Born to build

I often wonder what got my brother and I into building models.  Certainly when we were young, there was much more of a culture for doing so.  There were hobby stores, dime stores and corner variety stores everywhere and they all had a section for models and supplies.  I want to go into my influences. (I can’t speak for my brother here, he’ll have to post his own if he wants.)

I remember from a very early age, I scratchbuilt.  I was influenced by the miniatures in movies especially the Gary Anderson ones like Thunderbirds, Supercar, Stingray etc.  Being British, those models were not readily available and I didn’t have any money anyhow. so I would collect bits and pieces of bubble pack, wood and certainly cardboard and paper and with the wonder of Elmers glue, start sticking stuff together.  (One early lesson of caution, Elmers is not good for submarines and boats).  As I got older, I started carving shapes and working with foamboard (and Paper).  I remember having rollerskate cases full of bit and pieces, motors, wires, sprue and unused plastic.

Here’s another weird memory thing, that I’m sure had an influence years later when we started CM.  Our mom ws crazy for peel and stick decorative vinyl.  She would cover everything with that stuff.  There was a lot of plastic wood grain in our house.  My dad built a faux building front on his basement work room complete with roof shingle eaves and plastic vinyl brick paper and it even had plastic vines on the fake brick wall.

Those of you who remember when we sold peel and stick brick paper will understand the flashback feeling I sometimes get wile reminiscing.  As a family we made a lot of the stuff we wanted.

Of course there were train layouts, but what I want to share is the primal drive to build things.

I’d bet a lot of you have similar memories.  I’m just continually amazed how many of those early experiences are directly linked to me today.

Ok, lets get on with it. It’s 2012.

Comments

[John Humes]

Thom,

At the age of 10 I started with Guillows airplane balsa stick models..Over the years I have tried sail boats, gas powered boats, RC planes and cars..bl..bla. But always I keep coming back to model railroading. I am now 73 and still at it.

The best to you,

John

[Gael]

Well, I'll throw in my 2 cents worth on how I got started building models . . . . About age 8, I started using modeling clay to make things, not clay pots, but cars, and airplanes, mostly. I tried to make them with "working" doors, etc. Then, I'd build boats out of pieces of wood, and later it was cars you could sit in made out of sand in our backyard sandbox. My Dad was always building plastic airplane kits, probably because he was in the Air Force Reserves at the time. That got me going on building them, too, and I had a ton of them hanging from my bedroom ceiling with thread. About age 12, I started building military models, and later on it became plastic car kits by the ton! Fast forward a million years, and no model building whatsoever during that era. Then, in the late 70's a Christmas present re-ignited things(I was a married adult at that time), and yes, it was a TYCO train set, which got me going on trains, then came the kits, and kits, and kits, and more kits! YIKES, kits all over the place. And, the rest is history. I actually had a train, I think it was an American Flyer, at age 4, but only remember it vaguely. That must have planted the seed!
Gael

[Dave]

These are great stories. keep them coming.