Anyone use video games as a reference?

Not at all.

I used to play Microsoft's Fighter Ace. You could chose various fighters, medium and four engined bombers from either US/UK/USSR/Japan/Germany. Many of the schemes on various types of fighters were identical regardless of the mark or variant it was supposed to represent. For instance, if you flew a Spitfire Mk V, VII or XIV, it carried the JEJ markings of his Spit V.

I've seen similar instances in screen shots of tanks from some online games.

I've gotten a lot of inspiration while playing War Thunder (WWII air and ground forces massively multiplayer) on the PC.  Their aircraft IMHO are beautifully modeled.  I catch myself just admiring them during the loading scenes.  Right now I "fly" for the Germans.  The game is what inspired me to start building my first Stuka (Fujimi 1/72 in winter camo).  

The IL-2 Sturmovik series of simulators has had some remarkable aircraft models too.  Versions of this game are also available on the PS3.

I would not trust a video game for being a historically accurate reference source than I would trust a Hollywood war movie- both are meant to entertain. But either could be a good source for a diorama or other modeling idea. The Internet is full of decent accurate historical reference when one searches enough. Leave the games for pleasure purposes only.

I built a Spitfire based on the fighter ace game. I knew it would not be accurate, but I wanted a model of my in game plane.

I know people in the armor world have built their World of Tanks tanks.

They would not necessarily be historically accurate, but still fun nonetheless.

Frankly I don't see why you would consider using video games as reference. Inspiration sure. I got inspired to want to build an experimental US tank destroyer after playing the game World of Tanks. I even talked to the historical expert on the game and got some good diagrams and pictures. But you shouldn't use the game models as reference. There will always be some discrepancy in all the models. Just like model building, it's never 100% accurate. Like Stik said, leave the games for pleasure purposes. Search for actual period photos or modern photos of the subject.

Hasegawa has a few model kits based on the video game Ace Combat:

1/72 F-15E Strike Eagle Ace Combat Garuda 1 Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs5223.html

1/72 SU33 Flanker D Ace Combat Strigon Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs5214.html

1/72 F14A Tomcat Ace Raxgriz Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs5213.html

1/72 Ace Combat ASF-X Shinden II Ridgebacks Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs5216.html

1/72 Ace Combat ASF-X Shinden II KEI Nagase Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs4702.html

1/72 Ace Combat ASF-X Shinden II

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs4503.html

Coming in November 25th:

1/72 Su-47 Berkut Ace Combat Grabacr Limited Edition

hasegawausa.com/.../hsgs2122.html

MikeyBugs95

Frankly I don't see why you would consider using video games as reference. Inspiration sure. I got inspired to want to build an experimental US tank destroyer after playing the game World of Tanks. I even talked to the historical expert on the game and got some good diagrams and pictures. But you shouldn't use the game models as reference. There will always be some discrepancy in all the models. Just like model building, it's never 100% accurate. Like Stik said, leave the games for pleasure purposes. Search for actual period photos or modern photos of the subject.

This past AMPS national convention, the theme for the show was "Tanks on Film". In other words, build a model based on an armor vehicle used in a movie. A Dutch Leopard that was dressed to look like a Panther for the movie "A Bridge Too Far" won. There were M47 Patton tanks painted to represent King Tigers from "Battle of the Bulge" and M48 tanks from "Patton". In the near future I bet we see tanks from the movie "Fury" on contest tables.

I put building a kit to represent something from a video game in the same vein as the tanks on film. Twenty some odd years ago, I know planes from "Top Gun" both aggressor and Tomcats were modeled.

I think the model companied are missing the boat by not making the popular tanks in World of Tanks. Since there are over 220 tanks in the game and different configurations for each tank, there can me numerous releases of the same basic kit but with different guns and turrets,

But that isn't quite the same as using video games and movies as reference for accurate builds. If you're building a vehicle to represent a vehicle from a specific movie or video game than of course you need the film or game as reference to build it accurate to that movie or video game.  But if you're building a vehicle representing a historically accurate vehicle then you really can't use movies or video games for that reference. But vehicles representing movie or video game vehicles is different because then you NEED to use the movie or video game as reference.