Old Dogs Planes

Building models is a fun thing for me. I started this site for a couple reasons. The first was to be an inspiration for me to get some of these kits built and the second was to provide some focus. I'm getting back into the building part of the hobby after a 30 year hiatus and found that after all these years I had collected way too many kits to build in my life time. Creating this site helped me decide which planes I most wanted to build. While the list started out rather modest it has grown almost uncontrollably and has ballooned to over 100 kits. This is better than the 300 plus I started out with is still ambitious based on the rate that I finish models but I intend to stick with what is here and probably add a few more just to make the information about the kits available for other modelers. Whether I get to build them all is anyone's guess.

It won't take you long to realize that my primary focus is on World War II German aircraft. While I like almost all types, for some reason I find German aircraft more interesting than others due to the wide variety of types and unusual configurations as well as an endless variety of paint schemes and markings.

OK, it has been almost five years since I got back into modeling and have learned and mastered a lot of new techniques and materials and as a result have made some decisions that will effect my modeling from here forward. In February of 2009, the love of my life for over thirty years passed away. From then till late last year I pretty much lost all interest in modeling. I tried building a variety of different kits but quickly lost interest in them. Finally towards the end of 2010 I began to get my mojo back and it was at that time that I reviewed what I had done up to that time and decided to make some changes. One of the things that I had become disenchanted with was the level of detail that I could obtain from small 1/48 scale kits. My vision and steadiness of hand just wasn't up to the challenge and I have decided that except in cases where larger scale models of particular aircraft are not available, I'm going to replace many of the small aircraft on my build list with 1/32 scale kits. I will continue to build 1/48 scale kits of large single engine aircraft as well as twin and multi engine kits. Any 1/48 scale kits that have been replaced on the build list with 1/32 scale kits will be moved to the "No Longer in Queue" page so the reviews will be available and a new 1/32 scale page will be created. I realize that there has not been much new posted on the site for a while but I'm hoping that will change soon. I have several builds in progress and lots of new kits to review and share. Thank you for you interest in this site !

While I did not originally intend on this being a review site, I have over time added in box reviews to most of the aircraft listed here and I hope by posting them it will increase the availability of information to help you decide whether a given kit is what you want. Kits that have in box reviews will have a red asterisk * following the description under its profile. If there are photos of completed models there will also be an ! Note that I provide links at the end of reviews to other reviews or builds to let you see what other folks thought of the kits or how they looked when completed. This is something most sites do not do. Old Dog does not accept free kits or advertising from manufacturers, distributors or dealers. All kits reviewed have been paid for out of my pocket and as a result I feel my reviews are unbiased.

One thing I normally don't do in my reviews is spend a lot of time measuring the kit parts to make certain it adheres to the prototypes dimensions. I'm not such a nit picker that I'm going to sweat minor discrepancys in dimensions or missing or incorrect panels or other aircraft details. There are plenty accuracy zealots to go around and I refuse to let them spoil my fun. If the discrepancys are well know and correction sets are available for major boo boos, I will most likely purchase them and if I do they will be reviewed along with the kit.

The models are grouped into categories and can be accessed by clicking the links to the left.

How I got to this point and how I made my choices on what to model is contained in the "About Me" section. I hope that by sharing the information here that you may be inspired to build one of these kits or that the information provided here will help you with your choice of models or projects.

While you are here be sure to check out the Links page to find the best sites on the web for reviews, tips, forums and best places to buy the models themselves and all the goodies that go with them! Enjoy and thanks for stopping!