What are your two bigest modeling purchase screw ups?

darson

Member since
February 2003
From: Melbourne, Australia

What are your two bigest modeling purchase screw ups?

Posted by darson on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 12:38 AM

I saw this post on another forum and apologies to the original author, but I thought it would make for an interesting thread.

What are the two biggest modeling purchase stuff ups you've ever done?

First, what is the worst purchase you've ever made, not based on the quality of the kit, but because you just plain weren't thinking! This can be anything from not putting a decimal point in your eBay bid, to buying something rare only to find out that it's just been announced for release (or re-release).

Second, what is the one purchase you most regret not making? This can be anything from having the guy in front of you at the hobby shop grab the last of a kit on the shelf before you do, to seeing a bazillion of a kit laying around in stores for pennies and never buying one and after they've sold out you get a hankering to build one and can only find them for $$$$$.

Here's mine: My worst purchase to date was buying the High Planes Hawk LIF for $80 AUS. Not that this is a bad kit but it's limited run and would take a lot more skill than I have to do a decent job on it. It was an impulse buy and I knew when I bought it that it was beyond me, why was I so stupid!?!

My biggest regret is not picking up the Revell Monogram F9F-5 Panther with that neat little historical book when it was released. They are almost impossible to come by now except when one comes on eBay and I have to pay premium price plus shipping ARGH! I could kick my myself over that stuff...

What do you folks have to say?

Reply

rebelreenactor

Member since
October 2003
From: Clovis, Calif

Posted by rebelreenactor on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 1:20 AM

ok, worst buy I ever made(I sortof have 2 of these) #1.... Italeries 1/72 WACO glider. Bad fitting kit etc. Hobby store had a jacked up price too.
#2 Buying Tamiya tiger at hobby store for $45

Biggest regrets
#1. Not buying the italeri c-47 skytrain at the hobbystore and then buying the Waco instead.
#2. Not buying that dang tiger on greatmodels sale in november for about $25. Banged Head [banghead]

John

Reply

upnorth

Member since
December 2002
From: Canada / Czech Republic

Posted by upnorth on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 5:40 AM

Worst buy I made, Revell's "Visible Woman" kit for about 30 dollars Canadian. Second biggest blunder I've made buying is buying the same kit after Skillcraft got the molds and reissued the kit a few years latter at about 25 Dollars Canadian. One of those situations where determination and tenacity did not pay off, couldn't get either of them together.

Biggest regret:
Not picking up Matchbox's old 1/32 DeHavilland Tiger Moth when I saw it on clearance at a toy shop for 10 Dollars canadian about 15 years ago.

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 8:02 AM

Worst buy for me was the 1/72 Testors Corsair. At lest I only had to pay half off at Hobby lobby.

The purchase I regret not making is geting a Monogram King Fisher at a swap meet for 5 dollers.

Reply
Edit

Borg R3-MC0

Member since
September 2004
From: Utereg

Posted by Borg R3-MC0 on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 8:35 AM

the worst buy I made was a Heller box with 3 models (mystere, vatour and alize), paint and a cd-rom. The priced looked ok ( i think it was around 10 euro's) but the models were awful. 1/100 (what kind of a scale is that?), decals out of register, oversized raised details and no cockpit. No really, not even an hole where the cokpit should be!

as for regrets, I have very little, because I buy a lot. But there was this 1/72 MPM kit of a japanese float plane wich I saw on offer for €5 and didn't buy.

Reply

LemonJello

Member since
February 2004
From: Green Lantern Corps HQ on Oa

Posted by LemonJello on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 9:04 AM

I stumbled across the 1/35 AH-6J and built it up, screwed it up and tossed it. Only after that did I find out that is was out of production. I made up for that recently by acquiring TWO of the re-released Little Birds after much searching for these elusive kits.

Way back in my early teen years, I had a 1/350 New Jersey that I was slowly working on but brush painting all that battleship grey drove me to destroy it with a hail of BBs and firecrackers. Again, I wish I hadn't done that, I'd really like to get another and give it a serious go with PE parts and my airbrush to detail that monster.

Those are the two biggest blunders that I've made.

A day in the Corps is like a day on the farm; every meal is a banquet, every paycheck a fortune, every formation a parade... The Marine Corps is a department of the Navy? Yeah...The Men's Department.

Reply

echolmberg

Member since
February 2003
From: Green Bay, WI USA

Posted by echolmberg on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 12:10 PM

Twice I've purchased Tamiya's chromed P-51 Mustang! Dang it! They really should make the boxes look different so a doofus like me won't make the same mistake twice (which I seemed to have done).

Eric

Reply

kaleu

Member since
February 2003
From: Racing capital of the world- Indy

Posted by kaleu on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 12:53 PM

The worst purchase(s) I made were Esci T-55's and aftermarket stuff for these kits. Before Tamiya announced they were coming out with a T-55, I spent the summer buying the kits and AM supplies because I wanted to build several T-55 variants and didn't think any company would ever release a good T-55. Now I am stuck with several and the AM parts to go along with them. The one purchase I regret not making was the opportunity to buy a few DML M4a1's for a store that was going out of business. They are too expensive to buy on Ebay and I still can't find any of the new releases from DML. They never made it to my LHS.

Erik "Don't fruit the beer." Newest model buys: More than I care to think about. It's time for a support group.

Reply

scottrc

Member since
December 2003
From: 37deg 40.13' N 95deg 29.10'W

Posted by scottrc on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 1:11 PM

QUOTE: Originally posted by WartHogII

Worst buy for me was the 1/72 Testors Corsair. At lest I only had to pay half off at Hobby lobby.

I wonder if they ever got the fuselage sides worked out on this kit? I saw one at Hobby Lobby last week. I built one back in the early 80's and ended up getting three kits to build it. The first kit had one side of the fuse about 1/8 larger than the other side and was missing the canopy. I wrote Testors and they sent me another kit, with the same fuse problem but the kit had two canopies and no decals. I wrote them again and they sent me another kit with two right sides of the fuse. I wrote them again and never heard back. Howver, after a lot of sandig and kitbashing, I got one model together and it looked pretty sharp for a plain ol 1/72 Corsair.

The worst post purchase I made was a Heller Snata Maria I found in a LHS in Califonia. I knew I could have bought it at a 1/8 of the price from Squadron, but I bought it anyway. I even didn't have any interest in building it. Then I had to mail it home because I couldn't get it on the train. I still have it and may build it for someone whom I owe a gift to.

Regrets? I get those everytime I leave the hobbystore. Just last week at Hobby Lobby, I regretted not getting the F9F Panther and the SBD-2. Then again, I also regretted not having enough money. Sad [:(]

Scott

Reply

Tankmaster7

Member since
August 2004
From: Nowhere. (Long Island)

Posted by Tankmaster7 on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 1:55 PM

I have built the testors 1/72 corsair. It sux. I just slapped it together OOB and called it done. If I wanted to be serious about it I would have bought the tamiya 1/72

-Tanky

Welcome to the United States of America, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, in partnership with Halliburton. Security for your constitutional rights provided by Blackwater International.

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 3:19 PM

My biggest regrets?
1)Tamiya Panther A 'nuff said!
2) a year or so ago I, being certain that no-one would ever release a good SdKfz 251, I picked up a Tamiya one with the thought of improving it. Gotta love(hate) Dragon!

QUOTE: Originally posted by darson

...

My biggest regret is not picking up the Revell Monogram F9F-5 Panther with that neat little historical book when it was released. They are almost impossible to come by now except when one comes on eBay and I have to pay premium price plus shipping ARGH! I could kick my myself over that stuff...

...

I believe I saw that on the shelf at HL last week, I don't usually lok at the AC much but the V-tail Beechcraft caught my eye.

Reply
Edit

tigerman

Member since
March 2003
From: Rain USA, Vancouver WA

Posted by tigerman on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 6:18 PM

Sort of goes hand in hand:

Biggest mistake was buying the Trumpeter M1 instead of the Tamiya kit, because it was almost half the price.

Biggest regret was not buying the Tamiya M1 instead of the previous 3 losers from 3 different manufactures, because I was too cheap to spend the $36 in the first place. Ended up spending $60 dollars.

Eric

Reply

djrost_2000

Member since
February 2003
From: Where the coyote howl, NH

Posted by djrost_2000 on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:13 PM

Biggest mistake was buying the AMT/Ertl Cutaway Enterprise. I tried to build it closed up but I couldn't get the saucer section to line up at all.

Biggest regret is not buying additional 18" AMT Enterprises when they were cheap in the stores.

-Dave

Reply

pingtang

Member since
April 2003
From: NSW, Australia

Posted by pingtang on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:52 PM

#1. Was the time I bought a Tamiya Honda RC211V for $55 at the LHS. That's not too bad in itself, but the problem was that when I walked past the shop the next day they were having a 50% off sale. I could have saved nearly $30. Censored [censored]

Can't think of anything for the second one though.

-Daniel

Reply

matthew9

Member since
July 2004
From: Texas

Posted by matthew9 on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 8:42 PM

Biggest mistake was buying a 1/48 B-1 because it had rubber tires. I don't know why that hooked me. I'm still wondering. That kit was HUGE!. Lots of putty, paint, and glue with no place to put it afterwards. Gave it away.

My biggest regret was not buying AM batmobile conversion for the futura when it was avalible.

Matt

Reply

leemitcheltree

Member since
January 2003
From: Washington State

Posted by leemitcheltree on Friday, February 25, 2005 2:58 AM

Biggest mistake?
Easy - that MASSIVE 1/9 scale Jaguar XK-E by Monogram.......absolutely pathetic - the level of detail would be barely acceptable in a 1/24 scale model, let alone a model in 1/9th......but then again, I've got SERIOUS plans for that E-Type.......have a look at my 1/12 scale Britten to see what's in store for the Jag.......heh heh heh

Biggest regret? That's easy, too..........
The LHS had a whole bloody table full of those fantastic Nitto Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K.) kits - must have been 15 different kits - fighting suits, aircraft, probes - everything - and they were practically giving them away cuz they didn't sell well - I could have gotten the whole table for a song.........sigh - oh well......

Cheers, LeeTree
Remember, Safety Fast!!!

Reply

THE MAGAZINE

CONTACT US

RECENT ARTICLES

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT REVIEWS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT REVIEWS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT VIDEOS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT THREADS

CATEGORIES

NEW PRODUCTS

OUR STORE

CURRENT ISSUE

SEARCH FINESCALE.COM