When I was building models as a kid, I was all about the jets and helicopters. After all, I grew up steeped in Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Afterburner, Transformers and a very hard-used collection of “In the Cockpit” documentaries. I was attending air shows right around the culmination of the Reagan 80s and the last gasps of the Cold War. I was eleven years old when Desert Storm went down. So it’s only natural that my interests ran toward F-15s and Harriers and AH-64 Apaches.
Then something happened. Well, two things. First, I got interested in World War II aviation. Second, after Desert Storm, military aviation quickly became super homogenized. If you look back now at a carrier deck from 1991, it’s amazing, the wondrous variety. Not just F/A-18 Hornets, but F-14 Tomcats, A-6 Intruders, EA-6B Prowlers, A-7 Corsair IIs…all gone now. The interesting paint schemes all turned into boring, naptime gray.
When I came back to modeling two years ago, my lack of interest in the modern era persisted. Hell, to date I don’t think I’ve built anything that served later than the first half of 1945.
Lately, though, something has changed. Maybe it’s just a desire for something different, or a realization that Desert Storm took place more than twenty years ago now. Whatever the case, I’ve had a powerful itch to build…not modern jets per se, but aircraft from those formative years, The F-15E Strike Eagle, the Tornado GR.1, MiG-29 and so on. I’ve also had a perverse desire to build some helicopters. But only some – specifically the Marines’ AH-1W Supercobra and the Soviets’ iconic Mi-24 Hind.
What’s the point of this post? Beats me. But…don’t be too shocked if you see a few builds cross this page that don’t have propeller sticking out the front.
Doogs Models 
Great post. Being just 5 years older than you, I feel pretty much like what you wrote above. I too started back in the hobby and have been building WWII but am suddenly itching to try a heli or F-15.
I’ve had similar feelings. It’s been all about WWII, nothing modern. My reasons were, I lived and served in the AF during the modern era so those planes held no real wonder to me. Plus most of the fighter pilots I knew were dicks.
Lately I’ve been interested in Vietnam and Cold war era planes. Those are still historical to me and as I get older they get more classic. Kinda like the cars we drove in high school are now “classics”!
I think sitting in the Hind fried your brain!!!
Doogs, I’d love to see you build a Mi-24!
I’ve got the Trumpy 1:35 kit on the slow boat right now!
I completely agree with you on this. I’ve been hardcore WW II aircraft but have really had a thing for Korean War aircraft. I’ve also started buying my share of F-14’s, F-18’s, F-16’s, etc. The stash is still dominated by WW II subjects, but post war aircraft are starting to catch up.
only so many times can you build a jug before you need to freshen up with a new type of build…
I can ALWAYS build Jugs…but I catch your meaning!
I get what you mean, kind of like me as an armor builder in WWII you had Tigers, Panthers, Shermans, and 100 different variants of each. FFW to the modern era and it’s a never ending string of monochromatic pinkish tan M1 Abrams yet my stash is filling with M1, M2, HMMWV’s and the like.