What was the best—most fun model you ever built?

I enoyed building the Airfix 1/24th Stuka. Have built two of them over the years and unlike it's 1/24th cousins, it went together rather well. Of course Airfix decals were an issue so I used a set from CAM. 

I’ve done so many in my lifetime I can’t even keep track. Some had fit issues, others were pretty decent and I enjoyed building them, warts and all.

Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed building the old Tom Daniels Design kits by Monogram. Fun builds without dealing with accuracies.

To date, it's probably been the Academy 1/72 P-40E. I don't know why I like it so much, but I've built five or six of them before I gave up on the scale. They just build simple, and present well. With Aftermarket  decals, I think they really pop and they build very well. 

Did a Jeep CJ-5 for a close friend many years ago....had to swap in a V-6 out of a Buick GN kit and make my own diamond plate rear corners, and splice in tailights out of a Chev p/u kit....  Was a fun build and matched his right down to a tear in the seat.

He still has it on the shelf.

goldhammer

Did a Jeep CJ-5 for a close friend many years ago....had to swap in a V-6 out of a Buick GN kit and make my own diamond plate rear corners, and splice in tailights out of a Chev p/u kit....  Was a fun build and matched his right down to a tear in the seat.

He still has it on the shelf.

 

Tamiya 1/12 Kawasaki Ninja.  Tamiya bikes are a joy to build and 1/12 scale is nice to work in

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

I’ve always enjoyed building the old Tom Daniels Design kits by Monogram. Fun builds without dealing with accuracies.

I have to second that ! Can't get enough of those kit's !

Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Grumman Avenger kit; not a big fan of the airframe, but the kit was a blast to build.

Monogram 1/48 P-39 kit, found an old white box version that survived the decades relatively intact. Fit is fantastic, not like the later reissues.

Tamiya 1/48 F4F Wildcat and the new F-14A. Excellent engineering.

Academy 1/32 F-18C kit, options and fit made it fun.

Fun question, I wish that I had an answer for you. I dont have a favorite yet. There might be one coming down the pike, though. There is always hope.

Yes this is a fun question.

Thinking back, probably the old Monogram Phantom Mustang. For those not old enough to remember, it was a well detailed airframe with a clear skin. It sat on a red control stand, and I believe one could make the prop spin, gear retract, and maybe something else I forgot.

I played with that thing for hours on end, and it might be what made me fall in love with aviation. Yikes, that kit cost me a lot of money in hindsight!!!

Greg

Yes this is a fun question.

Thinking back, probably the old Monogram Phantom Mustang. For those not old enough to remember, it was a well detailed airframe with a clear skin. It sat on a red control stand, and I believe one could make the prop spin, gear retract, and maybe something else I forgot.

I played with that thing for hours on end, and it might be what made me fall in love with aviation. Yikes, that kit cost me a lot of money in hindsight!!!

 

You could also drop bombs from the wing pylons...

littletimmy

 

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

I’ve always enjoyed building the old Tom Daniels Design kits by Monogram. Fun builds without dealing with accuracies.

 

 

 

I have to second that ! Can't get enough of those kit's !

 

I have to agree too. Those are fun kits to build.

Looking back, I'd have to say the old Revell (or Monogram) kit of the Saturn 5 with the locking stages, working doors on the third stage and working legs on the LEM. I put in a lot of time and effort into that one as a kid (late 60's).

Now, the Hobby Boss Hurricane I did for the Weekend Madness group build a couple of weeks ago. It was quick but fun. The paint was challenging but I learned a lot. It was also the first kit I finished in 30 years. It got me fired up to keep on building.

For me it was the old 1/25 Academy Panther.  It was remote controlled with working track links and suspension. 

Thinking back, I would have to say it was the old Monogram 1/48 SBD Dauntless with working landing gear, dive flaps, and dropping bomb... it sank a lot of Japanese shipping in saturday morning wars. The 1/48 TBF-1 with working landing gear, folding wings, and dropping torpedo was a close second. My folks coffe table made a perfect carrier for the flight deck figures to cycle them thru flight operations... 

yeah, those were my most fun kits...

I was hoping this topic would get the juice flowing- the USS Constitution-plastic sails and all.  Trying to get those little cannons in place was a blast

stikpusher

Thinking back, I would have to say it was the old Monogram 1/48 SBD Dauntless with working landing gear, dive flaps, and dropping bomb... it sank a lot of Japanese shipping in saturday morning wars. The 1/48 TBF-1 with working landing gear, folding wings, and dropping torpedo was a close second. My folks coffe table made a perfect carrier for the flight deck figures to cycle them thru flight operations... 

yeah, those were my most fun kits...

 

DEfinately! The old Monogram kits back in the early 70's with folding wings, retractable landing-gear, spinning props, etc were fun as heck. The Dauntless was one of my faves as well.

Probably one of my favorites was the DML Panther G late Imperial Series. It was an older Gunze Sangyo mold. It was decent detail and I added PE grills and Tamiya indy-tracks. The kit was pretty cheap. It was my first completed kit when I first joined the forums. It's nostalgic for me. I sprayed the camo 3 times before I was happy. LOL

Color me goofy, but...

Marx sold a series of plastic kits of Rube Goldberg machines,

What we now call engineering mousetraps or marble races.

I spent my newspaper route money to build them all.

I think I’ll have to agree on the Monogram SBD Dauntless.  It built fast and easy, and had good, robust working features.  I tried to get one locally after seeing the movie “Midway”, but everyone had sold out!  The F6F Hellcat was pretty good too.

The Tamiya 1/32 Tomcat way back in the 80's it was my 1st big money purchase,it came out decent and to me looked pretty impressive on my shelf.

I have built much better stuff since as my skills improved,but that was pretty cool in the day.

stikpusher

You could also drop bombs from the wing pylons...

That's it! I knew I was forgetting something!

Thanks, Carlos. :)

Like others, I have built so many models in my 70+ years of modeling, it is hard to pick out special ones, but I can readily think of three.

First was a model of a midget racing car by a model kit company called Ace, back in late 40s.  Most open cockpit racing car kits gave you a single block of wood, and you had to hollow out the cockpit area.  The Ace kit featured several blocks of balsa and a couple of sheets.  You glued them together in such a way that it formed a great cockpit.  About ten years ago a guy got in touch with me via email, because he had a kit he was willing to trade.  Rather than build the kit, I duplicated it by cutting blocks and sheets of balsa, and then built up the kit I created, saving the kit I traded for as a collector item.

There was a flying model kit, by Scientific- forget the name now, but it was the first flying model I actually got flying well enough to catch a thermal. It flew several blocks, and then landed in the island in the middle of Livernois avenue in Detroit, where I rescued it unscathed.

Last kit is one I have not finished, the Heller Le Soleil, a big French ship of the line in 1:100 scale.  I have spent many hours on it, and it is in the midst of rigging now.  I turn to it occasionally, put it on my bench, and do some more rigging.

GMorrison

Marx sold a series of plastic kits of Rube Goldberg machines,

I havent seen those kit's in Year's . The last one I saw, was on E-bay. Box was smashed, kit partally built, and missing pieces. They still wanred over $150 for it !

It would be fun to kitbash them all together to make one big "Do nothing "machine .

I loved building the Aurora movie monster models when I was a kid. I did the Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstien's monster, and Roden. 

As a much older kid, I really enjoyed building a Revell 69 Chevy Nova SS. Just a fun kit that went together well. 

The Airfix 1/72 Wildcat was a joy, so was Monogram's Skyraider.

Actually most of my builds are fun. If I'm not having fun with it (it's a hobby!) I lose interest and move on to something else. I probably have a more populated shelf of doom than most, but at least I'm having fun.

Most fun or satisfying? 

First on the list is the Revell Yacht America. Seems like it took my teenage self FOREVER to do the rigging but I stuck with it. Gave me a great sense of accomplishment when I put it on my shelf. 

Most fun recently is Tamiya’s 1/48 Tomcat A. Finished it in VF-84 colors and took my first ever award with it at WrightCon 2016, a silver medal. 

UnwaryPaladin

I loved building the Aurora movie monster models when I was a kid. I did the Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstien's monster, and Roden.

I second that! Let’s not forget those Aurora Dinosaur snap kits as well. Those I collected as a kid back in the 70s from the T-Rex to Triceratops, Allosaurus, Saber toothed tiger, Cave Bear, to Cro-Magnon Man and the Cave. I had about 95 % of that whole collection back then. 

My first 'big' model...and the single image that still seems to me the perfect icon for the kick-*** joy of military model building:

(Also my vote for the single most gorgeous box-art illustration, ever!)

Yeah, the old Revell box art was hard to beat.