I can’t exactly recall at what age I started building models, but I do remember that my dad brought home a kit one day and asked if I wanted to help him build it. The kit was a Saab Draken and had a spring loaded missile. I later figured out that it would have been a Lindberg kit. Even though he introduced me to the hobby, it was also he who later more less forbid me to build due to reports in the 70’s about the dangers with glue, colours and thinners, and as I wasn’t doing as good in school as he hoped for, he thought my model building was the cause to my bad grades.
Luckily for me, he worked a lot and also as a military pro fencer, he travelled a lot around Europe to all kinds of fencing contests. That and a kind and more understanding mother, helped me keep my continued model building a secret (more or less). I also had a friend who visited during the summer holidays who also was into model building, and whose father also was into model building, but more into balsa wood and RC planes. So I was more than welcome to sit there and build.
Most of my first kits were those cheap Airfix and Frog kits in a bag that you could buy for the weekly allowance. In my youth there were at least three stores that had model kits and supplies. So most of the early kits were 1/72 or 1/76 scale kits. For some reason some of the early kits that I remember was the Aurora monster kits. I had quite a few and still have a few of them left, even if they’re in need of renovation.
As allowance increased with age, it also increased the possibility to buy more expensive kit, and many times (after some nagging) my mother helped with some extra coins. Military vehicles and figures was fun to build and somewhere in my teen I developed an interest for American cars from the 50’s and hot rods, as well as bikes and choppers. I had quite a collection of cars, but sadly only a few are left today.
In the 80’s I pursued other interests as music, my model building came to a halt for quite some time. Except for the painting of figures for role playing games, I had a short return in the 90’s with a few muscle cars. In 95 I met my current girlfriend and suddenly family life with soon to be three kids took over, and later when the kids grew older, I started making and recording music.
After a quite long hiatus, in the mid or late 00’s I picked up model building again. The idea was just to see if I could fix a few of my old kits that needed a little TLC, and put them on a shelf, but instead it sparked my interest again, and I’ve been building since then, with the exception of a few periods of lost mojo.
Going back to model building was quite an experience as none of the shops in my youth sold models anymore and only one toy store had a few model kits and a rack with Humbrol colours. I found out that it was easier to find kits at auctions and in online stores. Also model building had changed. All of a sudden there was these things called photo etch and resin cast aftermarket parts which allowed you to enhance your model. A plethora of information could be found on the internet. Pics of all kinds of vehicles and planes as well as information about those as well. Another big thing was all the model building forums, where you could meet other with the same interest and discuss building techniques and show your WIP’s and finished builds.
When I returned to the hobby, planes was most easy to get hold of and also many of the old Airfix, Esci and Frog kits was sold very cheap on auctions, by people just wanting to get rid of their old “attic” kits, and most often had no idea of how much they were worth. So it was pretty easy to collect quite a large stash of cheap kits. Now prices have increased and many of the kits are sold as collector kits, which isn’t my kind of game. I’m first and foremost a builder, even if my collection of unbuilt kits is pretty large.
Planes from WW2 to modern fighter jets is what I fancy building the most, I also build WW2 tanks and softskins as well as ships, cars, sci-fi or whatever I feel fancies me at the moment. Somewhat of what I’ve built and am building can be seen in my blog here, but I will add albums with previously built kits.
Some of my work in progress builds can be found in the blog and finished builds has a separate cathegory that I put as a sub-page here.