Seconded. I loved building aircraft, fictional and otherwise.
Ignatz, I don’t scratchbuild, but I do have small library of Osprey books for series histories and painting references. Scratchbuilding is not my thing- I don’t think in 3D, but I can visualize real world objects in 2D quite nicely (must have something to do with being a photographer).
I can’t remember who posted those links to their work, but those figures are awesome! That’s my major weakness- figure painting. When I get home, I’ll link in some of my tank photos.
For those who work more sculpturally, my hats off to you. I just can’t ‘see’ the object inside the raw materials.
Holy cow! how do you DO that! Those are amazing!
I build 1/35 armour, some 1/48 aircraft, some ships (mostly old sailing ships and submarines), 54mm and larger figures, and a variety of other stuff (I tend to be more interested in specific subjects than coherant themes). (Well, I have a large collection of unbuilt kits, anyway, even though my actual building has been limited for some years.) I haven’t been too sucessful with attempts to scratchbuild whole models, although I like to improve and detail the kits I build.
I am currently halfway through building a 1/35 A7V (German WW1 tank). When it’s done, I am dithering between a 1/9 scale Kettenrad (German WW2 half-tracked motorcycle) or a 1/72 Hanseatic cog (medieval Baltic trading ship).
And quite a PITA to assemble and paint realistically. I have the Model A Tudor Sedan, and never did get the headlights to look right.
Well, I have hundreds of other vehicles, as I am an active (if low intensity) model railroader, stocking up building, rolling stock, and details for the day (any day now) I break down and start building some real layout modules.
And as far as I can tell, even with my optional Optivisor 3x Loupe attachment from Micromark, HO women don’t have panty wrinkles (nor, except for those molded in bikinis, do they even have panties of any sort - their legs just jut out from solid skirts or molded shorts…)
Who makes that and how is it going? I’ve been looking for decent WWI armor in 1/35 but all I hear is that Emhar’s stuff is pretty work intensive to make fit right and look presentable.
Heck, the Preiser bikini girls are just nudes with bikinis painted on. Wait, should I admit that I know that? :smack:
Thanks!
The Space Girl and Bride are conversions from the ToyBiz Storm figure that were modified so much that they ended up being more like scratchbuilds; lots of putty in them. Their faces were “stolen” from another figure; I made a rubber mold and cast copies in resin. Both projects were a lot of fun; I’m not very artistic, but I found myself having to make all kinds of artsy decisions.
The Vampire Slayer is a figure from Jimmy Flintstone that I modified a bit. The Auburn Aircar was a quick build–I was walking the aisles at the local Hobbytown and spotted the ancient and crappy Lindberg Auburn Speedster kit, and the inspiration just hit me. The chrome “wheels” light up with a color-changing effect; three-color LEDs driven by a digital counter chip. The Martian is a very complete kit from an English outfit called Retrokit, and the school bus is another conversion based on the crummy Lindberg Auburn.
I love models but was never very good at them. I was making a diorama using a WWII airplane model, but my model came out so badly I turned into a diorama of a plane crash. Somewhere in the attic I have the ‘visible man’ i saved for a rainy day and my BTTF:II time traveling DeLorean models waiting for me to build them. But I love looking at other people’s models especially mods or built from scratch.
I’ve done model rocketry, and even did the Estes Space Shuttle. It did launch properly, and was recovered. Once. The second time, the orbiter seemed to go off to Canada.
I still work on plastic models for various mecha, just for stress relief.
If I had the money I’d build two models of this ship, both as best I could, and with full R/C accouterments. One for burning to the waterline, and the other to keep. Yes, I have mixed feelings about that ship. 
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More seriously, I’ve been thinking about saving up for the JAG 1:700 scale model USS Virginia CGN 38, but I’d have to buy the modernization kit they offer, too, which ups the price a bit.
If I may ask a question what does being a Scratchbuilder mean? How do you even start, is it like sculpting, do make all the pieces yourself? It seems fantastic.
For ship models you can buy plans, just like for a real ship, and cut out ribs and planks to form the hull. Then build the superstructure. Similarly you can build the weapons mounts, yourself - or often there are preformed gun and missile mounts for various standard emplacements, if you care to cheat. 
Depends on your definitions, really. Some scratchbuilders use parts from other model kits, either as-is or modified in some way–this is called kit bashing. Others created their own parts from raw materials using various combinations of sculpting, carving and assembling. Multiple identical parts can be readily made using silicone molds and casting resins. Large body shapes can be vacuum-formed, in which heated sheet plastic is forced onto a form, which can be made from clay, wood, metal or any other firm material.
Large models generally start with an armature, a strong, sturdy structure which serves as a skeleton to support the model, and a frame making up the overall shape, often of wood, is constructed around that. Then, a basic “skin” made of plastic sheet, sheet metal, fiberglass or wood is fastened to the frame and details are then built up on that.
To me, it means that one is a hardcore badass. A person that doesn’t need a kit or instructions, just some photos and maybe a blueprint or technical manual.
Any and all possible materials are free game, but generally styrene plastic stock, brass sheets and tubes, filling putty and some superglue.
People like me assemble their models, scratchbuilders make their models.
My friend Jenny from junior high was a total girly-girl who really wanted to model. Model as in fashion, makeup, photographers - that kind of modeling. Imagine her excitement when she saw a photocopied flyer announcing the creation of the Model Club!
She showed up early for the after school meeting, so excited! But instead of fellow fashion obsessed girls, the other members trickling in appeared to be more of the nerd variety. Hmmmmm. Suddenly, she realized - Oh *%$! - THAT kind of modeling! But our girl didn’t miss a beat - she just kicked her backpack filled with Seventeen Magazine and Bonne Bell cosmetics under the desk and acted like she had planned to build a wee machine all along. The nerds turned out to be really sweet, and lent her supplies and explained everything. After a week, she had a little RAF Spitfire!
At the end of the school year, her princess pink Elle Woods bedroom had a half dozen painstakingly created tiny airplanes hanging from the ceiling.
One day I went with her to the hobbyshop and ended up making a model of a Pacific Western Airlines 737. We were the only girls there and it was actually really fun.
Sorry, that’s my only contribution to the modeling stories…
Where are y’all buying plastic aircraft models and rockets?
It’s the Tauro kit (review). This was originally produced around 1980, but is still periodically available. The tracks are very good, but fiddly, the interior is very basic, and the rest is OK. The main problem I see with it is that the hull sides & top all butt together at a 45º angle, and I am not looking forward to trying to get the joints cemented neatly (the next major assembly step at this pouint).
I’ve done some detailing to improve the exhausts, door and pistol port fittings, detail the MGs, and correct the more obvious rivet/bolt errors, but only a few major interior items which might be visible through the top ventilation gratings, as I’m not opening any of the doors or hatches. I’m building it as A7V chassis #563 “Wotan” (from the second and final production batch), Tank No. III, Sturm Panzerkraftwagen Abteilung II, France, July 1918 (not many were built, and the details differed from vehicle to vehicle, so each is somewhat unique, and the kit is a mix of the details of several different vehicles).
Some links to other WW1 AFV kit reviews in both 1/35 and 1/72, from Emhar and a couple of others:
http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/emhar4005reviewcs_1.htm
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/emhar_a7v.htm
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/emhar_1to35_whippetl_review.htm
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/emhar_1to35_tadpoletail_review.htm
http://www.landships.freeservers.com/a7v_zimmer.htm
http://misc.kitreview.com/armourreviews/mkvreviewrb_1.htm
http://www.accurate-armour.com/ShowProduct.cfm?manufacturer=0&category=12&subcategory=94&product=497
http://wwi-cookup.com/afv/british/mkv/markvreview.html
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/emhar/em4005.htm
They are a bit tricky, I’ll admit. 
I thought you might like to see some of the autos I built for Dad’s layout, so I took some pics tonight:
The fire engines are Jordans; the old cabover (I’ve forgotten its make) is a very nice metal kit, and the dune buggy is a kitbash using a Jordan flathead Ford engine and Preiser wheels.
I usually visit the local hobby stores: Skyway Model Shop, a tiny place crammed to the rafters with kits (he has an eBay presence); the local Hobbytown, especially for strip styrene and paint; and The Inside Gateway, a very good model railroad store.
On the Internet, I use Hobbylink Japan; and the last two (very old and strange) kits I bought were from eBay.
Buc Wheat’s site covers garage kits (cast-resin, limited-production monster and girl kits) very well; it has a listing of “Kits of 2008” complete with links to the manufacturers.
Many moons ago…I made tons of airplane models when I was in high school. Airfix, Revell…the “battle damaged” F4 and F-105 come to mind, as do the 1/72 B-29, Short Sunderland, and the Monogram B-52 with the battery-powered engine noise thingy. I still have pictures of some of them.