Build a " turd"

For me it's not fun to struggle with a kit.I will fill seams and adjust fit,but don't want to fight a kit,ill pay more money for a quality kit,When its not fun then is not a hobby,so why am I doing it.

Just my 

Best bet to do that is the old Tamiya Armor kits. Fit really is excellent and they look good when painted and weathered with minimal fuss .

stikpusher

 

Ha ha ha, life imitates art!  Please see Tony Greenland's "Armor Modeling Masterclass", where you can marvel at Tamiya's 1/35 Sturmtiger figure.  He has teeth and fingernail cuticle painted on.  

A friend who mostly works in 1/72 usually paints moustaches and makes sunglasses for his pilots.  

I really need to dial it back.  If I built a model from my cherished childhood, say Monogram's SBD Dauntless, I'd have to at least fill all the seams and drill out the dive brakes.  I would leave the operating features intact though.  Dive bombing the living room was just too much fun.  

But the SBD was no turd back in its day; it was the cat's meow to a 5th grade kid.  So was Monogram's Hellcat, another marvel with moving parts that worked well and provided hours of enjoyment after the build.

   To be honest, I'm not so sure I could build to the standard I set forth in my OP.  I guess things get finer with age LOL. Interesting replies so far....

I have tried so many times to say "Its just a model, just build this one and not worry so much about how it looks", but I just haven't been able to do it.

   There in lies the " challenge " Eagle, not judging or saying what ya do is wrong. Keavdog I don't compete either, however I do want to put stuff on the table. Win Whoray, Lose Oh well it's a hobby.

    I get so tied up on what other people say I should do that my bench languishes in dust. If I could just " slap something together" life would be more fun.

     As stated I do enjoy the skills I have developed, researching a subject, hiding my signature fingerprint in a less conspicious place.....oh the stink of old Testors plastic cement.

     Hope more people chime in.

Tojo72

For me it's not fun to struggle with a kit.I will fill seams and adjust fit,but don't want to fight a kit,ill pay more money for a quality kit,When its not fun then is not a hobby,so why am I doing it.

Just my  

Exactly. 

armornut

     

     My idea is to challenge my fellow modelers to one day just slap a model together, be damned seams, fit, and alignment....let the 10yr old part rule. Not all builds, not the 200.00 Trumpeter kit, or that rare find from your past...unless ya want to... just remember the hour or so of FUN we had.

 

Challenge acceppted

Unstarted just bought last week.

I think your uboat counts Tony!

Mmmmmmmmm?

Well, You got my attention! If you want to go there, Atlantis has just the thing, A New old release.The 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham first released by Revell back in the day. It's marginally better, a different color, But it is still 1958 Revell in all it's glorious ill fitting parts. Better than it used to be. But still full of what stymied us then.

Within the past decade, I've gone back to this method of building. While I don't select a "turd", I have gone back to simpler kits without all the bells and whistles with minimal painting and detailing.

It used to be necessary to get maybe not the "best" kit, but to build a very high quality kit, especially for a subject I cared about. But if it was a subject I was mildly interested in, say a WW2 German armor kit, I was okay with just picking a decent kit or one I had in my stash for ages.

Now, this is often my primary method of building a kit.

Once upon a time, before even thinking about buiding the kit I would obtain the photoetch set, aluminum barrel and read reviews of the kit. Today, I crack it open, prep the parts and start gluing.

keavdog

I think your uboat counts Tony!

 

And it begins

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx

WHY OH WHY do my links never work on here? Anybody?

   Wish I could help Tcoat however I'm still working interweb bugs to pist pix.

      I guess a little more clarification of my meaning of " turd" is in order. In my mind I was comparing my builds today to the builds I have done as a young modeler, kit quality or manufacturer really isn't important, or I didn't consider it. My bad. 

     So since pictures are worth 1000 words PLEASE look at Tcoats new thread of a 3.7 Flak and truck from Tamiya....that was the idea I was trying to convey. 

     Does this change anybodys opinion??  BTW to those who have replied thanks, it helps me know that what and how I do it is ok.

http:/cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx" alt="" />http:/cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx" target="">http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx

armornut

       I guess a little more clarification of my meaning of " turd" is in order. In my mind I was comparing my builds today to the builds I have done as a young modeler, kit quality or manufacturer really isn't important, or I didn't consider it. My bad. 

I understood your meaning, and take no offense. I enjoy buying and building some of those nostalgic builds that were reissued. Yes, those kits were much simpler and can really be considered turds compared to even lesser models created today in terms of details, engineering, fit, accuracy, etc.

For instance, when I was a kid and star wars was the hottest movie in theaters, MPC released a handful of kits, and I built them all including R2-D2, C3PO, Luke's X-Wing and Darth Vader's TIE Fighter.

Even in 1977, I recognized that the kits were not the greatest of quality, but I loved building them out of box and hand painting the parts of the kits not molded in the right colors. They look like crap compared to my building skills today.

You can walk into Hobby Lobby today, as long as it's a 40% off kits week, and buy anyone of those kits made by Bandai and they are some of the highest quality kits you can find.

So, a kid armed with 1977's Star Wars kits and a kid with 2020s Star Wars kits are going to have very different results with the same skill level and tools.

   Very good point Rob, another part of the thought that slipped my mind. I also have a couple of nostalgia Star Wars kits in the stash, looking forward to finishing them up.

armornut

   Very good point Rob, another part of the thought that slipped my mind. I also have a couple of nostalgia Star Wars kits in the stash, looking forward to finishing them up.

 

I guess I consider kits to be turds that really have been bypassed by newer releases. Tamiya's original M113 or M3 Staurt are quite dated, but still assemble well and are fun to build, as long as you don't try to get down into the weeds and bring them up to modern standards.

These are the kits that really don't have resale value beyond nostalgia and have clunky details, iffy looking tracks with detail on one side, etc. Lots of old Trumpeter kits from 1999-2000 fall into this category. We often joke that they are not worth the glue and paint used to build them.

One of my friends traveled to Russia to meet a woman (fortunately he came back empty handed). He brought back an old Zvezda T-60 Soviet light tank kit. I had obtained one in 1990 when the Berlin Wall came down. It was/is a horrible kit. It was an amazing coincidence that he returned with the same horrible kit.

I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't worth the price of glue. I still have the kit though.

And on the Star Wars front, the long awaited Return of the Jedi Y-Wing fighter was released by MPC in 1984. Compared to the Fine Molds kits of the early 2000s and the Revell of Germany one, it is crap, but it still is a great piece of nostalgia.

Recently a guy in the club gave away several old models he just didn't want anymore.  I grabbed a really old Airfix 1/72 F86.  The thing has less than 40 parts.  Maybe less than 30.  My intention was just build it up in a day not caring about the finish so much.  Maybe it will just be a paint mule.  Funny thing happened when I started construction.  I just couldn't bring myself to put in a less than 100% effort.  I think the fun part for me is trying new techniques and testing my skills.  There has been a handful of times I finish a build and been really proud of the result.  If I don't try my best I rob myself from that joy.

wpwar11

Recently a guy in the club gave away several old models he just didn't want anymore.  I grabbed a really old Airfix 1/72 F86.  The thing has less than 40 parts.  Maybe less than 30.  My intention was just build it up in a day not caring about the finish so much.  Maybe it will just be a paint mule.  Funny thing happened when I started construction.  I just couldn't bring myself to put in a less than 100% effort.  I think the fun part for me is trying new techniques and testing my skills.  There has been a handful of times I finish a build and been really proud of the result.  If I don't try my best I rob myself from that joy.

 

But keeping a build simple does not equate to putting in less than 100% effort. Even those old Airfix can be made into a nice looking model right out of the box. It can actually take more techniques and skill to pull it off than filling it with resin and photoetch. Sure they may have a park bench seat, bare cockpit, trench like panel lines and "inaccurate" details but some paint and weathering can perform miracles. 

Rob Gronovius

 

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How? No matter what I try it does not show as a link. I am baffled!

Tcoat

  

How? No matter what I try it does not show as a link. I am baffled!

 

"No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - Frank Oz as Yoda - IMDb

Tcoat

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx   WHY OH WHY do my links never work on here? Anybody?

The best way to get something to post as a link is to just copy and paste the text of the web address into your replies, and then manually add the tags before and after, as you can see in the screenshot.

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/191997.aspx

wpwar11

 Funny thing happened when I started construction.  I just couldn't bring myself to put in a less than 100% effort.  I think the fun part for me is trying new techniques and testing my skills.  There has been a handful of times I finish a build and been really proud of the result.  If I don't try my best I rob myself from that joy.

THIS!  

Had exactly the same thing happen on the Revell 1/72 Space Shuttle I bought.  Everything I looked at on it made me immediately start brainstorming "How can I make this better?"

[URL]https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/general_discussion/f/50/p/2213276/reply.aspx[URL]

OH COME ON