After many years of aircraft only, my first armor model was the Italeri Panzer IV. Need I say that I have basically been building almost nothing but armor since then. So many kits, so little time.
capnjock

Heya Chuck, that's a decent first model - and to hang on to if for so lon, good work!

My first kit was a Porsche 911, when I was about 9. From there I saw a nice pic of some tanks with lots of detailing and was pretty excited, hassled my mum and got some money to build up a M1A1 Abrams. Apart from that Abrams, the only other armour kit I've built is a King Tiger which I made 7 years ago - so the ausf J that I'm building at the moment is the first in a long while

Two anwers here... my first model was an Aurora P-51 that I built when about the age of 8 or 9.... I dropped the hobby around age 15, and when I returned to it 25 years later, I began with a Russian T-34 by Italeri...

First armor was a 1/72 tank-carrying tractor and trailer. My dad started on the cab but never got around to finishing it. Next were those Matchbox(?) tanks that come with mini-dio bases. I seem to remember building a Cromwell, Panzer II and Jagdpanzer. Not one survived.

My first plane (IIRC) was a Matchbox 1/72 P-38 Lightning. I loved that plane and I've been searching for another 1/72 P-38 ever since.

My first model I forgot since I received that when i was 5?? yrs. old. But the earliest I can remember is a 1/48 A-10 Thunderbolt by Monogram, it was vaporized long ago. My first armor model was Tamiya's Leopard 1A4. It had the toughest decals I have ever worked with. Not even water or scraping it off can remove it from its place. Only the tools are painted (in oils!). Sadly they were full of brush strokes. I got hooked in ever since.

Hi, Major_Goose. I had to dig deep in my memory, but after a few attempts I remembered.
My very first armored model was...The Monogram 1:32nd scale Sherman M4 with hedgegrow-cutter!
Don't ask me where it is now!! I probably Cannibalised it for parts on my other models...I really don't know.

All the best, John.

The old Airfix Panther. It said Panther on the header card..... :-) I remember having a problem with overlapping wheels...Airfix series 1, true pocket-money prices...Jim

For me it was a BAC hawk of the red arows (1/72) when I was six. I think it was a matchbox kit. That's one I'll never forget, I didn't even paint it and of course the glue marks on the canopy......

mines were the little airfix and matchbox kits I cant remember which was my first but I remember cutting parts off the sprue with a kitchen knife then moan when the bits broke
I can rember building a 1/72 bronco with parts of the gate still attached and leaving big gaps in the wings and thae same time building it my mate using the O/D enamel paint
as make up and covering his whole face in it we had to use trups to clean it all off lucky my mum and dad never caught us o how I laughed. My frist armour kits would be the mini dio of the LRDG by maxbox I'd love to see that re-released again I'd build it just for old times sake

My first armor kit? I think a Fuijima/i (?) Stug 3 kit 1:72 (it sucked, at least to me) My first 1:35 scale armor: Italaeri pz 4, which was also my first airbrush experience, and honestly, it doesn't look bad at all.

First model : Revell car - in the picture bottom shelf 3rd from the right (2 years ago)
First armor : Willy's jeep (1 year ago)
First serious attempt : Esci Demag D7 (6 months ago)

My first armor,as I remember was the Aurora Panther tank.Followed by a Revell or maybe aurora M-48 patton.i seem to remember a certain smell of the plastic they used...

Hi everyone,
First kit I ever built was a 1/72 Spitfire (Think it was one of those "Remus Play Kits" that our local Co-op used to sell) no paint, glue smears everywhere, well I was 8 . I think my first armour kit was a Matchbox Cromwell, with the little dio base. Must have made loads of them, don't know where they all went...

My first kit was the 1/72 Airfix tiger built when I was about 13 - I built 72nd scale stuff till I left school - if I remember right I built over 200 kits before I stopped - they were a lot cheaper then!

Lee

hi my first armoured kit was in the 1950's so long ago but i remember it well , it was a skeleton dinosaur stegosaurus and brontosaurus , well one was armoured at least .my uncle brought them over from the states , the cardboard box got damp on the ship so all i got was the kit and very soggy instructions, my other uncle showed me my first tip , how to stain the bones , i painted them matt white - gloy was the make and then used water from tea to wash over them , then sealed it with matt house hold varnish , i won first place in my first comp at the age of 10 ,still have photo some where of them - i wish i could get thm to day . cheers ian

jimbrae, your bang on with those airfix panther wheels! i also had problems with the tiger wheels,the half track wheels,panzer iv wheels....plus id build them and use them with the ho-oo soldiers so they got biffed and battered pretty quickly, i went on to those soft plastic tanks airfix made straight out the box and ready for action, ( and the box made a neat garage).my first painted kit was an airfix mk1 spitfire, i looked at the box, it was green and brown so i just bought a tin of humbrol gloss (yes thats gloss) emerald no.2 and a tin of service brown no.10, slammed the thing together splatted it with a green and brown mess, didnt wait for it to dry properly ran around the house flying it and got fingerprints all over, as if this wasnt bad enough i tried to use the green paint to stick a poster to the wall in my room,didnt work, big green splotch on wall,no more paint for kits until i was fourteen (i was about seven at the time of all this)

First armor kit? A Matchbox PzKfw II 1/76, it came with two figures and a diorama base. In fact I build all of those 1/76 Matchbox kits (Firefly, Panther, Tiger I, German Reconnaissance set,...). But all this is from a time when animals could speak and the world was a better place (yeah, right #:-) #:-) ).

First kit ever? something flying from Airfix I think, was about the only brand the toyshop down the road had. I got my first kit when I was 7 I think, and I build about everything from the Airfix catalogue in 1/72. Sadly none of them have stand the test of time (read: mother, pets, nephews, girlfriends, moving,...)

Kris

Hmmm....well, if you count a Hanomag, that's mine, but if you don't, I'd have to say a Panther (Ausf. A).

My first armor kit was one of either an Airfix Panther, Monogram Mk IV, or if it counts, whatever AFV is in Aurora's Rat Patrol kit!

My first model was a semi-dump truck. Then I built Monogram's Luner Lander kit; still have the moon surface and some parts about.

The third kit I built was my first military model, Revell's 1/32 Bf-109G, in 1969 or 70. That kit will always hold a special place for me. The next model could have been anything!

Ya know, the Rat Patrol kit could have been before the -109. But I consider the ME as my modeling watershed.

Because I am a bureaucrat at heart--quite a disorganized one--I began a task that today both makes me beam, and blush! In 1975 I got the idea to record every model I built, the price, both start and end dates. I continue it to this day!

first armord kit... Monograms Panzer IV

After 25 years in my parents atttic, they found it and I recently revamped it. it is the Panzer IV pictures below in the diorama "Frostbite".... it looks alot different the second time around!



next was that Rommel's Rat Half Track Speedsters...

John
www.johnneill.com

started with A/C models but my first serious armor model was the "Shanghai Dragon" version of the USMC M1A1 Abrams Heavy Armor (coincedentally my first camo paintjob) really got me started on armor since I've built the "Italeri" M-977 Oshkosh Truck and the M-923 A1 "Bigfoot" and also the Italeri LAV-25 (still at Mark Hoffman's house lol) and an Academy M151A1 Mutt jeep and trailer. all but the Abrams were supplied by Mark (thanx bud) ever since I'm kinda buying armor for some reason? (is there a rule saying a model geek can't build planes and targets? lol)