Plastic Model Kits

When I was young I enjoyed building plastic models of airplanes and cars. The planes were my favorites. For one thing, they were easier to display because I could hang them from the ceiling and nor take up room on the desk or bureau. For another, I wanted to be a pilot all through grade school until my sophomore year when I began wearing glasses. I had already begun to think about the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

One of the more childish and destructive things I remember that I and my younger brother would do was to burn the airplanes when we got too many, or if one got broke. We wouldn’t just burn them but would take them out in the backyard, hang them from a tree branch, put some model glue on the model, usually a wing, and then light the model, pretending it had been shot and was going to crash. It’s too bad we didn’t have smartphones or even video cameras back then; we would have made some great aerial movies! And no, I was not a teenager yet, and my brother even younger, but we handled glue, matches, razor blades, and had pen knives back then. Somehow, it didn’t seem to be a major thing back then.

Whether because of my dashed dreams of flying or for some other reason, I stopped building as many planes and began to build model cars. Most of these were 1930’s Ford coupes that young guys in movies would have and race. A few times I built more modern cars, like my grandfather’s 1956 Chevrolet Belair that eventually became mine more-or-less, but usually, it was the older Ford coupes and Model A’s and T’s. One of the things about building them was that I could modify them with a razor blade knife, cutting a rumble seat in one, or putting a different engine from another kit into my model. It was fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also began to build combat tanks as I got older and that carried me into college and then when I was in the military. Since I was in the armor branch it was a natural progression. I eventually stopped, primarily because it was so difficult to have them shipped every time I moved.

One thing remained constant with my modeling. Though I did put decals on my models, I very rarely painted them. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was impatience that once I built the model, I wanted it to be finished. I painted a few – my ’56 Chevy was one I remember. I can’t remember any others right now.

(Cambria 13 font)