2022 Group Build Subject Suggestions

[tg18083]

Something from the year of your birth. or Something from the birth year of ones mother and/or father.

Call it 'Happy Birthday!'

[DBMiller]

Something from the year of your birth. or Something from the birth year of ones mother and/or father.

Call it 'Happy Birthday!'

My birth year - 1959. Let's see...

The 1959 Impala! I have one of these kits!



The Mercury Seven were announced! I have kits for this as well!




October 29 – Lightning F.1, first operational production model of the English Electric Lightning!
Just after I became operational on the 10th! I have two Lightnings!




Iron Man came out! I don't have a kit - but - Iron Man!

[tg18083]

I'm 1965, Mom is 1944, Dad is 1939.

Plenty to do there.

[Tomcat64]

Ok I think we'll give this another week and then distil it down for the poll... so to summarise here are the subjects we've seen mentioned so far (apologies if I missed anything though); I've combined similar ideas together where I think they work (e.g. Swedish build would be included in Scandinavian).

I'm going to work on the theory that we'll try to run the Egg Build, Summer Sci-Fi and year long 1/48 build alongside the voted subjects so that's why they're not in the list.

• Not the World Wars (e.g. Korean, Vietnam, Falklands etc)
• Scandinavian Subjects
• Figures (single, group or bust)
• Italian Subjects
• World War 2 excluding US, British, Russian or German subjects
• World War 1
• Anything Dirty - weathered subjects
• Unarmed/Utility Military subjects
• Inter-war subjects
• Cold War Naval
• Out of Comfort Zone revisited
• D-Day
• Battle of Britain
• Midway & Pearl Harbor
• Civilian (includes automotive, racing, civil aircraft etc)
• Small scale (1/144 or smaller)
• Space
• Rotary wings
• Yellow French Observation Balloons
• Century Series Aircraft
• Big Scale Aircraft (1/32 or bigger)
• Naval/Maritime (any era) [Edit - thinking this should include Naval aviation as well as floaty things, so tail hookers get a look in as well ; also updated to include flying boats & float planes ]
• Movie/Fiction/Cartoon Inspired
• Specific Manufacturer... (e.g. Meng, Takom, Tamiya, Airfix etc)
• Bombers
• Shiny Cold War Jets
• Painted with a brush (at least 1/72)
• Adversaries (e.g. Firefly vs Tiger, Bombers vs Night Fighters, Destroyers vs Subs)
• Nose Art
• 50 Years of IAT/RIAT
• Finish what you started
• Night Fighters
• Anything from your Birth year

So feel free to throw any more into the ring, and let us know your favourite five(ish) from the list so we can gauge interest please and then we'll set up the poll for December

Edit: I've updated the list so that Pearl Harbor & Midway are now under a single category, and expanded the Naval option to be Naval/Maritime and include Sea Planes

And here's the tentative schedule for next year - constructive comments & suggestions around timings are always welcome

[ElCapitan]

Well done Neil - good to see them all in one place.

In terms of top 5, here's mine:

Not the World Wars
Anything Italian
D-Day
Midway
Night Fighters

[RangerNeil]

Got a good selection to choose from there.

[Garion77]

a lot of great choices !!!
I would add may be Pearl Harbor... has it's the 70th anniversary coming next year I think

[Tomcat64]

a lot of great choices !!!
I would add may be Pearl Harbor... has it's the 70th anniversary coming next year I think

I've added it to the list Francis as it's another good idea, but I think your maths might be slightly out

I think it's the 80th anniversary of the attack this year in a couple of week's time (unless it's my maths that's wrong )

[Garion77]

You're right !!
If you knew my second job you couldn't believe I've miss calculated something that easy !

[BigWall]

Here's my top 5

Night fighters
Finish what you started
Shiny cold war jets
Movie/fiction/cartoon
Not the world wars

Take them lightly because I build too slowly to participate in many.

[Garion77]

Before giving my top , I need a few explications on the few suggestions. So many great ideas wow !

Not sure to understand all of them. The limits of my English !

- What is Century series aircraft ?
- Rotary wings ; so that would be any helicopters or propeller aircrafts ?
- what is 50 years of IAR/RIAT ?
- does the seaplane subject would need floats or would it be any naval air plane. ?

And I would be tempted to mix Midway and Pearl Harbor together.

[Tomcat64]

Before giving my top , I need a few explications on the few suggestions. So many great ideas wow !

Not sure to understand all of them. The limits of my English !

- What is Century series aircraft ?
- Rotary wings ; so that would be any helicopters or propeller aircrafts ?
- what is 50 years of IAR/RIAT ?
- does the seaplane subject would need floats or would it be any naval air plane. ?

And I would be tempted to mix Midway and Pearl Harbor together.

Hi Francis,

I'll try to help but anyone else jump in if I get anything wrong here

- What is Century series aircraft ?
These are US aircraft with designations of F-100 or higher (I think in reality up to F-106)
Here is a Wiki Link: CenturySeries

- Rotary wings ; so that would be any helicopters or propeller aircrafts ?
Helicopters, Autogyros or Tilt-Rotors but not general prop aircraft

- what is 50 years of IAR/RIAT ?
IAT/RIAT is the (Royal) International Air Tattoo - a really big air display held almost every year in the UK which has been running for 50 years and has probably featured just about every aircraft from that period at one time or another

Another Wiki Link for you: RIAT

- does the seaplane subject would need floats or would it be any naval air plane. ?
My thinking is that this would be for Flying Boats & Float Planes but I think we could combine this with the Naval topic to have a combined naval/maritime subject which includes any sort of ship, boat, hovercraft, sea planes & carrier aircraft

And I would be tempted to mix Midway and Pearl Harbor together.
Good idea - happy to combine the two

I hope that helps but please let me know if you have any more questions

[Garion77]

Thank you for clarifying everything ! So after that, here are my top five choices !

Not the World Wars (e.g. Korean, Vietnam, Falklands etc)
Scandinavian Subjects
World War 2 excluding US, British, Russian or German subjects
Midway/Pearl Harbor
Bombers

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

[RangerNeil]

My couple of pennysworth would be:
* Rotary wing (no prizes for guessing that one )
* Bombers
* Sea Planes
* Adversaries
* Brush painted

[digger303]

Troop transporter would open the field to all genres.

[BigWall]

I thought of a new one. It's called "Build Your Stash." an algorithm will need to be created to take into account number of kits, difficulty, kits added to the stash and time taken. It'll be a long term group build.

[RangerNeil]

I thought of a new one. It's called "Build Your Stash." an algorithm will need to be created to take into account number of kits, difficulty, kits added to the stash and time taken. It'll be a long term group build.

I'd guess given the likely size of some members stashes it would not be so much long term as life time....

[DBMiller]

I thought of a new one. It's called "Build Your Stash." an algorithm will need to be created to take into account number of kits, difficulty, kits added to the stash and time taken. It'll be a long term group build.

"It'll be a long term group build."

I hope you've found an immortality drug.

[Tomcat64]

Troop transporter would open the field to all genres.

I think we've got that one covered off under Unarmed/Utility Military subjects mate?

I know there's a couple of specific subjects in the list but where ever possible I've tried to make them as broad as possible to try and attract as much participation as we can. We were much lower than expected on entries this year - especially with the Heavy Haulers as I thought that would attract more attention, and also the Sci Fi GB usually gets more entries. This isn't a criticism of anyone as we all have jobs & families as well as the madness in the world to contend with and speaking personally I definitely didn't get as much done build-wise as I was hoping for, but if entries don't pick up next year there's always the concern that GBs will fizzle out completely which is something I'd like to avoid as they're one of the reasons I joined the forum in the first place.

[Tomcat64]

I thought of a new one. It's called "Build Your Stash." an algorithm will need to be created to take into account number of kits, difficulty, kits added to the stash and time taken. It'll be a long term group build.

[Tomcat64]

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

[Tomcat64]

And here are my own choices - I'll be honest here, these are biased towards kits I already have in the stash as I really, REALLY need to stop buying more kits!

• Not the World Wars (e.g. Korean, Vietnam, Falklands etc)
• Scandinavian Subjects
• Figures (single, group or bust)
• D-Day
• Specific Manufacturer... (Meng, Takom)

[Twokidsnosleep]

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

[Tomcat64]

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

Oh hell yeah - I forgot it ran into January

[aur0ra145]

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

Oh hell yeah - I forgot it ran into January

Same!

[DBMiller]

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

You mean I still have time to start another kit I can add to my "finish what you've started" GB?
Cool.

[Twokidsnosleep]

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

You mean I still have time to start another kit I can add to my "finish what you've started" GB?
Cool.

Yep. this darn pirate ship is going to take another year to finish

[aur0ra145]

The ones I'm interested in:

Scandinavian Units
WW2 - Not the common guys
Century Aircraft
Adversaries
Night Fighters
Sea Plane

Here is my latest 'promotional' material.

[RangerNeil]

Troop transporter would open the field to all genres.

I think we've got that one covered off under Unarmed/Utility Military subjects mate?

I know there's a couple of specific subjects in the list but where ever possible I've tried to make them as broad as possible to try and attract as much participation as we can. We were much lower than expected on entries this year - especially with the Heavy Haulers as I thought that would attract more attention, and also the Sci Fi GB usually gets more entries. This isn't a criticism of anyone as we all have jobs & families as well as the madness in the world to contend with and speaking personally I definitely didn't get as much done build-wise as I was hoping for, but if entries don't pick up next year there's always the concern that GBs will fizzle out completely which is something I'd like to avoid as they're one of the reasons I joined the forum in the first place.

I planned on doing all the builds - sadly the house move got in the way. The room designated for crafts/modelling is still packed out with boxes because the loft ladder collapsed (with a security engineer 2/3 the way up) and I still need to get that sorted. I am hoping in the New Year some degree of normality will be restored......

[Garion77]

So many great suggestions, it was hard to choose... it was hard to not put in out of comfort revisited

We might still be able to include that in the final voting this is basically just to try and narrow down our shortlist.

This year's Out of Comfort runs until Jan 31, 2022...FYI
Plenty of time to start something

Unfortunately I don't have time to start and finish a project for that date. Since the borders with the US are reopening I'm planing to go at least 2 or 3 weekends. And I'm planning, with our dear Digger, a built of a Pfalz

[Tomcat64]

Troop transporter would open the field to all genres.

I think we've got that one covered off under Unarmed/Utility Military subjects mate?

I know there's a couple of specific subjects in the list but where ever possible I've tried to make them as broad as possible to try and attract as much participation as we can. We were much lower than expected on entries this year - especially with the Heavy Haulers as I thought that would attract more attention, and also the Sci Fi GB usually gets more entries. This isn't a criticism of anyone as we all have jobs & families as well as the madness in the world to contend with and speaking personally I definitely didn't get as much done build-wise as I was hoping for, but if entries don't pick up next year there's always the concern that GBs will fizzle out completely which is something I'd like to avoid as they're one of the reasons I joined the forum in the first place.

I planned on doing all the builds - sadly the house move got in the way. The room designated for crafts/modelling is still packed out with boxes because the loft ladder collapsed (with a security engineer 2/3 the way up) and I still need to get that sorted. I am hoping in the New Year some degree of normality will be restored......

Yep similar intentions, planned to do four of the GBs with one maybe and ended up completing one in time, starting another (still in progress) and just doing an Egg Build late as a quick build in between - it's been a really slow year for me on this front.

Here's hoping next year goes more to plan

[Twokidsnosleep]

A Big Boys Build would be interesting
Like the larger scales for whatever genre you have in the stash: aircraft 1/32, cars 1/16 and larger, tanks, boats etc etc

[Tomcat64]

A Big Boys Build would be interesting
Like the larger scales for whatever genre you have in the stash: aircraft 1/32, cars 1/16 and larger, tanks, boats etc etc

Nice idea - we've already got 1/32 aircraft on the list but that could easily expand into "Big Jobs"

So aircraft bigger than 1/48
Armour bigger than 1/35
Cars bigger than 1/24

Anything else? Not sure how big boats/ships go...

[DBMiller]

A Big Boys Build would be interesting
Like the larger scales for whatever genre you have in the stash: aircraft 1/32, cars 1/16 and larger, tanks, boats etc etc

Sounds fun! I have a few larger scale planes to work on.

[Tomcat64]

We'll leave this up for another week if anyone else wants to throw in their suggestions for the short-list and will then distil the results into the poll and open it up for selection of 3 subjects from a shortlist of about 6 or 7 subjects.

As a reminder here is the long-list - I've updated a couple of the entries based on the conversations

• Not the World Wars (e.g. Korean, Vietnam, Falklands etc)
• Scandinavian Subjects
• Figures (single, group or bust)
• Italian Subjects
• World War 2 excluding US, British, Russian or German subjects
• World War 1
• Anything Dirty - weathered subjects
• Unarmed/Utility Military subjects [includes transports]
• Inter-war subjects
• Cold War Naval
• Out of Comfort Zone revisited
• D-Day
• Battle of Britain
• Midway & Pearl Harbor
• Civilian (includes automotive, racing, civil aircraft etc)
• Small scale (1/144 or smaller)
• Space
• Rotary wings
• Yellow French Observation Balloons
• Century Series Aircraft
• Big Scale Subjects [Aircraft over 1/48, Armour over 1/35, Cars over 1/24 etc]
• Naval/Maritime (any era) [This will include naval aviation, float planes etc ]
• Movie/Fiction/Cartoon Inspired
• Specific Manufacturer... (e.g. Meng, Takom, Tamiya, Airfix etc)
• Bombers
• Shiny Cold War Jets
• Painted with a brush (at least 1/72)
• Adversaries (e.g. Firefly vs Tiger, Bombers vs Night Fighters, Destroyers vs Subs)
• Nose Art
• 50 Years of IAT/RIAT
• Finish what you started
• Night Fighters
• Anything from your Birth year

[DBMiller]

I thought of another one today just after a visit to the hobby store. I picked up ICM's 1/48 Firebee for no reason except I liked the way it looked. Have you ever bought a kit for no other reason than that? Are you a plane builder who grabbed a tank or boat? Or an armor builder who grabs a car? What ever.
How about a "what the heck - it looks cool" build. Not quite an 'out of comfort zone' build (which I think of as way out of line - what the heck was I thinking?) but still something you don't usually buy?

[Twokidsnosleep]

I thought of another one today just after a visit to the hobby store. I picked up ICM's 1/48 Firebee for no reason except I liked the way it looked. Have you ever bought a kit for no other reason than that? Are you a plane builder who grabbed a tank or boat? Or an armor builder who grabs a car? What ever.
How about a "what the heck - it looks cool" build. Not quite an 'out of comfort zone' build (which I think of as way out of line - what the heck was I thinking?) but still something you don't usually buy?

The Suckered in by Box Art build

[DBMiller]

The Suckered in by Box Art build

That works too.

[Tomcat64]

Ok guys - thanks for all the input, we'll distil the results & feedback into a poll as soon as possible.