Butch O'Hare Chapter, IPMS-USA 
Butch O'Hare Chapter, IPMS-USA
I've always been interested in SF and space subjects
- it was hard to avoid them in the early 1960's anyway, and I happened to
like what I saw. I have vague memories of a show called SUPERCAR from the
British producer Gerry Anderson (one of his efforts in SuperMarionation -
puppets with electronically controlled eye and lip movements), but the
first TV show I really watched was FIREBALL XL-5 (also from Anderson). Always
wanted a model of that ship, but there have been no reliably available kits
and I have yet to scratch build one.
The first kit that was 'mine' (per se) was the original AMT kit of the Starship Enterprise. I was about 7 at the time, and my older sister was the one who actually built it for me, but it was mine. That was the way it went until I was about 10, when my parents finally relented and let me have the glue. Testor's in the red tube was all I had access to. I can't think how many times I built the old Aurora kits of the Seaview and Flying Sub from VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, and all those Revell space kits - Apollo, Gemini, and even Mercury. Those, it seemed, were the days for space and SF models.
For a short time in my teens I quit modeling, partly because of the costs for supplies (I know, complaining about 50 cent bottles of paint these days . . .). Never really lost interest, just didn't have the money. Around 1978, I ran across an ad for a booklet that was a step by step guide for building that old AMT kit of the Enterprise and make it look a lot better as a model. Buying that book started me back into modeling, and I haven't looked back since