I don't think there is a lot of weather in space, so go light on it. 

Good idea M.Desch.  I already have a snaptite model of the Mir space station.  I could test weathering on this model.

I don't know about others or if people would consider this a good idea, but I will buy snaptite models to work on my painting and weathering. They are usually quite a bit cheaper so if I ruin the paint I didn't waste a lot of time putting it together or money.

Thanks Rob.

Finally, yesterday I bought:

Revell 1/72 Sd.Kfz.251/9 Ausf. C

Revell 1/72 Sd.Kfz.173 Jagdpanther

Revell 1/72 Tiger II Ausf. B

Revell 1/72 Sd.Kfz.165 Hummel

Airfix 1/72 Consolidated B-24 Liberator B.V1

I've bought and built only a couple of Tamiya 1/72 scale WW2 aircraft. One was a Japanese Seiran floatplane and the other some Spitfire Mark (V?). Both were very nice kits, and like their armor, easy to assemble.

Thanks again guys for your help.  I'm going to the hobby shop tonight so I will tell you what I bought :)

padakr

bobbaily

For inexpensive 1/48 scale, the Monogram P-51D and Airfix Bf 109E 3/4/7 are good kits for starter & experienced modelers

Revell/Monogram has a fairly nice, inexpensive selection of 1/48 aircraft.  At a local craft/hobby store that has 40% off coupons, you are talking less than $10-15 for most. 

Paul

Agreed Paul....in addition to the P-51D, the P-47 Razorback, Spitfire Mk. II, He-111 & bf 109g-10 all build up quite nicely.

bobbaily

For inexpensive 1/48 scale, the Monogram P-51D and Airfix Bf 109E 3/4/7 are good kits for starter & experienced modelers

Revell/Monogram has a fairly nice, inexpensive selection of 1/48 aircraft.  At a local craft/hobby store that has 40% off coupons, you are talking less than $10-15 for most. 

Paul

Oh, Hellwarrior, don't forget to check Hobby Lobby also. They don't have a huge selection of kits but they do have a 40% off coupon you can use almost all the time on any regular priced item. You can use the code for a discount online or in the store.

I see kits there I'd like to build. Haven't bought them because I still have a few to work on, but 40% off on kits in the 15-20$ range is a nice little savings. The first time I build a P-51 I'm going to go there. They have the NA P-51 Tamiya kit, with the discount it's only like 10 or 12 dollars. Plenty of 1/72 kits there, too!

For inexpensive 1/48 scale, the Monogram P-51D and Airfix Bf 109E 3/4/7 are good kits for starter & experienced modelers

Oh man, I just took a closer look at both of those kits and wow! They are pricey though.. I think I need to advance a little before dropping $50+ on a 1/48.. At least if I screw up my A6M3 I know it only cost me 15 bucks, lol.

I  will definitely put those on the list though, thanks for the heads up Nathan!

**edit: I guess they can be had for around $35-40 which isn't so bad. I've wasted that much on worse things, lol.

Great advice here from the guys! I'd like to point out Hobbyboss's line of 1/72nd single engine WWII fighters run about ten bucks US a piece and Squadron often discounts them down to $2.99 or so (sorry no real good sales this month, maybe in April though). 

They're very simple, generally about a dozen parts but nicely detailed. They're great if you want to get directly to painting and the decals are really good quality too! 

Link here 

You should see their new 1/48 A6m5 and A6m3 Zeros Jeremy. Absolutely stunning. Nothing beats them. That 109E of theirs is a pretty old tool itself, but still looks good.

I have started with Tamiya kits personally and have really enjoyed working with them so far. I have been working in the 1/48 scale though. I seemed to frequently read about the overall quality of the kits being very good so figured I would run into minimal problems with fitting, etc. This has proved to be true so far.

As far as ease of assembly and such, I find that there is just enough going on that I feel challenged and motivated to research techniques that will assist me often. This has not yet been overwhelming at all, though. It's been just challenging enough to make it very enjoyable for me since I love reading and learning about technique and application just as much (maybe more, lol) as building itself.

It seems to me, and this is probably a pretty subjective thing, that the primary difficulty thus far is in the finish. I can get a model together well enough and looking good (quite possibly due to the quality of the Tamiya kits I bought) but the hardest and most fun thing I've been doing and trying to do, is get the finish  looking really good. I think this is probably true in any scale to a degree but stands to reason that the difficulty increases exponentially with scale since, obviously, more detail is shown.

I have a couple Tamiya A6M2 kits, one is almost finished, the other unopened. I grabbed a Bf109 E4/7 Trop that I haven't started yet. Finally, I have an A6M3 that I'm right in the middle of.

The three Zeroes I believe are older versions/OOP kits that my local store had left on the shelves. The quality of these are good. The Bf109 is a current production kit I ordered from Tamiya and I can say that the quality of that kit is visibly much better than that of the older ones.

WW2 models are a major subgenre in plastic aircraft.  There are lots of kits in all scales- fighters, bombers, and even quite a few transports.  Most major mfgs include quite a few WW2 subjects in their line.  I have friends who only build WW2 subjects and the number of kits available provides them plenty of selection.

I think I would prefer the 1/72 scale but I never tried any larger scale.

I was thinking of building the Spitfire and Hurricane.  Maybe a bomber after that?

Airfix's new-mold Spitfire Mk I is nice.  Parts fit well.  Airfix's old Hurricane Mk I is also pretty simple.  Hasegawa also makes some nice things:  P-51 and P-47, included, but they seem to go out of production often, and might not be easy to find.

Academy's Wildcat has only a few pieces and goes together pretty well.  

All of these are 1/72.

Much depends on your particular interest.