Your Very First WW-I Aircraft-What was It?

[skeeterbuck]

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!  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

[eclarson]

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 



Cheers,
Eric

[James]

When I was a kid in the 1970's, I believe it was either the Testor's Nieuport or SPAD 1/48.

[sobrien]

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.

[uncletony]

Can't remember for sure, but this set was one of them:



also these were memorable:

[petrov27]

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....

[jamieg]

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

[radio]

My where an old Faller kit the Fokker Dr.I in 1:100 scale.
Cheers
Martin

[Nigel Jackson]

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

[macsporran]

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

[Kreston]

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!

[oldalbie]

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!

[Des]

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.

[Thumbs up]

Airfix RE8 back in the sixties using black cotton thread for the rigging,Awsome!

[Flute]

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.