MikeC

That's an interesting variation on the question. I think, on the whole, I'd first lose all the duplicates as I have built one or more large scale Spits, Mustangs, etc, and keep something I have never built before, but which will offer me a best value modelling experience.  And I'd have to think very seriously about what that would be.

Just another flight in Microsoft Flight Sim.   I've upgraded from the 737 to the Airbus A320 recently.   Amazing how different the "Bus" is compared to the 737.   Airbus is a firm believer in technology to keep the pilots out of trouble, while Boeing's philosophy is pretty much the opposite.   Most of the functions that were manually operated on the 737 are automated on the A320.   The Airbus also has a fully fly by wire control system, so initially, I found myself overcontrolling, being used to having to make much more pronounced control inputs and trimming on the "Jurassic Jet".    It's taken me a while to truly get up to speed on the Airbus, the initial flights were often spent asking myself what the jet is now doing.   All things considered, both jets get the job done safely, I think my personal preference is with the Airbus system though. 
 
This flight is one I've taken a dozen times in RL for business, flying out of my local airport - Providence / TF Green (aka KPVD) to Reagan National in DC (KDCA).    I truly love PVD, even though Boston is closer, for domestic travel, I always fly out of there.  You avoid the horrid Boston traffic, easy to get through TSA, it's clean and efficient.   Much better than Logan.   Same applies to DCA.   Reagan National is awesome.   The entire terminal was revamped back around 2000 and it's beautiful.   You also get great views of the airside operation, with the capitol and the Washington monument in the background.  
 
Anyway, AA2912 on a Sunday finds PVD to be pretty quiet.   

 
Only a few other jets present this afternoon. 

 
Getting ready to taxy out to Runway 23.  It's a beautiful day in RI.   Forecast for DC isn't as promising.   One nice feature of the A320 is the EICAS system which is a graphic display of the status of every system on the jet.  It's the screen below the engine display and can be selected for hydraulics, cabin status, electrical, etc, etc.    Much better than the dozen caution lights scattered throughout the 737's cockpit. 

 
Climbing out over Narragansett Bay. 

 
PVD is off in the distance, behind the jet.   Right underneath the jet is Quonset Point, formerly a major US Navy carrier base and airfield.  

 
Cruising down the eastern coast of Long Island. 

 
Turning inland, starting our descent into DC.

 
On final for KDCA, Runway 1.  One thing that's different on the Airbus is that even when you disconnect the autopilot for landing, you leave the autothrottle engaged all the way down to the final 30 feet or so, when the jet reminds you to cut the throttles to idle.  On the 737, the pilot controls the throttles when landing manually. 

 
Not a lot of traffic on a Sunday afternoon.

 
Welcome to DC.   The Washington Monument is in the distance.  

 
Taxying into the "alley" behind an AA 737.  American is the largest carrier at KDCA.  

 
Pulling into the gate.

 
Offloading...

 
Already catering for the next flight as I depart. 

 
A final look at the jet.

 
Connecting flight is on time.   

 
Thanks for tagging along on my trip.   Safe travels! 

Don´t know if I dare....
 
But I have 50+ Spitfires in my stash/collection (unbuilt/built) in all scales from 1/144 to 1/32, I even have one bagged in 1/72!  
 
 
I LOVE the Spitfire!  
 
 
Stefan 

That's an interesting variation on the question. I think, on the whole, I'd first lose all the duplicates as I have built one or more large scale Spits, Mustangs, etc, and keep something I have never built before, but which will offer me a best value modelling experience.  And I'd have to think very seriously about what that would be.

I use this as my main reference for USAAF World War II colours, as previously mentioned. 
 

 
It was first published in 1991 by Motorbooks International so is probably out of print. The photos were taken by Bob Sand ( using Kodachrome ) and other groundcrew who also painted a lot of the nose art. It also contains stories/accounts by several of the pilots whose aircraft are featured.
I usually look at the sky first in any particular photo and if that looks good, like on the cover, then I take the aircraft colours as accurate. 

Thanks Paul, the cockpit certainly is busy but I'm taking the "less is more" approach on the Typhoon, I really can't see the point in agonising over detail that isn't going to be seen, especially since the canopy may well be closed.  I'd like to find a seated pilot figure but they aren't often modelled.
 
Yep, see above Dennis....and below for that matter re- the gunsight!  You've got the tee-shirt! 
 
Bound to be a) easier and b) more detailed but as a "Silver Wings kits" builder, and all that those kits entail, I'm loving this Tiffie.
 
I'm currently doing the IP, the decals supplied with the kit are perfectly good as far as they go but there's no dial showing the status of the landing gear, and the compass face is far too small so I'll be dipping into my Airscale supplies shortly.  I had researched and labelled the function of each dial:
 

 
And as is right now:
 

 
Looking ahead to the next stages, the placement of the gunsight needed a bit of research but this picture tells it all:
 

 
Fitted onto the front of a curved bar.  There was also a later type evolved by Roland Beamont that fits behind the bar:
 

 
Don't know at the moment when this was introduced but the earlier type will do for me.  This with a very necessary "crash pad", home made?:
 

 
And looking even further ahead, the wing to fuselage join looks promising, in fact I've seen IM models with worse fits:
 

 
 

Looking really good!
It's worth bearing in mind that some colour prints can deteriorate as they age. I have some of various airshows of the 70s and 80s, printed by a then-current chain - anyone else in the UK remember Supa-Snaps? Let's just say that I wouldn't rely on them now for colours of 70s-80s NATO jets.
Wich is a long-winded way of saying your OD is quite possibly nearer the true shade than the photo. Did I say the model looks great?

Yep, just another way of expressing it. One story I heard was that 1/72 was picked because 1" represented 6 ft, thus roughly the height of a man.

Yep, just another way of expressing it. One story I heard was that 1/72 was picked because 1" represented 6 ft, thus roughly the height of a man.

Sgt York? Or Sgt Rock?  I was never a comics person but a friend of mine in the 70s was into Sgt Rock comics.  
 
In any event going back to the 1/35 Tamiya thing, those early kits were seen more as Toys than as serious models so I just don:t think Tamiya or anyone else cared all that much about real accuracy.  I was an avid armor modeler first once I became more serious and in the 80s I built most of the Tamiya armor catalog.  As such even then they allowed for battery packs in a large percentage of kits although I only ever owned one Tamiya kit to my memory that came with the mechanical parts and in fact did build it and run it on batteries.  My first tamiya kit might have been their Panzer IV motorized version and I had parental help building it.  I remember playing with it and running it under batter power probably around 1977ish.  
 
We have gone around and around on this scale debate, at this point it just is.  Border for their own reasons are into 1/35.  It is not clear to me that anyone else is following them.  They are trying to do something different I assume to carve out their own space in larger scale planes.  We all know what pays the bills in the modeling world and that leaves a company like border treading a well beaten path.  Your can keep tooling the same subjects in 1/32 that everyone else has or you can split and go down the 1/35 path doing your own thing that kind of works with an existing parallel modeling universe.  I actually thought when this thread started it was something new and was disapointed to find out our formites were arguing once again about a Border 1/35 Spitfire Mk V which I believe they announced about a year ago  and we proceed to have the same argument every time border releases a new kit or someone decides to talk about Border.  Maybe that makes Border the smartest model company on the planet as they get free advertising on our forum and in our heads just by announcing anything in 1/35.
 
I still have not yet purchased a Border kit.  The first announcement i have seen from them that I am remotely interested in is the He-111 but not sure I would buy and build one.   So far I think Border is over rated from an engineering and quality standpoint.  They certainly nail complexity but sheer complexity is not a chief selling point to me, when I am choosing a modeling subject.  It won:t put me off but it is not a priority.     
 
My goal for this year is to learn just enough Japanese to write and prepare a fake apology letter slash announcement to be released for April 1, 2025 in which Tamiya announces that they apologize for every releasing or having anything to do with 1/35 and are buying back all of their 1/35 kits every released to replace them with new issue 1/32 versions.  By then most of you will forget about my post and we should all get a good laugh out of it, just to confuse you I will post it on an armor forum on facebook.  Then it will filter through as a rumor and soon become a fact.

It doesn't specify WW2 Allied, but they obviously (?) are referring to a finned air-delivered bomb-shaped plastic assembly item to glue underneath somewhere.
 
As for 1:35 scale, by and large I'm ignoring it, the way I have done with helicopter kits for donkey's years.
I will, however, take to it if Border et al start doing Cold War jets, particularly Vietnam era jets like the Thud, Voodoo, Vark, Phantom, Scooter, SLUF etc.  TBH, 1:32 is a fraction too big for many Cold War jets, but we do like standardisation for any collection, otherwise we'd be happy with toy town box scale.
 
Tony
 

With the rear deck now thoroughly affixed, glass fit is perfect. Yay!!!
 

 
Waiting until the head armor was painted, may have been an error, as some sources say this area is the same interior green as used in the ‘pit.
 

Most P-40s I've seen in color or b/w, that area is the same as the exterior, even if cammo'd.

Hey, progress is progress Kev.  Always a good thing.

It also finally dawned on me (Duh) to use a dark grey wash to highlight the panel lines to help align them for any needed re-scribing, as well as adding the removed rivets.
 

In a few of my photos, the deck behind the pilot armor was just sitting there. Now that I’ve touched-up the armor plate (I accidentally bumped it with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol), this item is finally secured in place. Tape gives a snug fit with the bottom, assuring that the rear glass won’t ride high, which it otherwise surely would. I realize this is a rather pathetic update, but I’m quite happy to have gotten this far. I've also noticed a couple of errant scribed lines which will also need to be fixed.
 

I thought I was a bit of a slowcoach, but checking my records I find that my most productive year was 2020, when I turned out 5 LSPs, plus another 4 models in 1/48 and 2 in 1/72. That was when I was writing for a now-seemingly-defunct magazine, but some of those were for me, not for said mag.
 
 

Here are my main 'duplicate' stocks:
 
 
 

I don't feel so bad after reading some of the replies. 10 to 15 years ago when I was building in 1/72 scale I would complete 4 or 5 kits a year, but as my eyes got older (along with the rest of me) and I moved up to LSPs it slowed down considerably. I've only finished two in 10 years, but started a few more.
 
I can really relate to the "painted cockpit" thing. I love detailing and painting cockpits, but then it's everything surrounding it that slows me down.
 
Richard

My most productive year, was 2020, during which I boxed off 5 kits in total. A couple from the shelf of doom, and the remainder started fresh from the box. 

No other year has been so prolific, either before or after. 

I think I managed 4 last year, which was my record.
 
I've done two already this year, so if I can keep going at this rate, I should be able to beat it! If I can manage 6 a year, with a current stash of 72, that's 12 years to complete them all,  taking me to being 70ish.
 
Of course, that means I can't buy any more (fat chance of that!)
 
I did manage 12 1:48 scale models in a year back in 2017ish. It's obviously the engines and cockpits that take the time in the bigger scales, as I don't remember doing any less on the paint and weathering than I do on 1:32 or 1:24 subjects.

Hi,
 
Actually the history about Tamiya and the 1/35 scale is a little bit more complex. The Panther A tank most people are refering to is NOT the initial 1/35 Tamiya Panther tank. The original was actually made in 1961 whereas the well-known Panther A model was only made in 1968. Both were very different.
You can see them on scalemates: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-1-german-tank-panther--347436 and https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-mt223-panzerkampfwagen-v-panther--347433
If you think the 1968 one vaguely looked like a Panther, I can tell you the 1961 kit was FAR worse! Simply look at that after a deep breath! Note the "Tiger II" decal probably explains they did not really know what was an actual Panther tank... Not really surprising because the Tamiya models of the sixties were only made from... some pictures! They only started measuring full scale vehicles from the seventies.
 
Moreover, Tamiya 1/35 standardization only arrived at the end of the sixties decade. It even looks they did not create the first 1/35 model but this is not surprising because at that time there were models in close to every scale! During the sixties they also released AFVs in other weird scales such as 1/21, 1/50 or 1/55! It is true they were the first to decide to standardize progressively AFVs models in 1/35 and for whatever reason this was based on approximate measurements of that inital Panther dog. Useless to say that the initial so-called 1/35 Panther tank kit had not the same hull dimensions than the 1968 one that was still inaccurate! The first relatively correct 1/35 Panther tank with regard to hull and turret main dimensions was released by Nichimo in 1974 and... it was also motorized! So the batteries size were not the only reason for the dimension inaccuracies of such sixties models. There were other examples of successive generations of Tamiya 1/35 models of the same AFV that had clearly different dimensions. I think this was just a product of the time as models were intended for children and accuracy was not really a major criterion... This hopefully evolved but that scale stayed. Too bad as this is why we are now struggling between two scales!
 
 

The three main aircraft scales (oh and btw, a helicopter is an aircraft: all helicopters are aircraft but not all aircraft are helicopters) have a direct relationship to each other.
1 inch = 6 feet in 1/72
1 inch = 4 feet in 1/48
1 inch = 2 ft 8 in in 1/32.
Eh? How is that direct?
Multiply by 3, then
3 in = 18 ft in 1/72
3 in = 12 ft in 1/48
3 in = 8 ft in 1/32.
 
It's a ratio of 1:1.5, so any dmension on an LSP is 1.5 times as large as on a 1/48 model.  Rather appeals to my tidy mind.
 
Buy and build 1/35 if you like, it's your modelling pound/dollar/euro/other currencies are available; but 1/35 just isn't for me, I have enough in proper scales to be getting on with (see Shoggz's Stash thread).

The three main aircraft scales (oh and btw, a helicopter is an aircraft: all helicopters are aircraft but not all aircraft are helicopters) have a direct relationship to each other.
1 inch = 6 feet in 1/72
1 inch = 4 feet in 1/48
1 inch = 2 ft 8 in in 1/32.
Eh? How is that direct?
Multiply by 3, then
3 in = 18 ft in 1/72
3 in = 12 ft in 1/48
3 in = 8 ft in 1/32.
 
It's a ratio of 1:1.5, so any dmension on an LSP is 1.5 times as large as on a 1/48 model.  Rather appeals to my tidy mind.
 
Buy and build 1/35 if you like, it's your modelling pound/dollar/euro/other currencies are available; but 1/35 just isn't for me, I have enough in proper scales to be getting on with (see Shoggz's Stash thread).

I thought I was a bit of a slowcoach, but checking my records I find that my most productive year was 2020, when I turned out 5 LSPs, plus another 4 models in 1/48 and 2 in 1/72. That was when I was writing for a now-seemingly-defunct magazine, but some of those were for me, not for said mag.