How you destroyed your models as a kid

[rob68]

As there has been talk of hairdryers and rockets having bad consequences to your childhood models who wants to add some more tails of woe??

[Jamesv9820]

I put a fire cracker/air bomb inside a 48 scale hellcat and lit the fuse. It made a Big Bang and never did find even half the plane after that!

[farnboroughrob]

My dad was a serious modeler in the 70's, he did put some on the ceiling in my bedroom. Some of these were destroyed by a game of indoor football, which didn't go down well! I used to buy the Matchbox models from the local paper shop for 25p and hid them so he did not interfere. We lived in a flat and was moving to a house when I was about 11, most of these models(maybe 10 or so) were launched out of the top floor windows and did not a ) fly very well, and b ) did not survive! I do remember my dad trying to accelerate the drying of paint on a Me110 for a show the next day and he left it by the gas fire for too long and the tail section went saggy.

[Timc]

Take one badly built Airfix model, fill said models' fuselage with match heads wrapped in tin foil, the more the better! Soak string in melted wax to act as a fuse and attach to some of the spent matchsticks from the removed heads, place under fuselage and ignite fuse, stand well back and enjoy.

Don't try this at home kids!

The things we used to get up to!

[iainpeden]

Air rifle.

[TomTwin]

Dad put a couple in the shed for no more than 2 hours, found them graded at by a mouse.

Most interesting one was an Airfix 1:48 B-17G. Fell from it's ceiling mountes string, and hit the floor. A crack from the ball turret went all around the fuselage and cracked it in two. Was a bit bemused!

Cheers,

Tom

[rob68]

Ah match heads forgot about that. Used to spend hours shaving the red bit off with a knife and inserting it. Never heard of the tin foil bit, will have to try that.

So if more of us did it, a, why and b, what did we learn besides on how to burn plastic ?

[ArabJazzie]

Ah match heads forgot about that. Used to spend hours shaving the red bit off with a knife and inserting it. Never heard of the tin foil bit, will have to try that.

So if more of us did it, a, why and b, what did we learn besides on how to burn plastic ?

Burn plastic? Sounds like some didnt find enough debris to say it was burnt!

Didnt have alot to do with matches when i was younger, but did have a cat who did her worst on many occasions which led to see if the remains could fly, into a wall or out the window!
Arabest,
Geoff.

[Irishaernut]

Ha ha brilliant, mine was as mentioned on another thread, rockets without the stick stuck up the afterburners of various jets and sent skyward off a piece of gutter pipe.
The resultant explosion bettered some of the "special effects " in the Iron eagle movies.

Also an 1/72 Halifax bomber with screamer rockets taped to each wing and a fuselage filled with petrol soaked toilet paper.
Which ended badly due to asymmetric thrust and crashed in to a wall badly scorching it.
Go into trouble for that.

But I successfully launched a p-39. 1/72 vertically on a non explosive firework and recovered with a action force parachute.

[Fumbles]

When we were kids.. We used to stuff Model rocket motors in the kits. They never flew straight though, it was a light and run but keep an eye on where it was going situation! Ahh the stuff we did as kids.

[rob68]

Presumably were all in our 40s or older. Wonder if it was just something everyone did in the 70's or are there people on here in their 20's that did this type of thing as a kid?

[SHARFA2]

I do remember replacing the Airfix 'Phantom' with a few of my models on the Flightdeck game. Its where you guided the plane to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier suspended on string.

[MarkL]

Air rifle.

This.

[kjshaw01]

Airfield 'fire section' on a tree stump

[Phantom 892]

Haha - great memories from many years ago of me and my friends setting fire to the rear of any WW2 German aircraft and then throwing it out of the bedroom window!

[Aquarious]

sorry i'm v. late to the story, but I used a sewing needle and a lighter to push bullet/canon damage through the wings and canopy and fuselage, before taping on some lead fishing weights before taking its final flight from my bedroom window sometimes attached to a washing line tied to the window and a brick on a low wall and other times just free flight with the weights, some flew amazingly well,and then sometimes having a funeral pyre with some firelighter shavings, with some fire engines and ground crew looking aghast. that for me was the end of my childhood and the entry into my teens and my newer interests of beer and girls, not necessarily in that order or even at the same time.now I think its time to make a return to my hobby but i'll post about that separately as I will need some advice.