I haven't done so, no, but I am sure that I'd find something that I'd like to build in the exact same matter. So far, I usually find details that I'd change (different paint job, other weapons loadout, stuff like this), but I have more than once bought a kit and the detail sets, because I wanted to recreate something I liked to see.
As a matter of fact, I don't see what all this big fuzz about "originality" is about in this discussion. What's original? I mean, YOU built it. YOU painted it. If YOU like the way the model in an article looks like, what's the problem with building the same model. Are you only going to build models that haven't been featured in magazines? Only going to use detail kits that haven't been used? "Oh shucks, I really wanted to do build this F4 Phantom II, but the exact kit with the exact detail kits that I wanted to use, have already been covered in FSM! And they painted it in the scheme that I liked most! Awwww...." - sounds pretty lame to me. :P
And what's so bad about copying a Picasso? If you really like Picasso and if you actually have the skills to copy one... what's so darn bad about it? I'd paint it and be gosh darn proud of having done that.
Hmm, maybe my last kit was at least something like you asked in your post: I got a Saturn V in 1:96. Looked around and found several articles on building it with Realspace and Newware add-ons (apparently the only stuff you can get for the kit). So I bought it and built it, using the articles I found online. I pretty much copied them, but now I have an awesome kit and I am very proud of what I built, even though someone else told me stuff I needed to know.