Why you build what you build?

[MikeMaben]

 

 I just like airplanes 

[alaninaustria]

Great question, I think I build the aircraft that I believe are fascinating in some way or another... that is why during the build and study I tend to look at the overall engineering and design of the subject. That is what stalls most of my builds... because once that stage is satisfied I move on to the next fascinating subject!

Cheers

Alan

[dmthamade]

11 hours ago, DonH said:

 

 

The Mk. XVI high back is OK ;-)

 

Yeah, I intend to agree about the clipped wings, but at least they were replaceable with full span tips. Think of it like a pair of gloves on a beauty queen.

 

I forgot to mention my WNW kits (which kind of sit in the "bought while drunk" category, but have now moved into the "pension investment" section). 

 

Have to say, the early Spit marks are ok, but the Mk24 with the Griffon and big tail a la Spiteful is my favorite. Didn't have them, but add the contra rotating props and it would be my dream. Would make nice a WHIF build...

 

Don

[mozart]

1 hour ago, dmthamade said:

 

Have to say, the early Spit marks are ok, but the Mk24 with the Griffon and big tail a la Spiteful is my favorite. Didn't have them, but add the contra rotating props and it would be my dream. Would make nice a WHIF build...

 

Don

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[Dpgsbody55]

I started building models when I was 7, usually the little Airfix 1/72 planes you could get in a bag.  I was living in a little village in the Cotswold Hills in England at the time, and I'd wander down to the village newsagent with my two shillings and sixpence pocket money and buy two.  They were usually fighters from WW1 and WW2, but sometimes I'd save up for something like a Junkers 88, and if I was lucky, I'd be given a kit for Christmas.  One year, I got the James Bond Aston Martin with all the goodies working.  I liked making stuff.  RAF Aston Down was only a couple of miles down the road and there were air raid shelters and pill boxes to play in just outside the base then, and some of the stuff you could find from WW2 days was amazing.

 

Fast forward five years and I was now living in Sydney, where the model choice was a little better.  OK, a lot better, and brands I'd never heard of too, like Monogram and Revell.  Soon, the LSP's started coming out, and when I wasn't down the beach or boating on Pittwater, my best friend and I would be building models, always WW2 stuff.  At home, I was also building 1/24 vintage cars.  Around this time, a friend of my Dad's gave me two old books - Famous Fighters of WW2 and Famous Bombers of WW2, both by the late William Green and I still have them.  I started learning a lot about planes and aviation in general and I realised how quickly aviation advanced in the period from about 1935 to 1945.  In the thirties, we had string and canvas biplanes which hadn't advanced much from the Wright Brothers day, and then the newfangled all metal cantilever monoplanes were starting to arrive.  Ten years later, and huge advancements in every aspect of aviation in so many ways, and these planes were now old hat.  During this period of my life, this impressionable teenager was also reading the books about famous aces, like Bader, Tuck, Galland, Deere and Closterman.  So my modelling became more selective and I made only WW2 fighters.  Bombers took up too much space on my shelves, and they just weren't as exciting as fighters. 

 

Once I left home at 21 (forced out really, as my family went back to England) life got in the way, and I had no time and no place to build models.  By the middle eighties, I was back to making a few models as time permitted; mostly 1/48 stuff.  Another twenty years went by and I'm now at the tail end of my working life and learning to fly.  Alas that got cut short due to work redundancy, but it only served to convince me that single engine low wing retractables were the way to fly.  Twin engine planes just get you to the sight of your crash faster and high wing jobs are trickier in cross wind landings, of which I've done many.  Let me tell you that all your problems pail into insignificance when you're trying to land a small plane in a blustery crosswind on a hot day with updrafts and downdrafts doing their thing too and no instructor sat next to you.  My adult years have also left me with an appreciation for the wonders of the engineering of reciprocating engine as I spent many hours doing my own car maintenance.  Most mechanics are rubbish anyway.

 

The sight and sound of a Spitfire or P-47 or any other fighter from that era are just amazing, and watching them loop and roll about the sky is still awe inspiring to this now aged child.  So with the odd exception, I stick with WW2 fighters or occasionally the early jets.  Anything from 1960 on leaves me a bit cold.  Pilots will tell you that starting a piston aero engine is like waking a beautiful woman.  Starting a jet is like switching on your ceiling fan.

 

One final word on this.  The Spitfire was the most beautiful fighter, and the best fighter, of WW2, and I will take no correspondence on that matter.     So you can't have enough of them in this writer's opinion.  Except for the late low back Griffon jobs with the clown shoe-sized tail.  Yuk.   Poo...

 

Cheers,

Michael 

 

 

 

[dmthamade]

3 minutes ago, mozart said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

[Chek]

Recently there are two Youtube channels I watch for relaxation while eating my dinner (a night time meal) sometimes accompanied by a nice bottle of red.

Easy to do when living alone and no visitors for weeks currently. One is by an antique furniture restorer (Thomas Johnson Antiques), the other is Midwest Hobbies where the guy is 20 videos into a 1/200 USS Missouri build with a ton of aftermarket.

 

While I enjoy watching a twin 40mm Bofors gun installation in resin and brass smaller than a matchbox come together as much as the next ,man, I do get a bit jealous. The process seems to be mostly carefully glue part A to part B then add to part C.

 

Then I think about my ongoing projects (1/32 Harrier/Buccaneer) and desired ones (Tamiya and Revell Phantoms, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Revell and PCM Spitfires of various flavours, Tamiya Mosquitos - one to combine with the Revell bomber nose because you need both versions, right? And HKM dropped the ball with that one) yet even with added aftermarket there's a ton of complex cut/ sand/ re-model/ reshape / make, add vac-form parts / resin mould replacement pieces etc etc. all of which I'm capable of and have often done for previous subjects but gaaahhhhhh! Something simpler would be nice. I was going to just do one of my 20 odd 1:48 Phantoms as a palette cleanser, but first I need to get some new silicone rubber and resin to copy the underside of the Monogram nose because I detest those prissy attempts at vents and grilles and lack of the 'V' keel in that area of the Hasegawa/Revell kits. There should be a rule that once one manufacturer has nailed a particular feature of something, all others following must equal or improve on it. Not present something that's regressed to worse.

 

Maybe I'll just go watch an inlaid mahogany and maple federal card table get brought back to life.

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Chek
layout

[kkarlsen]

That's an excellent question Max.

 

I had to think long and hard to find an answer to that. What it is that 'triggers' the start of a new project.

 

1.    Seaplanes & Floatplanes, as long as there is water involved, I'm in!

 

2.    I have noticed an inclination toward subjects with a colorful history, moving pictures etc.

 

3.    Nothing out of the box, I can't stand the thought of doing a build that has
        been done over and over, many times before, it's an absolute kill joy.
        Scratched parts or 'exotic' decals are a minimum.

 

4.     Group Builds: I love it when others decide a subject and I get to find a suitable object.

 

There are questions I cannot even answer myself, why it is that I have...

 

No interest in modern jet aircraft whatsoever, except for helicopters?
Almost zero interest in Fighters of WW2?
None for German two seaters of WWI?
Not even a special paint scheme triggers my interest?

 

Cheers: Kent

[dmthamade]

2 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

 

 

One final word on this.  The Spitfire was the most beautiful fighter, and the best fighter, of WW2, and I will take no correspondence on that matter.     So you can't have enough of them in this writer's opinion.  Except for the late low back Griffon jobs with the clown shoe-sized tail.  Yuk.   Poo...

 

Cheers,

Michael 

 

 

 

 

Wow. Lot of hate for the late model Spit...

 

Don

[AlanG]

4 minutes ago, dmthamade said:

 

Wow. Lot of hate for the late model Spit...

 

Don

 

Hate is a strong word. I don't hate the later Mk's. I just don't think they had that 'zing' that you get with the Mk.IX and below (plus the sound of a Merlin engine still gives me goosebumps)

 

[mozart]

8 minutes ago, AlanG said:

 

Hate is a strong word. I don't hate the later Mk's. I just don't think they had that 'zing' that you get with the Mk.IX and below (plus the sound of a Merlin engine still gives me goosebumps)

 

...........and that beautiful elliptical wing!

[mozart]

With you especially on 3. and 4. Kent:

 

3.    Nothing out of the box, I can't stand the thought of doing a build that has
        been done over and over, many times before, it's an absolute kill joy.
        Scratched parts or 'exotic' decals are a minimum.

 

4.     Group Builds: I love it when others decide a subject and I get to find a suitable object.

[Troy Molitor]

Anything usually from WWII in a fighter configuration I would say is my main interest ending with the late war WWII jets.  The Korean conflict with props only F4U’s and the marvelous Spit MK-47.  I worked on and later flew UH-1H’s, OH-58’s and finished my Army Guard time in an AH-1 Cobras.  I like Army Aviation.   Rounding out the subject I would certainly agree with DonH.  When living in Singapore for a number of years.  The Royal Singaporean AF F-16’s and F-15 screaming around my apartment on their Independence Day raised the hackles!    The six F-15 arrowhead tight formation is something to see.   

 

I do have some WNW little Fokker kits.  Oh and two 1:32 F-14’s (Tamiya / Trumpeter) and the F-117.   Hmmmmmm.  I must like aircraft in general.   

[ade rowlands]

I have a bit of a shot gun approach in that my stash covers props from World War 2 up to today’s Jets. It all stems from a passion for military aviation coupled with the history of the subjects. I’ll also watch a lot of associated documentaries or read books on the subject which sometimes leads off down a rabbit hole which is how my interest in the air war over Vietnam. That kicked off from reading ‘When Thunder Rolled’ Ed Rasimus book about his time with the F-105. That then lead to other books of that type. Which then leads to the kits. I also think some of my interests stem from where and when I was born. I was born in 1981 the last decade of the Cold War so there’s an interest in that coupled with my general interest in history, then where I was born and grew up, Machynlleth, the town that gives the Mach Loop low flying area its name I got to see the full RAF and USAFE inventories on an almost daily basis from a time when they weren’t all painted Grey. I think eclectic would describe it. Same goes for my music tastes. 

[RLWP]

12 hours ago, dmthamade said:

 

Wow. Lot of hate for the late model Spit...

 

Don

 

Not surprising really, not much of a head turner compared to a Hawker Tempest

 

I model railways and I model aeroplanes. At the moment, I'm not modelling railways much, the actual running gets me down, and I can't shake off the train set thing

 

Aeroplanes give me something to hang my imagination on and read up about. There are details to understand and engineering challenges to unwrap. For my particular interests - early aviation, the whole of the aeroplane is there to understand if you want. You're never going to do that with later aeroplanes (Hawker Hunter gun-dipping valves anyone?)

 

And larger scales give me the chance to represent the things I find out about

 

Richard