Basic considerations

So you have decided to be part of the modeller community… Congrats on your choice and welcome to the family!

Much has been said and written on the benefits of modelling, thus I will not go into details here. Aside of learning and improving your artistic skills, you will also build up knowledge on following structured approaches by reading and understanding manuals. You will also gain insights on historical backgrounds and context, no matter what subjects you intend to build. Building kits is also a good compensation for freeing your mind from daily stress that you may be exposed to. Finally, you will be rewarded with a little piece of art and the satisfying feeling of having created something.

Choosing your topic

However, the vast variety of available kits of different scales, quality and topics can be overwhelming when starting into the hobby. Therefore, it can be helpful if you have a rough idea of what you want to be doing in order to narrow down your scope.

Ask yourself what your major subjects of interests are – Aircraft, civil or military? Cars, stock or race? Trucks? Helicopters? Tanks and other ground based military gear? Figurines? Or do you intend to build dioramas? For the latter, scale will be a major consideration.

Different categories of model kits require different skills: For instance, applying a high-gloss, mirror-like finish of a 1/24 sports car is a totally different story than rigging a 1/350 battleship. However, both will have heavy impact on the final result. If you fancy 1/35 tanks, your major concerns will be on weathering, accessories and tracks. The overall appearance for aircrafts will be determined by their camouflage schemes and also decals and optional weathering.

If you are undecided, you may try to identify your personal top 2 or 3 subjects and get a cheap and easy kit of each, just as test builds. As you have decided what way you want to go and build up a collection of your favourite subjects, you might want to stick to these subjects and limit “your” categories to 2 or 3.

Size DOES matter

Once you have identified your favourites, the next consideration is on scale. Regardless of your choice of category, you should have an eye on 3 parameters. The aircraft subject below is only an example and applies to all other categories as well:

• Budget: While you can get a 1/72 aircraft for a few bucks, larger scale kits such as 1/48 or 1/32 can sum up to three-digit price tags. Adding aftermarket items will additionally increase the score very quickly.
  

• Time & efforts: If you want fast results, you might tend to smaller scales. The bigger the scale, the more parts and details the desired kit will feature, requiring more efforts and hence more time in the building and painting processes.

  
  

• Space: The required surface to display your built kits is often underestimated. While a whole squadron of 1/72 birds can easily be stored on a shelf, finding an appropriate spot for a single 1/48 B-17 can already be a challenge.

  
  

Next, try to keep consistency within your selected scale. A Harrier in 1/144 will look a little shrunk when placed next to a 1/24 Stuka. Staying in one scale will furthermore enable you to get more familiar with the required techniques specific to the selected scale. If you have detail-painted a few cockpits in 1/32, reproducing the same in 1/72 can be a frustrating experience.

You can of course decide to go the opposite way and to diversify your builds, with the goal to acquire a broader skillset rather than an in-depth one. The more kits you have on your belt, the easier you will be able to switch to other scales and subjects, as the basic techniques of glueing and painting remain the same. The choice is yours.

Personally, I ended up doing WW2 aircrafts in 1/48 for several reasons: The subject represents one of my historical interests, and planes have always fascinated me by their technical and esthetical aspects. I consider 1/48 scale for aircrafts to be the best compromise between detailing, costs and space requirements.

Recommendation summary

• Gain clarity of what you want to achieve

• Choose no more than 2 different categories to keep focus

• Stick to one scale per category

• Have an eye on budget and space requirements

Whatever you decide to do, have fun building!