What's the worst kit you've ever built?

The one I'm currently working on(waiting for some warm weather so I can paint) a 1963 vintage Revell F4U-4 corsair. I've had to rework/redo/make just about everything. 'Course it only cost me $7.00. No cockpit detail(wrong anyway), LG just sticks and globs of plastic, no wheelwells. most panel lines wrong, I could go on and on.

Jim

Pretty much anything pre 1990 that had the Hobbycraft label on it.  They cleaned up their act around then (I think that's when they hooked up with Academy). Prior to that they pirated a lot of other folk's kits and generally churned out total crap.

Notable pre 1990 Hobbycraft kits I attempted but gave up on:

1/72 S-2F Tracker:

Bad copy of the Hasegawa kit with serious mold mismatches on the landing gear legs. 

1/72 FW-190A:

No idea where they got the tooling for it, but it was total garbage in every concievable way.

1/72 Sukhoi SU-17 Fitter:

A total joke of a kit and excedingly innacurate representation of the subject even considering that it was made while the Iron Curtain was still up. 

The worst kit that I ever saw through to completion would have to have been the old Revell 1/48 F-16A kit from the early 80s. Horrible fit issues everywhere. A Number of years later I bought Revell's 1/48 F-16 ADF kit only to find the old F-16A molds along with a new sprue of parts to make it look like an ADF. It went straight to spares when I saw that.

The DML Horten flying wing thing the Germans did.  Just couldn' get the thing together.  I still have it in a slightly assembled state.  Had to walk away before it became little tiny pieces.  I don't think that all the engine stuff will fit in it with the wings on.  I couldn't build it.. but I did get the RPM Minenraumer built.  A buddy helped me figure out the wheel pads.  He figured it out in about 10 seconds.  Genius.  The rest, well I replaced the turret with a Italeri one. Don't remember much else about it.

Doug

Mpm kits   though some say they are ok in the last 3 or so yrs

but the earlier ones  like the reppu

i had more filler than plastic   

if the model is real cheap$$  hey thats ok     one does not expect a cheapie to be good ( i am not saying that all the cheapies are bad   some are really good for short money)                                  

but when it is a mid to high price kit

2 things

either the modeler is nuts  or the manufacturer s/b out of business

Mike S. wrote:

I agree, many of the 60's era 1/72nd Airfix kits were dogs, but some can be gems in disguise (especially in the 1/48th range). However, nothing comes close to some of those old, horrible Frog and Matchbox kits in my book.

Accck   - those are my most favorites to build.  I would take them any day over a Trumpeter aircraft kit. The Corsair F4U-4 total waste of plastic ! I regret ever buying their over priced kits even with an employee discount at the Hobby Shop. The other Trump kits I had went to ebay starting at .99 cents. 

Summit wrote:

Accck   - those are my most favorites to build.  I would take them any day over a Trumpeter aircraft kit. The Corsair F4U-4 total waste of plastic ! I regret ever buying their over priced kits even with an employee discount at the Hobby Shop. The other Trump kits I had went to ebay starting at .99 cents.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of Airfix (those Multipose and carded 54mm figures were some of the best value to come along, for example), but there are some serious dogs in there, no question. One that stands out is the 1/72nd 262, simply dreadful.

Matchbox has it's devoted fan base, however I've never found them endearing.

IMO Frog are the pits, flat out.

As I have said elsewhere before, I am no fan of Trumpeter. They have a few kits that stand out as good quality, but most are lacking (especially considering the average price they sell for). Some are far BELOW par (1/32nd P-40, terrible figure kits).

subfixer wrote:

Every 1/48 scale Aurora aircraft model I ever came across during the sixties. The things had locator outlines for almost every decal.

Ditto Aurora, specifically their 1/48th P-61... Absolute POS from every possible aspect...

Liked their WW1 birds though, but I gotta admit, I blew up at least five of the Yellow Zekes and couple of the metallic red Me 109s...

Premiere BAe Hawk T.1.  Holy moly, what a crummy kit.  Only build I have stopped and tossed in the trash.

Variant wrote:

The Revell-Monogram 1/48 P-38 Lightning.

You just nailed it right there.  That is without a doubt the worst kit I had the misfortune to buy.  I made the mistake of performing the surgery to do the night fighter version as well, that compounded the misery.

I have seen it built into a decent rendition once, but the builder spent so much time on it that it just wasn't worth it in the end.

I actually love the Monogram P-38...  Never had any real problems with it other than a bit of filler...

Wanna hunt down another one...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

I actually love the Monogram P-38...  Never had any real problems with it other than a bit of filler... Wanna hunt down another one...

There were 3 at my local Michael's when I was there on Friday...that doesn't help you, but...

It goes without saying...the kit which you are least in the mood to build, that has a completion deadline, and has had Murphy watching over your shoulder during the whole process. I think just about every review build I have done has had some sort of distraction whether it was the kit itself or me. I won't start another review build without my lucky flipflops on my feet or hobby knife on the bench.

It might be considered a bad omen when stuff like this happens...

You can see where the wheels left marks on the paper...the model bounced up and sideways from the bulb strike. Had I used anything but solvents, this model would have probably been reduced to pieces parts...the damage was limited to the canopy and antenna, the exhaust stacks were only pressed in place as I wasn't 100% done with the build.

Any kit too bad to build gets added to the spares stash for incorporation into something else.

1/35 Imex AH-64D Longbow Apache. I´m still getting goosebumps whenever I think of that horrible thing. And none of the good kind...

 Cockpit of the AH-64A. Wrong Decal font. Wrong angle of wheel struts. Completely wrong avionic bays. Horrible fit, there was more putty on it than plastic in the end... brrrrrr

I would have to second the 1/48 twin mustang its just a nasty kit nothing fits not even the decals are printed right. still not finished it after three years.

Mike

I've mentioned this in other threads, but it has to be the 1990's Testors 1/72 B-2.

What an awful, awful kit. The wing sections were warped beyond repair. That is a slight problem when trying to build a "flying wing" aircraft. I've heard that this was not isolated to my kit, but was a common problem. The cockpit was a joke. Only one weapons bay was open for display, the other one had the doors molded in the closed position. I don't know about the decals because I never got to that stage in the build.

After several futile attempts to level out the wing sections, I threw the whole thing in the trash.

Big Mike wrote:

I would have to second the 1/48 twin mustang its just a nasty kit nothing fits not even the decals are printed right. still not finished it after three years. Mike

There's a 1/48th Twin Mustang?  I don't care, I must have one...

Glamdring wrote:

I made the mistake of performing the surgery to do the night fighter version as well, that compounded the misery.

  I have to post up some pics of my RM P-38.  I did the night fighter conversion on the canopy, AND did the glazed nose and made my own windows.  Painted it red, salt-chipped the hell out of it, and made it a USFS fire spotter.  Didn't spend a whole lotta time with it, but I was happy with it in the end.  I'll have to get those pics up.