As this year began, I was entering my fifth year of being out of work. I had gone to great lengths over those years to augment my skill set (software engineering, where much of my career had been spent in technologies that are now considered Jurassic). To give myself a break from all of that learning, I found myself at the bench much more frequently than normal. I actually made a noticable dent in the stash during those years. I figured this year would be little different (that's the pessimist in me coming out). I planned for about 20 builds this year, which I ended up getting close to despite finally getting not one, but two different job offers (I worked the first for 9 months, then just started the second the week before last). I anticipate a much lower build rate in 2022.
The first build was one my mother-in-law picked up for me at a garage sale, and had been in my stash for a number of years. I opted to start the year with Monogram's ancient A-10A Thunderbolt II 1/72 because it was a nice nostalgia build and it was going to be simple and quick.
Next up was another nostalgia build(s) - from Monogram's Fighting Planes of the 1930s kit - the F4B-4, the F11C-2, and the P-6E all in 1/72 and all fully rigged (which I definitely did not do when I first built these kits as a child).
Another multi-kit build was next on the docket, which turned out to be partially nostalgic as well. This was Revell's repop of Dragon's Mistel (Fw190 and Ta154). The 190 turned out to be complete garbage, so I trashed it and dug into the stash for what was the second oldest kit there - a 1965 boxing of Monogram's 190 (oldest is a Monogram F3F).
Then came a new manufacturer for me, Kittyhawk, with their XF5U-1 Flying Pancake. Neat plane, nice kit.
Over my modeling years, both childhood and adulthood, I've built a number of B-17s, but never had I built an early variant. I turned to Academy's B-17B Flying Fortress to scratch that itch.
Next, I turned to what would become a theme for the year, by building the first of the Thunderbolt family. The kit was Revell's P-47N Thunderbolt. It's a good kit that built out very nicely but without quite the detail you get with Tamiya's P-47 family of kits.
Did someone say candy? How about a Candy bomber? Revell's big C-54D Skymaster had been in the stash for a good while, but even though I heard it calling my name, I just never could pull the trigger on it. Until this year.
My favorite movie is The Empire Strikes Back. So I took a long time-out from warbirds to go to a galaxy far, far away with Revell's Republic Star Destroyer. I'd known from the moment that I acquired this kit back in 2005-06 that I was going to light this baby up, and that as it turned out was the cause of a long foray into miniature lighting, and frustration after frustration after frustration. I bought a lighting kit for this Star Destroyer, but never could get the thing to work consistently, even after consultation with several FSM posters, notably Pawel and EagleCash867. In the end I ran all my own fibers and soldered the LEDs and resistors myself. With all the drilling and issues I faced with the lighting, this was the most time I've put into a single kit in many, many years (started 24-May and ended 1-Sep).
Back to the warbirds with Revell's classic Ju87B-2 Stuka in 1/32.
On to a new manufacturer again, this time Hobby Craft, with a pair of their early 90s releases - the P-26C Peashooter and Seversky's P-35A (the P-47's granddad).
I still had a trio of Luftwaffe warbirds in the to-build stash for the year, and the first of those was Tamiya's Fw190D-9 of JV44. This one had an interesting paint scheme, with the underside painted red with white stripes to assist ground gunnery emplacements in identifying friendly aircraft who were airborne to prevent Allied aircraft from ambushing Me262s while landing or taking off.
Yet another new manufacturer, Dora Wings, and the final member of the P-47 family, the P-43A Lancer in 1/48. Overall, I thought the kit was good; it goes together pretty well despite its short-run characteristics, but there were lots of problems with the instructions, and with parts referenced where there simply were not enough of them provided (tiny detail parts for the radial engine, for instance). Still, I'm glad I built the Lancer.
And finally, another new manufacturer, Meng, with their 32nd scale Me163B Komet. I honestly did not think I'd finish the Komet this year, given that I didn't start until 7-Dec and was in the process of wrapping up activities at the first job I took this year and getting onboarded at the second. Yet, this thing just about built itself, and I completed a couple of days before Christmas.
By my count, that's 17 for the year. That ranks as one of my more productive years, although I have definitely been more productive in other recent years. I still have several in the to-build stash for the year (Kittyhawk's big F-86D 1/32, Revell's classic 1/32 P-47D, and two Tamiya Bf109E (-3 and -4) that I will do next year, along with whatever else strikes my fancy.