joins with mine and, I am sure, that of a lot of the folks that populate this website.

Speaking of no interaction......I can remember the first day of summer vacation after third grade as if it were happening now. I was overjoyed not to be sitting at a school desk, but, instead, to be at the little bench my dad had made for me in my bedroom...after I had sworn NEVER to get paint on the floor. I was applying Testors gloss RED paint to an Airfix 1/72 Fokker Triplane. All the while, I could hear my friends in the next yard playing baseball and it wasn't so much that I wanted to be with them, but I knew that it was probably more proper by the day's Cold War All-American standards for a boy to be outside playing baseball than sitting solitary in a room. Glad I listened to the different drummer.  And glad that all of us who enjoy this solitary pursuit can now share our solitude.

So, again, thanks for sharing this story.

Cheers fro NYC, where it's amazingly easy to be solitary when one so chooses,
Michael

[Ian from Doncaster]

But did you manage to avoid getting the red paint on the carpet?

I think many of us will have dabbled with modelling as children - some with more success than others - before returning in later years.

One of my latter efforts as a youth was during university years, where we designed and built a representative frame/structure for mechanical testing, out of aluminium tubes, riveted plates etc.  It was nothing to do directly with aviation (apart from that was the basis of the technologies we were studying) but my colleague and I, who were both joining the RAF, decided to paint our construction in cold-war era camouflage markings (think Vulcan grey/green) complete with roundel decals, just for fun.

Didn't touch anything associated with modelling for twenty years, until relatively recently!

[lone modeller]

And, that this forum is an integral part of that since, like some of you, i live in a modeling wasteland with almost no interaction from actual people in my little town who have any interest in modeling at all.

Oh how I can relate to that….hence my forum name.

Yes the story sounds familiar except that I am a little younger so my experiences started a little later. I have never been one to blow my own trumpet - confidence is not my strong suit - so I never considered that my models whereof interest until a photographic aviation journalist friend saw one. (This is back in the late 1970's). He happened to know the then assistant editor of Airfix Magazine who said that she would be interested in an article on the model in question - the Avro Manchester converted from the Airfix Lancaster. An article duly appeared - much to my complete surprise. It did stimulate me to write a second on a the Frog Vimy which I had spent some time and effort bringing to early post WW1 standard. The article for that appeared in a minor magazine which was shortly after absorbed into Scale Models….. and then I stopped modelling altogether until a couple of years ago.

When I restarted I made a couple of Matchbox biplanes (not WW1 of course) and then fulfilled  an old desire, the Airfix 0/400. It was while making that that I discovered the unfinished Vickers FB5 and FB9 Gunbuses in the attic which I had completely forgotten, so I decided to see if I had the skill to finish them: the results are already on this site. That was the end of kits for me - it is conversions and scratch-builds only now - which is where I had originally left off over 30 years previously. But my old thoughts that nobody else would be interested lingered on and so I did not tell anyone what I was doing. Then quite by chance I made contact with a very keen WW1 modeller, who also builds some amazing conversions (and now scratch-builds), via the net and he urged me to put up some posts. Then I happened on this forum, and after a long delay got the cooperage to post the Gunbuses mentioned above. I can honestly write that I was blown away by the response - I had not anticipated anything like what was posted. I felt that I had at last found a home and that I could share with others what has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. The positive comments that are posted on this site have encouraged me to write more posts on other conversions and scratch-builds that I thought were only of interest to about three other people in the world - after all WW1 is esoteric enough, but when the subject turns to pushers and other very little known types even among WW1 enthusiasts, what should I expect? The net and fora like this mean that although we cannot meet face to face, we can at least be part of a community of sorts.

Because of this forum I recently met one of our number (Epeeman) through a local club - so the story continues to unfold. Who knows what that connection will bring? Anyway as one member of this forum wrote to me a while ago - I am no longer alone as a member of this forum…..thanks to all of you.

[WarrenD]

Thanks for sharing that Eindecker. Like a lot of you, my intro was similar, but a little later in 1966. My first WWI a/c model was came in,  . . oh . . I guess it was 1968 or '69, and it was the Aurora Nieuport bought at the Mason's Department/Variety Store in Anniston, Ala. After that came the Revell 1/72nd Fokker Tripe, Camel, SPAD, etc.  It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown didn't hurt any either. (I've still got both of my 45's from The Royal Guardsmen.)
In the 90's I toyed with the idea of coming back to the fold, saw some Eduard kits advertised by Squadron, found an ad for Cross & Cockade, Meikraft, etc. and the hook was set. The first website I found when I got online in the late 90's was the WWI Modeling Page/List.  I've never really looked back, but I do have an interest in a/c up through 1944.
I live in a rural, economically depressed county in western/south-central Kentucky, the county seat is only 2,000 souls give or take. Despite spending a good bit at a local hobby shop 30 mi. away, it eventually folded, so all of my purchases now come mail order only.
Like you, I practice my hobby in isolation. I sometimes envy those who live near an active club so they can share their passion. Hopefully, I can make some meets that are 3-5 hours away this year.

Warren

[RAGIII]

Michael,
Really great to read your story! Like you I can remember building those old Aurora kits in the late 50s early 60s. I remember that My Grandmother who had 25 grandchildren,( Catholic Family)  Sent me 2 gifts one Christmas which were the Original Aurora DVII and Fokker DR1 which I had picked out of the Aurora Catalogue. Probably about 1962 so I was 9 years old, and she probably didn't go over her $4.00 budget! Unlike many my passion never left me and I continued to build without stopping for girls, college or any of the other annoying distractions. I built WW1 continuously, Revelle, Airfix/Airfix Craftmaster, Renwall, etc. until the 70s. I was fortunate to be in a Model/Hobby shop rich environment and through the Local Miami Model club met a Modeler who was  born and raised in  Anniston  Alabama( Warren, this is for you). He was the BEST builder I have ever encountered and soon had me looking at Japanese Aircraft from the Second WW because of their diverse color schemes. From there I expanded to Luftwaffe, British and US WW11 stuff. Like Warren, the first Internet site I settled on was the WW1 list and the die was cast to get me back almost exclusively to WW1 Aircraft. My Mentor Gary Windjack passed away last year and the Modeling world Lost a True building genius. He was doing things in the early 70s that blew away all of the competition, casting parts in epoxy, scratch building 1/28th Albatros wings overnight, etc. So enough digressing, Now in the Mountains of NC, if it weren't for the Web I would be Truly Alone in my Modeling !
RAGIII

[ALBATROS1234]

damn i was born in 68 but i alway s remember being facinated with that period of history, the blue max film, the red baron, even in the 90s before i was modelling again i used to play the video game the "red ace" flying nieuports and camels to shoot down fokkers. i built models in the late 70s mostly 1/72 ww2 armor. i didnt have much interest in ww2 model planes like my friends did although i did build a few.around 2005 i decided i wanted to build something and went into a local hobby shop and bumped into the guillows dr.1 in red baron colors and i was imediately brought back to childhood facination with this period in history. this was my 1st ww1 aircraft kit.