Why aren't civil aircraft interesting.

In the past I tried my hand at civie aircraft. I didn't enjoy working with the paint or poor molds. (late 80s early 90s)

I built a 767-300 in AAL livery because I work for AAL and it came out fair. I just didn't get into working with silver and gloss paint.

even a longer time ago I built the old Monogram Tri-pacer with the hunters and dead lion. Again, gloss paint turns me off.

I'd rather make a factory fresh Bradley Fighting Vehicle than attempt to paint a weather beaten 767-300 in silver.

The civilian ones don't get my attention. I do however, have a long standing love affair with the Super Connie. I think IMO, it's the most beautiful and graceful civilian aircraft. I have a Heller 1/72 scale Super Connie to be built.

I also like the old ones like the J-3, Citabria, Beaver and Otter.

Love the Connie too. I have the Revell 1:144 in my stash- it just hasn't made it to the bench yet, but looking forward to the build.

At 1/72 it's huge and much rather have gone with a 1/144 but the decals I'm using are custom made and only available in 1/72. When I do mine I want to use the brass prop blurs to make it in flight. I also plan on using Floquil Old Silver, Bright Silver and Platinum Mist instead of Alclad. Even though the Alclad finish is better, I have a feeling that the old Floquil paints will look almost as good on this large project.

Romance...or lack of, associated with airliners, light aircraft, etc. Think of all the model train clubs there are around the world. All different time periods, all different scales. Now think about all the model airline clubs there are, I can't recall any. Both trains and civil aircraft are people/cargo movers but there's something about a passenger train idling at a small town station that captures one's feelings of travel to far away places, of seperation from a loved one, even of the excitement of an elegant  trip.  Compare that with the memory of today's air terminals, like loading cattle for market, not too romantic, eh? Even if the modeler is not a "rail fan" there's something mystical and compelling watching a big steam locomotive passing a crossing grade at speed. It's hard to conjure up the same feeling for a 747 at 30,000 feet, just a speck in the sky, if you happen to notice it's vapor trail.

The only civil aircraft that I find interesting is the stuff from the late twenty's and thirty's. The airliners had interesting paint schemes, wing and motor arrangements, and fuselages. The Connie is a great airliner to model I have a 1:72 kit as well as the old monogram version, the plane looks fast even sitting on the tarmac. Compare that with today's "all look the same' flying buses.

The answer is very simple AFAIC.  Civil aircraft is not cool enough.  

But what is it then that makes an airplane cool?

For me, it's too much like being at work.

What makes an airplane cool?  It flies!

Myself,  I don't have a problem with civil aviation.  My issue is with the kit manufacturers.

It's all about "character" for me.

Civil airliners are just bland, white/silver tubes.

Give me a weathered, beat up ME 109 any day.

AdeB

It's all about "character" for me.

Civil airliners are just bland, white/silver tubes.

Give me a weathered, beat up ME 109 any day.

Don Stauffer

But what is it then that makes an airplane cool?

Something's just cool.  I love WWII Luftwaffe aircraft and Vietnam era US jets.  Those airplanes look very cool to me.  Modern combat fighters look similar to one another and I don't find them cool.

Or Braniff International.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2WlOsi6LLE

To get away from white/silver tubes, build some older airliners, like Fokker, SE and Tri-motor, Boeing biplane airliner, etc.  Lots of novel paint schemes, lots of d etails, rigging, etc.

Having grown up in bush Alaska, civil aviation is very interesting to me. One of the few ways in or out  of  town was by flying. I lived right off the end of the runway. There were no silver tubes and every plane was a character on its own. I would like to build many of those planes but no one kits a Cessna 185, 206 or Cherokee six.  It would also be great to have a Piper Pacer or one of several Stinsons.

I grew up in Detroit.  Sometimes on Sundays dad and mom would take me for a drive around Outer Drive (road) which goes past Detroit City Airport.  We would always stop in the parking lot there, and marvel at those giant silver birds, the new DC-3s!  Now a DC-3 looks so tiny :-)  Just love NMF airliners, sorry to see them disappear for painted finishes.

heepey

Having grown up in bush Alaska, civil aviation is very interesting to me. One of the few ways in or out  of  town was by flying. I lived right off the end of the runway. There were no silver tubes and every plane was a character on its own. I would like to build many of those planes but no one kits a Cessna 185, 206 or Cherokee six.  It would also be great to have a Piper Pacer or one of several Stinsons.

There was a Monogram 180.  And a Monogram tri-pacer. I had been looking for the Tri-Pacer for a couple of years, was fortunate to find one last year at the swap meet at Nordicon.

Khee Kha makes a Cessna 185 and Constanza kits makes a Piper Cherokee  six, both in 1/72 scale.

I think one of the reasons people don't find civil aircraft interesting is that they don't know or consider the range of civil aircraft out there.  Thinking 'civil aircraft' to many people immediately means modern airliner, not firefighter, air racer, aerobatic plane, crop duster, business jet, glider, GA light aircraft, commuter, cargo plane etc.  The lack of available kits could also have something to do with it too.  If you rarely see civil aircraft kits in shops or at model shows, or even hear about civil kits out there, why would you even think of making one (unless you are one of the few who do find civil aircraft interesting)?  

Peter

The Monogram kits were in odd scales, but I have one of each. The Tri-Pacer I converted to a Pacer and the 180 is part of a diorama that I am building.  The Khee-Kha  kit is interesting but I am not ready for vacuform yet.  There are some interesting civil kits out there if you look hard.

Following WWII some military aircraft were turned into civilian hands and there are kits of them available. C-47, C-46, C-119, Beech 18, Grumman Widgeon and Goose to name a few. You just need the courage to paint them gloss white ; )

I picked up a Widgeon kit recently at a swap meet.  I have seen Widgeons every color under the sun.  Blue seems to be a popular Widgeon color.  In fact, for private aircraft, once they are old enough to need a repaint, every owner was free to use any color they wanted.  And, for the  planes that were factory doped, dope/fabric was not particularly long lasting, so they needed repainting frequently, and period recovering, in the days before Ceconite and modern synthetics. So a walk along the ramp and tiedown areas at any pea-patch airport will show a myriad of color.

It's not just civilian aircraft.  How many civilian ship models are there compared to warship models?  Or civilian sci-fi craft compared to X-Wings or Enterprises?  The saving grace of automobiles to tanks, is that we can build the car we'd like to own, some day.

I've always liked the looks of sleek twin props like the Bonanza, Duke, 310, 340, King Air and the like.  I would definitely like to build some of those.  I also would build some general aviation subjects like the 172, Cub, and others.  Aerobatic planes would be cool too, like the Pitts Special and Christian Eagle, Extra 300.  Lears and other biz gets are neat.  Finally, the Reno air racers would make great modelling subjects.  I for one would welcome the change of pace to do these types of aircraft.  And if you don't think a Beech Duke is cool you might want to revisit your definition of cool.  BTW, when I was 10 or so (40 years ago!) a cousin of mine gave me a built Cessna 340 in maybe 1/48.  I'd love to find one of those.  I played with that one and repainted it a couple times (not very well).

Well, as a fan of both civilian ships and planes, I can only say I like hard-working, socially useful machinery, and I also love stories about what the unsung heroes were doing while the show ponies were out there lapping up the glory. But that's just me. And, quite frankly, I don't mind being in the minority at any time. God bless the unsung heroes.

However, it is a shame that the market for models of the relatively unfashionable non-military planes and ships is relatively poor, but even then I do find there's some pleasure in tracking down rare and unusual civilian model plane or ship kits, then building them.

I have accumulated so many of these unfashionable kits, that if I stopped buying them right now, in 2014, I'd still be busy building until then end of 2016 at least.

The originals might be more fashionable if made from a  iron oxide ore.........

( I seem to recall somebody around here used to say : " needs more rust "  ) 

................with the recent proliferation and popularity of weathering pigments, I can't help wonder if mothballed aircraft might be a future model subset.

roony

It's not just civilian aircraft.  How many civilian ship models are there compared to warship models?  Or civilian sci-fi craft compared to X-Wings or Enterprises?  The saving grace of automobiles to tanks, is that we can build the car we'd like to own, some day.

But there aren't really any military aircraft I would want to own and fly, while I often find and build a kit like a Lear, or a light twin, that I really would like to own.  I suppose there are a bunch of folks who would like to own and fly an F-15, but personally I'd settle for a Lear or Citation or one of the newer, even smaller private jets.  Heck, I'll even settle for a Grumman Tiger :-)  That is, the single engined lightplane, not the old Navy fighter.

I've always had a hankering for a Beaver.

I forgot to mention about the civil ships.  Yeah, I moan about that every time I get in a group with other ship modelers. I love to model working boats, and pick up just about every kit I can of that type.  Remember the Shell Welder kit?  That was one I could make into a rust bucket!  I have a Lindberg trawler that I will build eventually and intend to make it even more dilapidated than the Shell tanker!  I do build military ships too, but am very partial to the civil ones.  BTW, if you haven't looked at it yet, the Revell (G) Container Ship Columbo Express is a beautiful kit.  I made my own decals for a bunch of containers so not all the containers have the same livery.  Fun kit to build!

Don, funny you mention it, but I just received my Shell Welder kit this week. And I have civilian ship kits waiting in the wings to keep me going for years: the Revell oil tanker 'Glasgow'; 1/700 Pit Road kit of the Liberty Ship Bootes, 1/700 kit of the Hikawa Maru as a cruise liner; the Revell Tug Boat; the Hasegawa kit of the Antarctic vessel Soya, and the Revell kit of the Lightship South Goodwin.

As for civilian aircraft, I have a 1/144 scale DC3 and a 1/144 DC4 waiting patiently for the right decals; a Lockheed Electra 10; a 1/48 Testors kit of the Ryan PT trainer; the old Monogram kit of the Ford Tri-Motor (including the sled dog team, all of which will be done in an Antarctic diorama). And I'm planning on looking for a kit of the Bristol Britannia next, but haven't started on that one yet.

So, I say that if someone thinks all these models aren't "interesting" that says a lot more about the person with the opinion that it ever will say about these great models.

Beaver (Dhc2) is one plane that is available in 1/72, 1/48, and 1/24. some are out of production but still available if you look.

Kenmore Air harbor has kits if you call their parts department. Kenmore Air is the leader in DH-2 refurbishment. Kenmore Washington is at a far end of lake Washington. Google them! I'll dig my model kit out and photograph it for you.... Ashivlle Diecast may have them as Well