The SAAF Forum

The first model I built was a Gloster Gladiator.I think it was a 1/72 Matchbox kit and was a 9th birthday present from a friend.The guy left the price on the box and at first I wasnt really interested but that picture on the box captivated my imagination and eventually built my biplane with half a tube of glue and a couple blotches of paint. Then I started reading the Biggles collection of stories [my mother was the local librarian] , fell in love with aeroplanes and the rest is history.
The price of that Matchbox Gladiator was R2.10! Can you beat that!
My next project was a matchbox Buccaneer, bought at our local 'Chemist' for the princely sum of R7.00.
Glorious days...

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Ben
"I feel the need for speed!"

yeah, ... nostalgia is not what it used to be ...

I remember my mom buying me a kit every Saturday to keep me quiet during the shopping run. Now thinking how I ended up with more glue on my fingers & the carpet & how many kits I abused by painting them all with a #3 bruish ... I think though, I was a bit warped as a kid .. used to build, or rather hack them together, then hang them from a tree & play "flak guns" on them with my BB gun .....

Those were the days indeed !

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Brent Best

Yes, those were the days, in the mid 70's, when I could get a 1/72 Airfix kit in a bag for 75c from my pocket money my parents gave me, once a week. Spoilt brat!
As for the glue, looking back, I wonder why I use to use so much?
And my parents tell me I wasted most of the paint.

My first kit was an Airfix Do-17 that I got for a birthday, must have been about 8 or 9.

I slapped it together, but never put the decals on because it was German! I think I still have that model (plus by now moth-eaten decals) in a box somewhere with the remains of the rest of my models.

I guessing I'm not the only one who strung fishing line across the ceiling of my room and hung my models from it.

Wow, this does bring back memories. I remember at the Caltex garage in town (I was about 11 years old), washing car windows for tips to to satisfy my addiction to plastic. Shoprite and CNA use to stock a wide variety of Matchbox models. So, I would wash car windows untill I had enough money, then ran across the road and buy a model. Armed with a tube of Bostik model glue in my pocket, I would sit down right outside the shop break the parts from the sprues and slap it together, and fly it home.

I can't remember what my first model was. I did end up with a Sabre, mirage F1, a Mirage III, a F-5 tiger that I left on the train in Pretoria, after my father TOLD me to build the damn thing only when we arrived in Pretoria, The F1, sabre and III was in the old camo scheme.
I also had two lightnings in the kas, but after getting married, I think my sister cleaned out my stash at home - and i think they should be on a waste dump somewhere.
No loss though - I didn't build them anywhere as nice as you guys. Although I did spend hours painting EVERY line to very closely resemble the camo pattern.
You guys are getting me pretty close to start modelling again...