Youd think this would be a pretty standard subject,but ive found everyone has a different reason.
I tend to model things i cant see everyday. Thus i dont do cars. Ships planes tanks,space for me. I grew up durring vietnam and allways thought those soldiers on tv were just to cool over there,so i guess i was influenced by the history i experienced.
With history a dying subject in our schools i lind wonder where things will go in the hobby, but anyhow,im curious to hear , Why do you model what you model ???
I just like miniatures. I especially like models of things I have seen like aircraft I’ve seen at airshows. I also model my cars and I plan to build a model of my house. But still, anything miniature. I even have a model of a water tower!
That sentence struck a chord in me, I only model modern fighter jets, these I only saw a few times at air-shows when I was a young kid. You don’t see it everyday and the roaring engine noise and the elegance of flying really grabbed hold of me, it’s still exciting to this day. Also, growing up, the Swedish JA-37 Viggen made a lasting impression [:p]
I guess I model my childhood dreams…[:)]
I’ve always been facinated by WWII. there’s just something about that period in time that i find mesmerizing… i can’t explain it. As for my love of aircraft: i saw Topgun and Iron Eagle one too many times each… [:p]
Yeah, those movies really had an impact on me, I just couldn’t get enough of them! I was in awe as I bought my first Italeri F-14 Tomcat a couple years later. “Look mom! This was Maverick’s plane!” [:D]
My facination with the F-14 started with a short movie at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. It showed an F-14 in a mock dogfight with an F-4. Then further solidified with the movie Final Countdown. That got me to build VF-84 Tomcat in 1/48 by revell. Sill have a pic of that 20 years later but the model is mercifully long gone.
I have always been interested in aircraft that seemed out of place in their particular era.
Like, the A-1, B-26K and C-47 in Vietnam and the, low and slow, A-10 in an age of faster and faster aircraft. They were in the process of removing the Hawg from our inventory just prior to the first Gulf War in '91 and it went on to redeem itself admirably. [bow]
And of course, helos. Worked with helos right out of high school and fell in love forever!!!
Randie [C):-)]
Because so few people do it (‘Guest’ Craft from the Gerry Anderson series). On the face of it, it may look as if it’s just chopping up F104 kits and adding other bits but craft such as the VG104 from Joe 90 are far more involved being based on no known ‘real’ aircraft… Consequently, the full scratch build uses only 8 kit parts: pilot, seat and the wheels.
It’s cheeper than smokes, drugs, booze and Zoloft…
I’ve worked on aircraft for the last twentysix (yikes) years and have been building models ten years longer then that. I’ve built just about every type. Cars just for fun. Tanks because my dad was in the Army. Ships for the history. But I build airplanes so I can have a small piece of what I did that’s mine and no pilot to mess them up when I’m done working on them!
Dave has a good reason too![:D]
I build WW II aircraft because of an early influence from my father. He flew B-24s (Ploesti raid-Operation Tidal Wave) out of North Africa, and P-51s (3 victories) out of Italy. When I learned more about the time period, I got hooked. The people of that age were truly members of “the greatest generation.” I build in their honor.
I second that- and add women in there too 
Why do I model the things I do (military aircraft mostly)? Numerous reasons, here are some of them:
- Childhood fantasies of being a fighter pilot thanks to Star Wars, GI Joe and Top Gun
- Interest in things technical, I’m an engineer by day
- An eye for art- Besides awsome machines, aircraft are beutiful and bulding them is a fine work of art
- Keeps me home, quiiet, safe, and is relaxing
Because it’s there! It’s like the guy in the desert that took off all of his clothes and jumped on a cactus. When asked why he did it, he said, “at the time I thought it was the thing to do”.
I like just about anything with wings, but have several favorites. I enjoy doing colorful paint schemes, like the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds. I especially enjoy building models of aircraft that can be identified with it’s pilot, such as Dick Bong’s P-38 or “Pappy” Boyingtons F-4-U.
Why? It’s fun, relaxing, challenging, and a three dimensional learning experience. rangerj
interesting responses ,all of them . Seems no one is in this hobby for the mere craft of it. Everyone has an influence of some kind. I dont believe theres such a thing as a hobbiest.
Anyhow… i just got on to read the repsonses and to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. And may GOD watch over those that are serving today.
i think that is the best question ive heard all year, really made me think about why i do this …and every reason i can identify with, the love of the planes/cars/tanks/ships, the theripudic factor, cause its cheeper than booze n drugs, (my favorite by the way), or because of relitives ( dad was an A/C mech), but i think its cause there just cool, and the possibilities are endless.
jim
Because I’m too sexy for everything else… [8D] Oh… [:0] You meant the plastic/resin models! [:I]
I build US WWII planes because of the marvel in technological advancement during those years. I mean, they were still flying P-26 Peashooters out of Pearl (yes I know the P-40s were around and other more advance aircraft) and by the final years they were flying P59 Airacomets, actual jets!
Well, i’ve got the same “hit” from the greatest jet fighter movie of all times (for me, that is!!!)[;)], and i’ve seen it so many times, that i got all the lines from the first 15 min. and last 30 memorized, in English, even living in Portugal!!![:p]
That movie really catched my eye, and my passion for the F-14 was love at first sight![:X]
I therefore started to collect everything related to aircraft and figthers, starting with book, images, and after, kits.
My really first one was an Academy’s 1/100 F-14 Tomcat!
There after it was that Apache movie, really good, with Nicolas Cage, i think, and i also fell in love with the little chopper…[}:)]
But my heart always was with that F-14, and the more i learned, the more i liked the Navy aircrafts…[8D]
Soon i realised i couldn’t build all them, even at a decent 1/72 scale, so i’ve decided to narrow things up, and come up with this mad task of creating a single aircraft type that were aboard USS Enterprise since 1961…[:)]
So, that’s from where comes my “crazyness” for the USS Enterprise…[8]
But you might ask, why not another carrier???[?]
Well, the big E was the first carrier to have a squadron of F-14 onboard, see… and we come up again to Maverick!!![^]
“Let’s turn and burn”
I model what ever I feel like at the time. Mostly it is modern fighters because I am an engineer and I always enjoy the latest and greatest technology has to offer. Sometimes it is just because the airplane looks good, other times it is just for historical significance. I try to keep things varied when I can, so sometimes I build an armor diorama because you can tell a story or I build something I hope to one day have, like the Porche 911GT3… still have a long way before making that dream come true.
I want to fly Wolrd War II fighters,fly in intestellar star ships and pilot huge humanoid robotic fighting vehicles -but I can’t. Scale Modeling brings me closer to that. Also, my interest in WWII fighters broadened my intereset in WWII as a whole and the more I learn the more I want to model from it. Instead of just the basic American P-38, -47 and 51s I know collect Yaks and Macchis and I’ve just started collecting a few WWII armor kits
I build scale aircraft models because of my fascination with military aircrafts( WWII, Vietnam-era, present day). I can’t afford to own the real planes so the next best choice is the model.