I used to work for the Navy at the Bethesda Model Basin as a civilian in the Data Center. Whenever I had a chance when there were no secret test being done, I'd run down to the basement of the tank building and watch the master model builders at work. These guys build models for various museums, vips, etc. Their work is fantastic and all from scratch materials, mostly wood.
Since that time, I've always been hooked on big scale Battleships, outdated today to be sure, but in their day, they were the most powerful and expensive weapons platforms a country could build. Wonder how they'd do today with tactical nuclear shells instead of relying on cruise missles?
The only other subject I'm interested in is the Star Trek ships. Polar Lights is releasing a 1/350 scale USS Enterprise Refit. It will be 34 inches long with an 18 inch saucer width. What always awed me was that the Star Trek Enterprise is longer than a battleship with only a crew of 400 people compared to a battleship's 1200. You can see some pics of the new model mockup prototype here:
http://www.thomasmodels.com/refitmockup.html