Hello friends.
Just out of curiosity, what do you guys think is the most challenging 1/35 Dragon model kit to construct and the easiest?
I haven’t built too many so far, but the Elefant has a ton of pieces. I have to say the Shermans, because of what I’ve heard about the difficulties with the multi-piece tracks.
For easiest, the J Stalin 2 or Panther G Late. Pretty straightforward builds.
I have done their Pz III M/N. Not too bad, but the one gripe I had is you are required to remove a headlight base and glue another one on in a different place. Sounds easy, but the problem is that there is a fine treadplate pattern engraved and when you cut off the headlight base, it ruins the design. I had to by replacement PE treadplates. The PZ I is a nice kit too, but is difficult for one main reason- the indie tracks are very small and a little fragile. Nothing horribly difficult but not a walk in the park.
I’m finishing up a (late) Hetzer now - love it. Required a few corrections, but all is well, and I haven’t experienced any major hang-ups (yet, KNOCK-KNOCK!) You can read my gripes on the Karl if you like, I won’t go into that again.
Hardest build I think is the Firefly… the tracks are hard to build and the directions are the worst I’ve ever used. I think in terms of easiest maybe the M4A2 Russian…no indy links!
Looking forward to some pics of your Hetzer Gary. Which camo scheme did you go with? The Hetzer is quite popular here.
Very nice.
I think for me, the most challenging model that I have started is the ZSU-23-4V1.
http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA3521
Lots of tiny pieces and you constantly have to paint parts before assembly.
But its overall a great looking model.
The hardest kit I built by DML is the Stug IV. It was so difficult that I may have given up on it. Too many fit problems and sink marks on every track link. The easiest to put together have been the IS-2 and the T-34/76, mod 1941.
darn about the Stug. I just picked one up not to long ago and was hoping it wouldn’t be too bad (parts I don’t care about, but I hate bad fit)
The Firefly Vc was tough. Each track link has three pieces, and virtually all the track pads had ejector pin marks and parting lines. I had a real fit problem with the transmission housing that took a lot of puttying and sanding to fix. And the instructions were terrible. There were misidentified parts, and some parts had to be put on the blind side of the drawings.
I bought my kit several years ago so maybe it came from a bad batch. I’ve tried to finish it several times, but I end up crying in a fetal position on the floor after a few feeble attempts to glue parts together. I think I may end up taking it apart for spare parts. [xx(]
i’ve only built figure kits from dragon, never any tanks. i find the figure kits very detailed and accurate. fairly easy to build and modify as well.
HOLY COW! Buff might have it there. The Stug just sounds like a bad kit, but the Firefly VC sounds like a grunt’s busy work assignment from a spiteful sarge or something (actually it sounds like a bad kit also).
I’m glad this thread was started. I tend to buy DML kits without considering there might be trouble (as I do when I buy an eastern europen/russian kit). I’d like to know what kits to avoid from ANY manufacturer, although I think it might get annoying to start seeing topic after topic entitled “Best/Worst kit from ”.
I can’t comment on the best one, but I can most definitely say that their SCUD-B is one of the worst fitting kits I’ve ever had the fun of assembling.
I should add that their M1A1-HA was a messy fit at best. My turret wasn’t even finished on the molding.
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]
the 'structions also showed some pieces being mounted on the wrong sides (backets that hold the idlers on). And the tracks really are a nightmare and a half!
As for ‘easiest’ DML (I assume we’re limiting our responses here to 1/35, or at least not the 1/72 or 1/144 kits), the Elefant (what I’ve done of it) wasn’t too bad and the Pz IVJ I’m doing was okay, too. Still some instruction errors, and a few minor fit problems, but nothing major. The E-100 and Maus look like pretty simple builds, too.
Their Ketten looks pretty tough, the two piece indies are real small little buggers. For the most part, their new stuff looks pretty good, as long as you catch the inevitable instruction problem early enough.
Actually, really putting my mind to it for the past few minutes, I find the hardest thing about DML kits is all the AM PE stuff I keep trying to add to them!!![(-D][(-D]
Thats no lie Turret is probably the worst fit Ive seen on an Abrams kit to date, and Ive built all of them except for the Italeri which is pretty far down on my to-build lists, but it does make for a fairly accurate and decent looking Abrams. Here is my M1A1-HA converted for OIF.
You want a crappy fitting kit, look no further than that Italeri M1. It might further slide down the stash pile now.