SPA Modeler

I agree, Carlos! I have the Army UH-60L with those large fuel tanks on both sides. A mean looking machine!

Now just imagine a 1/35 Mi-8/Mi-17 Hip, an even bigger whirlybird! Or a MH-47 in that scale....

I missed this thread. I build in both 48th and 72nd. When I started building it was any scale. Then I mainly built 72nd. Then sold off all the 72nd and went to 48th So my collection and stash now is 48th mostly WWII with some jets. 72nd mostly jets with some WWII. And a couple of 144th just for good measure

I prefer subjects that are large enough for my old eyes and somewhat shaky hands to manage. I prefer 1/32 WWII fighters as they are about the same size as modern 1/48 scale jet fighters. 1/72 scale WWII fighter would be far too small for me to handle. I can't believe the detail and quality of the tiny models Duke Maddog builds.

There is always 1/144th scale. This is a Su-22 Fitter

Back in the beginning...scale didn't matter at all. If it was cool, and I could afford it, was all that went into the decision making process. The only 1/32 kits I recall building were Revell's Tornado and Jet Ranger.
After my first return...it was pretty much 1/48 Revellogram stuff, mainly because that's about all that was available at Walmart, etc. Then I discovered contests and vendor tables...but I was still pretty much broke, so I bought super cheap (CRAP) kits.
Upon my latest return, my stash was about 50 strong...with only a couple 1/72 and 1/32...1/48 dominated.
I was set on 1/48, but would throw in a 1/72 here and there for "decompression" after a good project. I started liking 72nd more and more. Having turned a fair share of crappy 1/48th kits into award winners, there wasn't much challenge anymore. I get far more joy out of detailing the smaller 72nd stuff, than I ever did with 48th.
Now, the stash is closing on 400...roughly 70 are 48th, 16 in 32nd, 4 in 1/24 and the rest are 72nd.

Well, I finally found this awesome thread here.

I prefer the 1/72 scale models. The reason goes way back to my childhood days. My mother got me started in model building with a 1/48 scale Aurora Sabre Dog that we built together on the kitchen table. That's when she realized 1/48 scale might be a bit much for a six-year-old kid a sit was obvious I wanted to keep building. So, the next model she bought me was a 1/72 scale MPC Focke Wulf FW-190 D-9. I sat in the garage and built and painted it all by myself. I was so proud of that model! I still have it to this day too. My mother continued to buy me 1/72 scale planes, unless I mowed a lawn or two and rode my bike down to the local 7-11 to buy some bagged kits, some paint and some candy myself.

Later another model-building kid moved in down the street named Emmanuel and he had a sizable collection that was all 1/72 scale. We became fast friends and he taught me detail painting; building techniques and more significantly: scale consistency. I learned from him the beauty of having everything in one scale so size references could be seen and everything looked even on the shelves. When I was exposed to 1/72 scale armor, that cemented it for me; I was thrilled at setting tanks, trucks and jeeps next to aircraft to see how they compared in size. Ever since then, 1/72 scale is my preferred scale for aircraft and armor. I can set anything next to anything else and see how they compared in size. (Dora next to Annie, staff car coming out of an Mi-26 Halo etc.)

And now I think I have the largest collection of 1/72 scale aircraft and armor built so far. It's still a lot smaller than a number of other collections of finished models that I know of (Henry at Brookhurst Hobbies is displaying part of a huge collection of 7000 finished models built by one guy... and he hasn't stopped building yet!)


For anyone in the Southwest of the United States; or the ability to come to Phoenix, AZ for the IPMS Nationals, you'll be able to see my entire collection of 700 armor models which will be on display during the event. Feel free to come on over to see it!