Worst Ship Model you have ever built

Back when I was a kid many years ago, I got a model of the Bismarck, which as I recall was by Revell (but I might be wrong!), at around 1/570 scale.  What a piece of junk!  The whole shape of the hull was wrong, the deck was so distorted that I had to use half a roll of tape just to clamp the thing down until the glue dried, and because I had not expected to have such problems with this I ended up getting airplane glue all over the model, myself, the bench, and broke off one of the turrets.  What a mess!  But firecrackers and BB guns were still readily available in those days, and it shortly ended up on the bottom of the river (where undoubtedly it still is to this day).....

About 200 meters from my childhood home is a lake of about 1/2 acre...a 1/700 scale Kaga has resided on the lake's floor for over thirty years...

Eric,

You may be referring to the so-called 1/600 scale Aurora Bismarck; it was absolutely awful!  As for my nominations for the worst ship kits, how about the Lindberg American Cleveland class CL's and their HMS Hood, Bismarck, and Tirpitz?  I wouldn't even call them decent toys!

Bill Morrison

The revell "pirate ship". I got it for my daughter, big fan of the POC movie. What a piece of junk. Actually, since I never bothered finishing it, does not qualfy as worst BUILT ;)

 

PS Manny,I thought you only sunk merchant ships ;)

 

warshipguy wrote:

Eric, You may be referring to the so-called 1/600 scale Aurora Bismarck; it was absolutely awful!  As for my nominations for the worst ship kits, how about the Lindberg American Cleveland class CL's and their HMS Hood, Bismarck, and Tirpitz?  I wouldn't even call them decent toys! Bill Morrison

Maybe it was an Aurora Bismarck...REALLY bad! The Lindberg Bismark and Hood were pretty much rubbish as well, but at least they went together easily and made good pool toys in their day (I think Lindberg may still make them!!).  I remember building the Lindberg Hood, and it went to its eventual doom in Buzzards Bay, on fire, and sinking fast!....In fact, as I recall just about every Lindberg ship kit in the '60's and '70's was pretty bad, but they were actively seeking the 'cheap and cheerful' market at the time (compare that with the pricing and accuracy on their latest 1/72 Japanese submarine kit!).....

Hi! Your local raving maniac here.......Worst; Adj. that which is too easy, does not provide any challenge, everything is there and fits perfectly, requires no modeling skill to assemble, has instructions that actually instruct.  As long as the major components are relatively accurate, and I can scratch the details that the kit doesn't provide.......I can carve off the offending stuff, and enjoy the art of superdetailing to the level I enjoy, or am willing to quit at. To put it simply, I am in the hobby of modelbuilding (trains, planes, cars, ships/boats, buildings, sci fi craft, etc.. So! the worst kit, would be the one that I couldn't do something with. The "worst kit", would be the "shake-and-bake" kit.....rattle the box a few times, and  POOF dump out the finished product....where's the fun in that!?

The worst was the 1/72 Armageddon LCT-6 kit I bought a couple of years ago. It was limited edition and expensive, but my Dad sailed in one to D-Day, so I dropped the $140. Not a single piece fit properly, the directions sucked, and I ended up scratchbuilding a good part of it. Yeccchh!!

 

Steve

My nomination is the USS Maine by Pyro. You know a model is going to be bad when they put a caveat on the box "The within model is similar to the 'Maine' but not an identical replica"! Warped parts, sink holes throughout and no detail - definately a candidate for pond pyrotechnics...

After having built several Tamiya 350th ships which were fantastic , I made the mistake of buying a Hasegawa kit.

It had no detail at all. I took it back into the shop and returned it after opening it in the parking lot.

If I remember the Pyro Maine correctly, it was a duplicate of the USS Olympia with off-set main battery turrets.  It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the USS Maine.

Bill Morrison

Wilbur Wright wrote:

After having built several Tamiya 350th ships which were fantastic , I made the mistake of buying a Hasegawa kit. It had no detail at all. I took it back into the shop and returned it after opening it in the parking lot.

Which Hasegawa kit?

sumpter250 wrote:

Hi! Your local raving maniac here.......Worst; Adj. that which is too easy, does not provide any challenge, everything is there and fits perfectly, requires no modeling skill to assemble, has instructions that actually instruct.  As long as the major components are relatively accurate, and I can scratch the details that the kit doesn't provide.......I can carve off the offending stuff, and enjoy the art of superdetailing to the level I enjoy, or am willing to quit at. To put it simply, I am in the hobby of modelbuilding (trains, planes, cars, ships/boats, buildings, sci fi craft, etc.. So! the worst kit, would be the one that I couldn't do something with. The "worst kit", would be the "shake-and-bake" kit.....rattle the box a few times, and  POOF dump out the finished product....where's the fun in that!?

I challenge you to do something useful with the Aurora 1/600 Bismarck.  For you, it would be a perfect joy that you'll be fooling with for years (and STILL never do anything useful with it!)!

warshipguy wrote:

If I remember the Pyro Maine correctly, it was a duplicate of the USS Olympia with off-set main battery turrets.  It bore no resemblance whatsoever to the USS Maine. Bill Morrison

Yes, but Bill, I built both, and they cost maybe $ 3.00 in 1966, and they were cast in white plastic, and you got to get out the precious jar of Testors GOLD that said 15 (cents-symbol) and just lay it on, while Admiral Dewey yelled " you may fire when ready, Gridley.." That's a great ship model in my estimation, nostalgia style.

Now I have to pay about $ 75 for the Asahi.

Just in fun. We are all builders, not just assemblers.

I liked the Olympia at the time, but also remember the Maine as a pretty lousy model too...But cheap!  Speaking of the USS Maine, every once in a rare while on Ebay I see a Heller model in 1/400 scale that purports to be the 'Maine,' but the turrets are on the centerline and it is flying a French flag on the box art!  Does anyone know anything about that kit, and /or the ship it is representing?  I can't find any reference to a 'Maine' in the French navy of the time, though I may well be wrong.....

 

And speaking of cheapness, perhaps it might be a good idea to start a string extolling the benefits of a cheap line of ship models to get younger people interested in model-building.  For all we scoff at the old Pyro and Lindberg kits, they served a very definite purpose and filled a very well-defined niche 'back in the day.'   This is a niche that has seemingly been lost in the thrust towards ever-more detailed and accurate (and therefore very expensive!) kits.  While I love the kits being produced today for the most part, there doesn't seem to be much on the shelves that would encourage a young potential modeller to save his nicklels and dimes, mow lawns, shovel snow and other odd jobs.... Perhaps it is all the price of losing 'Woolworths' as a 'point of sales!'

i do believe the worst ship model i ever tangled with was the tanker shell welder offshore tanker . this was an imai venture and although it had nice lines the rails were out of scale and , are you ready ? VINYL ! yep ,vinyl . the portholes were off in both size and in shape . who ever heard of oval portholes !  the next worst was the model that appears once in a while the S.S, united stetes . the stacks were to big and none of the bulkhead detail was there . i had to use architects detail decals to make it look right and it still fell short . i don,t remember who made it though ..  i do believe that lindbergs efforts were not the best ,i found out that they made a good base for scratch building , and that because off price . i would NOT buy the tamiya 1/350 fletcher say , to convert it to a gearing or a radar picket . not at 45.00   !!!!  tankerbuilder   

Bondoman,

Oh, yes! I remember 15 cent bottles of Testor's Enamel paint, as well as inexpensive kits.  I remember taking my 50 cents allowance every Friday and going to the local Dime store to buy my models (Pyro's Table Top Navy was my favorite).  By 11, I had educated myself about the ships I built and saw the very real flaws in the kits, notably the 1941 configuration on the port side of the Aurora and the Pyro Yamato kits and its 1945 configuration on the starboard side!  But, I was very disappointed by the USS Maine kit. I only built it once and quickly sank it in a local swamp.

Bill Morrison

   At the risk that my opinion may sound like it came from the mouth of a space alien on the distant Andromeda galaxy, may I suggest that folks who complain about the lack of quality models, or who lament the often inaccurate models that exist on the market today, that they scatch build their own model. What a novel concept !

   As an example, in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Ships in Scale, part I, there is a article by Joh L. Jones on how to build the Blue Jacket's U.S.S. Maine, with step-by-step photos. People who wish to follow the authors example can obtain plans from Taubman's Plan Service, or contact the Smithsonian Collection of Warship plans. True, if one goes by this route, it requires research, tools, skill and a desire to see the result of one's own work without the dependence on kits. Over time, the self satisfaction of accomplishment leaves a warm glow all over one's hairy body. Try it, you might enjoy the results. But first, write to the magazine, Ship in Scale for a back reprint of the vessel of your desire, then plunge head first into real model making !

               Montani semper liberi  Happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                            Crackers  

Well, you were right in the first instance, in that we do burn aliens at the stake here!  Perhaps you didn't READ the title of this thread, which is 'Worst ship model you have ever built.'  Obviously, EVERY model you have EVER built has been from scratch, and came out perfectly (quick, get the firewood!), and that you have NEVER had ANY problem with ANY kit, because you have always whittled yours out of popsicle sticks, and perfectly to scale (pile it up by his feet boys!).  Further, since you have never built a mere 'kit,' you have never had any sympathy for those on the much 'lower scale' (light the kindling!) of modellers who can neither be bothered with cobbling together a ship merely from plans, or are people new to the hobby who just want a good kit they deal with straight out of the box.  So in support of your position (kick some more coals in and pile up the firewood against his legs, dammit!), certainly, everyone SHOULD aspire to scratch-building wood kits!

crackers wrote:

At the risk that my opinion may sound like it came from the mouth of a space alien on the distant Andromeda galaxy, may I suggest that folks who complain about the lack of quality models, or who lament the often inaccurate models that exist on the market today, that they scatch build their own model. What a novel concept !    As an example, in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Ships in Scale, part I, there is a article by Joh L. Jones on how to build the Blue Jacket's U.S.S. Maine, with step-by-step photos. People who wish to follow the authors example can obtain plans from Taubman's Plan Service, or contact the Smithsonian Collection of Warship plans. True, if one goes by this route, it requires research, tools, skill and a desire to see the result of one's own work without the dependence on kits. Over time, the self satisfaction of accomplishment leaves a warm glow all over one's hairy body. Try it, you might enjoy the results. But first, write to the magazine, Ship in Scale for a back reprint of the vessel of your desire, then plunge head first into real model making !                Montani semper liberi  Happy modeling to all and every one of you.                                             Crackers

No, doesn't sound like a space alien, more like a @!#$@!@$%#@!...

Normally I don't get in the middle of family feuds, but something hit a nerve.  Crackers are you talking about this level of modeling?

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/550954925tCjrKx

This is a totally scratched built PT 109 60" long weighs 57 pounds, with 2 astro-flight electric 40,000 rpm motors and full reversing speed control. 

Also are repairing antiques considering modeling?  If so, hows this?

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/560101039FzyJAf

I will build in ANY medium so long as the customers check clears the bank. But I prefere to build in plastic because of the nice detail afforded in some kits.  Crackers don't feel too bad about plastic, it ain't that bad.

I challenge you to do something useful with the Aurora 1/600 Bismarck.  For you, it would be a perfect joy that you'll be fooling with for years (and STILL never do anything useful with it!)!

Substitute "Wanderer Whaler" for 1/600 Bismark, and your challenge is already accepted. :) :) The only "modern" warships I have any desire to model, are the ones I served in, and doing a full hull FRAM II Sumner class DD, from a 1/700 waterline kit is no laughing matter either.....but I'm just crazy enough to be having fun with it. 

  I was mildly surprised at some of the negative comments posted about my suggestion that modelers who are dissatisfied with inferior quality kits, or unable to find a kit of the vessel of their desire, instead scratch build a model. Would someone in the vast Forum audience please explain to me what is so offensive about this opinion?

   It can be done. At the risk of sounding egotistic and bombastic, I have made two sailing ship scatch built models and am preserntly working on a third model. My comment is not to promote Ships in Scale magazine, but to emphasize that this route can be successfully accomplished given the desire, proper tools and research. In just about every issue, some author submits an article of a scratch built model. Judging by the photographs with the article, the results would put me to shame on the quality of the author's work.

  As I wrote on my previous post, in my humble opinion, the inner satisfaction of completing a scatch model with out assembling plastic part A to part B after glueing, is worthwhile, to just to see the product of your own hands and know that one did not depend on a kit. By-the way, I have used popsicle sticks on my models, they make convincing deck surfaces when cut to proper scale.

                    Montani semper liberi !  Happy modeling to all and ever one of you.

                                            Crackers    

 

 

Crackers, I think the point you have missed is the title of the thread 'Worst ship model you have ever built!'  Until your entry, we were having a lovely time chuckling over some of our worst efforts based on some of the worst kits from the days of yore (some of which, despite all odds, that continue to be produced!).  If the title of the thread was 'Gee, I sure wish I could make perfect models of anything I wanted to,' then your comments would have been germain, and not strike almost exactly the wrong note of egotism and bombast!

Back to the basic idea of the thread, does anybody remember the Aurora DD USS Halford?

Bill Morrison

Hi Guys,

This is a good discussion topic, but let's remember to show some respect to those with differing opinions. 

Carry on ...

Kelly, FSM

In any case.... I also remember a disaster (self-inflicted!) involving a 1/700 scale 'Kongo' from one of the Japanese manufacturers, though I can't remember which.  It was just after the 'waterline' kits hit the market and I was about 10 years old, and for some reason the words 'Waterline' plainly printed on the box didn't sink in at all ('reading comprehension 101'), which I thought was merely some sort of expression to label a new line of kits.  In any case, when I got home and opened the box (they wouldn't let you open the box at the shop in those days, and if you opened, it, you bought it!), I was scandalized to find what appeared to be HALF of the model missing!!  Not willing to admit my mistake by bringing the model back to the shop, I decided I would make a lower hull piece for it out of wood.  As my wood-working skills in those days were almost non-existent, you can imagine it was more than a little rough!  Finally, i decided that this was all going so badly, i might as well take a stab at converting the thing to its original WW1 layout by scratch-building a tripod mast, etc, but the results just got worse and worse.... In any event, the Kongo, through no fault of its own, was eventually turned into a painting practise model, and for that, it served a useful purpose at last.......

I'll hack into my own thread and ask the opposite question. Which is the best Kit you hace built and why? The one that I have built and like the most is Revell's Cutty Sark. It has just got that something about it that I have made her a least four times.

Is that the big 1/96 Cutty Sark?  I built that once a long time back, and I agree, a most excellent ship model!  There are a number of others I like very much too, and it is quite difficult to choose between them, as each is memorable in one way or another.  'La Flore' is quite good too, and can be done up in any number of different color schemes, the Revell 'America' was an excellent model for its day as well.  Simple, but well-molded and makes up into a really attractive model (and you can play with the color scheme of that one too!)....

No doubt for me it's the Pyro/Life-Like/Lindberg 'American President Liner'.  Very little detail and much of it wrong. Parts that don't fit, decals that are a joke, and instructions that will lead the builder to make it less accurate.

The passage of time only makes the insult worse because Lindberg has the gall to re-issue it at over $20, but I suppose if somebody wants a base for extensive scratch building that's better than paying even more for an old kit on eBay.

Fred