There was a topic a few months ago about Plastic Model Box Art. It got me interested in seeing some of the models I had built as a kid. Though I don't model now, I considered my skills pretty good for the young teen I was. Anyway, my search led me to a site that I thought some might enjoy parusing. Sorry if it's been posted before, but this site is gigantic, and I was impressed with the catalog of models.

Manufacturers like Aurora, Airfix, Revell, Eduards, Guillows, Tamiya etc etc are represented. Many of the kits I fondly remember building.


EDIT: Whoops. How 'bout a link, knightgames?

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/

Enjoy.

Thanks for that.



The Scale choice options reminded me of this:

“I have a map of the United States... Actual size. It says, 'Scale: 1 mile = 1 mile.' I spent last summer folding it. I hardly ever unroll it. People ask me where I live, and I say, 'E6.”
― Steven Wright

When i was a kid i used to stop in these stores and spent hours and hours just looking to kit´s boxes. My favourites were from Hasegawa! I was literally fascinated about war planes and ships, good memories thanks for sharing!

Cheers

I used to do the same thing Maj_Alvega. I'd spend hours looking at models, weighing the features of each one. This one had retractable landing gear. The other didn't. This Avenger had folding wings and detailed cockpit.... blah blah blah. And then just looking at the box art was fun.

Those were the days when you didn't have to worry (with over amounts of stress) about leaving your kid in the hobby aisle of the store. Mom could look at handbags all she wanted. I was cool in the model aisle. Hobby shops were better because of the luxurious smells of freshly sanded balsa and dope. LOL The choices were a little more eclectic too.

Oh gosh yes!!! Airfix models. From England!!! Wow!!! My first kits were Aurora. An F9F Panther and an F-94 Starfighter. I remember having a motorized F-104 as a kid, too!

Yeah those were the good old times, i really miss that, ohh well, now we have a bunch of good sims to play and have fun though, at least when free time is available!

Cheers

I remember the box art from so many of those kits, mostly the cars. Back in 1990 and 1991 I bought my first catalogs from AutoWorld in Scranton, PA, and they were filled with many of those car kits. I've still got those catalogs, plus a small collection of AutoWorld advertisements that ran in magazines like Rod and Custom in the 1960s, when the focus was on slot car racing.

After looking at those model kits, I did some research on AutoWorld, found a website for what appears to be a new store opened under that name, using the same logo.

http://autoworldstore.com/

Wohow, major flashback there for me.

I just remembered the model shop where I bought my first models at age around 10 or 12 and such. What a load of boxes and smell of carton, colors and glue.

Shame that such places move away over time and are replaced by online shopping or polished new but souless "mass hobby outlets".

Oscar Koveleski!

Good times back when life was a bit slower and quieter.

So many places to buy them that just don't exist anymore. So many models, and yet I have none any longer, and I wonder where they all went.
Just recently I was driving along and spotted a hobby store and went in. Brought back so many memories, I even went so far to build a small exhaust system and box to paint models with. Had a spare bench and cleaned it all up. I laid out an older kit of Dale jr's #8, bought all the paints and even found my old Badger airbrush.
Started building and something just wasn't there any longer... I had lost something along the way. There the box and assemblies still sit after a year.
I can only guess that like those places that I had been so excited about years and years ago, my enthusiasm must have gone with them, which I must admit is a little saddening.

I tried to get back into modeling about 4 years ago. Bought me a 1:48th scale Sturmovik in winter camo. Bought the required paints and tools. I even did a pretty decent job up to the point I had gotten to - nothing on the order of some of the more talented gents here, but still good for the first time in 30 or so years.

That's when it hit me. Head aches. BAD. The concentration and eye strain was too much to bear. Ever read the epileptic warning in Cliffs of Dover? I was getting that eye strain that caused the muscle and eye to flutter, and I felt my left side of my head go wierd. I even lost balance once or twice. I puttered around with it off and on. Managed to get the cockpit asembly into the fuselage, wings built up, empenages and landing gears all detailed. The remaining assembly was just fitting them all together and giving it a nice paint job on the exterior.

I think the manufacturer was Associated Assemblies. Their idea of putting the final pieces together was a strange jigsaw puzzle wrapped in a dove tail of frustration. It wasn't the typical insert tab A into slot B. I couldn't handle the head aches (damn to the other symptoms) and what was supposed to be an enjoyment wasn't.

I think about getting a magnifying glass to see if it helps, but.......

Anyway, the site does bring back many long time memories. There's a picture of the old P-40 I built in Mr. Crean's Master Modeler class in 8th grade study hall. Same with the Guillow's P-40 balsa model. All the FW 190's are well represented. Almost all of the models are. The only one I didn't see is my first model given to me by the father of the kid in the next hospital bed, when I was six. He said I looked bored and smart enough to put this together - a 1:72nd scale P-40. ( I have no idea how many P-40's I built. LOL)


There's a local hobby shoppe in the next town over. I bought all my stuff there. Gotta keep it local. The smell of modeling supplies is a drug itself. You don't get that on line.