I am an airline guy. I love prop airplanes to fly in real life, I do not suffer from SJS (Shiny Jet Syndrome) like many of the younger pilots out there. I say “give me a Dash, Saab or Donier over a jet, it builds charecter”
But when I build my models, I build jet airliners because they’re of my age and era. I wasn’t around when the old DC-6’s and 7’s were pulling up to the gates.
So why do you chose to build what you do?
My build choices come from several different sources. If it is for myself I roll my chair up to the stash and start looking over the kits until one captures my imagination. Occasionally there are specific projects that I have floating around in the back of my head for long periods of time and I’ll slowly acquire the needed items until a ‘critical mass’ is achieved and the build actually starts. I also build on a commission basis so if the money is right and the project interests me I build it.
I build a model just because I like the look of it, so if I see a picture of a great looking fighter, I’ll be inspired to go buy the kit and build it. Darren.
Thats the way I am to, also if the aircraft has a good camo that helps me chose.
I’m like Swanny- I’ll look through the stash until I find inspiration and then gather the forces, ie: resin 'pits, PE, decals, etc until I have everything ready and… attack. Otherwise if it’s OOB than I’ll merely grab and start.
You’ll all laugh, but if I have trouble deciding between two kits in my small stash, I show them to my wife, explain the two kits/subjects, then let her pick.
I then walk downstairs and start the other one every time. I don’t intend to when I ask her, but without exception I decide against it by the time I reach the bench 
QT
Sometimes I’m inspired by seeing a color scheme I like. Sometimes it’s something I read I’m really into the History of A/C. Sometimes the shape of a particular A/C just say’s build me.
Well since I started joining in on the GB’s, that is what I use a guide on what model to build next from my stash. However, since I like working on multiple projects, I’ll choose another one from the stash that I want to do somethign special too, weather it be a certain amount of detail or a “quick build”, which is what I will throw together to break the monotony of the detail work.
A lot of times it will depend on what I am up for mentally. As a modeler who doesn’t spend huge amounts of time at the bench every day, I don’t like to get involved in lot’s of really long involved projects because it takes forever to see any progress. So I often opt for a fairly straight forward oob Revell kit than a big project with lots of am godies.
If im playing a game on my laptop like Forgotten battles, i start to like the aircraft im flying so i buy the kit of it
at the moment im building a Skybow 1,48th Tiger late (thats a tank ) so next i’d like to get a Skybow 1.48th Firefly (another tank ) or a Hasigawa Tempest in 1.48th
I usually build three or four models at the same time to eliminate the waiting for paint to dry etc. After finishing one or two I pick out six that I have been considering from my stash and number them 1 to 6. I then grab a die and roll it…whatever number comes up is my choice. Saves all that silly mind strain.
The interaction of three or four independent factors produces randomness, no?
The majority of the time I draw my inspiration from real life - if I have seen something in a museum, if I have had a memorable flight on a commercial airliner, or if I have owned a certain car, that will get me started.
I have moved four times in the last five years, so my choices have been limited by necessity - what I can find unpacked. Last winter I started armor because my airbrush was buried in a storage locker and I could go the rattle can route along with simple brush paints. (Now I have another genre I like.)
If I can build something for someone else, I will. I have surprisingly little interest in my work after it is completed. Whatever someone wants, I will do. Better they enjoy it than let the moving companies destroy it.
Finally, sometimes a kit just catches my eye, and I think, “That looks fun”.
Combine all those factors, and you get an airliner followed by a Dodge Viper followed by an M4A2 (my last three). An outside observer (my wife) would call it completely random. That’s the fun of a hobby, isn’t it?
My main interest is camouflage and markings, so I tend to build aircraft with schemes that are interesting to me. Of course I have my favorites and they take priority for kit selection but are also aircraft with wide rangeing finishes, ie P51B. Gotta tell you I saw a photo of an 8th FW F16C with that big wolfs head on the fin and I must build one of those.
As far as choosing what kind of model to build, I’m an aircraft guy, so I go for 1/48 scale planes, but as I look at the kits I’ve already built, I can’t for the life of me remember what made me want to build that particular kit. Sometimes watching a movie will make me want to build a kit, or seeing a detail set for a kit I’ve had for a while will make me want to build it (finally), but I couldn’t tell you what posesses me to look at my stash of kits (over 200) and say “That’s what I’m going to build.”
Strictly speaking I’m a 1/72 aircraft man (though there have ben exceptios over the years). My metho of choosing what to build is generally after I see a certain warbird at an airshow or in a magazine, and I like it, I’ll set out to build that particular a/c. So far this “1/72 Warbirds of the World” collection sits at 20 - biplanes, jets, piston fighters, even Lufthansa’s Ju52. Right now I’m working on two aircraft owned and flown by Ray Hanna of the Old Flying Machine Company - his Lavochkin La-9 ZK-LIX and Yakovelv Yak-3 ZK-YYY. Next up is New Zealand’s other Yak-3, which was owned by Jim Nezgoda (I think that’s the name) and suffered a landing accident at Reno in '99. I know the current owner.
So if I see a certain bird in a magazine I’ll end up building that, as authentic and true to that a/c as is practical. No dice rolling, no asking my girlfriend, no looking through the stash (um…currently standing at two), just inspiration from a magazine or in the flesh.
I tried planning my builds, but I found myself building things I just wasn’t in the mood for building. So now I do something similar to what Swanny does scanning over the stash and previously built projects with several ideas in mind to see what motivates me. Naturally, I end up with four or five builds going at once. Like the following 5 current projects:
XF5F-1 Skyrocket “Shortnose” - 95% complete
P-40B Tomahawk Rehab - 5% complete
AT-6 Texan - 5% complete
TBF-1C Avenger and Tow Diorama - 65% complete
B-25J Mitchell Maintnance Diorama - 50% complete
I am pretty much the same way. After looking at the pre-release pictures of Hasegawa’s F-18 F Super Hornet for months, I had to have it! I bought it a couple days after it got to my LHS and Its been a fun build of a great looking bird! I can’t wait to get her finished up [:D]