The second magic moment for me is my first good look at the finished kit. The final judgment, as it were, when all the elements come together, and I realize that either I've done a good job, or that I made some mistakes, not to be repeated later. For instance, the first kit I built when I returned to modeling in 1989, after a twenty year hiatus, was a HobbyCraft Canada Messerschmitt Bf-109B . But I used Polly-S acrylics for the Field Gray , and did not thin them sufficiently. I got a very gloppy looking kit, which still doesn't look too bad, thanks to the excellent decals and the very nicely detailed cockpit.
Patience pays off, but it helps to have a good, detailed kit at the beginning of the process.
A few months back, it was night fighters, both Allied and Axis. But lately, I've been rather RAF focused, and more specifically, I've been looking for a few good Spitfires. Fujimi released a whole family of Griffon Spitfire kits utilizing the same basic tool. I was not disappointed. On initial inspection, this looked like a fairly detailed, competently molded kit, and I looked forward to the day she'd sit on my display case next to my Hasagawa Hawker Hurricane Mark IIc night fighter.