I am an "aspirational" builder.
When I got back into the hobby two years ago, I decided I would buy one kit of every aircraft I wanted to build. Realising this was something of a massive task, I decided to specialise. Given space constraints, it was pretty much a no-brainer to go for 1/72 scale - both for storage and display purposes. After that, I decided I would specialise in Battle of Britian fighters. Then that expanded to trainers, special purpose aircraft, and fighter bombers.
Then my well-meaning wife, not understanding the Pandora's box she was unleashing bought me a Hasegawa Mitchell and that REALLY threw me for a loop. So my collection started to expand to include all prop driven aircraft on the Western front.
Africa kind of crept up on me too, and before I knew it, I had a few LAGGs and Yak kits padding my shelves as well. So there we had it. African and European theatres. But really, there are only a couple of period jets, so I made room for the Gloster Meteor and the Me262 as well. Now the brief was 1939 to 1945 - Europe.
Time to get building. Or so I thought. The lure of the pacific conflict grew too great when at Duxford last year, I bagged a Hasegawa Jack for peanuts (the box was water damaged, no decals, but everything else present and correct). Before I knew it, I was installing new shelving in our box room (the description has never been so apt) to accomodate the Wildcat, Helldiver, Avenger, Dauntless, Devastator, Vindicator, Jugs (Bubbletop & Razorback of course) Hellcats and everything IJN and IJA I could get my hands on.
Oh, and just in case I decided to do a diorama or two, I have a 1/72 Isuzu fuel truck and an Academy kit with three support vehicles in it.
Did I mention the reference material, after-market detailing kits, extra decals, paint, airbrush (which I have no space to use!?), scribing tool, various putties, knives, cutters, tweezers, paints, cutting mat, varnishes and the obligatory bottle of Klear?
So here I am, totally tooled up (is there anything I have missed?) with
300+ kits covering World War II adorning the walls of my box room from top to bottom and what, exactly is the output of my two years of feverish collecting and preparation?
(a) An Airfix Spitfire Mk IX mostly OOTB with a Falcon canopy and a few scratch-built details; (b) An ICM Polikarpov I-16 Type 24; (c) A Revell Curtiss Hawk 75 in Armee de l'Air colours with aftermarket decals; (d) An Airfix Lysander built as a gift for my wife's Grandad, who used to fly in them on special ops; and (e) A Fujimi Val, currently on the table resting for the best part of four months!
I look upon my Hasegawa kits with reverence. I am still psyching myself up to build one by easing out the rustiness of my skills on lower end kits. Some of the larger models I won't touch until I get the space and skills to use an airbrush (a criteria for our next house when we move in 1-2 years...) as using a brush to paint the broad acreage of a Liberator or Flying Fortress feels me with the same sort of dread that I usually reserve for "vegetarian meals".
I have of course, sold quite a few kits in the time I have been "back at it", and they usually fall into two criteria:
(a) I have ditched a few Airfix and early Revell kits when higher-end or more accurate limited run kits have become available (ex. Sold an LS Peggy when I finall found a reasonably priced Hasegawa Peggy); and
(b) I have sold problem kits (i.e. missing parts, ruined decals etc.) to get different versions of more complete ones;
Of course, at my current pace, I will be around 459 years old by the time I get around to all of them, but that does not detract from the pleasure of randomly plucking a kit from the pile, opening the box, perusing the decals, scanning the instructions, surveying the parts and then closing the box again, in the full knowledge that those parts may never come off their sprues - not on my account in any case.
Am I bothered? Not much I suppose, and as long as I don't start raiding other rooms for storage space, my wife won't be bothered either.