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The Monogram 1/48 P-61 Black Widow. The fuselage was warped, nothing fit, the raised panel lines disappeared from sanding seams, and the clear parts made me reconsider the whole kit.

I trashed it, turned it into spare parts, and started building sci-fi models out of it.

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Injection kits? I'd have to submit the 1:72 Hobbycraft Arrow. It looks like it's a slightly reworked reissue of the 1950s Aurora kit. It's been reissued a couple of times. The first issue actually had the hydraulic fairings for the ailerons molded on top of the wing! They eventually fixed that but the overall shape, wingspan, profile, length, and height are not even close to scale drawings. It looks like an Arrow if you stand about 20 feet away and squint.

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AMT 1:48 scale F-16A and F/A-18A kits.

Bought these at Michaels a few years back. In my memory two of the worst kits I've built. Poor fit, lack of details, soft, warped plastic and weak decal sheets. The instruction sheets were ok though. I cannot recommend either kit to any builder.

Never tried the F-16 but I've built the hornet. It was a nightmare.

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I totally have to agree with the Monogram P-61. I got halfway through all the puttying and just gave up. It's been on the shelf of half-builts for the last couple of years.

Another horrible kit was the 1/48 C-130. I think it was the Italeri boxing. Plastic pealed away in sheets everytime I put down a piece of tape. I was constantly patching up and puttying little places all over the darn thing. I eventually finished it but talk about a PIA! :doh:

Don

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Hasegawa 1/72 Tornado. So many errors, such a poor fit - ghastly little model.

Thanx, had that one under consideration

The Monogram 1/48 P-61 Black Widow. The fuselage was warped, nothing fit, the raised panel lines disappeared from sanding seams, and the clear parts made me reconsider the whole kit.

I trashed it, turned it into spare parts, and started building sci-fi models out of it.

Thank you, also I had my eye on one at Michaels, I can use the coupon a little wiser.. :thumbsup:

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For me it's the HitKit Potez XXV. It's one of the great aircraft of the inter-war period (like a French Bristol F.2B) and was used by a ton of airforces, but it's seriously lacking a decent kit. The HitKit version was like a bad 1960's era kit. Nothing fit, tons of flash and more mis-mouldings than useable plastic. Started it and gave up, and it's still sitting in my stash, probably never to be built.

Vince

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AMT 1:48 scale F-16A and F/A-18A kits.

AMT anything really.

All AMT kits I ever encountered were made from quite soft styrene that melted too much and unpredictably when the cement hit it. Even with the sharpest, freshest of blades I could never get the parts cut cleanly from the runners.

The decals were thick, inflexible and the adhesive was totally inefective.

I could go on, but it was no great loss to the hobby when AMT got out of the styrene kit business.

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Come to think about it, the R/M 1/48 B-29 gave me tons of problems, too. I could never get the bomb bay doors to fit right,

the engine cowlings gave me lots of problems trying to line them up. It was also my first rescribe job and it looked like a five year old took a serated knife to it. Binned just a couple of weeks ago after keeping it for three years on a shelf.

And to top that, the R/M 1/48 B-1B. Three trys later and still couldn't get it right. I have seen some fantastic builds of it right here on ARC and I can never build one up to those standards.

RYAN.

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I started building plastic models when they first came out shortly after WW2 ended. I have never seen any kit that I hated. All the parts are ready made. The worst that can happen is that one has to add some putty or cut away some plastic to make them come together. I remember an early kit of the Me.109 that had some issues with the landing gear never wanting to stay put. The things would always splay out until the model was resting on its belly. But back then we were using the glue that came in a tube and that was not the best thing to use.

What I hated were the stick and tissue kits where they had the ribs printed onto sheets of balsa. It was almost impossible to cut out these shapes without splitting the balsa wood. That drove me nutz! I hated that, In fact, I hate that to this day. But now, if I wanted to make one of thse kits I would first soak the wood in superglue. This, when dry, wouild give a strength to the balsa so when I cut out the shapes the wood would not split, Also, I would use my powered jig saw for the cutting.

I recently built some non flying stick and tissue wood models in 1/32 scale and for ribs and formers I used thin plywood. I cut them on the power saw and the work was a sheer pleasure.

Stephen

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I have two 1/48 Revell F-14A's in my stash that look like they would be pretty daunting to build. Test fitted a few of the parts and I'm just not sure I would be up to all of the filling especially with the separate nose.

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AMT anything really.

All AMT kits I ever encountered were made from quite soft styrene that melted too much and unpredictably when the cement hit it. Even with the sharpest, freshest of blades I could never get the parts cut cleanly from the runners.

The decals were thick, inflexible and the adhesive was totally inefective.

I could go on, but it was no great loss to the hobby when AMT got out of the styrene kit business.

I think this problem continued with AMTech stuff. I just built two of their P-40K kits (with the resin tail replacements). The fuselages were so warped that the noses had such a curve they looked like bananas. I got them straightened (lots of shims and superglue) but for what they kit is, it was way more work than really worth.

With the soft plastic, much of the potential detail in/around the rest of the plane was simply lost.

Mike

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