What influences your model kit collection/selection?

[fewr9fkr9595]

22 hours ago, Alan P said:

Good question! 

 

Usually I'll come across a subject either through my work or from other reading and research and then I'll seek out some information on it. Usually then comes some outlandish idea of how to display the model and if there's a kit I'll end up getting it. 

 

Then I probably won't build it and the cycle repeats forever. 😉

That explains alot of the random ‘one off’ kits in my stash 😂
 

having a major cull of the stash this year and will just focus on several types I reckon...

[alt-92]

7 minutes ago, Tony Oliver said:

having a major cull of the stash this year 

Lots of WIP/RFI threads therefore. Good man 

[fewr9fkr9595]

7 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

Lots of WIP/RFI threads therefore. Good man 

No I meant cull as in selling them on mate. Sorry to disappoint...

[alt-92]

Figured that, I like to keep a positive view however. So, just the RFI's will do 

 

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

1 minute ago, alt-92 said:

Figured that, I like to keep a positive view however. So, just the RFI's will do 

 

 

 

I think we are going around in circles mate..?
 

If I sell off/cull an unbuilt kit from the stash there will be neither a WIP nor an RFI? 
 

Just an ebay listing 🤣

[Bedders]

Any types that I have flown (in my dreams, you understand...)

 

Justin

[825]

My aircraft interest is primarily planes of the Fleet Air Arm, going way back to the RNAS. There are loads of options and a weird collection of WW1 and interwar resin models sit in my stash waiting for me to pluck up courage to start them. There are a lot of mainstream: Airfix/Revell/Tamiya/Hasegawa, for the common WW2, and Harriers but my stash and builds are driven by the aircraft or helicopter so I've kits from a whole variety of manufacturers. And of varying quality and buildability. However, for some aircraft or helos they are (or were when I built them) the only game in town. I usually stick to 1:72 as it's what I grew up with in the golden years of Airfix, Frog, Matchbox and Revell. My major influence is my dad served in the FAA in the post war period, so much is as a remembrance of him as well as memories of air days at places like Lossiemouth and Prestwick. 

 

I dabble in AFVs mainly from the western desert again in the 1:72/76 scales. Again mainly classics from the Airfix and Matchbox ranges but I have been impressed recently by the accuracy and build ability of the Plastic Soldier Company range. I know they're primarily for wargamimg but I enjoy the fact they don't really take a lot of time to build but look good at the end of the day. 

[Ratch]

Most of the replies here sound as if the modeller has only ever modelled kits of the genre stated. I have found my tastes have evolved over the years. In my youth, box art heavily influenced what I bought and modelled. There was no theme. Then I got interested in the Battle of Britain and I modelled the main protagonists. For some time I switched to railway modelling. Then, around 2005, I started researching my family history and discovered the many types of aircraft that flew from the 16 Northamptonshire airfields during World War II. This quickly extended into the Cold War. So my main interest is aircraft that flew from the county, though I sometimes buy/build a kit from a nostalgia stance - something I built in my youth or something I saw at an air show (Lightnings and V bombers mainly). I'd get bored modelling the same subject continually and this theme gives me variety that keeps me interested.

[Grey Beema]

My interests would be similar to 825s above.  My Dad was FAA which I think started the interest.  I also bought the Osprey Aces of the Fleet Air Arm book many years ago and it piqued my interest again.  

 

I am currently working through a list of 32 aircraft flown by Aces to make their claims the focus meaning that I can control the desire to buy other kits.  The nature of the collection also means lots of research and cross referencing of available information.  The collection is all remedial scale (1/48) mainly because most of the aircraft I want are available in that scale.  

 

PS.  If if anyone knows the serial number of 213 Sqn RAF Hawker Hurricane AK*U (11.08.40) I would love to know it?

[IanC]

17 hours ago, spitfire said:

Probably because of my age I am only interested in WW2 subjects, I was born in 1952 and as a youngster I was surrounded by WW2 films, comics and books...

 

Yes that's me, although I'm slightly younger!

 

Dad introduced me to Airfix and I always did WW2 aircraft. Later I built an N Gauge railway layout, and used to make a lot of 1/35 Tamiya armour kits too, but I soon went back to aircraft and have stayed with them ever since - mainly RAF, USAAF and Luftwaffe, and nearly always 1/72 'nostalgia' scale.     

 

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

1/48 scale governs my choice nowadays, not much for having 20 types of the same aircraft although there have been exceptions if there were  noticeable differences in marks of the same aircraft. THey do run the gamut  from the 1930's to the present. Any more its the unique and strange that has a tendency to catch my eye and unfortunately at times my wallet as well. Doesn't seem to matter whether its resin, injection, vac, or something exotic, I'll give a go, especially if I've never worked with the materials. I figure why not, I ain't never not done it so that's as good a reason as any. Sometimes it actually comes out right and I surprise myself. 

[TonkaGuy]

Thanks for the participation guys! It’s always interesting to hear people’s different reasons behind why they model particular subjects. I have had a number years away from modelling, nearly 15 but I hope to put my first WIP thread up at some point. 

[Smithy]

Modelling for me is only really an extension of my interest in historic aviation and certain facets of it. I'm not one of those fellows who builds any old kit just to have something different. All of my builds (as slow as they often are) are connected to my primary interests in historic aviation.

 

The fun thing with modelling as you can see on a site like BM is the wide and varied angles from which people approach their modelling and that's a good thing because it speaks of the breadth of appeal of the hobby. There's something for everyone no matter how you approach it or how good you are, or whether you're just a casual builder.

[janneman36]

My choices are made by a certain feel of a subject which I like as it is for me also an extension of my aviation hobby...

It can be everything, but I do have a red line which consist of airliners used in a secondary role as freighter and firebomber, I also do oddballs And one-offs or specialist military aircraft...

Scale isn’t a limiting factor, I build em all....

So there is a wide variety in my stash which is to big😂

 

cheers, Jan

[Des]

No specific theme followed although some short journeys down various paths at times and as I tend to spend more on books and magazines than I do kits there is always something that gets my attention although on some occasions it has taken decades for the industry to provide a kit.

 

Often something I read about sets me off although sometimes I find that whatever I have read might be the only reference on that particular user , colour scheme or strange modification , and it is surprising even today how little information there is on some aspects of quite recent military aviation.

 

On the other hand it might be a new release of some conversion or decal sheet that encourages me along a certain road such as the recent TWOBOBS release for 1/48 T-38C Heritage Talons for which I had stockpiled a stack of kits ready for their arrival last weekend.

 

Then sometimes reviews of a specific new kit might catch my interest such as AMK 1/48 MiG-31 Foxhound which I will start one day or the Revell and Airfix 1/72 Shackletons.

 

I usually buy with a project in mind and at the moment that is probably in the region of over 150 potential projects on the shelf and in the loft but as far as preferred ranges I will buy most if the price is right although I do have a fondness for 1/48 Monogram kits even the earlier ones with not quite accurate  'working bits'.

[klr]

My "hierarchy" probably goes something like:

 

70% - Aircraft (mostly 1/72, some WWI, but mostly from the mid-1930s to early 1980s; mostly military)

24% - Armour and other military vehicles (1/72, some 1/76)

5% - Ships and boats (many scales from 1/72 to 1/1200, depending on the subject)

1% - Other stuff (of which mostly real space, sci-fi)

 

In theory, I am interested in anything that flies. I like to have as many different aircraft as possible, although it's getting harder and harder to buy a kit of something I don't already have in my collection. But I don't go out of my way to find "new" subjects.

 

As to what I have most of. In descending order, it probably goes something like this:

Spitfire

Mustang

Bf 109

Fw 190

Hurricane

Harrier

Ju 87

F4U Corsair

P-40 (i.e., Curtiss Model 81 & Model 87)

BAe Hawk

F-5

F-104

A-4

Mosquito

P-47

UH-1 (including the later twin-engined and four-bladed derivatives)

Bf 110

F-4

Gladiator

 

Honourable mentions:

Ju 88

EE Lightning

EE Canberra

Zero

Swordfish

Beaufighter

Blenheim

P-38

B-25

Do 17/Do 215

Do 217

F-16

Tornado

MiG 21

MiG 15

Fi 156 Storch

 

But I also have a particular interest in trainers. As well as the BAe Hawk, I also have significant numbers of the following:

Fouga Magister

T-6 Texan/Harvard

Alpha Jet

DHC Chipmunk

Jet Provost/Strikemaster

Folland Gnat

Tiger Moth

 

Why get so many of these? Sometimes it's the range of markings, sometimes it's the sheer range of versions and configurations, and so on. If there is a really good kit or kits of a particular aircraft, and the price is reasonable, then I will happily buy lots of them. As you can imagine from the above lists, Airfix has taken a lot of my money over the past 15 years alone.

 

One of my other interest is flying boats, but I won't go out of my way to source very expensive and/or "difficult" kits.

[ckw]

 

On 16/02/2020 at 10:36, IanC said:

1/72 'nostalgia' scale. 

 

When did 1/72 become nostalgic? Everyone knows 1/72 is the "one true scale" 😀 (for aircraft at least).

 

After returning to the hobby a couple of years ago after a 20 or so year absence, one thing that surprised me was the popularity of 1/48th and larger scales - esp. 1/48th. These weren't much seen in the UK (though I believe more popular in the US). What happened? I haven't noticed a general growth in house size - indeed, with kids taking longer than ever to leave home, I would have thought people would be more space constrained than ever! Just curious as to what has driven the move to larger scales. In my LHS I think 1/48th is in fact the dominant scale.

 

Not for me though - I'll stick with 1/72 even if it causes some frustration ... I'm hoping Airfix will eventually release their new Walrus in 1/72, ditto the new Tamiya P-38

 

Cheers,

 

Colin

[Des]

12 minutes ago, ckw said:

When did 1/72 become nostalgic? Everyone knows 1/72 is the "one true scale" 😀 (for aircraft at least).

Oddly I rather gave up on fighter sized 1/72 scale aircraft as my sight worsened with age although I do still have several larger transport and bomber kits in the stash but was quite surprised when over Christmas I bought some 1/100 scale Tamiya aircraft kits that were on an offer in Hobbycraft.     So far I have built two in the evenings as a slight break from more drawn out projects and have found them very relaxing.     Both have had a little detail work from sprue or plastic card and some searching of the spares box for decals to use for alternate schemes to those provided but all-in-all a nice change possibly because any detail work required can be rather vaguer than that I would expect to have used in 1/72 scale.

 

Still got a couple to go but I have researched the availability of other 1/100 kits for the future even although I had never completely finished anything smaller than 1/72 since I started to paint my completed models as a schoolboy over fifty years ago.

[Adam Poultney]

Little me at about 1 looking at pictures in a v bomber book, saying "man, plane, man, plane". I still have the book, it's on my desk as I was looking for some pictures in there the other day, and that's what started me off on aviation. V Bombers, well it's a v bomber book and although at that age I did not understand what one was, of course I did eventually and they are fascinating. Then 558 flew again. 

 

[Giorgio N]

Personally I mostly select according to the subject. My main interest is in postwar jets, followed by some WW2 subjects and this is reflected in my collection and my stash. Jets from the 50s to the 70s feature very heavily, as do Spitfires and a few other WW2 types.

However I often find myself tempted by very different subjects, sometime because I see something that attracts me for no clear reason, sometime just because I can't say no to a Bargain. This means that while my stash features a lot of Tomcat, F-104 and Spitfire kits, I also have things like Japanese prewar biplanes or 1/144 Soviet airliners.

Regarding brands, if I'm looking to buy a kit of a certain subject I generally try to aim at the best quality possible, within certain budget constraints.. that depend on the subject! If I want another Tomcat or Spitfire, that are types I'm very interested in, then I just get the best. For other subjects I may settle for a second best. This means that Japanese brands or names like Eduard are the ones I generally choose. Of course as subject is the main reason for my purchases, often I have to deal with everything, from older kits that are still the only ones pof a certain subjects to short run kits or even resin kits.

When it comes to the kits I buy on a whim things change of course and I may end up buying stuff from brands that I would have not contemplated otherwise...

[Ray_W]

Great question!

 

Anything interesting, usually with a story and some research needed, tending towards WW2 but not mandatory.

 

I've standardised my aircraft scale to 1/48 for storage and detail. Another reason for one scale is I like comparing aircraft size, shape and design so themes are good like "Hawker fighters". Some challenge in the kit is also good - I recently finished my 20 plus year old Eduard Tempest V with a lot of mods to get the shape right (very satisfying) and then built the latest Tamiya Spitfire Mk I (nice, wonderful build, looks great but not really a challenge unless leaving off the IFF aerial with a little fuselage and tailplane work and cockpit instrumentation correction is considered so).

 

Also just got back into 1/35 AFV's after a long, long break and loving it - this is just subjects I like Tiger 1, Panzer IV, Sherman Firefly. And no stash!! How simple is that? A kid again!

[alt-92]

On 2/18/2020 at 12:47 PM, ckw said:

After returning to the hobby a couple of years ago after a 20 or so year absence, one thing that surprised me was the popularity of 1/48th and larger scales - esp. 1/48th. These weren't much seen in the UK (though I believe more popular in the US). What happened? [.....]

Just curious as to what has driven the move to larger scales. In my LHS I think 1/48th is in fact the dominant scale.

It might have something to do with the level of detail available nowadays.

You now find the sort of detail implementations in 1:48 (and 1:72 in some cases) that used to be reserved for 1:24 or 1:32 scale some 15-20 years ago.

And where large kits tend to take a lot of space (still haven't figured out where to put that 1:32 Tomcat & F-15 I've had in the stack for 20 years), the smaller scales offer similar or even better detail in compact dimensions.

 

[Filler]

My interest is very specific. For starters, I can only build in one scale. I just happened to go for 1/48 and for reasons I can't explain, that is that.

 

Subject wise, I am totally fixed on NATO aircraft that you might have seen at a European airshow between 1986 and 1989 (although decal limitations can force me fractionally outside that window).

 

I think the influence for this is slightly odd too. I started attending and taking snaps at airshows from around 1990ish, however, that period which I experienced and was truly glorious for air shows is not what I choose to model. I think my influence is actually all the books that I had around that time, most of which had been published in the preceding few years. I still have those books and regularly look through them and I think that has really reinforced that period of late cold war NATO air force interest.

[Ralph]

This is a really interesting topic. It's funny to see how many peoples' interests chime with my own... RAF/FAA in general (not entirely surprising given the site!), but also:

 

1) USAF since the 80s (particularly USAFE and the ANG from the 80s onwards) Liked what Filler said - am keen on anything that appeared at Mildenhall from the early 8Os onwards

16 hours ago, Filler said:

Subject wise, I am totally fixed on NATO aircraft that you might have seen at a European airshow between 1986 and 1989 (although decal limitations can force me fractionally outside that window).

2) USN/USMC since the 80s

3) Royal Norwegian Airforce - some seriously interesting types flown, and great markings

 

As far as themes go, my abiding and central interest is the protagonists of the Battle of Britain (about the only time I do Luftwaffe types), but am also drawn to adversary/aggressor aircraft, and increasingly aircraft in Japanese markings. The Battle for Malta is also growing on me! There are also certain aircraft types that I just am drawn to - two seater Hornets (particularly the EA-18G in CAG markings) and two seater Flankers. I think the main thing that runs through all of these is a preference for fighters.

 

On an associated note, I, like many, have a slightly absurd stash of unbuilt kits that must be in the 180+ range. I sometimes find it a bit overwhelming (not to mention a storage issue...) and I feel should 'feng-shui' the whole lot and start again! If you had a blank sheet from which to start, which three kits would you buy? I was struck by lots of references to the Airfix Spitfire Mk 1 in 1/72 - this was a kit that I built as a kid, and am still building it now, so I'd have that...but would probably go for a 1/72 Hasegawa F-15C and a Hasegawa 1/48 EA-18G as well, plus relevant decals of course!

 

Anyway, FWIW.

R

 

[Timbo88]

On 19/02/2020 at 18:26, Filler said:

My interest is very specific. For starters, I can only build in one scale. I just happened to go for 1/48 and for reasons I can't explain, that is that.

 

Subject wise, I am totally fixed on NATO aircraft that you might have seen at a European airshow between 1986 and 1989 (although decal limitations can force me fractionally outside that window).

 

I think the influence for this is slightly odd too. I started attending and taking snaps at airshows from around 1990ish, however, that period which I experienced and was truly glorious for air shows is not what I choose to model. I think my influence is actually all the books that I had around that time, most of which had been published in the preceding few years. I still have those books and regularly look through them and I think that has really reinforced that period of late cold war NATO air force interest.

Very similar to my interests and reasons behind them, although it's 1/72 here, mainly due to space limitations. I feel lucky I got to the military shows before they disappeared. Mildenhall was my favourite. First went there in 1989 and kept going till the end. Great memories and lots of inspiration.