.....not necessarily in that order, but you get the gist.
During my teens I remember buying the odd edition of Aviation News (when it was in a fortnightly (I think) newspaper format), and occasionally Airfix magazine. Mad things such as conversion kits and decal sheets were, well, mad things you got from the dark unknown called 'mail order'. That said I think the original (i.e. pre-ED Models) Almark sheets could be had from a couple of local model shops, but they seemed a little extravagant so it was kit components and transfers all the way. I did indulge in some converting - the Alan Hall balsa way, turning my ancient Airfix Lancaster into a Lancastrian, converting an Airfix Harrier GR1 into a Sea Harrier FRS1, and some years later having a go with turning a Hawk T1 into a Hawk 200.
Student life really slowed down model making, although I did discover 'Scale Aircraft Modelling', my first edition being single-seat RAF Meteors (one of the earliest editions I think) and became an irregular buyer - always from WH Smiths, and only when the 'Aircraft in Detail' was of a post-WW2 RAF type, this being the sole focus of my rather limited modelling. This would be the pattern for the next three years - one or two builds every year, that was all, plus some copies of SAM. I think it must have been around my last year as a student I discovered Modeldecal sheets, which really was a revelation as I think first use of these, and the arrival a couple of years later of Precision Paints and Compuclour (Precision Paints were my preference) led to a mini resurgence in modelling. Modeldecal, Precision Paints and Humbrol were the constants in accessory terms - god job really given my main modelling interest!
Thus was the general pattern of low volume modelling throughout the 1980s and the early 90s, due in part to the rather nomadic life of an RAF officer, and also married life and two small kids. I like to think my modelling standards improved, however this was due - I'll be honest - to better aftermarket options. Mid-80s saw me at RAF West Drayton with the Aviation Hobby Shop just around the corner. Very handy for lunchtime shopping!
Then in the mid/late 90s a couple of opportunities arose. Promotion led to my own office and the chance to display a couple of models in a a cabinet. And my first whif emerged - not that I knew the term then, of course - an Airfix F-5A painted up in imaginary RAuxAF colours. I think they were County of Gloucester markings from a Vampire Modeldecal sheet, pale blue/red national markings and I think a disruptive camouflage pattern of Medium Sea Grey/'Barley Grey' uppers and Light Aircraft Grey undersides. The finished item was very much a prototype of my current tastes in whiffery, but didn't start the whiffing addiction.
Subsequent posting to Boscombe Down as SATCO gave me a bigger office and a bigger cabinet - and the need of a past time to keep me away from the Mess bar every night! So modelling witnessed a revival, but with a twist. Post-WW2 RAF would remain my main modelling interest 'at home', but weekday modelling at Boscombe would for some inexplicable reason focus on WW2 RAF fighters. I don't know why but I thought of this as very much a sideline that didn't warrant my full attention, although actually it got it! After Boscombe came a staff tour to RAF Uxbridge, another cabinet and something of a return to post-WW2 RAF (but the WW2 interest continued), woth a focus on the Spitfire. I also developed a taste for the FW190D - a handsome beast.
A deployment to the Kuwait brought about a further brush with whiffery. I took some kits with me as a diversion - an Airfix Hunter that was finished in Kuwaiti colours, a Revell 1/144 Tornado, something else (can't remember what) and an Olde Worlde Airfix Mig-15 that was finished in Luftwaffe colours. I remember them well! They stayed in country. They stayed in country for at least two and a half years as in the course of a subsequent deployment to Saudi Arabia and a swift visit to Kuwait I took a look in my old room and they were still hanging from the light fitting! Incidentally, during the Saudi sojourn I did some kitbashing - an Italeri Spit Vb, Airfix Blenheim and Lysander, and a Matchbox Wellesley all in Middle East schemes, plus a Heller (ex-Airfix) Skyraider in US Navy colours - and left them all behind. They were there for a while after my departure as far as I know (the Skyraider was quite international, having been bought in a Limmasol hypermarket whilst on holiday the year before) - there is some corner of a foreign field.....