A few months ago I started a 1/144 scale interwar transport plance model called the Hercules as part of the Interwar Group Build. And more recently, I picked up a a couple simple little models in the same scale just to mess around with (including Brewster B239 Buffalo that I am trying to paint up as a what-if Polish variant, and a Fairey Battle that I am trying to convert into a what-if naval variant).
Anyway, when I put the kits side to side, I was amazed at just how big the Hercules was and how small the Buffalo looked.
Pat
PS. The Hercules is an Airfix repop of an old model they put out a long time ago, but it is still a nice, fun build. The Fairey Battle is from Zvezda and is really meant for wargaming, so it is very simple (only a few parts) with no attempt at any interior but, still looks ‘good enough’ for my purposes. The Buffalo is from someone called F-Toys and comes prepainted, but also has decals for surfaces where it would have been hard to prepaint some of the markings, and is surprisingly adequately detailed for such a small, snao together kit. It includes a separate seat, control panel, clear canopy (with prepainted framing), and can be modeled with the gear up or down. Surprisingly for something so small and simple it wasactually a kind of fun kit for me. [:P]
I love 1/144 and 1/200 for airliners. The Airbus 380 I did even in 1/144 was huge! I imagine the smaller fighters etc in that scale would be tough. The Buffalo was a little plane to begin with - but I’ve seen 1/350th stuff done amazingly so…
One of the most heartening trends in plastic models in the last decade or so is the stellar improvement in quality of new 1/144 military aircraft releases. Considering how mostly awful most of the '60s and '70s releases in that scale were – think the old Crown kits (still being re-released by Revell, Minicraft, et al) – some of the newer kits are just gems.
I know 1/144 has also always been the airliner scale…but most of the airliner kits I’ve actually built were older-vintage kits; what I know of more modern kits is largely through reviews. Still, improvements seem impressive, and most welcome.
It’s a cool scale. As the OP noted, it’s really useful (and impressive) for getting a notion of relative sizes of ‘familiar’ types…something it’s not always easy to do even in museum or airshow settings.
My last three buoilds in 1/144 (various stages of completion) are the Type 21 U Boat with interior, Gato submarine with interior, and Flower class corvette, with wheel house interior.
