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Last "Finished" Model of 2015. Epic Fail!


Mark Deliduka

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Back in 2009 I was given a New Year's Challenge to build a 1/32 scale aircraft. I accepted and a gentleman and fellow modeler, Saul Garcia sent me an F-5E Tiger II to work on. Most of you have been following it along with everything else I've been working on with this when you checked into my Maddog Manufacturing Thread. Six years later, I finally have finished it as far as I can.



This is an Epic Fail.




Here are the pics of this model as I have it now. I am not counting this as a finished model so my finally count for 20154 still remains at 29 models. There are too many pieces missing and too much wrong with this to count it as something finished and worthy of including in my collection. Don't worry, I am not throwing this away. I will be keeping this as a reminder of 1) how far I still need to go in my skills and 2) why I stay with 1/72 scale.


First off, overall shot of the top. Many decals are still wrinkled from the Solvaset; paint has chipped (???) before I added a clearcoat; clearcoat dripped on one side (not visible in the pics); paint work is very sloppy and a ton of pieces are missing:

EpicFail_I.jpg

Here's a shot of the bottom where you can see more missing pieces and possibly some of the paint and clearcoat issues I mentioned:

EpicFail_II.jpg

With visions of grandeur swimming through my head, I even tried to get fancy here:

EpicFail_III.jpg

I should have made sure I had the skills to do it first! Anyway, what's done is done... or not done in this case....

Here's some shots of the instruction sheet showing the missing and/or broken parts circled for you to see just how epic this fail is:

EpicFail_IV.jpg

EpicFail_V.jpg

I'm sure most of these missing pieces may still be floating around in my Hobby Room; if I find them, I'll see about adding them in. Until then, I'm sticking a fork in this one.

Well, that is that. I at least can say that I finally met my New Year's Challenge.... five years too late. No need for you to post compliments here; there's nothing to compliment on this model. At least now, when ever someone here suggests I "go big" I can show how poorly I do when I "go big".

Thanks for looking in. I do hope that any of those who feel they aren't as well experienced and skillful as you think I am can now feel confident that you are indeed at my level or better. I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say there. I don't need an ego massage here; I know my small scale stuff is good, so thanks for not doing that either guys. If anything, this is finally closure for those who've been watching this build all along and were looking forward to seeing it done. Now it's done.

Okay, now I have a lot more to look forward to in the New Year and I'm excited to get more done. I'm heading right back to the bench now! Thanks for looking in everyone.

Happy New Year!

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Dunno Duke.....sometimes it's smart to walk away form something, especially if its giving you NO pleasure. The pics don't look nearly as bad as you describe, but then you know what's wrong with it while all we can do is accept your frustration.

 

Put it on the shelf and let it mildew for a year or two! Come back to it when ya feel like whipping its butt and gettin' 'er done! :smiley2:

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Thanks Gil. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, this is done. I will be letting it sit on the shelf, mostly because I don't have the pieces to complete it! I have accepted the Challenge issued by someone in my club and it is NOT mine! LOL! :smiley29::smiley8:

 

Thanks again for the great reply. I'm very glad this is finally off the workbench. Now I'm off to work on more productive and enjoyable kits! :smiley2: :D

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From the School of Never Throw Nuthin' Away: Sometimes that kinda project eventually works its way from my shelf-of-doom to 'ceiling hanger' status, getting just enough work to complete the overall shape and make a reasonable "four-footer." And then it's off the workbench forever. An ugly kill is still a kill.

 

Yours looks good from here.

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Thanks Bob! This is more like a ten-footer, but yeah, eventually as I find or replace the parts, it'll get to four-footer status. I'm calling this one an ugly mission-kill, as I at least met the challenge. Thanks again for the support!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I an sincerely glad I could help my friend. Believe it or not; this is more typical of my work than other finished pictures would indicate. Many many times I've had hundreds of models come to this; yet eventually, I am able to buy a replacement to get parts or find the parts or someone sends me something to help me bring other models to completion. Other times I try to fabricate the parts lost or in some cases, I just finish it to the level I can and put it on the shelf and move on. This is mostly why I consider myself a mediocre or novice builder as I just can't ever see any other nationals Best Of winners ever experiencing things this badly.

 

At least by posting this I am happy that some people don't feel so alone in any similar circumstances they encounter.

 

When I showed this at my local IPMS meeting it generated quite a bit of discussion. I decided I was going to paint the words "Epic Failure" as nose art on the side of this model.

 

Two days ago, a package from a fellow modeler on another Forums arrived with many of the parts on a sprue that I need to complete this. I will be pulling this down and doing additional work on it to bring it to a closer level of completeness. Stay tuned for more.

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