Which Model Gave You a Whoopin'?

[Ich_Will]

The Fujimi MRC Mercedes 500 SL Open top. I tried to build it last year and it was an unmitigated disaster. Had to buy a second one and it turned out to be one of my favorites. You can find it in the "On the Workbench" and "Under Glass" 

[Spex84]

When I was younger, I had a couple that gave me a lot of trouble...the AMT '57 gasser (same as MPC flip-front) and the Revell VW Street Machine. The flip-front 'vette has really poor fit and tons of flash, and the VW parts trees were almost solid flash, not to mention molded in pink. As a kid I still painted everything with a brush, so it took multiple heavy coats of black testors to cover that pink. I chopped the fenders off to make a "hot rod" and these days the only remnants are little bits in my parts stash. I'm considering buying another, just for nostalgia's sake.

These days...I don't have the guts to tackle the old fiddly Revell offerings like the Orange Crate, Outlaw, and Tweedy Pie, as much as I love them, I just use the parts for my own kitbashed creations.

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Spex84 said:

When I was younger, I had a couple that gave me a lot of trouble...the AMT '57 gasser (same as MPC flip-front) and the Revell VW Street Machine. The flip-front 'vette has really poor fit and tons of flash, and the VW parts trees were almost solid flash, not to mention molded in pink. As a kid I still painted everything with a brush, so it took multiple heavy coats of black testors to cover that pink. I chopped the fenders off to make a "hot rod" and these days the only remnants are little bits in my parts stash. I'm considering buying another, just for nostalgia's sake.

These days...I don't have the guts to tackle the old fiddly Revell offerings like the Orange Crate, Outlaw, and Tweedy Pie, as much as I love them, I just use the parts for my own kitbashed creations.

Sorry to hear that. Having just finished the IMC VW, I'm kinda in the mood to build the Revell one, and I have that very pink kit in the stash...was thinking of starting it soon. Now you've got me re-considering...

As to that flip-nose '57 Vette, I gave up on making that thing work over a decade ago and just glued the front end on solid and worked it in. I recently paroled it from the Shelf of Doom and you can see in-progress pics of it in the BOYD Completion Build thread down in the workbench session. Goal is to have it done by the end of March. 

Edited February 9, 2019 by Snake45

[Casey]

1 hour ago, Spex84 said:

These days...I don't have the guts to tackle the old fiddly Revell offerings like the Orange Crate, Outlaw, and Tweedy Pie

That's called wisdom. 

My first scale whoopin' was courtesy of the 1/20 MPC McLaren Mk8d:

 

It was a tenth birthday present, but I did not yet have the kills needed to build it properly. Did that stop me from trying? Hell no! Plenty of Pactra flat black and silver (especially on the rear wing) was used, but it was just not to be. I held onto the wheels and tires for many years, eventually trading them them to Jim McCall on the rec-models.scale usenet group in the early '90s, but I have no real desire to try to build this kit again.

[Bucky]

When I was 11 or so, I ended up with a Revell '57 BelAir kit. I had only been gluing stuff together for 3 years, so the multiple features boggled my mind! At some point, it turned into a guided missile, as it went flying down the hallway from the dining table, up against my sister's bedroom door! I gathered up the pieces, crammed them in the box, and never finished it. It's the only time I ever tossed one. I have never built a '57 Chevy to this day, and I have several in the stash, both AMT and Revell.

I have had some rough times with those multi-piece body kits from several of the companies, even Palmer!

[russosborne]

6 hours ago, Casey said:

That's called wisdom. 

My first scale whoopin' was courtesy of the 1/20 MPC McLaren Mk8d:

 

It was a tenth birthday present, but I did not yet have the kills needed to build it properly. Did that stop me from trying? Hell no! Plenty of Pactra flat black and silver (especially on the rear wing) was used, but it was just not to be. I held onto the wheels and tires for many years, eventually trading them them to Jim McCall on the rec-models.scale usenet group in the early '90s, but I have no real desire to try to build this kit again.

This is another one that would be a good fit for the childhood models thread.

I had this as a kid and built it, but you guys all seem to have better memories and were much more critical than I was back then (or even today). I know I built it, can't remember if any parts were left off. There was an article in one of the magazines back then where someone built this using a scratchbuilt brass frame. Now THAT I can remember, but not what magazine it was. But to my 8-10 year old mind it was amazing.

I bought this again last year, one of these days I will get to it. Not doing any model building right now.

Russ

[Mike999]

A hood recently gave me a whoopin.'  The one on the old ESCI Renault R5 French police car. 

That hood has really nice underside bracing detail. It also has an air vent grille on top of the hood, that I wanted to open up.  So I sanded the hood down until the vent was open and looked perfect.  This also made the hood very thin, but I thought that would be even more realistic.

Shot a coat of gray primer. Checked the hood in natural sunlight, it looked perfectly smooth.  Sprayed on the finish coat of gloss black...and big, ugly sink marks popped out at me, following the lines of those underside hood braces!  Argh!  Sanded, filled with Bondo putty and tried again.  Same result. It looked great under primer but the sink marks popped up under the gloss black paint.

I was lucky enough to find an eBay seller dumping an ESCI R5 parts lot cheap that included a hood. This time, I think that air grille is going to stay closed...  

 

[vamach1]

It's never too late.   Two of these I built a long time ago and the J car more recently.  Are they a pain, yes, but I'd say it was worth it.

[Safire6]

On 2/9/2019 at 10:15 AM, vamach1 said:

It's never too late.   Two of these I built a long time ago and the J car more recently.  Are they a pain, yes, but I'd say it was worth it.

Could you please post more pics of the GT40? Please!?

 

 

[Sledsel]

A Monogram GTO... yes!! Nice simple build... but painting it has been a nightmare. It has been in the purple bath 4 times. Every time there was a paint issue. Bad paint, or a run, or not covering correctly. It is boxed and I do not know the paint status.

[styromaniac]

On 7/10/2016 at 4:38 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

I made a glooey fingerprinted poorly-fitting gap-ridden mess of just about everything I built when I was a kid lacking sufficient eye-hand coordination, fine-motor control, and a well-developed self-critical feedback loop...and patience. I remember being horribly frustrated because my results looked like dog droppings, and try as I might, improvement in my skills was glacially slow.

By the time I was 14 or so, I'd learned to take my time, let things dry, test-fit before gluing, etc...and that if my models looked like carp, it was due more to my own incompetence, not "bad" kits...though there were certainly some that took a LOT more effort to fit and correct to become acceptable models than others. The IMC kits noted above, and others, the Revell Thompson Challenger I and opening-panel tri-5 Chebbys and '56 Ford pickup...there were quite a few I wasn't satisfied with on 'completion', but they looked pretty OK.

I really have to thank this hobby for kindling an interest in how cars and aircraft worked and what all the parts actually were supposed to do on the real versions. I'm also grateful that poorly translated models like Palmer produced made me realize early in life that the manufacturers weren't always right, and just because adults got paid to do something didn't guarantee they'd do it WELL. I'm also grateful that I learned patience, and to rely on my own judgement when things didn't fit, and the confidence to cut into something that wasn't designed intelligently and change it.

I wish I had the first Revell '57 Ford wagon that I think was my first 1/25 scale car kit. Man, it makes me cringe to remember how awful that was when I got done with it. I've come a long way since then. 

 

 

Truer words have never been spoken Bill. This hobby teaches a person many things....patience being one of them. A measure of imagination and self confidence is also required ( and rewarded ) when one has to deviate from the instruction sheets when a project goes off the rails due to poor fits, bad sequencing, etc. Thankfully in this era of model building in-depth print articles and forums like these exist to help guide us through difficult builds.

[iamsuperdan]

I have two that have been awful.

First, the AMT Ford F250 Superstones truck. Does anything fit correctly on this kit? It's the only kit where I've put it back in the box and decided not to finish it. I grudgingly accept defeat. It won.

Second, the Tamiya Golf Mk1 "Kamei" Racing. The kit is a simple curbside, but the Kamei paint scheme is killing me. It's been in the purple pond twice now. The bleeding through of the various colours and black trim has been horrible. I'm probably going to to pull it out of the bath it is currently in, and will come up; with my own paint scheme. Or maybe I'll give this Kamei scheme one last shot.

 

[vamach1]

On 3/17/2019 at 4:34 PM, Safire6 said:

Could you please post more pics of the GT40? Please!?

 

 

Here you go.

[abelaxe]

When I got back into the hobby about 5 years ago, this was the first kit I built........Not sure if it was the fact that I had not built a model in like 35 years or if it was just a crappy kit....Maybe both...LOL

[magicmustang]

On 3/19/2019 at 5:10 PM, vamach1 said:

  

Ah, yes, I remember trying to get that "Bed of Snakes" exhaust to fit on the IMC GT40 I built. Put it back several times before I succeeded.  

[Safire6]

Thanks for posting those pics! I'll be building the Revell / Monogram GT40 hopefully later this year..

[Brudda]

Cool and honest thread. The MFH 1/12 Ferrari P4 just kicked my butt. had a few black eyes on that one ,and broken bones but survived it somehow. Very painful. Worth it? I guess but it is going to be a very long  time before I do my 1/12 MFH Gurney F1 kit. Although....... everything else seems a little easier to build.

[FordRodnKustom]

For me it was this nightmare....

What started out to be a simple quick build turned out a little more complicated as there was no two parts in this kit that were made to fit together that did. It almost took the quick flight into the wall several times but I was in deep so I stuck it out and finished it....

[Snake45]

I'm currently attempting to wrestle the old Monogram '66 Chevelle to the ground. It beat me in the '70s, the '80s, the '90s...maybe this time around I'll win. 

[Bob Ellis]

On 7/11/2016 at 7:03 PM, Tom Geiger said:

Oh yea!  That kit was my nemesis as a kid.  The parts in that box were never intended to assemble into a reasonable Nomad!  I tried several times, each year I'd figure I was older and up to the task. Nope.  Last time I tried was in my early 30s! 

In 1975, I threw this kit in the trash. Rear bumper didn't match. Good just to say it had a bumper.

[stitchdup]

A skips fiesta 57 nomad, its an awful warped mess to the point both sides of the engine are different heights, the sides are concave like a boat hull and the front screen seems chopped on one side only. The interior and chassis are the only usable parts in the kit

[junkyardjeff]

I managed to build a late 70s version of the Revell 57 nomad but broke the body taking it apart to restore a couple months ago,I doubt I will repair it so if anyone needs parts its complete except for the engine.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Dang. After seeing the shots above, I REALLY want a J-car to add to my historic racing cars collection. An original GT40 would be nice too.

[Snake45]

This one, the wretched MPC '57 Vette flip-nose gasser. It's beat on me like a rented mule for over a decade. Got it "finished enough" today to take pics of it, and I'm declaring victory and marching home. Enough of it!

[Scott8950]

22 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

This one, the wretched MPC '57 Vette flip-nose gasser. It's beat on me like a rented mule for over a decade. Got it "finished enough" today to take pics of it, and I'm declaring victory and marching home. Enough of it!

it has the old school look. very nice work