I recently purchased a few kits I would never have purchased in my younger days because they didn’t interest me.
At the beginning of my participation in this hobby, I regularly purchased Airfix and Aurora ship and aircraft kits with a few Aurora tank kits.
Later, I purchased AMT and MPC Sci-Fi kits and Monogram 1/48th aircraft kits.
I have some 21st Century kits for “practice” in order to re-gain my skills without the risk of mucking up a very expensive “good” kit.
Now I find I’m purchasing more AMT and Revell /Monogram re-issue “funny” kits.
I can account for the Sci-Fi due to the influence of movies and the pantoffelkino ( TV ): Space 1999, Star Trek and later Star Wars- as well as ending purchases due to really bad kits.
As for 1970s and 1980s Monogram- I’ve commented about that in an earlier thread.
My present purchases are due in part due to the “rivet counting” associated with the serious side of kit building I experienced during my IPMS days.
I now find I have less interest in dumping a lot of time into “perfection” and more interest in re-gaining the fun I used to experience.
Anyone out there else experiencing the same thing?
Nope, I’ve been pretty consistent during both modeling phases of my life. From the time I was 5 until I was 15 and from 33 onward, I’ve always been about “reality” - even when building sci-fi kits. I can’t seem to get into goofy looking kits like Rat Rods or egg-planes. To me, they’re too toy-like and it goes against everything I’ve tried to accomplish as a model builder. Maybe it’s a minor OCD-like condition.
But, I am, by no means, a rivet counter. I’m not one to hack up a kit because it’s scale fidelity is off by +/-3mm. But I will add detail that I know is missing and try to make it look as real as I could possibly muster. I was never happy with brush painting exteriors because I always felt it looked ridiculous, with the brush strokes or gloppy application. I was so much happier when I finally moved up to rattle cans. At last, I could finally get a nice, smooth, even finish.
I have no desire to go back to the dimestore kits I used buy as a child, with my allowance. I have a job and when I have the disposable income, I’ll buy a nice kit. But I won’t buy a $3 POS just because I want a model.
I am in a similar boat. But for different reasons. I fond myslef trying my hand again with my current skills on kits I built as a kid. I like picking up some of the Revell and Monogram re issues, and also trying my hand on some of the Daves Deals/Old School kits just for nostalgic value. I also ahve been eyeballing some of the movie monster kits I used to build back as a kid. As far as painting goes, once i got an airbrush, I really got away from area hand brushing, although I think I had that technique down nicely. But my skill there has decined thru lack of use. I never cared for rattle cans and only used those a few times and was not impressed or keen on the results.
A lot of my purchases now are from the same manufacturers I bought from as a kid, too. That’s Monogram for 1/48 and Revell for 1/72, some Aurora and Lindberg thrown in, for much the same reasons as other nostalgia builders-I enjoyed them back then, and I still enjoy them, and I like to tackle them with the skills I’ve learned over the years. But I do buy newer kits, too, Accurate Miniatures, Classic Airframes, Eduard. And I have a mixed bag of ship kits, in 1/700, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Tamiya, but also Hobby Boss and Trumpeter.
I’m not a competition builder, I build what I like, and I like to try scratchbuilding and superdetailing, so I’ll tend to the older kits, since they’re often a good starting point for that kind of work. And I think Monogram’s 1/48 line reached a very nice level of detail in the 70s, with the large bomber kits, and kits like the TBD, the B-25 and B-26.
It’s no secret that I prefer the old kits, 60’s-70’s-80’s, bring 'em on… I love 'em, both for the price and the nostalgia, but also for what they DON’T include, which means I gotta MAKE it…
For me, “X” doesn’t equal kit choice + age, but rather the Age + Huge Spares box + Imagination = kit choice… My thing is taking the afore-mentioned “3-Dollar” kits and making them look like a “30-dollar” one without spending the additional 27.00… Detailing and super-detailing should be fun AND cheap and the only real cost is time… And I got plenty… I’m retired military, got a civilian cake-job that lets me make my own hours and I don’t even have to leave the building to go to work (I’m an apartment building super).
Y’all can have the 120.00 TrumpeDragomiya 1/32 P-51 with 400 parts and a pound of brass… Gimme an old Revellogram Wildcat for 12.00 and my spares boxes an’ I’m happier 'n a sow with new mud…
Due to changing kit choices I’ve also built up a large spares box which I intend to use for the latest kit purchases.
One advantage of picking the kits like Rommels Rod and Messa-Schitzel is that I can add parts from a variety of kits that are completely unrelated to the subject so long as the end result looks like it fits the spirit of the original design.
Unfortunately, I’ve found the 1/24th DB 601 is a bit too big to squeeze into that Rommel’s Rod engine compartment. [:D] Perhaps not completely impossible but some shoe-horning and hood alteration will be required.
Seriously, I see your point about the Monogram kits and the present crop of releases now have good quality decals which keep cost low.
I hope to make resin castings of any detail scratch building I intend to do on an old kit and store the molds for future work as a time saving feature.
As I have a number of Revell 1/32 F-104 kits needing work- making duplicate parts will result in a sort of F-104 assembly line. Too bad I can’t make it into a diorama.
As a kid, I preferred non-military land vehicles. Now I’m building armor and aircraft, plus the odd car; some of my car kits will probably never be built. I guess my tastes now run toward models of vehicles that are prohibitively expensive in 1:1, and that I can’t legally operate anyway.