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General control line discussion => How I got my start in the hobby => Topic started by: Larry Renger on November 28, 2013, 07:39:10 PM
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My mom bought a bunch of kits from a store going out of business during the war. They had, as I recall, cardboard formers and hardwood stringers. We built them and used oil based house paint. You can guess how they flew...
I bet those kits would go for a fortune today!
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Sounds like "Otto-Former" kits .... and yes, in pristine condition they'd go for a fortune today!
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Ty
I really like to read your stories...
Marcus
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I was able to find balsa kits all through WWII. Macalester College in St Paul Minn. had a book store that had a bunch of model stuff and few buyers so I found some real nice kits there. They also sold color dope in corked vials about the size of your middle finger from the middle joint to the tip, 1 cent apiece.
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I've got a perfect, original, Joe Ott "Ott-O-Former" 40" span P-51B kit. If someone wants to offer me a fortune for it, I'd take it. ;D
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My bro and I got started with solid Strombekker models during and after WWII. Then moved on to stick and tissue, First one, the box had a P-51 on the cover and a small inset of what was really inside, that's how I got my first 10¢ Fokker DVI, I thought I was getting a P-51. Formers were printed on balsa, stringers stripped spruce, tissue for covering. It came from the Hobby section of Five and Dime store in Manhattan, Kansas. I still have a copy of the plans.
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I've got a perfect, original, Joe Ott "Ott-O-Former" 40" span P-51B kit. If someone wants to offer me a fortune for it, I'd take it. ;D
It is very surprising how pricing of old kits changes from day to day on eBay. I really do not remember just how I got into modeling. I was playing with a toy rubber model on Dec. 07, 1941. I started 1st grade the following Sep. '42. After that it was all I ever thought about: AIRPLANES! We lived way out in old VERY OLD country during the war years. I made "cockpits" in the yard and probably won the first couple years of the war as in my cockpits I shot down every Japanese and German airplane in their world. #^ y1
I started trying to build from the Joe-Ott, Megow, Comet, etc kits when I could afford 25 to 50 cents. Cleveland was the best but a bit overly priced.
The first kit models, somewhat completed, were extremely poor. It was after the war that I got my first engine, a Thor .30. It ran but never got into a plane. When about 4th grade, I had an accident and was out of school for some 3 weeks. My teacher had a son, pilot, Naval Aviation. She sent me many of his old "Air Trails". WOW the fire became really turned up. I learned to fly with spark ignition but soon the glow plugs put that aside.
By 1950 I was flying CL in the yard, FF in the Pasteur then on to the school yards. I could build a kit model in 3 days. It never stopped. I flew all through high school, graduated in '54, entered USAF Aviation Cadets in '55, and airplanes and models have been my life. I have some 90-100 kits in my barn. There are probably at least 20 kits some of those Joe-Ott, some Cleveland, and about 5-6 1945-50 kits out there.
In 1980 that change in lifestyle came by, and I wound up in an apartment. Space was tight. I threw 125 trophies and plaques into the dumpster outside. Most all were FF and CL awards. Some RC but not many. At that time I was flying for United Airlines. Retired in '96 and I cannot build a model in 6 months. SAD!
Now for you folks that really like to build and enjoy real modeling, let me ask you to try out the Easy-Built kit line. www.easybuiltmodels.com
They have many sizes. I have transferred a couple these rubber models to RC and had lots of fun. That web may be upper case letters or small case. So 334-358-5184 or look into a Flying Models magazine. I have another couple kits that will be converted this year for sure. Any MODELER can handle such. An old Stuka needs some repairs and will fly again. The Hurricane finally got beyond rebuild, but from a rubber kit (50" w-s) to an excellent (ASP .28) Scale War-Bird Racing, well it was a lot of satisfaction.