I’ve got that ESCI G-91 in my stash. Haven’t built her yet, but thanks for the heads-up.
Worst kit for me? Monogram’s Mitsubishi Zero.
Can anything top Red Hurricane as the worst kits ever?
Pioneer/PM Model perhaps… [:|]
Some of the kits that came out of Russia in the early 90"s were a real treat. Poor fit, bad molding and instructions in russian. Loads of fun. Although, building a model without the instructions is an interesting challenge by itself.
Jim
Aurora Bon Homme Richard ship.
My worst kit is the 1/48 Modelcraft F-82 Twin Mustang, followed closely by the 1/48 Hobbycraft Piper J-3 Cub.
The AM Avengers are really great kits. I’ve built one and had no problems with it. The AM B-25s are also very nice kits. If the Italeri is a rebox of the AM, then why in the world is it twice the money, import tax maybe? Saw one at the LHS for $90, ouch. The original AM Avengers where around $35.
when the Italeri ~first~ reboxed the Avenger it was very expensive, then they ‘fixed’ the pricing. you should be able to pick an Italeri AM/Avenger fro between $30 - $40 … I paid just under $30 for mine… your LHS guy must have either had that around for a while [like 2 years] or his distributor never changed the price.
http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/italeri-tbftbm1-avenger-2644-p-14445.html - makes it around $30 CAD
I’m sorry you had such a nightmare with your Avenger canopy. However I agree with others who have stated that this Accurate rendition is an outstanding kit. I can’t account for your fit issues with your copy.
I’ve built a lot of dogs in the many years I’ve been at this, however one of the worst has to be the old Airfix 1/72nd scale ME-262. Just horrible in every way. Airfix mysteriously produced some very nice kits, mixed with absolutely horrible ones, with no rhyme or reason behind the inconsistencies whatsoever.
Other dogs have included Frog, some Matchbox, early Russian and Polish kits to name a few.
Worst kit I’ve ever built? Hard to say…I’m sure I built some dogs when I was growing up, but I was too young/inexperienced/whatever to really care one way or another.
But I recently picked up Revell’s 1/48 Dauntless as a warm-up of sorts for getting back into modeling and…what a piece of junk. Tons of flash, poor fit of several major pieces, the lack of pretty much any cockpit detail (it doesn’t even have a pilot’s seat…just a squarish hint of one molded directly to the pilot’s back), and the saddest decal sheet I’ve ever seen. I gave it real effort for about an hour, then decided it wasn’t worth it and slammed it together with CA so I could use it as a painting dummy to test out different paints and techniques.
hold the phone…
the canopy or the turret? - there is an addendum to the instructions to make the turret fit posted on AM site…
-sean
I recently built the Accurate Miniatures Avenger kit (the Bermuda Triangle Version) and it is indeed an excellent model. It wasn’t easy, as it is a complex high-end kit, but with time and patience, and careful reading and studying of the instructions, it came out exceedingly nice. I have built several Accurate Miniature kits and hope to build more as I find them in the future.
About 20 years ago, I tried to build the Lindburg ME262. No decals were included and bad instructions. I think I sold this kit half built at a yard sale for $1.
My worst kit build anything from Revelle the last one I built Spad13 ,1/32 a box of flash the wing brace slots were molded in the wrong place. The spot where the wire rigging crossed missed the brace by 1/4’‘. No more Revelle kits for me!!! ACESES5[:@][:’(]
Yeah, Revell kits are pretty chintzy, and I won’t buy any more of them.
Not true with their ex-Monogram releases, and Revell Germany’s newer designs such as the 1/72nd FW-190 and 1/72nd Subs for just two of many examples.
Don’t let one bad apple spoil the whole bunch. Revell has some really great kits that would rival Tamiya or Hasegawa, if you’re into the recessed lines, great fit, and on and on. Sure, there’s a few dogs out there and some that take a fair amount of work, but the “bang for the buck” just can’t be beat.
Well this has been a fun read. I’d like to ask: what is a worst kit? There’s lots been written on the subject and I won’t repeat it here, but there are a number of factors. For me, a “worst” kit is something that is expensive, is really far off the actual subject, is no fun to build and has some one fatal flaw that renders it unable to be completed.
I can’t fault any Revell kit I’ve ever seen, except the recent rebox of the Bon Homme Richard. I mean, what moved them to choose that old Aurora dog? Well, the Revell 1/72 B-52 is a dog too, but it’s the only game in town.
But I like old Frog, Airfix, Maquette, Matchbox and such kits bought cheap on eBay because I like Whitleys, Spitfire Mk 16s, Fokker F7s, Boeing 307s and Supermarine Stranraers.
I prefer “most challenging kit”. Hey, when I was a kid, a model railroad car was a block of wood and a file…
No, but seriously, if it’s a hard to find subject, and an earnest effort on the part of the manufacturer to get a certain type of subject into someones collection, well done.
A good example is the Airfix Sunderland.
One Revell kit that IS indeed a dog and just came to mind is their 1/48th Zero kit, an obvious 1960’s repackaging, replete with overdone raised rivets, no cockpit and all.
Italeri has a 1/72 B-52. don’t know if it’s a rebox of the Revell or not
If I recall correctly, the Revell kit is ex-Monogram, representing a Vietnam era “D” model. The Italeri kit is ex- AMT and comes in later (G/H) variants.