This is going to sound like a weird question, but why do you build the models that you do. For me, I try to build the models that I put gas on, which is why a lot of my on deck’s are heavies as I was stationed at a heavy base and that’s what we normally put gas on, outside of the transient aircraft that came on base. Is it looks, difficulty or what not.
Edit:If any of y’all come across a KC-10 kit (think Revell made it) let me know…
I have alway’s loved the sea , unlike most of the people on that forum I wasn’t in the navy , only ever did a bit of sailing , I love learning the histiory , and I really like the fact , kit’s like the victory , soleil , constitution , take about a year [ for me ] to do .
I build what appeals to my eye and what would be both challenging to a to paint and finish and rewarding when completed. Kind of like people with cars, it’s all in the lines. I build mostly air and armor for the challenge of weathering well and the accuracy of a used item. No ships and rarely autos, they look too clean. Great question though! Thanks.
I build a particular genre for any of several reasons. I started with planes- they were the most widely kits available when I was young, and during the war years (WW2) the fighter aces were the big heros tracked in the newspapers. I built ships because I was an avid reader of the Hornblower novels. I built cars because my dad was a race driver.
Other genres I picked up for various reasons. I may have read a history book or novel about a different branch of service. Or, I may have been at a contest and saw a model that was terrific but not of a genre that I don’t usually build. That model led me to try on. Some clubs I belong to have challenge contests to get folks to try a new genre and I am a sucker for those 
My “speciality” since 2006 has been Regia Aeronautica Italia (RAI) simply because I’d decided to build one or more of as many if not all available 1/72 scale injected plastic & resin model airplane kits this air force operationally employed between 1935 and 1943, including not operationally accepted aircraft & prototypes. By 2020 I probably will have built “all” of them after that will consider other national subjects.
Why I like RAI modeling subjects above all others is singularly because of the Profile Publications The Macchi C.202 No. 28 1964 booklet cover art, consider it the most inspirational aircraft art piece - for me. I’d purchased a copy of No.28 around the time I’d build my first Air Lines (FROG) C.202 kit; the FROG kit remains my “go-to mental candy” whenever I pine to build a “one day wonder”.
As a kid, I built the kits that were available to me in the 60s & 70s; cars, planes, spaceships, tanks, dinosaurs, superhero and monster figures and an occasional ship. Model subjects were varied because that’s what the local stores carried.
But building tank models was more interesting to me. It got me interested in tanks. That facination with tanks probably effected my decision to become a tanker.
So, I started building US Army tanks and military vehicles, leaning heavily towards vehicles I had trained on and crewed myself or Soviet tanks that were our adversary. One of my HMMWVs was actually the subject of a Revell of Germany kit that I used for umpire duties during REFORGER 1990.
Also as a kid, my favorite TV show was Star Trek and the original Star Wars movie (aka A New Hope). Building kits of those spacecraft were a lot of fun and is still one of my favorite subjects to model. The quality of these kits have improved significantly from the original Star Trek AMT kits and MPC Star Wars kits.
I will still build the occasional ship, car or plane, but tanks and sci-fi are my main interests.
Pretty much anything with wings or rotor blades. Built one ship, Revell Lionfish sub for a friend who served on one. Really like bi planes, the rigging is a challenge I enjoy. That takes care of summer building.
For winter projects I build scale balsa free flight. Prefer old school 1920’s thru '50’s, mostly from plans available, kits long out of production. My local hobby shop has a great selection of premium balsa and hardwoods in stock.
I’m scouting the wooden boat kits, maybe this next winter I’ll take on a kit of the classic Blue Nose. Really want to learn lap strake technique, that looks so elegant to me.
Patrick
Hmmmmmmmm… “Why” I build what I build. Never really thought much about it. I love to build aircraft (my primary plastic love) because my mom & dad were in the USAF, and I’ve been hooked on planes ever since I can remember because of them. But, since being a Marine, I try to build USMC aircraft as much as I can. And, that’s mostly in the 1/48th & 1/32nd scales, as my eyesight ain’t what it used to be, and I seem to shake quite a bit when trying to do small detail work. I also occasionally build cars, tanks, ships, helicopters, motorcycles, and military vehicles to round it all out. Never was a fan of figures, as I can’t paint faces worth a darn (how would you even begin to mask them off? [whstl] ), but all the more power to those who can. That’s a great skill that I wish I had.
Gary
My mom used to tell me that she read books to me while she was pregnant with me. I’ve had a life long fascination with aviation as a result. Caveat - by aviation I mean warbirds; anything else is just a bus with wings, and not very interesting to me.
I built all of the Monogram kits and many of the Revell kits in the late 60s through mid 70s because that was what was available in stores like Bottom Dollar, Target, Sears, Montgomery Wards, and various grocery stores. I might have built a ship or two during those years. I also built many of the Aurora monster/dinosaur kits because, like warbirds, I have always had an interest in dinosaurs and monster movies.
Then along came Star Wars, and I largely switched away from aircraft to sci-fi starships. I remember building all the MPC kits from the first two Star Wars movies, plus all the kits released from Battlestar Galactica, Alien (just the MPC creature figure), Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century, The Black Hole, and Star Trek the Motion Picture. I even developed an interest in installing lighting into these models.
By the time Return of the Jedi came out, I was half way through high school and had been losing interest in modeling. I was more interested in girls and sports and making movies with my 8mm movie camera. Then came college and my earliest jobs. In those years I was aware of this desire to build something. I even remember a recurring dream of being in a store like a Sam’s or CostCo (this was before either of those existed, at least in SE Texas), and coming across a row with shelves fully stocked with airplane kits. Those on the bottom shelf were always big ones, kits that would have been larger than 1/24 and were of huge subjects. Weird dream that I had a number of times. Always ended up waking up before I brought anything home. But I guess that was planting a seed in me, and one day in 1995 I came home from a KMart with a bunch of kits. They were all WWII aviation plus one helicopter, an Apache I think. I had returned to my first love.
In the years since then I have tried to build occasionally outside my primary interest. The USS Lexington I built barely counts toward this since it is loaded with a bunch of Wildcats, Devastators and Dauntlesses. I also have a USS Texas to build some day. I built a couple of Monogram car kits, a couple of Tamiya tanks, The Avengers, an Alien, a Creature From the Black Lagoon, etc that have kept me interested and given me some variation from the masking for canopies, assembling bombs, and a few other monotonous requirements of building WWII aircraft.
In short, I build what I love.
I build what I build because as my wife says I’m still a kid at heart. I am constantly looking for the kits i built as a kid for nostalgic reasons I guess . Since i grew up in a rough neighborhood I usualy sequesterd myself in the house and built models to stay out of trouble and found solace in the projects I would do. An xacto knife-cut finger was a lot better to take than a broken nose or a black eye.
I build mostly WWII and only USA and anything Marines because I’m right proud of my country and thank the good Lord for having born me here.
Check out Penn Valley Hobbies- they have some of the old kits, and companies reproducing kits from some of the old time companies.
Also, sure is a downer to have lost Flying Models magazine, that catered to the non-RC folks like us. I remember getting that mag back in the fifties, and sure miss it after it went belly-up a couple of years ago.
As with most, i build what i am interested in. I have long had a fascination with all things WW2 German. So that shows in most of the kits i build. Beyond that, as a proud Norfolk man i build aircraft based there as well as building modern armour from the finest army on earth and as a Starwars fan of course plenty of those.
And then its what ever subject takes my fancy.
I love ww2 history and I love ships. I don’t have much room in my house, so thats the reason I build 1/700 ships. I did my senior project on the history of ships.
I build what my billfold allows me to build which isn’t much.
My interests in subject matter have recently evolved. I was a sucker for anything Luftwaffe but in recent weeks I’ve started building armor. I find the armor kits can go together more easily and with fewer subassemblies. However, if I really want to become enveloped in a longterm project, I would probably be inclined to build something aircraft related.
If it was left to my personal favourites, it would be only aircraft. I therefore force myself to build ships and land vehicles just to try the other genres. Force might be a bit too strong of a word.
There’s probably something Froydion in my main intrest, SP’s,SPAAG’s, Artillery, I like the looks of mid range indirect fire semi precision fire power, WWII to the wierd Russian and South African wheeled jobs. I also enjoy support vehicles mostly US modern HEMMT, M1090 etc. I also have an affection for aircraft, the usual WWII AXIS and ALLIED fighters, then the go fasts of the Viet Nam era to present, single seaters mostly with the exception of the EA-6B Prowler, EA-18 Growler. I was in the Navy and do have surface and subs in my collection. Now you know what I build but to ttruly answer your question…I think these things are cool.
I build what interest me in aircraft, armor, ships, cars and Sci-Fi. Mostly I like the lines of the different subjects but sometimes it’s due to its historical significates. I stick mostly with WW2 but not limited to it. I’ll build any genre, any era. It doesn’t matter to me.
Lately I have to be selective due to space.
I alwyas build what I’m in the mood for at the time. i tend to favor USMC figures, vehicles and aircrat given my career in Marines.
But i also like to build old models I built as a kid in 60s.
and I build for others occassionaly , theri ship they served on, car they owned etc.
My ‘stash’ inlcudes figures of all scales, armor, aircraft from WW1 to present, cars, trucks, ships, and space craft.
I do tend to model mostly US and not foriegn vehicles, armor and aircraft.