I guess my dad started me in the hobby when I was in elementary school. My dad was a flight instructor and B-29 flight engineer during the war. I think the first kit he brought me was the Revell Doolittle Raider kit. I remember it being a pretty small kit. Today, I guess we call it "box scale." After that I build the USS Forrestall by Revell.

As I got older and built more kits, my dad would tell me about the different airplanes that I assembled. I remember the first P-39 kit I built. My dad told me the P-39 was a dangerous airplane. If the pilot got into a flat spin, he probably wouldn't get out of the spin. I don't remember him saying if the pilot had to abandon the airplane or not. He just did not like the P-39. Today, I have three in my stash. His favorite, and mine, was/is the P-40. Probably because the P-40 was the only fighter he ever flew. Anyway, we had watched "God is my Copilot" on TV together several times by the time I was in high school. I have an AMT P-40N on the shelf dedicated to my dad. I researched P-40 units at Lowry Field in 1945, found a suitable reference picture and built the P-40 he may have flown when assigned there. I didn't have a tail number, so I had to guess the unit and aircraft.

So, I reckon that a couple of reasons I build today is to connect with my dad and to my youth. I just like the old airplanes with propellers.

Speaking of abstract , Aggieman !

 This is something that was taught when I was a kid .it was called Art Class .Then Drafting and design classes .I had a rough time with the math part , but shuddered through to get my license as a marine design and powerplant engineer /Designer .

 You had to , in those days think a lot in the abstract , there weren't any computers to help out . This enabled me to broaden my thinking to all things mechanical . Fun and Tedium combined , but the end results -Glorious to Behold .

   Models bring that back to me . That's why the constant mods to models and the scratch-building in H.O.Scale and the mixed media models as well .

My dad started me in this hobby way back when I was 3.  I can still kinda see the picture in my head, being in a K-Mart and going through the toy section.  There was a row of model kits there.  What I see in my memory is row after row of the old baby blue box Monogram kits, and the P-40 Flying Tiger box art drew my attention.  There is a photograph somewhere of the result of that K-Mart trip, with my P-40 sitting on a cabinet top alongside my Dad's Monogram P-38.  The Lightning was sans glue finger prints such as adorned my unpainted P-40.

Both of my parents instilled in me a love for history, with a focus on WWII.  My mom told me she frequently read aviation stories from the war to me when she was pregnant with me.  Airplanes were always a part of my early childhood.  Once I was introduced to models, all I really recall being available here in SE Texas were kits from Monogram, Revell, MPC, and Lindberg (I would not see a Japanese kit until I had grown up).  I built all of the Monogram and many of the Revells, with a handful of the MPC and Lindberg kits along the way.

Then along came 1977.  I was 10 by the time I relented to go see a movie that I had no interest in seeing - Star Wars.  The movie looked utterly stupid.  So yeah, I finally agreed to go to the movie, and when we got back home, I spent the next several hours scrounging for all the cardboard, scissors, and tape that I could get my hands on to produce an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter.  That movie kept my interest in modeling alive, and actually resulted in another hobby, one that my Mom helped me with when she bought an 8mm movie camera for me.  I spent several summers in a row making 8mm movies featuring visual effect shots (on a summer allowance budget) using various models and my complete line of Star Wars action figures.

I feel like I've always enjoyed constructing things, whether it be models from manufactured kits or something that I could build out of the wood shop that I got to go to in 7th and 8th grades, or with my Dad's various tools.  The attention to detail that I learned all those years building models (which is by now micro-focused detail) has served me well, and I consider that a major asset in my chosen field - software development.  When designing and coding a piece of software, a major aspect is the architecture, which involves a lot of construction, construction that does not involve physical, tangible objects but rather abstract, virtual objects.  

I am a hobbyist at heart.  I've always been involved in some type of hobby, usually several at the same time.  I started modeling at the age of 7 and had a few years on and off but the bulk of my 53 years I've been building scale models.  I got into sailing at a young age as well, I got my amature radio license when I was 13 (still have my novice license! WB6PJZ), lots of fishing camping, skiing, boating.  As a professional, computers (programing/engineering) took over the better part of my life - not just a job, I really love the stuff.  I was into rc buggy racing for a while, then rc airplanes and helicopters with my sons - still have a few planes and helos that survived.  Then I got into 1:1 scale road course and drag racing. 

I've always been into airplanes.  My dad was in the airforce for 20 years, and both my brothers were in the airforce so airplanes are in my blood.  I was facinated with them as a kid.  One day a friend of the familly was heading out on TDY and gave me a couple of his built kits - I think I was 9 or so.  When I saw the quality of his builds, it changed things...wow, you can paint them :).  I saved up and got my binks wren around 11 or so and started entering local contests a couple years later.  Lots of fun.

Why... I'm just curious about things.  And the big benifit of the scale modeling hobby is you can do it at home.  I love the research, looking at the kits, planning the build, painting planning (still not a fan of filling seams....) and the fantastic nature of the folks like you that are so willing to help and discuss our great hobby.  Finishing a model is bitter sweet - Yay its done, and bummer - that was so fun.. whats next!  Something about a detailed replica of something just facinates me, even my wifes dollhouse stuff. 

BTW - interesting generic list of why hobbys are good: http://www.skilledatlife.com/why-hobbies-are-important/

    Like others here my modeling career started young, a Revell 32nd F-4 comes readily to mind...probably 6 or 7. I slapped things together as fast as I got them, cars trucks, planes didn't matter. I think my dad was the one who kept me in plastic as my mom thought if I was anything but a statue in the corner I was a target for whatever fit of rage........oops.

      I don't like being more of a collector now than a builder, every kit in my stash will be completed before I leave this plane of existence.. My wife is alot like MCs she enjoys me making wierd noises at my table..lost in my own imagination, and feels bad when a kit hits the shelf of doom, but she understands the process and allows me that freedom.

     Like most, it is hard to put my finger on why or what I have, cool factor...yes, nerd....yes. The ability to hold a 3 dimensional object and observe it from all angles from the comfort of my easy chair. Amazing what a person can figure out from studying a component.

I tried to post this yesterday, but my ISP's service has been so spotty yesterday that I was unable to.

My Dad had been a model builder, though he never built anything after I was born.  His shelf of doom was a drawer in a dresser.  Anyway, friends and relatives knew about his previous building, and assumed I would follow suit.  So, beginning at about age five, I would receive model kits for presents for birthdays and Christmas.  Now, these were balsa stick and tissue models (the plastic era hadn't come yet).  I couldn't read well enough to finish one- it took about two to three years before I finished one.  And this was during our war years, when fighter pilots were the knights of our servicemen. So model airplane building was popular among my friends.

When plastic kits appeared, I did start building them too, but the focus was always the flying models.  I eventually got into RC.  I bounced around from Michigan to California, and too Missouri, all states with decent flying weather.  Then, in the mid-80s, we moved to Minnesota.  Flying season here in Minnesota is short and windy.  My preferences flipped- now I mostly build plastic shelf scale, with maybe a stick and tissue flying model every year or two.

Tinker Toys, baby!

I've always loved building things. As a kid if I didn't have Lincoln Logs, erector sets, Lego's, models or a paint by number set I would draw an airport and/or city on some cardboard. I would use it to play with my Matchbox cars or those little plastic planes that come in plastic bags.

I still have that urge all the time. I really don't care about keeping them as much as building them. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time and money to buy and build a kit just to place it on the shelf where no one is going to look at it. Thankfully my wife disagrees. She really gets upset if I sell one or give one away unless it goes to the grandkids or a museum takes it.

I have always liked building models, going back 50 + years. I didn't pay much attention to the 1:1 versions of models I built until later in life. I just liked the coolness factor.

Kind of a nerd, I guess.

When I was 6, two of my uncles started bringing kits over for my brother and I to build. They used to scratchbuild models of the ships that they were on during the war. One was in the submarine service and the other was in the merchant marines. Mom and  dad thought that building models was a waste of time and money but the uncles kept sneaking the kits to us everytime they came to the house for a visit. They were both very good at building models and taught us a lot. As long as we kept our marks up in school, mom and dad kept looking the other way when they brought those little brown bags over. So, the bribery worked. They kept bringing the kits over and we kept our marks high. 

Once a plasticaholic, always a plasticaholic. 71 years later I'm still building.

Jim  

As A kid, I built model's because they were cool.... so was "Blowing them up !

As a teenager, I built model's as a way to "connect with history".

As an adult, I build model's to relax and ease "Stress". Plus there is "STILL" a connection to history.

( If I didnt build model's ..... I would probably be a Screaming, Psyco, Ax murderer.)

When I was a wee lad, I liked airplanes.  My dad liked the WWII stuff so naturally I did too.

Then starting in May of 1977, I liked Star Wars.

Then the Japanese “hardware“ anime started in the 1980s, and my love of mecha began.

So for me, my reason for building models is just a simple desire to have 3-D representations to zoom around the room with.

Oops, did I just write that?  Heh-heh, but yeah no elaborate or meaningful reasons.

I've given this topic a lot of thought many-a-time in the past.  I think I know why I build now at 47 but I'm still not 100% sure as to why I decided to build back when I was 7.  I build now because I love working with my hands.  My dad's hobby is woodworking.  When he's done with a project, he can stand back and look upon his creation knowing he created something with his talent and his own two hands.  He's also blessed to have the space to have all sorts of woodworking tools.  I don't have that kind of space but I still enjoy working with my hands.  I have my modest bench under the basement stairs.  It is there that I can create things with my hands and derive the same kind of satisfaction as my dad after I build something.

As to why I even began this hobby back when I was 7, I have no clue.  I can only guess that it's because my dad, back when he was a kid, used to build models.  He got me my first Snap-Tite kit (Monogram F-15).  It was pointy and cool.  Wanted more and more cool fast pointy things ever since.

Eric

I guess it's much the same as you: making something out of nothing. AKA taking a box of random looking plastic, wooden, metal, etc shapes and making them (hopefully) into a replica of a real vehicle, person, animal etc.