Worst fitting plastic kit you've ever built or tried to build ?

[Ventris]

Hasegawa 1:48 F-14.

Mine has a date with a wood chipper.

I will replace my three Hase F-14D as soon as the HobbyBoss kit will be avaiable.

I started a D kit but soon after that I put it back in the stash.

Even the Italeri kit was easier to build (but looks like crap).

[Litvyak]

I take it that none of you are old enough to remember VEB Plastkart...

When I was in Hungary with my grandparents for a year in 1979/80 (4 years old) I remember watching him (try to) build a Mi-4 kit for me. I think it was Plasticart, but I remember seeing the veiled frustration on his face. He did get it together, though.

I remember Christmas when I was 11 or 12, I got a pile of kits sent to me from Hungary, including a Plastikart An-2, a Polish kit of a Po-2 and another of an Iskra, and a number of Czech kits in those boxes with red sides. I recall liking the Czech kits quite well, but didn't have fun with the An-2, and the Po-2 was the only kit I've ever thrown away without finishing.

[Mike W.]

Two kits come to mind: AMT 1/48 F-4G and Ertl 1/48 A-7D.

I planned to make a quick in-flight display of a NM ANG A-7D in Bicentennial markings but that kit was so bad I didn't want to waste the nice decals on it. I think I assembled it and gave it to a neighbors kid to play with.

The F-4G was the worst, though. The fuselage halves didn't fit at all and I couldn't get the filler to adhere to the plastic. After a while I simply glued everything together as well as I could and then launched it off the balcony (I was living in a third story apartment at the time). That was all the enjoyment I got out of that POS.

[Jay Chladek]

AMT got better later on. You want a BAD fitting Star Trek kit though, try one of the old long box Enterprise kits from say 1970-74 timeframe where the mold started going to pot on the 1966 vintage kit. The warp nacelles splay out due to how the holes were cut in the secondary hull and the seam line on the secondary hull did not even line up properly. It can be built, but the small box Enterprise kit tooled up in 1975 is a MUCH easier kit to build by comparison. BTW, I am in agreement about AMT/Ertl's styrene though as that stuff was just too soft. Round 2's current styrene is not bad though.

As for airplanes, Hasegawa's 1/48 F-14A is not my idea of a great fitting kit. Sure, it is crammed with details, but for the fit issues you have to deal with, I prefer to work on something else like an Academy kit. I have NO idea who designed the cockpit panels in that kit, but they are WAY too thick and don't seem to fit worth a crap. Okay, some say "use resin". Well, if I am going to spend over $50 for an F-14 kit, I would expect the basic parts to fit rather than having to run for aftermarket parts.

[Plano Guy]

Glencoe 1/81 scale Curtis Condor.

Very old kit. A pilot/A@P buddy of mine had one laying around and asked me to build it for him. It's been a few years so I forgot all of the gory details, but that kit was a PAIN!

I did manage to make it look good but it took some major surgery

[MiG Mongoose]

KP Models 1/72 L-29,the wing sub-assemblies and the horizontal stabilizer needed lots of gaps filled, the canopy was awfully misaligned to the fuselage. Don't get me started about the intakes, how I got those turning out all right remains a mystery to me!

[splatcat]

I've been building the Star Trek kits for years and as a sci-fi builder I was pretty much resigned to fit issues. I started to get back into airplanes and I found out my ESCI EF-111A is a real dog of a kit. Its been a battle every step of the way. Even my AMT Defiant isn't that bad. Anything by Lindberg seems to be a stinker too.

[RiderFan]

Hobby craft Dash-8 and Hobby craft Avro Arrow.

There are far, far more problems with this 'kit' than its poor fit. Especially the 1/72 scale edition. There's virtually nothing about that kit that is accurate. It's sort of embarrassing actually that a Canadian company would make such a total mess of such an iconic bit of Canadian subject matter.

[RiderFan]

Anything from Ertl, from Star Trek to the XB-70.

My biggest beef with the Star Trek kits is the accuracy. Yeah, okay, I get that it`s sci-fi and that these are not real vehicles, but they could at least try to get them to be more or less close to the filming models. And seriously...who thought it would be a good idea to engrave into the Enterprise refit kit all those fake aztec panel lines. It wouldn't be so bad if the pattern was accurate, but they just etched in random lines all over the hull that you need to spend weeks filling and sanding out.

[datahiker]

I didn't include AMT/Ertl in my earlier post as proeblems with their kits transcended poor fit and engineering. the problem was directly in the styrene itself. I don't know what they did with their styrene, but it was some of the softest, overflexible and inconsistently behaving styrene I ever encountered in mainstream kits

It was just as likely to form a gap as a solid join when you tried touching cement to it as it tended to melt inconsistently and unpredictably.

Sanding was nearly impossible on some of their kits as the styrene was so soft that there didn't seem to be a grade of sandpaper fine enough to take to it and not have it come out looking like you'd taken a cheese grater to the whole thing.

The last AMT/Ertl kit I ever attempted was the Star Trek DS9 Cardassian Galor class ship. The styrene was actually respectable in that kit, but the upper and lower hulls looked to have been done by two different parties with no communication between them, the fit was negligible and the detail matching betwen the halves was non existant.

I think they must have had someone who had worked on MPC's Star Wars kits show them how to make the Star Trek kits.

I shed no tears when AMT/Ertl announced they had gotten out of the styrene kit business, good ridance to them.

If we're talking non-aircraft, the 1/35 Italeri Desert S.A.S. Combat Car has me in fits right now.

Edited November 3, 2011 by datahiker

[eharrold44]

I enjoyed the AMT Trek stuff when I was a kid, but man were they bad. Completely fabricated details that had nothing to do with the actual production models, poor fit, really ugly raised lines, etc. A few of them were actually pretty decent, though; leave it to AMT to do far and away their best work on the last Trek model they ever released- the Enterprise-C. Even that one had areas that were completely devoid of detail, as well as the usual fit issues. Then again, I'll take that over useless and ugly raised panel lines like the ones on the Enterprise refit and the 1701-B.

I have a soft spot in my heart for all those old kits, but it's 100% nostalgia. It has nothing to do with their quality.

[braincells37]

The Frog 72nd scale SB-2. I think the molds were done freehand. Never finished it. Shortly thereafter I confined most of my builds to 48th scale...

Terry :wacko: :wacko:

[RKic]

The ICM Spitfire VIII I'm working on now has some real PITA areas.

[Old Dog]

Any kit from Mach 2 and most of the kits from Fonderie Miniatures !

[dmthamade]

Esci kits. Tornado, Jaguar, Alpha Jet. Testors B-2.

[richter111]

Those old Star Trek Kits were fun to build and play with though! I have fond memories of my dad and I building the original Enterprise back in 1976 or so, Painting it with whatever colors we had, then promptly breaking off the nacelles when I took it outside.

Add the Special Hobby 1/32 X-15 to the mix. The fuselage was so bent, upper one way lower another, that I finally gave up and consigned it to the trash bin.

[designfriemel]

That has got to be the 1/48 Ja-37 Viggen kit by Esci & reissued by Airfix.

Very awful but it always can get worse I guess.

[Alvis 3.1]

I've developed a tic in my left eye from just reading this thread. I've danced with a lot of these kits, and the FROG SB-2 was one I never finished. Myself, one kit I was massively disappointed with was the Matchbox HP Victor. It's mostly assembled, waiting for a massive bucket of Bondo to dip it into...

Alvis 3.1

[Thunderchief105]

I think the worst fitting kits for me are the Revell 1/72 SR-71 and a close 2nd is the Revell 1/72 EF-111A Raven. Both went to the trash, to bad about the EF-111 kit it has nice cockpit and wheel well detail to.

Edited November 5, 2011 by Thunderchief105

[Mark737Whit]

Currently working on Revell's 1/48 F-14D, and it is one of the worst fits I have worked with. The intakes bulge at the seam around the fan, and have a nasty gap throughout the inside on both sides. They also leave a gap and a ledge as they run by the main gear wells. The panel for the cannon and vents is not even close pre-putty and sanding, and the body halves leave some nasty seams aft of the wings. The panel lines are raised, so if you don't etch them you will lose them with all the sanding.

Edited November 5, 2011 by Mark737Whit

[richter111]

I've developed a tic in my left eye from just reading this thread. I've danced with a lot of these kits, and the FROG SB-2 was one I never finished. Myself, one kit I was massively disappointed with was the Matchbox HP Victor. It's mostly assembled, waiting for a massive bucket of Bondo to dip it into...

Alvis 3.1

Something interesting, my son has Tourettes, and when he models, his tics and vocals completely disappear, but then again, he has not had to build some of these kits...

[f5guy]

For me it would be Smer's 1/48th MiG-17 and Monogram's 48th F-106A. The MiG went into the trash can, but I did manage to finish several of the Sixes. They look good when done, but its a bit of a fist fight getting them there. I have the Testors 72nd B-2, and ERTL XB-70, and will eventually build them, but they seem to be a contenders for the crappiest fitting mainstream kits..... oh joy! Fred K.

[FAR148]

Kinetic 1/48 F-16I Sufa

Steven L

[Eric2020]

The worst kits I have build are the ESCI F-100, After an long time of building made it to the finish. Too weak plastic, cockpit this scale are decals as most of the ESCI kit is having decals. I have the F-8 and the A-7 as well. they look nice and fit with care and build up nice. Viggen is an nice kit of ESCI and could be reissued by airfix if updated on the office.

Italeri's F-22 1/48 and F/A-18E somehow Italeri messed with the plastic. Its too soft and after glueing there is damage on the shape, and for the Hornet I did the glue would not set at all, and came of after few days. Tried CA, same problem again.

EF-111 of Zhendefu is indeed an kit left alone if you are in an hurry to finish the kit. rumour has it that this is an poor copy of the Academy kit, and having build it, its true I think. The plastic of this kit is too soft, and I managed to get it ready for paint. did use miliput as all the others woould eat too hard on the plastic and I engraved my model as well.

Concord of airfix I have completed wheels up, and got it from an friend, looks nice if you reach the finish. And have to start on an Concord very soon as well.

Revell's old F-4 in various versions is horror kit for an 32nd scale model even their F-104 is pretty good not perfect. But can be turned into an nice model. Unlike their F-4 which is terriblie to build. cockpit pure gues work and decals. engine looks ok, but there is so much wrong on that kit that it takes an century to reach the finishline.

[rob.w]

The Amodel Rutan Voyager. Every joint had to be pinned, the top half of the fuselage rocked like Grandma Whistlers rocking chair, landing gear and doors were useless, spinners/props were lumps of plastic, decals looked good but immediately curled into tubes of film when they released from the backing paper and I lost count of the number of tubes of putty or cans of primer I went though.

I bought the Global Flyer kit but still haven't tackled it, I still have nightmares about the Voyager kit.

rob