Model rant

[135engineer]

First off let me say this is a brilliant group of model makers to be part of.
Now for the rant. I am in some fb groups and I see alot of crying and complaining. My normal response would be that this is why we call it model making and not assembling. I admit it is rare to see a kit that falls together with no hitches.....even for tamiya. Now I have been accused of punishing myself because I have a weakness for eastern European manufactures as well as what some people would call " dog in a box kits". Sometimes there is no other choice.
The real question is are we going to be model makers or assemblers. If you are a assembler then put puzzles together .
I for one enjoy the challenge of a good kit or bad kit as the case may be. If every model we built just fell together in a shake and bake fashion. Then we would save the time and just buy a bloody die cast.
Suck it up buttercup build a model and stop crying. The kit makers have made leaps and bounds in recent years .... I am thankful for what we now have. So once more I say suck it up buttercup. Also above all else do your research and help other model makers

 

[ausf]

I say, 'to each his own'.

I'll take a $800 Tamiya FO 1/16 RC armor kit and build it in a way that barely resembles the original kit, but at the same time can't stand a bad wing root or shoddy AC surface detail since there's little I can do with it.

So, whether it's a dog or a creampuff, you should know going in and have reasonable expectations. No room for whining if you have information.

Personally, I can wrestle a tank shaped mass into something, but give me an AC kit that doesn't fit well, it's not a pleasure for me.

On a side note, my son has been buying a crapload of Bandai Gunham kits. They are some of the best kits I've seen in years. Multi color sprues, crisp casts with zero flash. A couple a hundred parts of mixed media that snap together (really do) and function for $13-18. Makes a Revell PT 109 look like an abomination.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

In some ways I agree Chris. The kit should be a resonable facsimile of the original. What gets me is when the mfg just totally screws up. Trumpeter it seems does this a LOT! I currently have 2 kits of theirs in process and both have major FUBARS with detail accuracy. I am not talking about parts fit or issues dealing with teaks done so it could be molded. I am talking about things that are just plain wrong. Look at the photos and the model and it doesn't even resemble the photos.

The "pulled out of the butt" details usually are what kills a kit build for me. One of the best most accurately detailed kits I have worked on in recent years is the Revell Ju88 kit in 1/32. CMK had an AM resin cockpit for it that was C.R.A.P. The Revell kit was pretty much spot on with some minor bits in the wheel wells. (I should really get back on it and finish it)

The Italiari Kamov Hokum in 1/48th was a joke. The Italiari Me323 is a piece of garbage. There is a reason why you never see them built.

The Dragon kits I have built have been fairly decent for the most part. The Meng T-90 I am working on is an excellent kit. Everything looks and fits pretty much as it should as long as you test fit and do the clean up on the parts. As complex and part heavy as this kit is, it has been a nice smooth build. The only real problems with it have been with some of the Eduard PE. Meng got it right for the most part. Eduard is mostly messing it up with only a few parts that actually seem to improve things.

So for me here is how I feel about the following manufacturers at this point.

Revell :cheer: - MUCH improved from years ago. Their 1/32 Ju88, Arado float planes and He111 aregenerally very buildable

Trumpeter :hmmm - They need a new research guy. Too many stupid errors in the details.

Italieri :vmad :smack - FAIL so far the Ital kits are a waste of plastic detail so wrong that they never get to the fit stage. Make it from scratch or try a Vacuform kit.

Dragon :drinks - So far the kits are all decent with reasonable fit and detail. Pretty dependable for a decent build.

Meng :dance - So far what I expect from a modern kit

Eduard :smack :facepalm - their stuff swings from WTF to awesome and in between have to use some judgement and wild arsed guesswork here. It's obvious that their test builders either don't know squat about sheet metal patterns. While they have excellent ideas, they continually miss the mark in a partial manner.

 

[phantom II]

I agree with just about all the above statements .

Being primarily a 1/72 builder, I have had to buy kits that will be considered dogs and I may growl and snort at some of the attempts at what the manufacturers sell to the public but in the end it might be the only game in town.

So, if you want to add one in your collection be prepared to do some work .
However I do expect the newer mold kit to resemble the real item and fit together with the thoughts that the right and left sides of everything should meet during assembly . Not like they were designed in different hemisphere ...

It's usually not like I pay half the price for what is being placed in boxes no matter whether good or bad .

One thing I would point out though . You'll seldom see anything worth your while on face book.

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Heavens Eagle]

You pretty much hit the mark about Facebook Christian. :gogo :S

 

[moon puppy]

I need a creampuff right about now...:bangshead.

 

[Old Dog]

With the internet these days if you buy into a kit and find it's a dog, you have no one to blame but yourself. Granted some reviews are obviously shills designed to get the reviewer more kits to review but look for build reviews or build logs and you should get some idea of what is good and what is not and you can make your decision on whether the required work is what you want to do. I guess I'm somewhat of a glutton for punishment as I have a stash full of shake and bake kits but always seem to end up pulling a limited run kit out that I know will have some issues that will make me question my sanity.

 

[paddy]

Agree with old Dog, you have all the tools you need to research a kit before you buy with the internet. I am currently building an old motorcycle kit. It comes in a smart box from Italeri but i know it used to be in a not so smart Dragon box and before that an ancient Esci box. This tells me the kit is 60+ years old so i know what to expect. There are websites on the internet that give "time lines" for kits and many that do reviews. As for resin ? most of these detail up kits are excellent and offer the experienced modeller a foot on the ladder to high detail but they are only a starting point, most will not fit OTB and will require advanced surgery like thinning of walls and and removal of original kit parts. What they do give you is the basics to work with at least and some good parts at best.
I remember when the Tamiya 1/32 F16 came out... even i got bored with it because it was just so good.
remember some of these old second rate kits are the only chance you will ever get to build rare aircraft like the jet powered ME109 with a twin boom tail and 24 seat passenger cabin :laugh:

 

[helios]

I like kits that require a little finesse or fiddling to build. I find I have a greater sense of accomplishment at the end. But I do have a limit. My scratch-building skills are pretty minimal at the moment, so if major reconstructive surgery is required to correct a major error with the shape, I'm better off passing on it. But if it requires a little bit of sanding, a little bit of putty, and maybe a little re-scribing to put back panel lines you sanded off? Well, that's just modeling to me. :coolio

In general I find Facebook to be as good or bad as you choose to make it. I generally keep pretty tight reigns on my account. 95% of the Friends I've got on there are people I either associate with on a regular basis, or have in the past (lot of former squadron mates). I've also joined, then promptly left a lot of groups based on various crap that was posted. I don't feel the need to compete for # of "friends", nor do I feel obligated to stay in groups that I get added to if I don't like what's being posted. It's my corner of the interwebs to be selfish. :evil:

 

[moon puppy]

I have to admit the kits that require work are the most satisfying to see finished on the shelf.

I've learned my lesson being the first kid on the website to get the brand new boxing of a kit. $80 for that kit that came with resin that didn't fit.

 

[Tankbuilder]

I refuse to join Facebook as I value my privacy too much.

Research? It depends on what I want. I don't want to have to spend hours and hours and big money buying reference material just to build one model kit.

One thing I found out that one needs to be really careful of these days is reboxed kits from another manufacture that the current manufacturer passes off as new. I remember Academy using a lot ofthe old tamiya kits without correcting any of the glaring errors such as wrong hull angles, track ends that didn't connect the tracks (M-3, M-5, M5 Stuart based kits and the M-3 Grant and Lee)and other major flaws. I see that Tamiya is reboxing a fair bit of Italeri armour kits in 1/35 scale. Some are good and others are not.Granted sometimes the company uses a museum display as the basis for the kit and don't realize/caret hat the exhibit is a conglomeration of different variants slapped together to give an idea of what the original looked like.

Online research. Remember that a lot of people still have dialup connections and that looking at images especially images in the megabytes sizes can very quickly eat up their alloted bandwidth and that if they go over their alloted bandwidth it gets VERY expensive VERY quickly.

Finally, multi-media kits. If iI want to build a model I often don't want to deal with the hassles of PE stuff. I have a German 88 dedicated anti-tank gun by Trumpeter that's on theright track because the kit incldes a CHOICE of styrene or PE parts. I often wonder where the future model builders wi9ll find a beginners kit if all the manufacturers go to PE without styrene alterantives.

Lastly, a lot of kits especially Dragon seem to be over engineered with a very hight number of parts solely for the sake of being able to boast about the high number of parts. When the kit is assembled the detail isn't all that much greater.

In short, if I have to pay $75.00+ for a 1/35 scale tank then i expect it to look like the tank it represents out of the box. I don't think it's unreasonable to be miffed if the kit contains a large number of major accuracy errors.

Cheers

 

[jugjunkie]

I also agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed by the original poster however I do disagree in one area. When I pay over an amount of money, I weigh up what I am getting for the price I pay. I determine the age, manufacturer and, if available, reviews of the kit. I accept and look forward to building older kits that require some "modelling "to fix things like flash, sink marks, warping, etc, etc because these kits are way down on the cost scale. However I have a really serious aversion to paying top dollar for a "modern"new tooled kit only to find that the amount of "modelling"needed to get a decent result is the same if not more than the old cheapie kits. A shining example of this is I am currently building two kits - one if the old Kopro 1/48 Su 25 and the other is the new Kittyhawk 1/48 Dauphin II. The Kopro offering went together quite fine with a lot of work but I was expecting that for 14 US$. The Kittyhawk kit was an absolute dog of a kit from start to finish and at 42 US$ I am pretty peeved! The result is I will not be buying any more Kittyhawk kits but I will certainly be adding a bunch of KP or Kopro kits to the stash and I accept the added work needed to make them good.

 

[135engineer]

I am glad so many people have expressed interest in this topic....... the real issue I was trying to express is that we are fortunate indeed to have such a huge selection of products available. We are model builders . lets build models and play nice about it. The real thing that got me so peeved was I saw where a fb group hijacked a post from a internationally recognized site and started beating up the model ..... it was not done with the consent of the original builder........ sorry all of this got out of hand it just really made me mad because I will do anything I can to help another person be a better model builder and was really upset to see a good builder being torn to shreds by other builders like a pack of wild dogs..... now for my final statement that same pack of rabid builders even though they are accomplished in their own rights they are unworthy to carry the other builders tools

 

[phantom II]

I am glad so many people have expressed interest in this topic....... the real issue I was trying to express is that we are fortunate indeed to have such a huge selection of products available. We are model builders . lets build models and play nice about it. The real thing that got me so peeved was I saw where a fb group hijacked a post from a internationally recognized site and started beating up the model ..... it was not done with the consent of the original builder........ sorry all of this got out of hand it just really made me mad because I will do anything I can to help another person be a better model builder and was really upset to see a good builder being torn to shreds by other builders like a pack of wild dogs..... now for my final statement that same pack of rabid builders even though they are accomplished in their own rights they are unworthy to carry the other builders tools

Well said

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Heavens Eagle]

A good example I can use is the little local modelers group that I am a member of that meets 4th saturday of the month. There is this one guy that always shows up with 2 or 3 built models. They very in quality, but everyone always compliments him on his work. It really is a good group of guys. Just like here.

 

[Novorus]

While, for my part it is about building the subject, sure if a kit is well made it can help. But if it doesn't it often to do with the money in my pocket or just the fact I don't want to spend so much I need credit.

The hobby is ALL about the build and how it is seen by the builder, we all see things different and that's a bonus.

Part of the love of the hobby is getting around problems and finding the best way or solutions to the build. I just don't listen to people complaints. Some of the Eastern European makers do some really amazing stuff, just wish I could ship it without so much cost.

:Hiay

 

[Tojo72]

I have limited hobby time and I don't want to spend it banging heads with a dog of a kit.Give me shake and bake anytime.Call me assembler,well I couldn't care less what you think.And, I don't do puzzles or die-cast either.You do what you enjoy and I'll enjoy my hobby my way,and I promise not to rant about your way.