projects you wish you didn't start

Don Stauffer

Too many!  And I hate to get rid of them :-(

I have a couple of shelves above my workbench for "in progress" projects- ones that are very involved and I need to take a break with and work on something similar.  My intent is to finish the project later.  However, there are some I put up there that I really shouldn't.  I know in my heart I will never finish it.  But I hate to throw it away.

 

 

 

 

That's what firecrackers are for!

Archangel Shooter

Hi! If you were referring to my post about the Trumpeter Thud...I didn't find anything wrong with the kit other than the know issues with it. I'm probably some 80% done on her but shelved her for other projects. Looking at her right now sitting atop the Trumpeter Intruder box. Got it gear up for I was going to place her in a display setting along side the Mig-17 also gear up. I really do need to finish it, just a matter of when???

 

angel, are you referring to the 1/32 Thud? I just got their 1/72 version and it looks really nice.(in the box, anyway.)  :-)

Hasegawa 1/72 RF-101C. Not well detailed, cockpit had a crappy seat I replaced with one from the Revell B kit, first coat of tan paint I used a can of Testors ModelMaster "Fabric Tan". Closest match I had to SEA tan without going to the airbrush. 

Long story short, the paint dried to the consistency of a gravel driveway!! Aaaarrgghh!! Made a halfhearted attempt to sand it smooth(bye bye remaining panel lines), no good. Break out the thinner and cotton swabs.

Oops, probably should have watered down the thinner. Apparently it developed a taste for plastic. Now the airplane looks like it loitered over the Au Shau valley too long!!! Chunks falling off everywhere. 

Last straw, looked online for distraction. Oh, look a company in Czechoslovakia is making a new tool 1/72 RF-101C!

Sigh. Aircraft enters The Final Dive into the trash. 

Just had my first real disaster...

Got the new Eduard 1/72 FW190 and decided to give the Brassin engine a go too. Finished the cockpit - no issues, looked spectacular, started the engine and made a pretty good job of it too.

Had been reluctant to start cutting the fuselage open until I knew I had made a good enough job of the engine. With that issue cleared, i set about sawing...

The panels came away nicely, I cleaned everything up and excitedly began a dry-fit of the enigine....

Appalling - it just won't fit. 2 weeks work and my worst fears of a hacked-to pieces fuselage are realised.

Maybe it's just my lack of skill but i have done what I percieved to be much more fiddly and complex kits. So it's just sitting there, back in the box with the possiblity of some overtrees to get a new fuselage...

I started a 6 quid Airfix Spitfire yesterday to restore my confidence.

allan

seasick

I have a Revell 1/72 F-22 half built somewhere in my garage. I made a terrible mistake while building it and gave up fixing it.

Hey I just finished mine! I think its good.  Not perfect, but good.  The weapons bay, main landing gear-gear well assembly and exhaust nozzles were a pain though. 

I bit the bullet and bought a new kit and started over. I replaced the kit's AIM-9X and AIM-120C with Hasegawa weapons left over from the missile I bought for my Super Hornet.

The instructions in the second kit were a bit different from the original.  

What is the hassle with the problem with the Trump 105 Thud? I built it and it does take some work and the undercart is very wobbly but I must say I like the kit.

Theuns

allan

 

 

patrick206

Since I am aware of what awaits, I find little, (make that no reason,) to struggle with an inferior kit that just takes too much effort to make right, and it likely wouldn't be very "right" anyway. If it looks to be trouble straight away with bad fits and such, I'd rather cuss the manufacturer, bin it and move on to the next.

Over the years I know I wasted uncountable months in total, trying to correct poor production standards of too many inferior kits. How many good kits could I have completed in that mis-spent time?

At this stage, I would much rather enjoy building and finishing a kit that is a pleasure from start to end. No more struggling with junkie stuff for me, (though it is less than joyful to trash a 75-100 dollar kit.)

 

 

 

 

 

Ive grappled with this reasoning countless times already.  Have even had a friend say the same thing to me who, tragically, did pass away at a relatively young age.  I know the reasoning is perfectly sound, but...

 

The dilemma lies in the fact that, for me at least, I find far greater satisfaction coaxing a nice model from an otherwise ugly kit than I would from a known great and accurate new kit.  On the Sokol I mentioned above, I was absolutely satisfied with what I came up with, even though some of the more ambitious upgrades I have intended never panned out.

 

Just to show my point, you guys might want to check out Migrant's OV-1 Birddog in this same forum.  I know its an old ugly kit, but look at how pretty he made it into.  Im absolutely sure he's satisfied with what he's built.

 

 

Alan

You make sense, I agree that if a kit overall is good but with some quirks, it's enjoyable to make the corrections needed to put it right. But when gaps a foot wide in scale exist, or some major parts just aren't flying in formation with the rest of the bits, my _iss off factor just goes hypersonic.

In my retirement, I find I can finish a decent build of a good fitting kit in a week or two. If I struggle with ill fitting parts I can invest about half of the build time, in simply correcting what the manufacturer should not have allowed to make it into the box.

Case in point, I finished a ROG 1:72 B-17 with not one fit issue, the entire build needed only primer to remove traces of seams, the kit just fell together. Not so with a nameless and expensive 1:72 B-29, some of it was of perfect fit, other bits just would not play well with the rest, after three days of struggling and realizing it would be a too lengthy process, I tossed it and moved on to another.

So yes, relatively minor corrections are satisfying, carving out a new model from filler does not register on my fun meter.

Thanks for the reply, BTW I enjoy your posts very much.

Patrick 

patrick206

Since I am aware of what awaits, I find little, (make that no reason,) to struggle with an inferior kit that just takes too much effort to make right, and it likely wouldn't be very "right" anyway. If it looks to be trouble straight away with bad fits and such, I'd rather cuss the manufacturer, bin it and move on to the next.

Over the years I know I wasted uncountable months in total, trying to correct poor production standards of too many inferior kits. How many good kits could I have completed in that mis-spent time?

At this stage, I would much rather enjoy building and finishing a kit that is a pleasure from start to end. No more struggling with junkie stuff for me, (though it is less than joyful to trash a 75-100 dollar kit.)

 

Ive grappled with this reasoning countless times already.  Have even had a friend say the same thing to me who, tragically, did pass away at a relatively young age.  I know the reasoning is perfectly sound, but...

The dilemma lies in the fact that, for me at least, I find far greater satisfaction coaxing a nice model from an otherwise ugly kit than I would from a known great and accurate new kit.  On the Sokol I mentioned above, I was absolutely satisfied with what I came up with, even though some of the more ambitious upgrades I have intended never panned out.

Just to show my point, you guys might want to check out Migrant's OV-1 Birddog in this same forum.  I know its an old ugly kit, but look at how pretty he made it into.  Im absolutely sure he's satisfied with what he's built.

seasick

I have a Revell 1/72 F-22 half built somewhere in my garage. I made a terrible mistake while building it and gave up fixing it.

 

Hey I just finished mine! I think its good.  Not perfect, but good.  The weapons bay, main landing gear-gear well assembly and exhaust nozzles were a pain though. 

I have a Revell 1/72 F-22 half built somewhere in my garage. I made a terrible mistake while building it and gave up fixing it.

I have a old Harrier kit somewhere that I seriously botched. I considered leaving it in a bath of windex or denatured alcohol to strip off all the paint.  I built another kit that I bought at a show for a few bucks, and that idea along with the kit were shelved. 

Every time I try to build the Revell 1/720 USS Enterprise I wish I hadn't. I built it last about 10 years ago, might take another swipe at it. 

Patrick, you said it for me very well. I'm fortunate to be as old as I am (68), but despite skipping some future birthdays, I know my modeling time is growing shorter. So why do I want to bother with kits that are poorly engineered or have other flaws that need corrected when we are currently blessed with beautifully made kits in an incredible variety of subjects? Just being frugal (cheap) I guess.

Current example in my face is the 1/72 Zvezda Su-25. Shoulda just photographed it and put it on eBay! Too late now, but lesson finally learned; don't even start a butt ugly mass of plastic and hope for a miracle. The stash is full of great stuff from old ProModeler kits to recent new tools; time to focus on the fun!

Mike 

The Trumpeter F-105D, Mig-17 and the Hind. I think of them more as hanger queens than projects I wish I haven't started. With luck I will get back to them and do them justice.

Yes, I started the Nichimo copy of Monogram's old 1/48 SB2C.  I found that the wing sections do not fit at all; the outer wings are much thinner in cross-section than then inner wings.  If you try to display the model with the wings unfolded, you can see a difference of about an eighth of an inch.  The original kit did not have that issue, as best I can recall.

I had assembled the outer wing sections, then dry-fit the center section with one of the wings, and noticed the bad fit.  And now it sits on the Shelf of Doom.  I may finish it and use it as a test-bed for painting techniques, just so as not to waste the kit.

Ya know, guys, there is another consideration involved in this "finish it/trash it" determination. Many of my builds have been donated to several aviation museums. So it's nice to know that with good care and in proper display cases, they will be enjoyed by many visitors, for hopefully a very long time.

I'm a few weeks from 75 years, been an active modeler for nearly 65 of those years. Eyes are gettin' weary, hands are at times shakey, not unexpected as one of the joys of aging. That said, my stash still numbers about 140. Though I likely can't, I'd love to complete most of them.

Since I am aware of what awaits, I find little, (make that no reason,) to struggle with an inferior kit that just takes too much effort to make right, and it likely wouldn't be very "right" anyway. If it looks to be trouble straight away with bad fits and such, I'd rather cuss the manufacturer, bin it and move on to the next.

Over the years I know I wasted uncountable months in total, trying to correct poor production standards of too many inferior kits. How many good kits could I have completed in that mis-spent time?

At this stage, I would much rather enjoy building and finishing a kit that is a pleasure from start to end. No more struggling with junkie stuff for me, (though it is less than joyful to trash a 75-100 dollar kit.)

Just saying.

Patrick

Howdy Ikar,

I remember seeing your Mikasa at the show.  Your struggles paid off quite well....Sorry about the drool on it.

So far?  ALL of them.

I think you'll find that this is a common thing with almost all builders.  I have done this many times in my 60 years of building.

I had almost completed a model of the Mikasa.  It was a nightmare.  I don't know that they were thinking when they designed this kit.  The railings were solid and in real life they would be a couple feet think.  Some of the fit was good but other areas needed work.  You had to have the P.E. set to offset a few of the problems and add needed detail.  When it came to the rigging I got bizzare, a dreadnaught with masts.  There were many lines comming down from the different arms and points on the masts.  The lines securing the smoke stacks had to be connected at several different points around the deck and both bridges.  (As a note, I still haven't figured out haw they lowered and stowed they many boats kept in the center section with the crane that is normally kept inside the stack wires.)

I got so frustrated with it that even though I was almost done I finally threw it against a wall.

I ended up getting another one, a new P.E. set, and salvaged what I could from the first one to cut build time.  It was a struggle but I was determined to beat this one. 

It now sits on the shelf after being at Modelpalooza this year and will most likely return. 

I feel you, my brothers.

Ive had plenty of this.  The model grunt in me stopped me from throwing them out. Mostly.

Of recent memory:  

The AJ Model 1/72 Sokol helicopter. Probably threw out a good half of the parts. Plastic as rough as a car's dashboard.  About a quarter of a year into the build I began wondering how many more decent kits I couldve finished in the time it has led me to this. Finished it in about half a year.

Very recently, a 1/300-something Revell DC-10 I converted into a KC-10A (will post pics one of these days).  Took it off the hobby shelf a couple of years back planning a simple tanker conversion. The obsessive-compulsive modeler in me pushed me to drop the leading and trailing edges, make new gear doors, research on and scratchbuild the refueling boom and hose chute, and make homemade decals.  Finished in about 4 months. About 3 months into the project, began asking myself:  "Why? Why?"

I've had a few, recenly a Tamiya Zero that seemed to fight me every step from paint failures to an engine assembly that would not stay on.  I finished it though because it was part of a GB and I always strive to finish something when others want to see the results.  That is what I like about Group Builds, they seem to add that little extra responsibility that pushes me when I want to send the model on a mission with a firecracker stuck up it.  I do have a few plane kits that ended up never being finished other than the fuselages and wings glued on enough to use them as airbrush testing platforms.  

If you want to build a nice good 1/72 Vampire T55 check out the new Airfix one...they are very cool and cheap.

As for chucking models a mate of mine has a good saying , when a model gives him greef he says " there is no price on my sanity"

No matter what a model cost, it is not worth the frustration sometimes.

Theuns

I have a 1/32 Avenger that sat on the shelve for better than 3 years before I finished it. I went to throw it out about a dozen times. I know how you feel. I just tossed a Vampire because it was junk. I have actually retrieved stuff out of the trash....then threw it away again.

I just can't toss any of my "learning curve" models away in hopes that I will get better at this and redo all that work I put into these badly built models. The trouble is that I keep buying new and exciting kits to build ( influenced by you tantilizing experts on here ) and the "to redo " shelf gets more and more ignored.

The one that I wish I never started is a 1/72  Revel Walrus Mk I. my first bi-plane.

 I scratched built the interior pretty good but the top Bi wing alignment is giving me fits and i hate building the jig it takes for proper fit up and all those wires are giving me nightmares.

I hear you. The smart thing would be to trash this tu 128 but I too and way to stuborn for that.

But as you said, even if you complete some of these really stupid models they are almost never as good as you would want them to be and one is left to wonder if the waisted time spent on it would not have been better invested in a nicer kit...

It is just that this TU 128 is such a "different" model and I have not seen it done by another maker yet.....wht to do -what to do.

Theuns

On the whole, not too often. But when I do hit the odd kit that came from hell, my determination can over ride my common sense and I'll keep at it until I've managed my best. Unfortunately, sometimes my best wasn't good enough to see a satisfactory completion, then I do wish I had been smart enough to bash it early on, in as many ways as I could imagine.

Stubborn Irishman, I'm left to ponder why did I stick with this complete bugger of a kit, in the time I've spent on this only to be disappointed, I could have completed two good quality models.

Too soon old, too late smart.

Patrick 

Too many!  And I hate to get rid of them :-(

I have a couple of shelves above my workbench for "in progress" projects- ones that are very involved and I need to take a break with and work on something similar.  My intent is to finish the project later.  However, there are some I put up there that I really shouldn't.  I know in my heart I will never finish it.  But I hate to throw it away.

Last one I canned was the Hindenberg airship- I think by Revell.  It was not accurate, there were parts that did not fit, etc.  Just finished another- a repop, I think, the airship Akron.  It turned out great, and I now feel better about trashing the Hindenberg.