Jump to content

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST MODEL BUILD?


pmhayward

Recommended Posts

Okay, since there are some very good topic and post for best hobby store and first model, we now must venture on the dark side of the model moon. What was your worst model build?

 

Right now I have to confess that the SKIF T-80 I have on my table is a bit of a pain to deal with. Might be my next target practice model for the ol' Remington.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was either 1999 or 2000 and I saw an M60A1 kit on the shelf by a company called Wasan. It was $20 so I grabbed it. It was a total waste of money. It was a copy of the Tamiya/Academy M60A1 using copied Tamiya instructions. Some parts placement was shown for kit parts molded in place. The upper hull looked like it was cast in wax. It was made of a type of plastic that didn't take normal liquid cement. So it was literally a waste of glue.

 

It did survive a move from Jersey to Mass and had a life as a paint tester.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Worst? Hard to quantify for me....I've only thrown away ONE model in my entire life: the 1/32 Revell F-4J Phantom that I tried to build in 1975 when I was 18yrs old. It was warped so badly I just couldn't get it together, so I ditched it. I've built many a worse model than that since then, but superglue and experience helps overcome what was once unbuildable!

 

If by worst you mean my most disappointed effort.....that' tough too! Like James said above, almost ALL of them fall short of my goals!

 

If you mean "worst quality" as compared to expectations when bought.....then THAT would be the Golden Wings 1/48 resin conversion for the F9F Cougar! This was a hunk of resin designed (supposedly) to be mated with a Monogram F9F-5 Panther in order to convert it to the swept wing Cougar. The problem was the outer wings were warped, and the inner wing section with the intakes was cast solid! I had to route out the intakes! Still, it got built (as an F9F-6); but it definitely left the worst taste in my mouth!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it was Unicraft's Me. P. 1092/3. This is what it should look like -

me1092-3-8.jpg

 

Unicraft does a lot of Luft '46 stuff, and the odd ball designs are what drew my interest.

Being kind, their kits need A LOT of TLC. Looking thru Allen from Fantastic Plastic's collection, he always made them look nice. So I figure I'd give it a shot. Ugh, there's sections that appear on his drawings that he never casted in to the plane. No option for wheels down, no decals, pieces of flash larger and thicker than the part...

After 3 days of cutting and sanding, back into the box it went. I never threw it out, but I haven't looked at it in years.

Edited by Roktman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"If you mean "worst quality" as compared to expectations when bought"... ok, it was a present, but the Pyro USS Maine was my greatest disappointment. Opening the box with that nice artwork went downhill from the time the lid cleared the box. My first question was, where are the main battery sponsons? There was really very little in the box that resembled the Maine, rather, assembly yielded a sort of generic representation of an early steel warship. Maybe Pyro could have had their artist do a series of box tops for overseas sale, perhaps the Schleswig-Holstein, the Nelson, the Mikasa, and the Tsesarevich - the kit resembles any of these as much as the Maine. But, to Pyro's credit, the parts fit well and it built right up into a sturdy model - just right for re-enacting Maine's explosion in the garden pond. To those who may be eying the re-issue of Olympia, it is the very same kit with a few detail differences, but, like the kit, USS Olympia has a centerline main battery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The worst model I built was the Aurora X-15. The box art was beautiful and totally misrepresented what was in the box. The kit was of the Japanese rocket interceptors used in "Battle in Outer Space." These were caricatures of an X-15, and that's as close as it got.

 

The worst building experiences come when I need something scratchbuilt that I can't get right when trying to make it.

 

Ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the kit was by AMT. It was a 1/16 (I think) kit of Shelby 427 Cobra. I don't know what the used as a reference. One of the prominent item on the body is the oil cooler scope in the front, totally missing from the kit. The engine parts really didn't match up well. It had dual carbs but the way they were installed didn't make any sense. Finally just tossed the kit, wasn't worth the time to try and fix it.

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since knowing what I was doing? The 1/48 Academy FB-111. In fact I gave a pretty scathing review of it in Update or Journal years ago. Horribly inaccurate for a large kit of a subject so old, and the stupid wing sweep toy feature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Encore Models 1/35 wz.34 Armored Car - Essentially a block of plastic from which one was expected to carve a model. Interestingly, the completed model won a Best OOTB award at a local show...it should not have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When it comes to worst kit in quality: anything by Maquette. I built two Maquette kits and like Robert Foster said: you build the parts and carve the model out of the resulting block of plastic. The C-75 I built had such massively thick flash on the edges of the fuselage halves that when I mated the two halves together; the spine looked like it was sporting a miniature Himalayan mountain range. I almost felt like I needed a belt sander to sand that down smooth. It is probably my worst built model as well; or ranks in the top five, but at least I now have a C-75 in my collection!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 1/144 B-17G re-re-pop by Crown, or Minicraft, or whomever. The kit that ate my brain. Ran out of cuss-words, I did. Built it as a B-17F, given the salvageable details and what sins could be covered with paint. A 144th bird should not be a three-footer, but it was. It avoided File-13 just long enough to get finished and given to a friend, who was as glad to get it as I was to get it off the workbench. Forever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...