Most Complicated, Hair Pulling, Model you've ever Built? Oh, The Humanity!

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hi!

This is one I hardly see asked. Is it because we would rather forget it(Gee,Did I give myself the answer, already?) Or could it be that we learned lessons, Some we already knew, but were trying not to do because we wanted to cheat time-wise? You know there’s always a reason why they fail. It could be lousy build techniques. Lack of attention where a difficult part is concerned or distractions at the wrong time.

When I started MINSHIPCO and was doing my first commissions it was truly a walk through the darkside. Every time I thought I solved a problem I would get disturbed by my Teen Daughters and their problems, or just life would get in the way. Here I was trying to get my dream life and style of earning in line, and having to deal with mundane items at the darndest times.

The mistakes I would make would fill a book, By themselves! And, Yes, some were the stupidest mistakes any modeler makes. Aren’t we supposed to learn from them? It’s much easier to create a pattern than Eyeball a line of Portholes on a scratch built ship Bulkhead, Right, Yeah sure Dumb-Dumb! Ya forgot the deck is a 1/16 lower than you thought. Guess what? your line of ports aren’t straight either!

I see and hear about this in Armor and Planes and Cars too. What? Cars? Those are supposed to be the simplest bunch in the whole genre, Aren’t they? Oh Yeah ? Start adding details and mods and see where it gets you when the Water Heater starts spraying water or the Microwave breaks before your wife’s favorite T.V. show, just as you pick up that Landing Gear part or Car engine part to glue it!

So in the long run you get tired of the fight and put it on the “Shelf of DOOM” To be slaughtered for the next model of the type or just sit there and get’s stripped away and you’ve forgotten the reason that model is up there. Oh, by the way it’s the one that broke your budget to get. But, get this, There is Comedy in these fails. So open up and lets hear, Laughingly on how that set of turrets you put on the Missouri( That $300.00+ 1/350 Gorgeous hunk of plastic) wound up being the ones from the Arizona whose parts "Happened " to be on the bench, close by!

Or maybe the F-W 190 Cockpit instruments you tried to fit in a P-47 by mistake. Or the wrong Paint. There’s always a humerous side to those fails. Let’s hear it! Because, If you build Models you have to be Human, Right?

2

The most difficult model I have ever completed was the ICM TB-3 Zveno. Never built a kit that was designed in such an unconventional manner

3

4

I’m not sure what you are asking. Do you mean “I fought the model and the model won?”

Bill

5

A reply like that should be against the law.

6

For me it is my current project, the USS Langley. There were 11 big sheets of photo etch and much of it is extremely fragile. I have been working on it for about nine months now. I still have to assemble the aircraft, each of which has some fairly complex PE (they are all biplanes). One reason they are fragile is that they are .006 brass instead of the more common .010.

7

The F-15 MSIP in 1/72 scale. Nothing seemed to line up, the ejector marks were in the model instead of on the sprue, and they weren’t deep enough to where you could cover them up as well if you sanded them down you were left with just about nothing on the model. The canopy was designed for only one way instead of multiple ways -1/10 would not recommend.

8

Huh?

What in the world is that? That’s, can I say Weird?

9

Yeah, apparently it was known. I was on the Reddit about models, and everyone seemed to know about it. The speed covers they wouldn’t have worked because at that scale they would have been at least 6" over the fitting.

10

DML’s 1/48 Me-262. Not that it was a bad model, but I was trying to get the best fit possible. I gave up on the gun hatches as well as the engine leading edge fairings, and just built the model with gun bay and engines exposed. But that led down another rabbit hole, especially trying to detail the engine.

Luckily I read a build article outlining other pitfall avoidances, like adding the main gear doors before the gear legs. The stainless steel PE was really hard to work with as well. Unfortunately it was the first time I used PE.

In the end, I had a model that stretched my skills, but upon finishing the model I thought to myself that it wasn’t enjoyable.

11

I have seen a lot of nice ones built,but for me it was Hasegawa 1/48 Tomcat…twice…never finished.

12

Hmmm… All of them. I’ve never failed to finish one, but my tolerance for bad construction is high, and as they say… don’t sweat the small stuff. [:)]

PS> I take that back. There was one I failed to finish, but being out of work and homeless sort of contributed to that.

Gary

13

Ditto. I shelved it after trying to get the intakes on. I’ll get back to it eventually, but now I have the Tamiya kit.