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Irreversible kit disaster- how often


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Would like to know how many times or how often do you end up making a disastrous mistake that means you have to write off the kit itself? Would it be once a year, once two years, once every 4 to 6 kits or seldom or never?

 

 

 

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Once so far…, earlier this year,  Rey securely glued a cockpit rear bulkhead to the cockpit floor upside down and had it glued into the fuselage before I realized the error. First time in 56 years of building I’ve had to trash a kit due to “builder error”. I’ve trashed other kits for various reasons over the years, but this was the first time an assembly error wasn’t fixable

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NEVER surrender. Strip it down and do it again.

 

I have tossed many a kit over the years as I build better ones, but I have even finished a Hobby Craft Dash 8 and put it on display. Had a Hobby Craft Otters windows MELT, replaced with clear card and put on display.

 

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Thank goodness I have never had to trash a kit I was working on.  When I was heavily into jets ... there was definitely less room for error when building jets so I was extra careful with everything.  I've kinda move to armor now and there is A LOT more room to fix mistakes on armor, especially if you are like me and like to build dioramas with all the mud and dust and weathering... means you can basically cover up almost anything 😉

 

Cheers,

 

-Greg

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I'm generally short tempered. And sometimes, small stuff really get to me. Such as lifting almost entire paint off a model with masking tape (1/72 Hasegawa EA-6B). With Primer on. Which I hate (and generally don't do). After cleaning with alcohol prior to painting (first and last time I did this), painting with gloves on (never ever). Yup. It got to me. Shame really, as I should've just taken a breather and finish the kit. After like 8 years it still kind of haunts me. And I do throw away a few kits every year. I've not a lot of shelf space.

Generally, after that, every kit that actually gets started, has to be finished. There were some that I did not start however after some dryfit, or just looking in the box. AKKURA MiG-21PFM comes to mind. So that'd make like 2 or 3 more in 8 years.

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I've had some disasters, but nothing I couldn't recover the build from.  Technically, I did bin several really old in-work builds from the early 90's that I found in my parent's basement when I was helping them move.   I salvaged a few and finished them for nostalgia sake.  But there was no hope for many due to missing parts.  They were victims of my mother's menopause cleaning frenzies, which often entailed going through model kit boxes to see if they still had the kits inside.  If it was a started kit, any remaining parts and sprues would get thrown away along with the box.  The decals and instructions might get left behind.  And yes, it's as messed up as it sounds.   

Edited by sigtau
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Had just bought a Trumpeter F-18F and was middle of painting it. Placed it down on the counter near the stove...didnt know someone had just used it about 10 minutes prior to and the tail end melted.  Had spent the entire night putting the finishing touches on the weapons too...

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Seldom do I trash a kit, and even then, I try to keep the parts that came out well, for another attempt with a new kit.   

 

My last frustrating disaster of a kit was the Dragon 1/72 scaled Saturn V, which fought me throughout the build.    I had even added 3D printed parts to supplement the lack of detailing and eventually it just kicked my butt.  I ended up stripping the 3D parts off and reused them in a new Saturn V.  This time all went fairly well, as I knew what to expect.

 

Here is a quick pic of it, about 95% completed:

 

 

Saturn V build 2 sm.jpg

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It has happened to me twice. The first time was the AM 1/48 B-25B ... right after it was released. I got the fuselage halves together, but it ended up what I call "stair stepped" there was a pretty bad step, and If i tried to fix it by sanding, I would have to remove a lot of material, and if I managed to do that, it would look stupid. I was unable to get the halves apart so ... I ended up tossing the kit. It really stung, I was having fun building it up to that point. 

 

I tried the Trumpeter 1978 monte carlo ... and got all the way to the end and found the ride height was way too high .... it looked like a lifted truck. I was so frustrated I ended up scrapping that kit as well. If I did a mockup I would have caught it so it was on me. 

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Over the many years that I've modeled, I've set aside many started kits.  Some,because they were too tough for my skills at the time, some because something else struck my fancy to build sooner, but most because much better models had been released since I bought them.

 

That being said, fast forward 20-30 years, some that I've decided to build recently are selling for $29.00 or so, when they where $1.69, etc. etc.when I bought them many years ago.

 

Another thing to remember, that no kits are ever wasted.  When I needed a part for one of the many conversions that I've done, there was usually something suitable in the "bone yard".

 

Oh, and did I mention,  I never throw anything modeling-related, away!

 

Ed

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Kits I had to write off were mostly due to having incurred in noob horrors as a modeller (using the wrong glue, different paint solvent/carrier, clear coats, decal setting solution and so on).

It happens more times than I like to remember, and with rather expensive kits. Last one was the Great Wall Hobby 1/48 MiG-29 9-12 Early kit. I left it looking like the guy that went through an acid waste tank in Robocop  :bandhead2:

I really ought to hone up on my modelling skills before attempting to build expensive kits, I guess.

Cheers,

 

Gwen

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On 9/23/2021 at 12:39 PM, Spruemeister said:

Using Squadron Green putty in the nose of a P-80 for weight instead of lead is the definition of an irreversible kit disaster.  We live.  We learn.  We buy another kit.

 

 

Rick L. 

 

I did the same thing. It melted the entire nose and part of the front fuselage.

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It's pretty rare, but I've junked a few.  One Russian biplane that went badly at the rigging stage.  One short-run kit that was so warped that the fuselage was twisted despite my best efforts to straighten things out.  One Mach 2 kit (Thor IRBM) that was just so bad that I gave up.  Technically, I still have that one, so I could revive it, but it's just astounding to me how terrible a kit could be with so few parts.

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