Was everyones route into modelling through Airfix kits???

[bridgiesimon]

One of the early kits I built was the Airfix HMS Belfast, a special project for me as I made it for my Grandfather who served on the Belfast. He kept it safe on a shelf until his death a few years ago and it has returned to me. Despite its dubious build quality, it now has a special place in my display case. I do have another of these kits to make one day but somehow, no matter how high a quality I could do it, I am not sure it will ever be as important to me as the old one!!

Best wishes
Simon

[37214]

Yes, definitely. First kit was a FIAT G91 from the NAAFI shop in Münster (Dad was REME). I had loads of kits, mainly aircraft - living in West Wales as a teenager in the 1980s, there was nothing else to do on long winter nights or wet weekends.

I built a few kits with my son when he was growing up - he's now into Warhammer figures.

Really?  My father was also REME and we lived in Münster from 1973/4 to 1976. I was also a teenager in the 1980s (born in 1964). I remember some of my time in Münster very well, lived in Billerbeckweg and used to play football against the Germans regularly in 20-a-side matches.

I didn't make many Airfix kits at the time but did quite a few Airfix railway kits later on.

Hi @Trainfish

Yes, we lived in a street called Zum Erlenbusch, it was a small Army estate surrounded by private German housing. Our garden backed onto a garden of a German house but I don't recall that we interacted with any of the locals at all other than shopping in a couple of the local food shops.

I used to get the bus to the Army school on the nearby barracks, I'm 1965 vintage 😊

Our family left there early in 1976 and we moved to Borden in Hampshire, I preferred living in Germany actually.

I went back to visit Münster in 1986/7 when I was stationed at RAF Gütersloh, a lot was the same as I remembered but everything looked smaller.

Over the last 7 years I have been able to go out to Germany for several meetings with work and in 2014, I had a 3 month secondment in Karlsrühe; very enjoyable.

[Trainfish]

Yes, definitely. First kit was a FIAT G91 from the NAAFI shop in Münster (Dad was REME). I had loads of kits, mainly aircraft - living in West Wales as a teenager in the 1980s, there was nothing else to do on long winter nights or wet weekends.

I built a few kits with my son when he was growing up - he's now into Warhammer figures.

Really?  My father was also REME and we lived in Münster from 1973/4 to 1976. I was also a teenager in the 1980s (born in 1964). I remember some of my time in Münster very well, lived in Billerbeckweg and used to play football against the Germans regularly in 20-a-side matches.

I didn't make many Airfix kits at the time but did quite a few Airfix railway kits later on.

Hi @Trainfish

Yes, we lived in a street called Zum Erlenbusch, it was a small Army estate surrounded by private German housing. Our garden backed onto a garden of a German house but I don't recall that we interacted with any of the locals at all other than shopping in a couple of the local food shops.

I used to get the bus to the Army school on the nearby barracks, I'm 1965 vintage 😊

Our family left there early in 1976 and we moved to Borden in Hampshire, I preferred living in Germany actually.

I went back to visit Münster in 1986/7 when I was stationed at RAF Gütersloh, a lot was the same as I remembered but everything looked smaller.

Over the last 7 years I have been able to go out to Germany for several meetings with work and in 2014, I had a 3 month secondment in Karlsrühe; very enjoyable.

I've sent you @37214 a PM on this 

[Southerngooner]

I certainly made an awful lot of Airfix kits - planes and trains mainly but some military stuff too. I always tried to build them to the instructions and was proud of my work when doors opened, wheels and valve gear rotated as it should. Most of mine got destroyed when we discovered putting fireworks in any available opening caused wonderful destruction. A Hercules with opening rear door was the best as it had the biggest opening.....

I also made a lots of Keilkraft stuff as the factory was local to us. I made a MiG 15 with Jetex motor that for some reason had a banana shape to the fuselage when viewed from above. It flew for about 20 yards then veered off into a tree and that was the end of that!

Railways have always been my first love and Woolies always had Lone Star while my Triang stuff was sourced from Bermans the local toy shop. I got quite a collection before going off to N when I was 15. Most of that was sourced locally or at Chuffs in the City, a great place to get all that was new or a bit unusual. I've had a couple of times when I've sold up and then started again a few years later but I've always kept up with the Railway Modeller. I've also got a large scale Corsair to build for some reason, maybe that will happen one day when the layout is finished. I can't bring myself to put a lot of time into something that won't last long if it goes into the air!

[guest311]

Jetex motor !

I'd forgotten about them, IIRC blocks of fuel and a length of fuse, light fuse and stand well clear.

could be reused over and over again in cars, planes or boats.

days of our youth.

[PGN]

Born in 1967 and heavily influenced in the early 1970s by my older cousin Steven, who was always building Airfix military, naval and aircraft kits.

I remember visiting their house (without my brother, for some reason) in about 1974, and I remember playing a naval "wargame" with him, using his Airfix ships (a bit awkward, since they weren't waterline models). I'd always been fascinated by his model of HMS Fearless with its landing craft dock, so of course this was the first ship I chose for my fleet ... whilst he chose Bismark. Needless to say, this encounter was a little one-sided!

When they moved to a big country house with its own lake, the stories came in thick and fast. Bismark and Rodney had bolts inserted into the bottom of their hulls to give them stability, and were carefully waterproofed before being launched on the lake. He and a friend then fought a naval battle which involved them both firing at their opponent's ship with air rifles, which  ended with both ships sinking to the bottom of the lake. Another time he and his friend fought a destroyer action on the lawn, lining up their ships and then throwing pieces of chalk at the opposing battle line. Every time a hit was scored, a lighted match was held against the chalk mark, and the owner was allowed one attempt to blow the flames out every ten seconds. Quite a destructive game ... but enormous fun, I imagine.

My own first attempt at building an Airfix kit was the Bristol Blenheim, and all together I think I had 3 of these, but they never went together properly for some reason. The wing upper and wing lower never seemed to mate adequately.

Other kits followed ... tanks and other other aeroplanes. I remember my mother having kittens when I put drawing pins into my bedroom ceiling to hang a stuka and ME110. None of my models were ever painted.

Interest in railways had always been latent from my early days. I have a friend who had a train set (Lima OO class 31 and three blue/grey coaches) and I really wanted one too ... but diesels never did it for me. I wanted steam. (Blame the Rev W Wadry for that one ... )

I remember going to the closing down sale of the Cambridge department store Laurie & McConnell in about 1976 or 1977, and seeing the "Rural Rambler" train set in the toy department. I really really REALLY wanted on ... but didn't get it!

My father was always adamant that if you were going to have a model railway, you should always choose the smallest scale on the market, in order that you could be as ambitious as possible in the space available ... and this was N. He bought a variety of catalogues and I spent hours poring over them and planning hopelessly unrealistic layouts before, in 1979, he agreed to buy me a model railway for my 12th birthday. And so, during our summer holiday in Cornwall, we went to a big toy shop in Helston, which had a model railway department upstairs, and I became the proud owner of a Graham Farish "General Purpose" 0-6-0T in LMS black no 7313, six assorted Peco PO trucks, a Peco LMS brake van, an H&M Clipper controller and enough track to have a decent-sized oval for it to run round. Over time a Lima 4F and a Farish 4P (both in LMS black) and a number of LMS passenger vehicles were added. And the rest, as they say, is history ...

[Bealman]

Strange, that. I began designing hopelessly unrealistic layouts in 1979 too, but at age when I should have known better 

[Hailstone]

My earliest memory of Airfix kits was the Golden Hind that my father made for me and I started building Airfix kits at an early age 8, my first kit? the Spitfire in 1/72. by the time I was 10 (1966) I was showing a cousin of about the same age how to apply the transfers. the biggest kit I built was the 1/24th Spitfire which hung from my bedroom ceiling, propeller turning when I had visitors!

Regards,

Alex

[Airfix 27 RA]

oh yes....
parts in a plastic bag, with a printed header/instruction sheet, 2/- of my pocket money on each model.
happy days

Two bob for a series 1 kit, you were robbed, the toy shop I brought mine from charged 1s/11d.
Yes, I am still building.

[joe cassidy]

I used to buy my kits from Woolies in Reading.

They also had a great postage stamp section, which was one of my other hobbies.

I also remember buying kits from a hardware shop on, I think, the Shinfield road.

For railways there was Eames, with their fantastic display layout, and then Hills (or was it Heels) for Britains 1/32 scale soldiers.

Happy memories !


Joe

[37214]

@Trainfish      but didn't tag you, did you see it?

[Trainfish]

@Trainfish      but didn't tag you, did you see it?

I did indeed @37214 , thanks. I'm just waiting for confirmation but 2nd Royal Tank Regiment definitely rings a bell, I'm pretty sure he was attached to them