Modelers Lounge > The Nostalgia Board
Back to the glory days of the hobby
Dave W:
It's a fact that simply seeing the box art for some of the old 1960s Ww1 model kits instantly brings back all the exciting memories of those days when a new kit cost pocket money change and opened a whole new hobby world to us all.
My personal favourite kit and the one that still evokes those happy times was the Revell 1/72 SE5a
Revell and Airfix dominated the WW1 hobby in 1/72 and the box arts still evoke warm memories.
Airfix's WW1 kits were also must-haves.
In 1/48 scale the Aurora kits dominated, among them:
In New Zealand we were introduced to affordable 1/48 WW1 kits through the Merit brand, UK adaptations of Aurora moulds, sold in a generic box.
Looking at today's state of the art releases it's fascinating to see how far the hobby has progressed since the early days.
What's your favourite model from the classic era of WW1 kits?
Dave Wilson
Gold Coast
Australia
lcarroll:
All of that great box art brings back fond memories of happy and much simpler times! I believe I probably built most of the Revell and Airfix WW.I subjects but it was the Aurora line of Great War classics which really captivated our "gang" of model crazy youngsters in the mid to late 50's. Although Kit Links shows 1956 and 1958 for the line's debut it seems closer then that, but I guess as the saying goes, "time passes quickly when you're having fun"! I think it was the Fokker D.VII and the SE5a that really got my fascination. The D.VII came in a dark green plastic with black accessories and IIRC the SE in an olive drab. (Perhaps this could have been the elusive "Real PC.10"!!) As Dave points out these kits could be had for pocket change back then however it's all relative. I was running two full paper delivery routes at the time and made just over $4.00 per week. That gave me enough cold cash for payments to my Mother for the big Schwinn Bike I bought with a loan from her and at least a Kit every weekend (remember, a kit could be completed in an evening or better, with "the Guys" on a Saturday afternoon! Now we could easily make the equivalent of a Mortgage Payment for a Wingnut's Kit on the Web!
Great theme Dave, happy times and great memories! I still have the Monogram version of the original D.VII in my stash, I'll never build it but it's a treasure I'll never part with either!
Cheers,
Lance
Alexis:
I must admit that I have never built any of those kits at all . I started off with those mongrama's snap fit . First one was their P-51D Mustang and form there is was gluing and getting it ever where except for on the model . I have built a lot of the early balsa planes and some of them even flew for a second or two , but I didn't care about that . It was building it which was the must fun .
Alexis
lone modeller:
Evening All,
For those of us over a certain age, this brings back lots of memories of visits to Woolworth's for Airfix kits (which when I started modelling were 2 shillings in real money, (10 pence in today's currency), for a series one kit. I did have a local model shop - they sold Frog kits and later Revell, but I never saw the Aurora kits. The model shop also sold Kiel Kraft flying models made from balsa but they were far too difficult for me to make as I was even more ham-fisted then than I am now. A local cycle shop also sold a range of Airfix kits so I was really spoiled for choice on a Saturday morning. I built almost all subjects at the time, so inevitably I built the WW1 range: and like many others I had fads about certain subjects/periods so I did build WW1 aircraft, but I did not really get into them properly until I was well past my teenage years, by which time I had learned to rig them with stretched sprue.
I have always been a bit of a hoarder, and started young.... Seeing Dave's images of some of the box tops and headers reminded me that I have a collection of header/instruction sheets of almost every model which I made as a youngster, so I paid a visit to my attic and found the following, which may bring back some memories for others over a certain age....!
These are original Airfix headers from the late 1950's when they started to release kits in plastic bags. These were bought in the early 1960's before new header designs were introduced. The Albatros, Fokker Dr 1, Sopwith Camel, Bristol Fighter and RE 8 were among the very first aircraft kits released by Airfix: all pre-date 1960. The 2/3 on the RE 8 header means 2 shillings and three pennies, (there were 12 pennies in a shilling), and was the first price increase that I can remember.
In the mid-1960's Airfix introduced new headers for their kits, so that they now appeared as follows:
The next WW1 type was the Roland CII whcih was an incredibly good kit for its time, as the observer's scarf was caught by the wind. The level of detail was also greatly superior to the earlier kits. Then in 1967/8 three new kits were released at almost the same time: the DH 4, Avro 504 and Spad VII, and finally a little later the Hannover Cl II:
The Hannover was particularly exciting for me because it had to be painted in lozenge camouflage, (there were no transfers then), - what a challenge that was! Airfix also released the Handley Page 0/400 in the late 1960's but I do not have a box top of that kit.
Revell kits were more expensive than Airfix - as I recall they were approximately 2/6 against Airfix 2/-, so value for money was not the same. However the Revell kits offered a different range and the Fokker Triplane and Sopwith Camel were definitely better mouldings. In addition to the box tops that Dave had shown, the others were as follows:
Eventually the prices of Revell and Airfix series one kits became almost the same, and as my income had also increased the difference in price did not matter any more, well not to me at least!
Revell also issued three 1/28 scale kits: the Fokker Triplane, D VII and Sopwith Camel. Although I saw the Camel and Dr I in my local model shop, I never saw the Fokker D VII and to this day I have never seen the latter as a kit, although I have seen them as completed models. I only bought and built the Dr I:
It is not only the box artwork which has changed in the passing years: the quality of the content and range of types in different scales has changed too. It is no wonder that many of us learned to convert models using the limited materials available. However if you want to know what modelling was like in the very early days, just try an early Airfix kit - they have not been retooled and although the moulds are now very worn, they still give an accurate impression of what was on offer 50+ years ago - and they were pretty good for the time!
Ah memories....
Stephen.
lcarroll:
Lots of wonderful memories there Stephen, they are all indeed great pieces of the past! I remember many of them, some from the only real "Hobby Shop" in our city when I was in my early to mid teens but most from the smaller variety stores and local Woolworths Department Store. Those plastic bagged "treasures" took hours to make the final choice on!
50+ years ago ........
Cheers,
Lance
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