Building models in the "old days"

[CG]

When I was a kid we built models. Cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, chopper trikes, monsters (wolfman etc) what ever turned our crank at the hobby shop.

Models were what I would call cheap back then, but Im not sure what it equates to in todays dollars, they start in the 20's today. Save a couple bday dollars, do some chores around the neighborhoods, collect pop bottles, anything to have some coin, Next beg a trip to the hobby shop or Kmart or wherever they sold them.

We had a couple of old wooden military foot lockers filled with excess parts and pieces and stuff we didnt display in our rooms anymore. So fun to build stuff out of that.

At one time we had a bunch of WWII planes hanging from our ceiling. My dad built the Wright Brothers plane with all the crazy wires, he used black thread for that. We hung it up too.

One evening when our folks weren't home and the sitter was in the other room with the two youngest brothers my other brother and I were having a sword fight in our room with our pool cues from our mini pool table. It was fun and to make it even more fun I shut off the light. Scared my brother so he took a wild swing. He smashed the Wright Brothers plane my dad took so long to build.

Oh man we both got in trouble for that one.

We used to blow them up, totally burn them to nothing, and burn them just enough to make em look like they were in a wreck lol. Man it was fun being a kid back then

Any good model building or mishaps stories?

[Steeveedee]

I used to build model cars and planes. Some of the stick and paper planes actually flew. I had one each of every fighter used in WW1 and WW2 hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom- shared with three brothers. I joined the Navy, and when I came home on leave after Boot Camp, those airplanes had all had a bat taken to them.

[Boog]

I built a lot of them when I was a kid. I still have a couple of my favorites in a closet. A 3 n 1 AMT kit 1/24th scale was $1.50 in early 1960s. Monogram was a little less. There were snap together models but I wanted the whole boogie so I painted and glued all mine. I received the "BIG T" model for Christmas one year. It was a large scale red '23 T-bucket. Red body, soft t top, interior and bed cover, with working lights, trans, engine. It had a small electric motor inside the big V8 engine that turned the crank, fan and generator. The trans worked as did the rear gears. It all turned as long as it was on the supplied jack stands. It was all plastic. It was the coolest model ever for this kid and it took both dad and I to assemble it. I don't remember what scale it was but the car was about 8" tall and 16" long maybe. Even as a display model some parts later failed such as steering spindles and other bits. It found it's way to the garbage at some point.