Dirty ol‘ boxes
On my last visit to my dad’s place I brought some very old boxes with childhood stuff. One is this cardboard box with the pitiful remains of scale models from childhood and teens.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_171320-1024x768.jpg)
The AH-64 Apache is the old Revell 1/48 model. I built it in my late teens and was very proud of it. I never built such a big model before and it was a centrepiece of my room on a closet. While buidling it late at night, I cut a finger very badly with a carpet cutter I was using as a modell tool. Blood was dripping from my hand. While my parents were asleep in the neighbour room I ran to the bathroom and tried to stop the bleeding without making too much fuss. It was really a bad cut, I can still see the scar.
Now it’s a bit broken and the canopy never came together very well. It reminds of the days when I dreamed of being a helicopter pilot.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_184625-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_184644-1024x768.jpg)
This old Junkers Ju-87 must be a Revell but I’m not absolutely sure. This is from my mid-teens. The paint job is not too bad with the sky blue on the underside. However, the decals tell it’s a DAK machine so it shouldn’t be green. No idea where I took the painting scheme from. Maybe from a catalogue and I just liked the colors and the rhino. Now also a little bit broken.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_173834-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_173853-1024x768.jpg)
The old SEPECAT Jaguar from Airfix. Most likely I will built it again when Airfix releases it in its vintage range. This was probably the first time in my life I ever tried a camo scheme with stripes. And as in the old days, I never painted the cockpit and canopy. The green is strangely glossy. One of the old Airfix/ Humbrol enamel paints I used.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_175102-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_175126-1024x768.jpg)
Another kit I was so proud of was this Revell Jet Ranger. I was so excited about helicopters as a child. As all the decals bring the colours, I didn’t have to paint it. And it was mostly the painting that ruined the models for me.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_180008-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_175953-1024x768.jpg)
What is the name of this ugliness? Airfix page help…! So, it’s the OLD Airfix Vickers Wellington. This was a gift from my godmother and her partner. For me this is the ugliest airplane of WWII. The reason I kept it for so long is the paint job. I was really satisfied with how it turned out at that time. I remember that I worked very closely with the instructions to achieve an authentic result.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_180529-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_180520-1024x768.jpg)
This is an old Revell Phantom. Not so much left of it now. Probabaly the first and only time I painted the pilots and cockpit. I remember buying the orange colour only for the pilots. Again, not so bad a paint job considering the time I built it.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_181908-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_181900-1024x768.jpg)
As I said, these are only the rests of what I once owned. There was one old Revell Tarawa I threw away and lots of 1/72 tanks from Airfix and Matchbox. The tanks were either thrown away if in bad shape but most I sold on ebay during my twenties.
I did some modelling when I restarted my wargaming years but I never saw Games Workshop kits as „real“ modelling. It took me many years until I touched another scale modelling kit which was a gift from a friend, a Revell AH-1. When I built that one, I realized how much fun it is for me and since then I built kits sporadically. And as with the wargaming stuff, kits grow on piles!
This story is mostly to remind myself for later years because I will throw away the old pieces now. No need to shed a tear! It would be easy to buy again and built in much better shape. Anyway, I have to say, modern kits are a much nicer built. I made this experience with the Airfix F-80 Shooting Star from the vintage range I finished some weeks ago.
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_183211-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://modeloperations.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_20231119_183231-1024x768.jpg)
When Airfix announced the vintage range, I was really excited about it. But, frankly, now I understand why many models never turned out nice or weren’t even finished when I was a kid. They are just not easy to built and takes a lot of effort to do it well. On the one hand there is skill (Which I surely did not have then and still working on!), on the other hand there are modern modelling techniques. CAD and 3D-scanning makes the sprues literally fall together. In the past they surely did not. But also „Hurrah!“ to nostalgia!