I pretty much dry fit everything before I put it together. However, I’ve read a two or three reviews lately where the reviewer has lamented the fact that he didn’t dry fit before glueing.
So I’m wondering if other folks don’t dry fit as often as I do. To me, it seems natural to fit each part together, sometimes taping them temporarily, to see what work needs to be done, and to plan how I’m going to glue them.
Now, I have yet to work on a kit that goes together easily. Most of my fare consists of Monogram kits with a Glencoe one I’m working on now.
So, am I the only one who pretty much test fits each part before glueing?
I would guess that I dry fit at least 95% of all parts. Often it’s just a quick “yeah, that fits there” dry fit while less frequently it’s as in-depth as taping the parts together. Those instances are limited to critical components or highly visible parts that require tight fit.
I learned my lessons early on getting back into this… I dry fit almost everything now… it’s saved me a lot of headache… sometimes I might even dry fit the same piece 4 or 5 times just to get the rythym for how it twists in at such and such angle, how to hold it just so to be able to glue etc…
I dry fit about everything. It’s when I forget that trouble always seems to strike. Course recently I dry fit a tricky little part at least 3 times to be sure all was well & then proceeded to CA glue it in upside down. Hey, nobody’s perfect.
Any more I rarely work on a kit that I don’t dry fit. And a lot of it isn’t just between the tow pieces.I mean how many times have you fitted the fuselage together and find that several of the vertical panel lines don’t meet at their respective seams?
I dry fit most things. Only way to be sure. Like Robert though, there are some parts I just don’t bother with (and they, of course, come back to haunt me). Or I’ll get them fitting exactly right and put enough glue in there to float a boat. Or I glue them in the completely wrong place (upside down wasn’t good enough for me, oh no, I put it 2 inches from where it was supposed to go and where I had just checked the fit). I can find enough ways to screw things, and dry fitting is a means of eliminating one of them.
I dry fit most of an assembly. Just to make sure, if I have to do any sanding to get it to fit right. That is a throwback from the days of ill fitting kits that didn’t have a flat surface at all on them. I have learned not to dry fit the Tamiya 1/32 scale aircraft. I dry fitted some parts on the F-15E and couldn’t get them apart. They just seemed to snap into position. Some I had to get apart so I could install one or two of the umpteen screws included in the kit. I also made the same mistake with their F-4D. Now if it is a Tamiya kit I do not dry fit anything.
it seems that i dryfit everything that needs dryfitting, then just before i glue the part together, gremlins come and swap seeminly identical but different parts. (gremlins are an excellent place to shift blame to when things are really your own dumb fault) after gluing the dryfitted part together wrongly, i will then go and watch TV for a while and allow the wrongly glued part set fully. after which i will pry the wrongly glued parts apart with a knife and cuss and swear.
i have been mis-glue free for all of 15 minutes. my sponsor has lost his voice. oy veh
I’ve only mis-glued a couple of times, but boy is that a problem!
I glued the wrong bottom wing half to the wrong top wing half for one of the wings of the biplane I’m working on. Luckily, I noticed it pretty quickly and was able to separate the pieces with an x-acto knife before the glue had fully set.
I dry-fit everything, sometimes repeatedly. Even then, the gremlins (or old Murphy himself) are waiting in the wings, just hoping for a chance to screw something up, even if it’s just a chance to watch me hunt frantically for the toothpick I was going to use to hold something in place for a few minutes; and meanwhile, the glue is setting with the part at the wrong angle!
I not only dry fit everything, I compare some things like landing gear struts and wheels against a 1/72 scale drawing to make sure that the “sit” will be right.