Hi people, I'm a postgrad student now with a big dream. I've built models in the past (the largest being CVN-65; built at age 13 with my dad). Have also played video games for a long time, and over the years I've come to a massive collection of favourites from different time periods.

Me being an utter sap for completionism, I would ultimately like to have a collection for all of my favourite aircraft, AFVs, and warships. This is obviously a long-term project I don't intend to complete anytime soon (hell I'm still trying to find a job, so I can't buy any models yet anyway) but I figured I would need help if I was going to finish a project of this magnitude.

So yeah. I registered here.

I even made an excel spreadsheet of what I would want, but there's a trickier part that I haven't mentioned yet...

Anyway yeah. I need help with getting a model collection going, so here I am. =P

P.S: A cookie to Canadians/aviation enthusiasts who know where my callsign comes from.

hello JKam, welcome aboard. Its good to have vision, and a plan. Its good that you are not in a hurry to complete your collection. plastic kits and glue are easy to come by, but time can be a real challenge. The other thing you will soon find you need more of is shelf space.

from a time and storage space perspective, a simple axiom is the smaller the scale the more models you can have.

best luck, enjoy, ask questions!

I honestly wonder though is it possible or feasible to have a crapton of models of a consistent scale? There are so many different sizes (the most common I'm seeing being 1:35 or 1:32) I wonder if it's possible to have everything in the same scale.

that is what I have endeavored to do in 1/144. you can have aircraft afvs and a few boats. like wise 1/72.

anything bigger than 1/72 will gobble up shelf space and bench time.

ships of course are a different catagory.

Is there a better place I can ask about the availability/feasibility of certain model types? AFVs are only a part of a larger collection I'd want.

Im not sure why you havent gotten more answers yet but then I wonder how people use this forum. My bookmark goes to LATEST POSTS and I dont filter out anything , so i see every new post and look at many.

anyway, what you might find illuminating here, is looking through the "/reviews" areas of the various topics.

On the ol interwebs rummaging hobby store online catalogs is an education,
as is searching Ebay -
suppose you want to see whats available in 1/72 aircraft models, choose "toys and hobbies" catagory, within that youll find "models and kits" within that "aircraft" and search for "72" edit here ya go
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Military-/2586/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=72


heres a search for 1/144 military model kits

I've tried looking for a Wespe (Sd. Kfz. 124) in that size and I couldn't find one.

One of the main issues I think I'm encountering is that I would ideally want all the pieces to be in the same size.

yes, choose one. 1/72 is probobly the most abundant
looking at 1/72 Wespe I found an Italiari kit in less than a second
72 wespe in models and kits
144 Wespe

That's weird...I tried a google search and didn't find anything. Oh well, I guess that's why I joined, heh!

Are there any other places I should look aside from eBay? I want to make sure any models I get are of good quality after all, and eBay has a bit of a...reputation in my family.

glad to be of assistance.

Im a big fan of 1/144. its the smallest practical scale for vehicals and aircraft, and also the biggest practical scale for ships. a tank will be 2 inches long, a B-17 about 8 inches across and a destroyer about 20 inches long. the tanks kit took one afternoon to finish, the B-17 took two week ends, and the destroyer took a month, and all three fit on your desk together.

by contrast in 1/35 which is what most armor guys like to build, or 1/48 which is the most popular aircraft scale you have a finished model the size of a microwave oven that took half a year to complete.

I have resigned myself to separating ships from land based models, and have two diorama worlds, a 1/144 airport and town with aircraft and vehicles, and a 1/400 scale seaport.

1/700 is a very popular ship model scale, you can build up a large fleet of water line ship models that will all fit together on a coffee table.

mind you, im not suggesting you buy off Ebay, just use it to find what your after, then when you have a shopping list go look to online model shops.

I don't really know where I'd want to put them, but that sounds alright. I guess I'd want them to all be roughly the same size, and not have a B-17 be stuck in the shadow of a Ho-229 three times its size because of scaling.

I agree choose, one scale and stick to it.
Maybe try that Italiari 1/72 scale Wespe to start with. 1/72 is a very handy scale. or if you'd prefer an airplane, alot of people speak highly of the recent Airfix Hawker Typhoon kit
the 1/72 tank is the size of a paper back book, and the airplane would be the size of a hardback textbook.

I think 1/144 or 1/72 are your two paths forward. 1/48 and larger will be a big investment and slow you down.

the prices of things increase geometricly as well. your looking at ten bucks for a 1/72 kit vs $50 or more for 1/48 or 1/35.

EDIT: Sorry I failed to read your post in its entirety. I'm strongly considering 1/72, but would 1/144 be too small? I'm admittedly a bit rusty and I imagine working with small pieces would be more difficult.

Would 1/72 be okay to be consistent with, though, do you think? I'd want to get them all in roughly the same size.

Here's a spreadsheet of my ultimate list (haven't really narrowed things down or anything; probably won't build ALL of them)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UMHc0bFnOPwRJm4bEnel7ULkjRD7EMMQYlqwk6TflME/pubhtml

P.S: Yes some of them are mislabelled. I know the Sherman Firefly is not a tank destroyer, and the KV-2 is certainly not an engineering vehicle. This is done intentionally because my mind works in categories like this, heh.

Nice kits of all those vehicles and aircraft can be had in 1/72 scale.
The aircraft are almost all available in 1/144, but the vehicles are more challenging to come by. Yes - building in 1/144 is "fiddly", but you get results fast.

You can also get figures - pilots, crewmen etc in each scale, so you see how they all compare in scale.

I think thats what youre saying, yes? about being the same size - the people are the same size in each case? after all a B-29 is much bigger than a P-40 in real life.


The ships as said before, will have to be a different world, and a different scale. thats a very ambitions list of ship models.

To give you a feel for 1/144 scale - I attempted to mix aircraft and ship models in 1/144 scale, I am partway through building the USS Enterprise CV-6, c.1941
some very handsome SBD Dauntlesses and F4F wildcats were easily completed.

I got the Island of the carrier mostly built, and started on part of the deck

and I added some TBF Avengers, because there isnt a TBD in 1/144 scale

but that whole project is in a box now, and I'm on to other things.

As comically large a 1:72 Yamato class would be, I understand I'm going to have to take things down a notch with regards to ships. =D

But, you know, to something reasonable with comparison to the planes and tanks. I don't have any intention (yet) of throwing them all into a giant diorama or anything, I just am looking for something cool to look at on my desk or something for now. So I'm more interested in the vehicles themselves rather than the crew.

On the topic of the ships, what would you suggest for the size of the ships?

And also is it necessary to obtain paints for the models, or do they often come pre-painted? If I have to paint them myself, then I'd be really torn about using the genuine paints (which are probably expensive D=) or doing "What ifs" and painting a Sherman in Japanese colours or something...

pre-painted models are not common, and very expensive "collector" when they are available in 1/72. there are a fair number of 1/144 prepainted kits, search for F-toys on E bay. even though they call them selves toys, they are lovely models.

no getting around painting your models, and that takes as much time and effort as assembling them. again, the smaller the scale the quicker it goes.

There is an advantage to the gamer's GHQ 1/285 scale...

That's right, war gaming is a world you might want to look into.

HO scale (1/87) is another.

Thats all from me for tonight.

That's impressive. My question though is how common is that? I have a list, and I'unno if the rarer ones like the Ho-229 or something are still available.

Okay, thanks! I hope the scale is common enough.

Worth a look as GHQ is always adding to their items. I like that you can assemble 2 or 3 parts, paint it gray, wash with thinned black and put it on the display in an hour. They are small enough, but lots of fine details cast in. Try a couple and you are only out less than $10
http://www.ghqmodels.com/pages/military/index.asp

Wow, this site is a contender for 1/72 model! Thanks! It's also well organized and easy to navigate for what I'm looking for.

I should start by saying welcome to the Network. In order to help you jump around the network read the text below, and this will help you get to the sites where your various interests lay.

Armorama is currently the largest site on the KitMaker Network, There are specific sites on the network covering the various interests you have expressed an interest in. At the top of the page on the left you will see a tab called 'Browse Sites', selecting that will provide quick links to each of the sites on the network. The user name and password you have is valid for all of the sites that make up the KitMaker Network. I strongly advise you and anyone for that matter that in the case of Armorama as an example, you sign into the Armorama Kitmaker address as you will then be signed into every site on the network. I hope this helps.