Like many kids in the 60s I was into Airfix kits and it was a time of excitement and learning new skills. The heady aroma of polystyrene glue and enamel paints in tiny tins, the varied streamlined shapes of the aircraft, even being motivated to find out more about the prototypes in the local library were unexpected pleasures that a detached observer wouldn't deduce from looking at my collection of what were probably badly assembled and painted models. Although I got better at it as I got older and some that I built and painted actually looked pretty good, I couldn't claim to be a great modeller.
Are such kits so popular today in this age of electronic entertainment? I suspect it's more an adult thing nowadays. Imagine letting your kids loose with a selection of such potentially poisonous substances today.
I did enjoy ready to fly stuff, simple balsa gliders and rubber band fliers. I bought a complicated balsa biplane kit which in the end my dad had to finish. There was the scenario of the house reeking of balsa cement, parts pinned to a board with colourful headed pins while the assemblies set. Then the house reeking of dope which magically tightened up the tissue paper covering of the wings. With both my parents being smokers I'm surprised that they didn't blow the house up. Despite all this effort, I never got it to successfully fly.
My younger brother was never into the kits as much as I was but he did get our dad to build an impressively wide wingspanned glider with the same meticulous procedure as above. The big day came when we all went to the nearby sports pitch and it had its first proper flight. It had had some hand launches previously to sort out the trim but this was the first trial using a line. The idea was that the glider had a rearward facing hook, the line had a ring on the end, you ran letting the line out as the glider climbed then at the maximum height you jerked the line back, or it came free on its own, and soared. The rudder was trimmed so that it would fly in a circle so it didn't just disappear over the horizon.
Unfortunately, none of these things happened. The ring didn't release and we watched in horror as, despite our dad frantically jerking the line, it flew at high speed into the ground, hitting with an impressive crack and sending bits of balsa everywhere. Our dad's face was a picture, and we couldn't say anything. We gathered up the bits and went home. That was the end of the balsa kit era in our house. My dad had a lot of patience but at least for the time being, he'd had enough.
I've still maintained my interest in aircraft over the years and built the odd kit but no fliers.