Folks,
Just wondering what’s the longest time anyone has spent on a kit? I have a Tamiya 1/32 F-15E that I started on back in Feb 2001, and I STILL haven’t finished it. My average build time is about 2 months. Can anyone beat 2.5 years?
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of “hangar queens” that I started 3 or 4 years ago, and I have the full intention of finishing them - one day…eventually…maybe
Cheers
LeeTree
Glad to know Im not the only one with this problem…I have a 1/72 Rev/G P-51 Mustang III RAF that needs to be finished…and a 1/48 BF-109E
Chris
historyinscale,
How LONG have you been working on them?
Interesting topic, Gary.
I once updated a 32nd Revell F-18 to production FA-18A standard (thats right, Murphy got me again when Academy came out with a production Hornet years later). The full rework — cockpit, LEX, pylons, wings, tails, etc.) took me a whole year, more or less. But its worth it. Now I dont have to shell out megabucks for the Academy sample.
On average I take about 2 months but…
I have a few details yet to put on my Bizmark and my B 63 is still missing its A/C, both were srarted in 99 some time and I have a Flac gun that needs a decal from 2001 and a German AAA gun almost done that I started 18 months or so ago.
Sounds like you are doing good.
Well, lets see…How long has it been since I’ve worked on them…Well up until this week ummm bout 3 years. But I’ve worked on them both some this week. I took a leave of absense from modeling about 3 years ago(Of course I didnt stop buying kits!)
Chris
Oh… I have a JS-III from Tamiya that was started sometimes around '98… but even that’s nothing comparing to a 1/72 Airfix Devastator that I started in 1990…
I have a partly built 1/32 A4 from Hasegawa, it is waiting for someone to release markings for an RNZAF version (Gekko promises it’s on it’s way) Started it back in '97. But the longest running kit I am still working on is a super model MB339 in 1/72, I’m slowly converting from a 339A to a 339 C, taken me 3 years on and off (more off then on).
I recieved a 1:48 F4 for my 16th… Still not finished. That was 9 years ago…
I was in the military.
That’s my excuse.
I have kits started that I have never finished. . .going on 16 years.
Some just need decals, some need that awful last step ont he instruction sheet, some just didn’t make the cut, some I just couldn’t bear to have the movers mash into thousands of plastic shards.
Don
Here’s one that I finally finished recently.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6895
My father bought me a Matchbox Victor when I was about 14…
…so that makes it about 18 years then!
I’m not even finishing either, my 7 year son is!
lets see
I have a Monogram f4, f9 panther, a sbc helldiver, an m31 mule , 2 ah-1g cobras, and a pogo all started from 98-99 that I haven’t finished. I am also in the 2 month category typically
I have about 4 in various stages. I do things and let them dry. Unfortuantley, periodically one slips throught the cracks and takes its place in a pile on my workbench. In that piule at the moment is a1) poorly handbrushed 1:48 F14, before I got an airbrush. It looks terrible. Also a waterline series hornet, 1:700. I just can’t see the pieces. I have asked for the Trumpeter for my birthday. Another is a 1:32 Revell corsair which is abysmall in terms of warping. It is a horrible kit as far as I am concerned. Also have an air cobra that was handpainted. What I am finishing is another A4 skyhawk, about 1 month and an ME262, 6 weeks. I just finished anothr Tamiya zero last night. I really beat this up and the underlying silver looks great.
I try to put out one every month or two.
They don’t hang around unfinished. No sir!
Over and out.
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one with hangar queens, half-made armor and sinking ships. Two to three months is about average for me to build a model. What really kills me is when I read FSM kit reviews and articles and see “I finished the kit in 30 hours” HOW? How did you finish? I can’t even get the wings on in that amount of time!!! AAAAARRRRGGGGG[xx(]
G.L.
G.L.,
That’s the big difference: they get PAID to do it in that amount of time.
My work tends to be a bit spotty. I have been working on my A-10 for about a year now, off and on. Just this weekend, I knocked out an M-1 Abrams (the old Tamiya kit from '82), all but the fine details. It’s amazing what you can do when the kids leave you alone and you get sufficient motivation. That, and it’s been sitting in the closet for so long, the Mrs. was going to throw it away unless I built it. That’s motivation!
demono69
glweeks,
I think that they’re refering to the BUILD time of the kit, not the total elapsed time from start to finish. I mean, you gotta wait for glue and paint and decals to dry, right? Shoot, if they actually did it all in the time stated, the finished items would be falling apart and have smudges all in the paint. I once tried to track the amount of time that it took me to finish a kit, and I kept forgetting to write down my start and stop times about half the time. I finally gave up on it. It was taking too much effort to track it!
KJ200 has 18 years for his unfinished kit. Can anybody beat that?
I, too, am GLAD that I’m not the only one with a few hangar queens sitting around awaiting to be finished. But, I thought, until this question was brought up, that almost 3 years was kinda pushing it a bit. I guess I was wrong. Looks like I’m kind of on the average side of things.
Trowbridge,
You must be one of the VERY few who is able to do that. Everytime I start on a kit, I say to myself, “This one is getting finished within a month. No sitting around for THIS kit. And I’m not starting another one till this one’s finished.” Of course, the NEXT DAY, I’ve got another one going, or so it seems to me, anyway. Right now, I only have three in the works, and I’M NOT STARTING ANOTHER KIT UNTIL THSE THREE ARE FINISHED. There. I said it. And by tomorrow, it’ll still be true. I hope. Maybe…