Tigerman and Gun Tech gave me the idea for this thread. How many times have you slaved over a mediocre kit because it was the only game in town, spent a lot of dough on aftermarket sets, sanded and filled for hours, sold your soul to the devil, etc…only to then have a really good kit of it come out?
And if so, what kits were they?
For me, this has happened more with a/c:—the Hobbycraft Arado 234— taxed every fiber of my modeling skills to get it right, won a first place in Atlanta IPMS regional, then Hasegawa came out with their series (built the Hasegawa one the next year and took first again…lol). What’s your story?
I’ve had episodes with aircraft as well, but I kinda enjoy putting together the older Monogram kits.
On the armor side though, back before Italeri launched its LVT series the only kit I could find was the Hobbycraft LVTA4. Of course I dropped the cash via mail order (pre-ebay as well) to purchase several with the intent of building different variants. Absolutely horrible kit!! I only got partially into one before it homed up in the trash and the remaining two went to storage. I can’t think of a single positive about the kit, especially after all the cutting and sanding before succumbing to defeat. The Italeri LVT’s are heaven send compared to the Hobbycraft kit.
It’s been that way since modern modeling started (back in the late 40s early 50s). Nobody makes a model of something you want? And common agreement is that they never will? Fine - I’ll scratchbuild it! So you spend weeks and months gathering data, weeks and months building it and the day after you finish it you wonder into the local hardware store or dime store (our version of the LHS in those days) and discover them putting a new kit on the shelves from Revell or Monogram or Airfix of the same thing you just finished!
And the same thing often happened w/decals - I had a friend that was very, very good at painting unit insignia on models. I still remember the day he had finished painting the JG 27 insignia on a 1/72 BF109-E. I had just been to the LHS and bought the first AM item I had ever seen - a set of decals for a 1/72 109E which included the JG 27 markings (I think it was ABT decals) - after ohing and ahing over Bills work, I showed him my purchase - he became completly unglued.
Honestly, I can see the motivation behind getting a model just right, but I just can’t understand the obsession of spending several times the kit amount on aftermarket improvements that are marginal at best, so for the topic of the thread, I’ve had one instance of that happening, and then I realized at the end that it wasn’t worth it…
Here is the post I put up on Track Link on the 22nd
What kit did you buy only to have it Released by another company?
I had to buy two Marquete Sd.Kfz 140/1 just to get enough parts to build one. As each kit had incompletely molded parts. Plus I bought 2 large PE sets for it, and salvaged a turret off a DML Sd.Kfz. 250. Now DML has released their own version. Instead of getting mad and hurling the Maqueete 140/1 againt the wall I noticed most of the PE will work with this kit, and Marquete has some (very few) interior parts not included in the DML kit. I had also bought MK Idlers and Sprockets, plus MK workable track.
I’ve been folowing this forum for quite a while and finally this is a subject that I have some affinity for. First off, I’ve been a modeler since 1958. I am 57 years old and have been a subscriber to F.S.M since the charter issue. I’ve done a few articles , back in the '80’s , for the American MILITARY MODELING magazine , which is now defunct. My signature was Al Hartland, for anyone old enough,or alive, to remember.
In the August 1989 Volume16 #8 edition, I have an article of how I “improved” the NICHIMO Sd. Kfz 251/1 ausf.B German halftrack. When I can, I could scan it into this forum ,if anyone is interested. Just recently I found a terribly messed up 2nd kit of the same subject that I’d intended to to convert to a 251/B ,aways back. I began aquiring and collecting parts and after market stuff and decided to make a 251/B again. I got the AFV 251 WHEEL AND TRACK set. I collected the extra parts from DRAGON’S 251 series(which is my favorite “German” subject) and whatever PE that I could get to adapt to this subject.
I began the build! First I cleaned and stripped off the old paiunt, using POLLY SCALE PAINT and DECAL REMOVER. This made the old plastic unstable and it began to fall apart. I puttied and filled and sanded and rebuilt to the point I thought I’d made a BIG mistake but finally I got it all to a point of stability. I made molds of the AFV floor ,the drivers bulkhead ,the front end and the bottem of the front end of the chassis. I filled and sanded and scraped all of the nightmares associated with conversions and sratch building and began assembling this DAMNED thing.
I was at the point of fitting out the interior when ZVEZDA and EDUARD came out with thier Sd. kfz 251/b kits ! Sooo, naturally, I BOUGHT THEM! 2 of the ZVEDA kits, so I can go through this all over again for whatever!!!
Currently, I’m working tooo much to do anything with all of this but , I promise, I WILL FINIISH THIS PROJECT!
Thanks for the opportunity to VENT about my FAVORITE HOBBY.
Would love to see that build, Al, and the article. I read Military Modeling (and it’s sister publications, especially Model Car Science) religiously, until and even after FSM came on the scene – at that time I thought FSM was aimed at much better modelers than me and even if it wasn’t, I was sufficiently intimidated to ignore it… until I grew up a bit more. I’ve read it constantly since about '86.
ahhhh…MILITARY MODELING magazine, my first inspiration…a lot of good stuff in those issues…back when you really had to make due with what was available, ala Shep Paine…great story; thanks for sharing…doesn’t DML make a staright D now, or is their earliest version a C?
My only case was Maquette’s Flakpanzer I…typical Maquette quality and a mishmash of styrene and resin bits but the only game in town, so I decided to tackle it. Within 1 month of completing it, both DML and Tristar released ther versions. I picked up the DML version so I can compare it some day to the Maquette experience. [(-D]
I don’t go into the whole scratch-build conversion thing much (but admire those who do) as a regular thing especially with the rate at which new kits/subjects are showing up these days, the chances of what I want to build coming out (not always true for everyone) in styrene are actually fairly high if I just wait long enough. [;)]
Well…let’s not go there. [;)] However, for those with some 1000 plus in the stash, that could be true. I want to buy only what I know I’ll want to build. So many were fad or spur of the moment buys.
My shelves are pretty full also but I continue to look and buy everyday. Part of the fun is the pursuit of the next kit even though I may not build it for 10 years.
Death is a relitive thing, if I die tomorrow I won’t finish my stash and my wife will make a mint on ebay. If I live another 30 years, I’ll finish my stash twice over. I need to be positive and double my stash.
As an engineer I tell people you have to remember the cup is not half empty or half full, its twice as big as it needs to be!! Problem is I’m still filling the cup!!
