I have had several cross my work bench over the years. The ones that stand out the most though came from AEF(Armor). I had a couple dog kits with wings but nothing I couldn't over come. Hobbycrafts copy of Trumpy's Corsiar was great until it came time to do the wings. Biggest lop-o-pooh I have found in a long time. Got a review piece in the mail one time for a Pz1 conversion (Thats a tank for you unknowing folks). I won't name names, but it was totally useless. Road wheels were hollow cast.....the molds didn't fill completely on each and every one. Most if not all the parts were short shot, detail was non-existant. And, the manufacturer got a case of the A** when I asked what I was supossed to do with it. I threw it in the trash after a couple weeks as it couldn't even be used for some sci-fi or kit bash parts. A box of resin crap is what it amounted to. Others that I figured out were a write off were donated or hacked up for other builds. Tauro's MC202 is a beast of a kit. Anybody ever seen one complete? In al my years Ihave never, ever, seen one complete. I wonder why? Thanks, "Q"

a SU 25 on 1/48 scale.

The thing had spent a lot of time in a lorry of a salesman that travelled from airshow to airshow with airplane models.

Probably years under a baking sun and there was not a single piece of plastic anymore which was having the shape it was supposed to have.

Hi there

Wow! That brings back memories! I've still got a Tauro '202 or '205 stashed away somewhere - I should dig it out. If they are that rarely built, perhaps I can make it my Crazy Challenge for next year!

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan

I have a better idea .. list all your started builds over the last 5 years that are still not finished (I know it will be very long). We can chose one for a "Brothers in Failure" build .. chances are high I also have it in the stack .. started ....

BTW I also have the Tauro cra .. err kit in "le stash" but I will never ever build that!! I still have two started Hasegawa kits that I prefer finishing first ... maybe one day I can use the Tauro kit to drive my car for a day or so

cheers

Steffen

Hi Steffen

List all my started, but unfinished, builds of the last 5 years?! That would take all year and I'd still be counting!

It's a nice way to pick a kit to complete - the biggest problem in my case is that my workroom is so totally chaotic, many of the old kits are completely muddled up and probably un-finishable now. I have seriously thought I should simply ditch the lot and make a fresh start...

I'm planning to take a "sabbatical" from Reviews etc. in January (I intended to retire completely some months ago, but you can tell how successful that was! LOL!) to give myself some time to actually build something. Apart from anything new (NOT the Tauro kit!), my target is to complete the Eduard Fokker Dr.1 and Dragon Bf 110 that I've got part-built.

All the best

Rowan

mach 2 vickers valiant,

I always thought I was the only one who thought that way about this kit.....That or I was the only one (at 14 or so) building this kit.......It was a disaster for me.....I had to save up for quite a while to buy it and when I finally did, I fealt like I had gotten robbed. Imagine spending $50 or more back in 1992 or so.......uhhhhhhhh

I wonder is the Italeri 1/72 any different or just a re-issue of the old one?

cheers

when i first started modelling in 1994 i brought Tamiya's original tiger (after watching kelly's heroes) i built it oob and sat there looking at it pleased as punch then when i got back into modelling four years ago i looked at the beast and i realized how many faults there was! oversized barrel, oversized escape hatch on the turret no periscopes! to say i was completely gutted was an overstatement, ah well Dragon soon saved me from dispair.

Hasegawa 1/48 A-7E ..
canopy and windscreen out of shape....
offset fuselage
plastic was too brittle and fragile
fitting is bad

grrrrrrr

sorry about the last post forgot it's aircraft not armor, but the worst plane kit i brought has got to be revells 1/72nd B-17F i was expecting it to be a scalled down version of the old revell 1/48 B-17F what you get is worse! its festooned in raised rivets reminds me of airfix's older kits including the toy like movable flaps, then there is the ball turret, or lack thereof what you get is a half shaped cone that has two guns petruding from it complete naff in my opinion, they could have easily sourced molds from hasagawa, or academy.

Five spring to mind:

the old Revell Dambusters Lancaster- fits together like a mail order suit
Airfix Me 110 -I'm building this now as a challenge
Airfix Typhoon
Airfix Me109g6
Airfix Spitfire MkIX

And please don;t think I'm bagging Airfix, I love their kits

The worst that I can think of is the one that's on my bench now - Revell 1/48 Catalina. Imagine a 5 piece 26" wingspan where 4 of the parts are warped, the starboard fuselage half is warped, opened out top to bottom and the starbord tail fin half is 1.5mm broader front to rear than the port !
Superglue, liquid glue and masking tape has held it together after leaving it overnight. I'm just waiting to hear a horrible cracking sound and see that the fuselage halves have parted company........

I've probably made worse over the last 45years, but my memory won't stretch that far!!!

A toss up between Revells 1/28 Fokker Dr1, there's enough flash to mold another kit. Or, the Eastern Express EE Lightning. Molded in hideous yellow plastic thats brittle and covered in flash. Oh and the fit is terrible.

I don't know if decals count, but I thought I would add something. One of the worst models, because of decals, I have ever built is the 1/144 scale Minicraft MD-80 airliner. They were USAir decals and it took me three decals sheets and lots of heavy duty Solvaset plus decal preservative brushed onto the sheets to barely get a finished model out of it! It was positively a nightmare of the first magnitude.

Academy decals looked great compared to the ones I used on the MD-80. Anyone else with decal horror stories please chime in! Thanks, Russell.

Revell/Monogram 1/48 P-38, I built this kit when it first came out and had a blast. Just purchased another to build the M version, but the kit was beyond warped. The wings looked like pretzels and the fuselage did not match up at any point. What happend????

Robert:

I have the same kit in the stash . I added to the never be build stack !

Short of an Avenger kit that I got when I was about 12, the Classic Airframes SBC4 I'm working on now is pretty bad. Fuselage is warped and there are no locator pins inside for mounting the cockpits and bulkheads. And the fuselage is warped about 3/16 out of line. The resin cockpit fits about like the round peg/square hole thing and will require a lot of trimming and sanding. The fuselage halves have some sort of scummy stuff on them that doesn't want to wash off so I don't know how the painting will go.

It's gonna take a lot of TLC.

Steve

Hi Gang,got to run with some of the Revell stuff,31 years ago it was one of their early 1/72 spitfires,wings so thin they were almost transparent.Recently it was one of their 1/32 spitfires (what is it with Revell and Spitfires ?? ).This was consigned to the bin after numerous attempts to get the fuselage together !!!!!!