Thanks for the welcome, everyone.
Goldhammer88, your point about image hosting is appreciated. Makes me remember a few years ago when photobucket abruptly changed its rules and prevented direct linking (unless you paid a lot!). That absolutely destroyed years of photojournaling I'd been doing related to my other hobby, aquariums.
I went to college at the U of Michigan, one town over, but housing is much cheaper in Ypsilanti so I live here. We've got a couple pretty good hobby shops to choose from as well.
I'll share a couple photos of my collection. I'm not overly proud of the quality I create, certainly not compared to a lot of examples I see on here and elsewhere around the web. For me, if I stressed too much about a slightly sloppy canopy frame paint job or a decal a millimeter or two out of position, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the hobby. I'm an engineer by trade so all of my interest in absolute precision gets used up at work.
Here's the Air Force / Army fighters:
And here are the Navy planes:
(ugh the color really washed out on that photo... and you can really see the dust!)
I've also been working on bombers. I wanted to build the B-17G Yankee Lady that frequently flies right over my house, and then she ended up with a whole squadron of friends.
As you can see, my collection lives in my unfinished basement. It's not optimal display conditions but it does mean I can hang as many planes as I want and nobody else in the house can complain!