RE: TO BE SCALE OR NOT TO BE ...
In the liberal sense all but one of my planes is scale. I do like flying my 120 Stinger but its just butt ugly. My will friend land my 1/5 Grumman Wildcat while I get some flying time on it. Its 30 pounds and he had to dead stick it once, came in perfectly thankfully. I also have Great Planes Pitts, Shoestring and Ryan STA-M. All different but fun to fly. The GSP 70" Zero does not have many flights yet. Currently the bench has a IMP Mitsubishi Claude at 83" maybe 18 pounds. I plan to use a dummy radial in it. I go for proper colors and pilot with some cockpit detail but don't do rivets or panel lines. I enjoy building as much as flying but just average at both.
I had a couple of 1/4 clipped Cubs and they also where lots of fun to fly. I prefer my planes to look something like the real thing but that's me.
History is very much a part of the planes essence for me.
Carl