DRY FITTING

I'm forever dry-fitting. Dry-fitting is especially important when scratchbuilding your own parts or adding detail. Making your own parts sometimes involves close tolerances or odd shapes, so dry fit, dry fit, dry fit. Also, read the instructions thoroughly and even write notes to yourself on the instruction sheet, particularly if you scratchbuild or buy extra detail parts not in the kit. Otherwise, you just might forget that photoetched ejection seat pull handle until after you get the canopy painted and glued into place!

next to actually sitting down and reading the kit's instructions, dry fitting would be most helpful... u can always learn these little tips the hard way, like me !
now i try to remember 3 main things:
1) read the instructions all the way thru before starting
2) dry fit all assemblies first
3) take ur time and don't rush the build; if ur in a hurry, the finished model won't look as good as it might otherwise
i know, very basic... but sometimes i forget, and then i get to regret not doing it. luckily, no malpractice on this kind of plastic surgery
frosty

wibhi2 - I think someone once told me that the nose weight in my aircraft models was meant to go on the INside. Oh, well I live, I learn.

QUOTE: Originally posted by merlin V1650 QUOTE: Originally posted by Pixilater What's that the old carpenter used to say ? "Measure twice - cut once." So that's where I've been going wrong! I've been doing it the other way around all these years

Don't forgrt the second carpenter's rule (walkin' on thin ice here)
"Flat as a board and easy to nail"
with all those 10 pennies stickin' out of my models - I just fail to see how that one works

Dry fitting is second nature to me. I think it all started as a kid. My mother would take me to buy a model, and, me not being able to wait to see what it looked like, I'd start putting it together on the way home in the car (C'mon guys, we've all done that). I'd be holding so many parts together with my little hands that when I finally let go, they'd all just fall together back into the box. Sometimes I'd have to search the floor of the car later for a missing part. I still feel like that little kid when I dry fit now, but I do it for different reasons and I'm A LOT more careful about part numbers! (And, well, ok, I still can't wait to see what it looks like). It has proven to be a valuable part of building something nice, and getting a "preview" of potential problems, rather than the "Oh #!@ !!" (quote from Keyworth) results of just going for it.
And as Darrenbb has said it is one of the fundamentals of building.
Claymore - You know that as we get older, memory is the second thing to go. I can't remember the first.

Ibid to all the above - If I am going to screw something up, I like going into it knowing full well that I am going to screw it up

Touche Merlin ! ! ! Give that man a cigar !

I DO dry fit, I do. I spend moah time dry fittin' than gluin'
I don't do crawswuhd puzzles tho cuz I cayahnt spell.
I'm nawt a bawn Maina, I just live heeah now cuz I like lobstah a lawt.

HEY,
Listen, i live in Maine and even tho the air sucks, lol, i still dry fit. Now, if he is a MAINA, that would explain alot of things, ayah it would.

Randy[:-p]

Hey merlin ! Its gotta be that Maine air ! I lived in Freeport ( 1961 - 68 ), and built my first models there. I never dry fitted anything until I re entered the hobby !

QUOTE: Originally posted by Pixilater What's that the old carpenter used to say ? "Measure twice - cut once."

So that's where I've been going wrong!
I've been doing it the other way around all these years

Merlin - I do the crossword puzzle every day in pen ! But I ALWAYS dry-fit. What's that the old carpenter used to say ? "Measure twice - cut once." Makes sense to me.

I guess I'm an oddball, I don't dry fit much at all. I usually do if I question the fit, but usually I wing it. Since most of the models I build are Tamiya made, they usually fit together without much problems. Hey these kits take long enough to build as it is!

I am a believer in dry fitting. As said above, it will save many hours of extra work. The only time I ran into problens with dry fitting was on the Tamiya F-15E in 1/32 scale. The parts fit so good that when I dry fitted them I couldn't get them apart. Most I just left that way without applying any glue.

Dryfit, dryfit, dryfit. I probably "build" my kits at least three times before I ever touch the CA or my airbrush. Keeps you from going "Oh #$&*" somewhere down the line. - Ed :)

Junkman,
Read my post about this build (it's about the fifth down) and you will see why it's important. I would not have found these problems in time without dryfitting.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5817

Yes!

Junkman,
All the folks who've replied tell the truth. Dry-fitting is very important.
It can make the difference between a model that looks like crap and a model that you can be proud of.
When you dry fit the bits, you can check and see just how well the bits fit - or how poorly the bits fit.
By finding this out, you can determine just how you need to "massage" the bits so they DO fit properly - by either trimming by knife, filing, or sanding. It can also show if you need to use filler to fill gaps.
Cheers,
LeeTree

I always dry fit...yeah, right. I always try to remember to dry fit but I can't remember my ginko (that's the stuff that helps memory, right?). Dry fitting can save a lot of work so I do it as much as I can.

I use a pen for crosswords too.

I know how important it is, but for some reason I usually remember it AFTER I've applied the glue!

Ditto all of the above!
Lee

Building a model without dry-fitting is like doing a crossword puzzle with a pen.

Dry fitting is one of the most basic fundamentals of this hobby. Dry fitting and a little sanding as needed saves a lot of filling and sanding.

Darren

I think so .... it certainly beats trying to pry the 2 pieces apart if the fit is terrible. On some kits I've found that other pieces sometimes get in the way of joining 2 major pieces together and need to be adjusted.