I'm a product of the Cold War. I was born in the late 60s, was an impressionable child in the 70s, and spent my teen years through the 80s. Back then the threat of a global war with the Soviet Union was as prominent as the threat of a Miley Cyrus performance is today. Scary, eh? Movies such as The Day After, Red Dawn, and War Games reminded Americans of the real possibility that nuclear war, an invasion of Latin American communists, and World War III could break out at any moment. Of course American pop culture sentiment took the idea to amusing extremes with Stripes (even though I rarely watch the movie beyond the basic training scenes), and in White Nights Mikhail Baryshnikov literally dances his way to the other side of the Iron Curtain. Those were the good ol' days, when we knew who our enemies were.
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| One of the first models I built as a young pup. |
It should come as no surprise that my primary area of interest within our hobby is Cold War military aircraft. Those are the subjects that impressed me during my formative years. The F-4 was on its way to Guard and Reserve units, the F-16 was brand new and known as the Fighting Falcon, and "stealth" played a greater role in my sneaking WAFs into my dorm room than in aviation technology.
All that said, the more time I spent in the hobby, the more other subject areas appealed to me. I've built aircraft from World War Two, spent almost 10 years building armor exclusively, and painted my fair share of figures using artist oils. I believe that kind of variety keeps me engaged in the hobby, forces me to learn new techniques, and introduces unfamiliar media to my workbench.
At the end of the day, however, my passion will always be with Cold War USAF aircraft. If some kind of bizarro, geeky, imposing thug told me I could build models from only one genre, I'd be churning out F-4s, F-106s, F-5 aggressors, and Block 15 F-16s for the rest of my life...and be quite happy doing so.
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Nice article! Of course, I share the same affinity for the F-16 but also have a soft spot for those older fighters, like the F-5 and almost anything that sported the SEA scheme. Welcome to the Union!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. And I remember that Revell F-16 clearly, in its white plastic with multiple options.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. Hey I have that box still here I think.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Intetesting to hear a scale modeller talk about such a focussed area of modelling. Welcome to the Union!
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys! It's interesting how fond we can become of these kits that we built early in our "careers." Maybe every few years we should go back and build them again just for fun. As if the other kits aren't fun! :)
ReplyDelete