20 Years ago today

I finished my first model build! The first by myself anyway...I had built three previously with my dad, which consisted of me twisting the parts off the trees and handing them to him, and him gluing them together. Since I didn't build them though, I can't count them in my build history.

In the mid-1990s, we had gotten some kits with the intention of building them on Thanksgiving day...this was an idea my mom had to keep us out of the kitchen while she was working on dinner. My dad didn't enjoy it so the kits we had just sat...in particular, there was a 1994 issue of the AMT 1953 Ford pickup that I saw all the time, but it was something I didn't think all that much about.

Then, in November 1999, I decided I wanted to try and build that Ford pickup kit myself...so I did. And it went well, I enjoyed it...even if looking back on it now I realize that I didn't know at all what I was doing. I enjoyed it so much I pulled out one of the other kits we had hanging around and built that as well. Once that was done, we made a trip to the local Wal-Mart, which at that time carried model kits, and I bought two more...and promptly built them. Another trip to Wal-Mart led to a cart full of models, and the stash was born- today, it's grown so large that I had to rent a storage unit to hold it, it's actually TOO large- I can't find anything when I'm looking for it!

The hobby has done much for me, as well. Roughly 90% of the people I interact with on Facebook are modelers. It led to me being published in internationally-distributed magazines nearly 10 times now, including several times with my byline. It led me to two model clubs, and shows around the Northeast and beyond- I visited New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine all for the first time on trips for model shows- with shows themselves in New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts being the base for each of those trips. I've been discussed on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Radio show, supposedly, although I didn't have access to actually hear it at the time. When I was in the hospital near death in 2013, the only person who came to visit me was a member of my model club. (besides my mom and brother, who were there the whole time). One of the other big facets that came from model building was my participation on the internet. I joined my first message board- The Model Car List- in August 2000 after seeing it in the first issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast I ever bought- and it led to everything else. It's where I learned about the model shows. It's where I met Rick Hanmore, who brought me into the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club, and the TNMCC is why I'm still in the hobby. (I had been extremely frustrated with my brush painted builds. They taught me how to spray paint at the 2003 Club picnic). And of course, my interest in internet message boards eventually led to the creation of Cardboard History many years later! My Fotki- my website- also largely came out of the desire to post pictures on the Hobby Heaven board, which then and now is the premier modeling message board. I launched that in 2004 and have over 400,000 images on there now.

Model building is one of the main pillars of my life, and even though it's also brought frustration, anger, and general unhappiness, the good outweighs the bad, and while I sometimes do regret ever starting up in the hobby, in the end...I am glad I did. My life would not have had many of the key aspects if I did not build that first model 20 years ago today.

To celebrate the anniversary, I got it out and took some new photos of it. It turned out to be one of the best brush painted models I ever did, and the only one from that era I still have on display. All of the paint came from my limited supply of Testors paints, which I tried to clean with water- not understanding that water would not do it. (Somewhere I still have the brushes with the paint still on them). I didn't have brown, so I painted the bed gold...I didn't yet have a sprue cutter or even a hobby knife when I built this!

Finished: 1932 Ford Sedan

I finished another model today. It was going very well, then turned to garbage at the end. I messed up the original trunk lid- the one I scratchbuilt a hinge for- and had to use the louvered trunk. That's not that big a deal. The super glue fogging things like I've never seen before, that almost killed it. I finished it anyway, as all I had to do at that point was the headlight lenses and paint the second trunk.

But I'm not happy about it, and I consider the model a failure now...and this is the second time a Revell '32 Ford has gone bad on me at the very end. Totally different reasons but this kit seems like it may be becoming a foil for me, which stinks as it's a very nicely detailed kit.

This is my second consecutive 1932 Ford build. That actually is just coincidence. I had started this one months ago, but it's a very complicated kit and took a long time to build- longer still since I had scratchbuilt an interior for the trunk, and wired the engine with actual wire, my first time ever not using a pre-wired distributor. The Monogram kit has nowhere near the amount of detail, but is so much more fun.

It is my fourth time completing back to back versions of the same car in my modeling career. I track the order, and if known date of completion, with this album on my website. So, I went through it when I realized that I would finish two 1932 Fords back to back and realized it wasn't the first time. In 2001, I finished two 1956 Chevrolets. In 2005, I finished two 2004 Chevrolet Cup cars, and in 2007 I finished two 1996-02 Pontiac Grand Prix Cup cars, which were both Kyle Petty #44 Hot Wheels cars, the 1997 and 1999 cars. I believe that was the only time I ever did it on purpose. Although, had I been paying more attention, it could have been the third time I did it this year! I build two 2016-18 Ford Fusion Cup cars and two 2003-05 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Cup cars, but I did it Ford-Chevrolet-Ford-Chevrolet. Oh well. I'm on a street car kick now and I'm not sure if I will do any more NASCAR builds in 2019. (This reminds me to post them on here, something I forgot to do. I will back-date them to the actual date of completion.)

Anyway, here are the photos. The paint is Testors Extreme Lacquer Flaming Orange. The car has multiple coats on it so it's a little darker than it comes out of the can.

Finished: 1932 Ford Convertible

After I finished the Impala Lowrider on August 25th, I decided to start a 32 Ford. I had purchased a copy of the 2001 Revell reissue of the Monogram kit at the last TNMCC meeting from a club member who is moving away. The kit ended up being just about perfect...the entire build time was only about 5 hours. Everything fell together, and since I used lacquers, it dried very quickly. I hadn't had this much fun building a model in a very long time! The green I used is Testors Extreme Lacquer Mystic Emerald, which looks even better in person than it does in photos.

Finished Model: 1961 Ford Ranchero (1/32 scale)

I finished my first model of 2019. It's a 1961 Ford Ranchero, in 1/32 scale. The paint is Tamiya Coral Blue.

It doesn't show much in the other pictures, but I did BMF the Ranchero script before I painted it.

Finished: 1979 Ford Pinto Wagon

Finished 5/28/2018
My model explosion continues! This is the new issue MPC kit, which I got when it was released in 2016. I started it instantly when my skills were not good and managed to get runs and bubbles in the Tamiya primer! (hard to mess that up) I set it aside then but got back to it this year. When I saw the yellow and brown stripes I knew instantly that I would paint it metallic brown- Root Beer from Testors One-Coat lacquer-which then took 4 coats of clearcoat to get the proper shine. The interior is painted "Skeleton Bone"- a color from the local gaming store. This ended up being my 300th built, when I finished it on May 28th. A major milestone for me, in my 19th year modeling.

Finished: 1953 Ford Pickup Mild custom

Finished 5/24/2018
7th Model finished in 2018

A new reissue of the first kit I ever built by myself in 1999
After not completing any trucks at all since 2001 I've now finished 2 in less than a month's time!
Painted Model Master Lacquer Light Gray Metallic, with Testors Red from a paint pen on the wheels.
Unusual for me to do a custom, I'm much more inclined towards factory stock, but decided to do things a little differently here.

1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner Completed!

I actually finished three models today, but only photographed this one yet. It's been a hard road for me. Everything I've touched since mid-2010 has turned terrible. My skills have pretty much totally left me, and I had no idea why- I didn't change the way I did things, but NOTHING worked right. I came close to walking away from the hobby several times, even considered selling my kit stash (!) I was so "done". But, every year, usually around NNL East time, I would get the urge to try again. Every year, I did...and failed. I have finished a few models since 2010...but they were all a struggle, and most of them were just "OK, it's good enough, I'm calling it done just so I can finish something". This year, the NNL East once again inspired me, and since it ended I've been working on models again...but this time...it's going RIGHT. I am still doing what always worked for me before, but this year...it's working again. I don't know why...but I'm not going to complain. Two of the models I finished today I began after the NNL...one of them, I started back in 2004! Finishing three in one day is a big deal for me. Everything is just going right. Working the first time. Fitting with no issue. Most importantly, my paint work is not too bad right now! Before today, I had finished three models total from 2015-2017, none in 15, 2 in 16 and one last year. Now, I've matched the total in a day and have more in the building stages. More on the other two (hopefully) tomorrow, but for now, here's some details on my 1953 Ford convertible:

It's the AMT, former Lindberg kit. It's painted Testors Bug Yellow, straight out of the rattle can. It's only the third convertible I remember building in my entire modeling career. (and the first one I didn't paint red!) It's a fairly close approximation to a factory color, but I don't know what Ford called the color- I found some photos of cars in the same color on Hemmings so I went with it. It's the first model I used the Molotow chrome pens on extensively. The window frame is all Molotow except for the very bottom of the vent window frames which are BMF. The trim around the seating area is also BMF. I made two mistakes which I noticed when cropping the photos for posting, both of which I've since fixed, and that is some BMF I missed trimming on the right side vent window, and I forgot to hit the right side door lock with silver.