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

My nominations are the Polar Lights Bat Jet (file 13'd that sucker before completion) and the MPM X-4.  I do have several Mach 2 X-planes in the stash though, but I haven't tried them yet.

My nomination is going to be Monogram's 1/72 scale A-10 Warthog. It was molded in this horrible green plastic, with raised panel lines, sink-holes, tons of flash to trim, seams that were almost impossible for me to fill because they never seemed to match, very poor fit between sub-assemblies like wing to fuselage and engine pods to fuselage, wings that just didn't look right to me.....I finally gave it up and went and bought a $40 Hasagawa kit that I loved. The old A-10 does have a purpose-it is used to test colors, finishes, camo patterns, etc. It is an amazing veriety of colors now! Its canopy is helping me to test various tints now as I try to find the best way to simulate a gold toned coating!

   For me it was a 1/48 ME-262. I can't remember the brand name, but it was something like DML. Just three letters. It might have even been DML. This was over ten years ago and I had first bought a Folke Wolfe 190 by the same maker and it was one of the finest kits I have ever built. At the time, the only aircraft kits this company had were all WWII German A/C. I bought the ME-262 thinking it would also be a great kit and it turned out to be a stinker. The removable weapons bay panel on the nose was so far off in fit that it was completely unusable. I finally trashed it after it sat on a shelf, half finished for over a year. Sorry that I can't remember the brand name but I have slept since then. Maybe one of you will remember this kit.

That would be a DML 1/35 BMP-1,  but I've realized since then it wasn't so much the model as it was the Maker.

It's the same kit Zvezda is/was making and...  I have defeated it. (looks good too.)

To me the bigger surprise is when a kit I've pegged for a dog turns out having fine moldings and surface detail.  A gem in the ruff.

   ...or maybe a more Zen-like approach...

The worst kit I've ever built is the last one I finished.

The RPM Minenraumer is a horrible, horrible kit. I entertained some feeble hope of building it as per instructions (which required extensive typo corrections), then simply gave up and turned it into a Warhammer 40,000 model.

I have a few...in no particular order, except for the first one

AMT 1/25 1973 Mustang Mach 1 - I threw it out ages ago before I even finished it

Hobby Craft 1/48 Canadair Tutor and CF-105 Avro Arrow

Revellogram 1/48 F-101 Voodoo - and I want to build 6 of them!

Revellogram 1/48 P-61 Black Widow

Airfix 1/72 Halifax

Airfix 1/24 P-51D Mustang

 I invite abuse.  It would be impolite not to accept it.

I'm gonna have to go with the 1/72 Matchbox F-101F Voodoo. Which, by the way, is almost ready for paint.

fermis wrote:

Yup, me and Modelcrafts 1/48 Twin'stang had some HELLACIOUS arguments, I heard words come out of my mouth that would make the filthiest of whores blush!!! However, I did kick its A$$!!! and I've been told it will be in an upcoming "episode" of FSM reader gallery! It was the worst kit I've ever come across, but one of my favorites, just because of the battle won. I want another one. (can't believe I'm saying that!!!)

 

Well, that's a nice reward for building a model kit that "fought back!" Way to go!

AMT made a B-26 in 1/48  years ago.  I think I remember it got decent reviews at the time.  One was recently on ebay.

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Flak-Bait is a B-26B-25-MA, S/N 41-31173... I scored two Monogram B-26s on Ebay, the original '78 release of  Flak-Bait and another from '89, Yankee Guerilla...  Shep Paine's Maruader Assembly Line dio of the Mono B-26 was outstanding... (In case you're wondering, Shep used mirrors on each side of the dio-box to give the impression of a whole line of B-26s) Personally speaking, aside from a few fit issues that're typical Monogram, this's a great kit...

I saw that dio in a magazine once...definately outstanding! 

You and your Mongram kits, Hans!

Maybe the fit of the older B-26 kits were better when the dies were newer...I'm sure some of it was mo (just don't tell anyone!) but there were hardly two parts that fit together nicely. That being said, I really like the B-26 and will someday jump off that cliff again.

 

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Flak-Bait is a B-26B-25-MA, S/N 41-31173... I scored two Monogram B-26s on Ebay, the original '78 release of  Flak-Bait and another from '89, Yankee Guerilla...  Shep Paine's Maruader Assembly Line dio of the Mono B-26 was outstanding... (In case you're wondering, Shep used mirrors on each side of the dio-box to give the impression of a whole line of B-26s) Personally speaking, aside from a few fit issues that're typical Monogram, this's a great kit...

Yeah, thanks Hammer!  I went back to the Squadron book last night, too, to look up the correct designation (but I still won't be able to render it off the top of my head!).

I'm also reasonably certain that the 4 Marauders that were detached to beef up Midway's air arm belonged to the 22nd BG, which was deployed to the South Pacific by April of 42 (and carried out the first USAAF strike against the Japanese, if I'm not mistaken), but I haven't found the reference to the specific squadron they belonged to.  They were en route to join their unit when they were diverted to Midway.

I'm also reasonably certain that they had only the most basic markings, consisting of the national insignia, with the meatballs painted out (56", too-in fact, Admiral Kusaka remarked "how big the white stars were" on the one that narrowly missed the Akagi's bridge) and serial numbers.

I'm still cautiously optimistic that I won't have to lengthen the wings and enlarge the horizontal stab.

And yes, it's a great kit!  And Shep's diorama is another one that just really inspired then and still does today.

Flak-Bait is a B-26B-25-MA, S/N 41-31173...

I scored two Monogram B-26s on Ebay, the original '78 release of  Flak-Bait and another from '89, Yankee Guerilla...  Shep Paine's Maruader Assembly Line dio of the Mono B-26 was outstanding...

(In case you're wondering, Shep used mirrors on each side of the dio-box to give the impression of a whole line of B-26s)

Personally speaking, aside from a few fit issues that're typical Monogram, this's a great kit...

the Baron wrote:

mucker wrote: The funny thing is that the sadistic part of me ()wants to try another one to see if I can handle the fit issues better.... You think you're bad?  I'm trying to decide whether to perform surgery on the kit, to back-date it to an early B-26, uh, a B-26A-MA-25, I think is the designation.  I want to build it as one of the B-26's that fought at Midway.  I think the kit represents a later mark, after the wings were lengthend and the horizontal stabilizer enlarged, to deal with the landing speed and handling issues that made the original marks a handful for inexperienced pilots. I haven't been able to confirm it, though.  "Flak Bait" was an MA-25, I think, if the Squadron book is correct, so it might not require all too drastic a modification.  And even if it does, I might suppress the "I know it's there" reflex, and just do the color and markings.  I'm not a contest builder, so I don't have to worry about rivet Nazis. Still, it would be a good exercise...

I remember building Flak-Bait as a kid, a long time ago. I was surprised when I came across Flak-Bait's nose section in the National Air and Space Museum in DC. Nose art intact!

the Baron wrote:

mucker wrote: The funny thing is that the sadistic part of me ()wants to try another one to see if I can handle the fit issues better.... You think you're bad?  I'm trying to decide whether to perform surgery on the kit, to back-date it to an early B-26...

You win...you definately have the affliction! Actually, on a kit that doesn't have that great of fit to begin with, surgery isn't that bad of an idea. And now that I think of it, the price of the kit has always been very reasonable. I think I bought mine for $13.99 at one point. Even if you goof up, it's not like you're out a ton of money.

 

mucker wrote:

The funny thing is that the sadistic part of me ()wants to try another one to see if I can handle the fit issues better....

You think you're bad?  I'm trying to decide whether to perform surgery on the kit, to back-date it to an early B-26, uh, a B-26A-MA-25, I think is the designation.  I want to build it as one of the B-26's that fought at Midway.  I think the kit represents a later mark, after the wings were lengthend and the horizontal stabilizer enlarged, to deal with the landing speed and handling issues that made the original marks a handful for inexperienced pilots.

I haven't been able to confirm it, though.  "Flak Bait" was an MA-25, I think, if the Squadron book is correct, so it might not require all too drastic a modification.  And even if it does, I might suppress the "I know it's there" reflex, and just do the color and markings.  I'm not a contest builder, so I don't have to worry about rivet Nazis.

Still, it would be a good exercise...

The funny thing is that the sadistic part of me ()wants to try another one to see if I can handle the fit issues better....

mucker wrote:

I love when this topic comes up...a testament to the longetivity of the stain this kit has left on my modeling experience, I continue to nominate the 1/48 RoG B-26 Marauder. Never before or since have I had a build that was so tormenting on the soul. It simply wasn't fun. I've never used so much putty, and I shelved the thing for long periods two or three separate times. Yet it's such a cool looking plane and the only one in 1/48 scale.

I think someone may have mentioned a similar problem earlier in this thread, or maybe it was in one of the current threads about 1/48th P-38 kits, but could it be that your Marauder suffered from the age of the dies?  If you bought it as a Revell/Germany boxing, that had to have been relatively recent, and that kit first premiered in the mid-70s.  I imagine that the molds might be a little worn by now.

I picked up an older, strictly Monogram boxing, circa 1990, and the parts are pretty crisp, and don't have too many fit issues.

And as you say, it is a cool-looking plane and the only 1/48 version.  I like it.

Regards,

Brad

I love when this topic comes up...a testament to the longetivity of the stain this kit has left on my modeling experience, I continue to nominate the 1/48 RoG B-26 Marauder. Never before or since have I had a build that was so tormenting on the soul. It simply wasn't fun. I've never used so much putty, and I shelved the thing for long periods two or three separate times.

Yet it's such a cool looking plane and the only one in 1/48 scale.

I never met a kit I didn't like. Even the "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" one's aren't so bad, really.

Variant wrote:

...The Revell-Monogram 1/48 P-38 Lightning...saw that this kit is almost universally despised...

I'm going to have to...go ahead and...disagree, with the majority, I like that kit.  Sure, there are newer kits, which have been better engineered-or perhaps over-engineered, judging by some threads in various forums-but it's not a bad kit, and the fit issues aren't anything your average modeler can't handle.  But bravo for you for taking a positive attitude about a kit that was a negative, and looking to the things you can learn from it.  I have a couple of them in the stash, by the way.

I also don't mind the old Aurora kits that much.  The F4B-4 is not too bad of a kit, although the turtledeck is for a -3, while the tail is for a -4.  But until Classic Airframes came out with theirs, it was the only game in town for that subject in 1/48.  I also have the Aurora SBC on the bench.  I concede that it's a bit of work, with its idiot marks and its completely made-up interior.  But its shape is pretty accurate, and again, until the Czechs made their kit, it was the only example in 1/48.  And some of their other 1/48 kits soldier on today, as Revell-Monogram kits (Monogram bought the molds, when Aurora closed in the 70s).

But I can think of some kits that are pretty horrible, and those are the 1/72 fighter kits by Aoshima.  They really are little better than toys.  But on the other hand, they can be good exercises in scratchbuilding and other techniques.

 

wingform84 wrote:

First one I ever TRIED to build... the 1/48 Testors SR-71 Spyplane.. I never could finish it

An estranged sister in law got that one and drafted me into building it. That was not a kit for a first timer, multi segment fuselage halves, stepped seams where the wing corregations butt up to engine nacelles. I was a veteran and that cyclops had me ready to cry, I believe the phrase is pecadillo, boondoggle, imbroglio, take your pick.

sfcmac wrote:

Fonderie Minature kits! Way Over priced and each step is an exercise in futility. Nothing fits nothing lines up and the directions are usually 5 steps of wrong and trap after trap. I love them!

  Gotta try one, sounds like a real adventure or perhaps a pig in a poke. Nevertheless I really like your attitude.

Some odd Russian manufactured Hawker Sea Hawk and a Aeroclub Fairey IIIM...  Absolute dogs and still awaiting finishing after six years. 

 Yup, me and Modelcrafts 1/48 Twin'stang had some HELLACIOUS arguments, I heard words come out of my mouth that would make the filthiest of whores blush!!! However, I did kick its A$$!!! and I've been told it will be in an upcoming "episode" of FSM reader gallery! It was the worst kit I've ever come across, but one of my favorites, just because of the battle won. I want another one. (can't believe I'm saying that!!!)

It has to be the AMT 1949 Ford kit I just picked up.  After test fitting a few of the body pieces, I discovered that I will have to learn to be a body man to end up with a presentable car.  What did I get myself into?  One heck of a way to start back into car modelling after years of armor modelling.

Have to chime in about Trumpeter's bang for the buck. I've only done a little work on the f4u-1d and I like the working cont surfaces/wing fold,(Despite the latters construction jinx, I can cope.)  Still at $70.00 goofy lookin cooling gills, off prop hub and a cockpit with a erronious floorboard are details that I shouldn't have to fix.  At $100.00+ the 1/24th Bf109 G10 features such SNAFU's as opaque "Galland panzer", Mg131's not quite right, Mk108 thats closer to 1/32nd scale, and a DB 605 d w/ 2 curved LH style engine bearers, poor detail and again a scale thats more like 1/32nd.  This is not a great problem for me as I have scratchbuilt weapons and a highly modiffied/ updated DB 601 to DB 605 AS from an Airfix Emil to use but... It's like the tooling/ prototype dept at trumpeter didn't get the memo and at these prices such plebian shortcomings are in deffensible.   Worst kits? I have to say Aurora's Bismarck at 1st lindbergs Bismarck a distant 2nd, Tamiya's1/100th Saab Draken(An abysmal turd, recently reissued for$15.00.) and AMT's "Munster's coach" so frought with boners, unless you're lousy with 60's musclecar spares (I am not.) not worth the effort, tie for 3rd.

Glencoe's 1/15 M41 Walker Bulldog.  Rubbish parts fit, moulded on stowage and tools, horrible tracks, a rear sprocket that isnt (moulded on detail) rubbish M2 50 cal.  The best thing about it was the decal sheet.  LOL when I saw them at my LHS in Brisbane for AU$90.

Special Hobby's 1/48 Fairy Barracuda. The worst kit by far I have ever put a scalpel into