What's your favorite part of the build?

I do mainly figures, scenery and getting into armor. I love assembling / modifying figs to pose just the way I want them. 

I hate roadwheels. GOD, I hate roadwheels. Sanding, painting, attaching, weathering... necessary evil.

Steve 

My favorite part is the build part: actually getting to the point where I can glue stuff together.

My "mostest totalliest favoritest" part is finishing a kit: finally putting it on a shelf where it can be enjoyed.

Gip

My favorite part of the build is actaully what happens prior to building.

Purchasing, opening it up, reading the instruction manual (with little history lessons) and hiding it from my wife.

I just found something I  hate more than painting - making masks for canopies.  For some reason, there are no canopy masks for the 1/32 Hasegawa a6m5c zero.  They make 'em for the tamiya, but they don't fit.  You'd think all 1/32 a6m5c's would be the same size - nope, tamiya is slightly larger than hasegawa.  The worst part is that hasegawa refuses to use raised frames on their canopies, so you have to put the tape down and then hold it up to the light to see whare to cut - it takes forever.

I'm surprised at the number of people that like gluing so much.  Is it the fumes or something ?  I've never really considered it a step to be liked or disliked, but to each their own, I guess.

-Fred

Painting the tires on A/C.   Don't know why but I always like painting tires.  I like most of the rest of the painting too, except painting anything white.  Hate that.  I don't mind seam filling much either.  My main trouble with that is getting an appropriate amount of putty into the crack before it gets too inflexible.  Sanding can be kinda relaxing as long as you don't get carried away and annihilate abunch of detail that you then have to fix.

Unfavorites.  Anything having to do with canopies.  Filling sink marks and cleaning up ejection points.

My favorite parts are:

1.) Decaling. The subject really comes to live at this stage for me.

2) The Building.

3.) Painting the details

My least favorite parts are:

1.) Filling and sanding

2.) Painting and weathering

3.) Painting Canoplies. I really don't like this part and get burned out very quickly when doing this.

Unless most of you guys, I really like painting and weathering.  That's what brings the model to life.  I really enjoy the building process also, GLueing, detailing. 

But I HATE puttying and sanding.  I'm gonna have to try the White Squadron putty and acetone nail polish remover method one day.  Thanks for sharing.

For me...opening the kit box for the first time is the best part of a build. Besides that thrill, trying to detail the cockpit as much as possible particularly the ejection seats. Trying to remove seams is still a headache for me.

Scott

Right now, I'd just like to get a model finished - had modelers block for several months - piddle with em, but just don't seem to make any real progress.

And I must be weird or something, but I often find applying putty and sanding it or sanding off the rivets from amodel to be a relaxing way to spend an evening.  Especially if I've had a bad day or week at work.  Stock my hobby room fridge with Coke, fan on, Vivaldi, Bach & Rachmaninof (sp) in the cd player and just relax and sand.

In order of like:

• Research
• Construction
• Painting
• Completing

Dislikes:

• Cleaning
• filling
• sanding
• camouflage
• weathering
• completing

Yes, I listed completing twice, because I love to finish, but am saddened at the same time if I really enjoyed the build.

I think I like research, detailing the cockpit, painting the exterior, and weathering.

I really don't like applying decals, masking and painting canopies and gap filling/sanding. I think I dislike them simply because those are the parts that have the most problems with. I suppose once I get better at it with experience that will change. (That's the theory....)

Does shopping count?

As far as the actual construction, I enjoy the research of the subject and the gluing of the parts together.  I used to like painting and weathering, but now I'm more apathetic.  I loathe sanding and seam filling, but it's gotta be done so I generally grin and bear it.  Though, since I bought a Dremel, it's alot more fun.

I have to agree with the filling and sanding - to a point.  I too hated filling, sanding and filling, sanding ad nauseum - until I read a great tip on here that really changed my outlook.

Using squadron white, take some putty and smoosh it into the gaps.  Clean off the excess with a putty scraper.  Let it sit about 2 minutes, then, using a q-tip dabbed in acetone nail polish remover, just go over the seams a few times.  The actetone liquifies the putty and it just fills the gap itself.  Then wait for it to dry and just do a quick, light sanding and you're done.

-Fred

Favorite-glueing.

Least favorite by far-putty/filing/sanding. All of my current projects are stuck in this stage. I've been so impressed by pics showing great putty/sanding work that I've put all on hold until I can improve this technique.