What's your preferred level of difficulty?

[Vermin_King]

As I have been picking designers that it has been way too long since I built, so Dave's models should be added to my list

[ReynoldsSlumber]

Good question. My preferred level is 3, sometimes 2, with certain particularities/peculiarities. Most of the time I'm looking for an aircraft model that gives an accurate representation of the shape, including its visually distinctive features, such that it looks realistic from a few feet away. I'm not looking to model landing gear, cockpit interiors, or every little antenna or air duct. I am interested in air intake details (which are often lacking on fighter jet model plans), exhaust nozzles, large to medium sized fillets, fairings, wingtip features, etc.

I'm up for doing small details but not extremely fiddly details. For example, today I enjoyed making the tiny engine exhaust stacks on a 1/30 Fiddler's Green P-39 Airacobra downscaled to 1/72, while I skipped the antenna mast. When upscaling an S&P 1/300 737 to 1/200, I redesigned the engine pylons to be accurate and added a central tailcone to the engines. I'm looking to make an Aero Spacelines Super Guppy but not the Pilsworth one in the downloads section here because it's too "low-poly," i.e. too coarsely divided among conic sections. (No knock on Pilsworth there; he has plenty of other fine designs).

Part of the distinction is because usually I am making gliders and have to take crashworthiness into account, and I re-scale models for a major dimension in the range of 4-13" (10-33cm), so the level of details I include, as well as what kind of details they are, is commensurate. Anyway, in terms of interest and willingness to apply effort, I think you get the idea. Another part of it is that I want to refine my modeling skill in terms of larger-scale crispness before I so much as consider whether to get into fine detailing. But even then I want to be spending 10-30 hours on a given model, maybe 40 for something special, not 50+. Especially when it's a glider that might crash catastrophically one day!

[RacingRaptor]

1:100 like S&P and Minimodel cz/sk. I also make my own railway models around 1:100 scale in ms Paint with working bogies and basic interiors. But i also like to build 1:33 planes from WAK since they re quite cheap, rather easy yet detailed.

[paperairforce]

Originally Posted by mbauer

Always like problem solving, puzzles and other things that need thought out, I'll take the highest level, IF the parts fit.

Don't fit, it will end up in universal round shape for dunking/net only garbage can throws.

Been thinking of printing a full size airplane. That might be a challenge of note. 18feet long with 13.5ft wingspan. I've printed rocket models 14feet long.

Mike

Kudos to all your projects Mike, everything I've seen has always been very interesting! I also prefer the experimental and problem solving aspects of projects with paper models, in particular enlarging, augmenting, or trying to make them functional. I appreciate both simple constructions such as some architecture that still represents the subject pretty well - but I also have great respect for some of the highly detailed aircraft and ship models (and all others) out there – amazing – though not that I could do them full respect in building them.

Will

[Sakrison]

I suppose most of the models I build are level 3 or 4, with an occasion 5. What publishers call "difficult" might simply have lots of parts, making it time-consuming but not actually difficult. (The hardest part of building GPM's "Bismarck" was fitting it onto my workbench.)

Some the most difficult kits I've built were level 2 or 3 models with lousy instructions. The Porsche 962C I'm working on is a case in point -- lots of parts, most subassemblies at level 2 or 3, but the *&%$#@! instruction diagrams are a nightmare.

I rarely consider the difficulty of a kit when I'm deciding what to build. More important is the time I'll likely need to devote to it and whether or not I have room to display it.

[SungKhongGiat 82]

Normally I'd go for the intermediate stuff like World of Tanks's models, but more often than not I'd stray to more ridiculously simple stuff, despite always being keen for a challenge.

[gomidefilho]

I particularly like a balance between difficulty and ease, as my modeling tendency is collection, I like projects that don't take too long to complete.