A Blast from the Past: My Very First Model Kit

More than three decades ago, I worked on my first model kit. I never finished it. After all these years I can still vividly recall the frustrations I faced as a kid in his early teens trying to put together a model kit without proper knowledge about the hobby. It was an unmitigated disaster that put me off the hobby for the next thirty years or so. While carrying out some year-end spring cleaning, I was flabbergasted when I came across that very model - a 1/72 scale Fujimi F-4EJ Phantom II. As you can see from the photo below, it's in the same bad shape I left it all those years ago. 

My very first model kit ... an unfinished F-4EJ Phantom II

Together with that very first kit was another Fujimi plastic model kit i.e. the 1/48 scale Northrop F-5B Freedom Fighter. But due to the bad experience I went through with the F-4EJ Phantom II, this larger scale model kit remained untouched with the parts intact on the runners, which themselves are still sealed in their original plastic wrappings. Everything inside the box still looks to be in good condition (see photos below) be it the instructions, decals or parts.

Fujimi 1/48 scale Northrop F-5B Freedom Fighter

Everything inside the box remained sealed in plastic

Decals and instructions are in surprisingly good condition after all these years in storage

This Fujimi plastic model kit had instructions in English

Fuselage parts of the Northrop F-58 Freedom Fighter

Pilot and cockpit parts

Another pilot, the wings, wheels and miscellaneous parts

Runner containing missiles and what looks like fuel tanks

As nostalgic as the discovery of these kits have made me, it's unlikely that I will be working on the remaining good-conditioned aircraft model kit anytime soon. For now I'm concentrating on hopefully finishing my last model kit for the year namely the Tamiya T-55A. Only a week is left before 2017 ends but I think I can just about make the deadline. It'll be a bigger ask for me to upload the final  photos in my blog by then but I should've completed the tank's paint job. Meanwhile, here's wishing a Merry Christmas to readers celebrating the festivity. Be happy and stay safe for the holidays!