As 2014 draws to a close, I’ve got three builds on the bench. There’s the Trumpeter Bf 109G-10 I’m building for The Weathering Magazine, which should be wrapping before the end of the year. And Tamiya’s 1/32 F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair, which is well into weathering and will be wrapped by mid-January at the latest. Then, last and certainly least, there’s the tiny 1/72 Trumpeter M4A1(76)W Sherman…

It’s nowhere near as far along as the wingy things, but it’s also about the size of a Hot Wheels car, so it won’t take too long to knock out.

Whatever the case, by the end of January I’ll be looking at a wide open bench for the first time in months.

So obviously the question turns to…what to build next? Among my three main scales/genres, I’m all across the spectrum. With armor, I know exactly what I’m going to tackle. With props and jets, I’m far less settled.

1/35 Armor – Kitty Kitty Bang Bang

Armor is where my mind is made up. I’ll be taking on a double dose of Leopards – Meng’s Leopard 1A3/4 and Takom’s Leopard 1A5/C2.

The Meng will be built as your standard late Cold War, West German, NATO-camoflage-wearing Leopard. Fancied up with what looks like a great Voyager upgrade set.

The Takom kit, meanwhile, will be built as a Canadian Leopard C2. Interesting fun fact is that the Canadian C2s were a marriage of a C1 chassis and C2 turret. Usually they were painted an overall olive green, but there are instances where the green turret was placed onto a chassis still wearing the old three-tone camoflage. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing, opening up some good visual interest and diverging weathering opportunities.

1/48 Jets – Quick and Dirty

2014 was the year I finally built some jets – Trumpeter’s MiG-21F-13 (LINK) and Hasegawa’s A-4F Skyhawk (LINK).

I want to build on that in 2015…but jets remain a tricky subject for me. Part of it is that I just don’t have the muscle memory the way I do for props. And part of it is dealing with those @#^#$!@! intakes.

The question isn’t whether I want to continue building jets – but how.

Part of me wants to get back to the Hobby Boss A-6E Intruder I had to set aside during the summer.

It’s a fine kit, but other builds and the trickiness of the IP shroud-and-windscreen fit have kept me away from it. Do I really want to go back to it, or put something else on the bench first? Something simpler?

Sooner or later – before the Intruder or after it – I’m going to dive into a simpler jet. But which one? Which subject? Which manufacturer? Right now I’m leaning toward one of Eduard’s MiG-21s – lord knows I have enough of them. Or perhaps Airfix’s EE Lightning. Or Eduard’s boxing of the Hasegawa F-104G Starfighter. Or…

1/32 Props – How Ambitious?

The question with 1/32 isn’t what I want to build next, but how in the hell I’m supposed to just land on one. Right now, I’ve got three pretty awesome kits all vying for my attention after the Corsair clears the bench – Tamiya’s F4U-1A Corsair (strike while the iron’s hot), Kitty Hawk’s new OV-10D Bronco, and Wingnut Wings’ Felixstowe F.2a, which looks like a rather arduous project.

Honestly, any of them would make an awesome project. And I may choose one, or may go with something else entirely. At this point I can’t say.

What I can say is that 2015 is looking to be an awesome year for building.

What do you have on deck for the coming year?