Biggest pet peeves on builds.

[ChrisBcritter]

10 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Seriously!

I'm tacking a tail to my ass and moving in with you!!  Steve

Hop on, we'll both go!

 

[NOBLNG]

One thing that bugs me is those Revell/Monogram boxes that open like a clamshell! they always want to tip over if they aren't on a large flat surface.

[89AKurt]

52 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

One thing that bugs me is those Revell/Monogram boxes that open like a clamshell! they always want to tip over if they aren't on a large flat surface.

DITTO that!  Try stacking a bunch of those kits too.  FYI: use Scotch tape at the corners, not masking tape.

I've noticed many, if not all kits, don't include the steering shaft running through the engine compartment, with the steering box.  Most of the time they have nice detail at the suspension, but there is this missing link.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Ah the infamous donut boxes. Once you take the shrink wrap off they have no structural integrity.

[Rbray47]

I usually cant get the lower radiator hoses attached. I either forget about then until it's too late, or I cant get them lined up correctly. Sometimes (if I remember) I use flexible tubing with stiff wire inside. 

[oldscool]

15 hours ago, Rbray47 said:

I usually cant get the lower radiator hoses attached. I either forget about then until it's too late, or I cant get them lined up correctly. Sometimes (if I remember) I use flexible tubing with stiff wire inside. 

This is one of my pet peeves as well. I can think of only 2 kits that I managed to get the  lower hose on.

[Mike999]

20 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Ah the infamous donut boxes. Once you take the shrink wrap off they have no structural integrity.

Some foreign kitmakers have really stepped up their packaging.  Like those 1/24 Model T kits (and others) from the Ukrainian company ICM. They come in a normal-looking box. But when you take off the lid, the box also has an attached inner lid. Those boxes are heavy-gauge and great for storing stuff after you build the kit. 

Some kitmakers also pack fragile parts in separate boxes inside the main box.  The Chinese company Bronco did that with their 1/35 scale ZiL-131 truck. It has opening doors and hood. So the main body doesn't have much support, other than the sprue attached to it.  Bronco put the body in a smaller, heavy-gauge box.

[oldnslow]

I usually staple the box ends to stiffen them up when I open a kit and it's floppy . 

[Snake45]

Just remembered another one: Seat belts laying crossed on the seat(s) in a perfect X.

This is probably because I've seen a lot of otherwise nice old rebuildable glue bombs complicated by those hokey X plastic seats belts glued in so solid they ruin the upholstery. 

In my whole life I don't think I've ever gotten into a car where the seat belts were laid out in an X. And I SURE have never carefully arranged them that way when I got out! 

Today (and for the last several decades) the belts are on retractors and aren't on the seats at all when not being worn. 

Before that, they'd either slip down beside the seat (buckets) or just lay more or less back-to-front (benches). Or just fall in some random fashion if they were loose and limber enough. 

But carefully arranged in a perfect X? Never seen it! 

[StevenGuthmiller]

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Just remembered another one: Seat belts laying crossed on the seat(s) in a perfect X.

This is probably because I've seen a lot of otherwise nice old rebuildable glue bombs complicated by those hokey X plastic seats belts glued in so solid they ruin the upholstery. 

In my whole life I don't think I've ever gotten into a car where the seat belts were laid out in an X. And I SURE have never carefully arranged them that way when I got out! 

Today (and for the last several decades) the belts are on retractors and aren't on the seats at all when not being worn. 

Before that, they'd either slip down beside the seat (buckets) or just lay more or less back-to-front (benches). Or just fall in some random fashion if they were loose and limber enough. 

But carefully arranged in a perfect X? Never seen it! 

That's a big reason why I never add seat belts to a project.

Nobody ever used them back when I used to see cars from the '60s or 70s running around when I was young, so they got tucked into the seats.

Nobody ever left their seat belts laying across the seats.........ever!

 

 

Steve

[peteski]

10 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

That's a big reason why I never add seat belts to a project.

Nobody ever used them back when I used to see cars from the '60s or 70s running around when I was young, so they got tucked into the seats.

Nobody ever left their seat belts laying across the seats.........ever!

Steve

While I do not disagree that in everyday life people do not neatly arranged seat belts that way, but I seem to recall that I saw, multiple times,  lap belts arranged in "X" pattern on seats in cars displayed in cars shows or cruise nights.  So if you model a car at a car show, it is ok to model seat belts neatly arranged in the seat.

[Plowboy]

13 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

That's a big reason why I never add seat belts to a project.

Nobody ever used them back when I used to see cars from the '60s or 70s running around when I was young, so they got tucked into the seats.

Nobody ever left their seat belts laying across the seats.........ever!

 

 

Steve

Exactly! No one ever got out of a car, reached back in and neatly placed the seat belts before closing the door. It annoys me to see that on a full scale car at a show too! Until seat belt laws, they were tucked into the seats where they wouldn't be in the way and out of sight.

[slusher]

14 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

That's a big reason why I never add seat belts to a project.

Nobody ever used them back when I used to see cars from the '60s or 70s running around when I was young, so they got tucked into the seats.

Nobody ever left their seat belts laying across the seats.........ever!

 

 

Steve

When the buzzers started staying on my dad buckled the driver seat and tucked it...

[NOBLNG]

55 minutes ago, slusher said:

When the buzzers started staying on my dad buckled the driver seat and tucked it...

I have gone up under the dash and yanked that annoying buzzer right out!

[Tom Geiger]

My father was military and the US Army was a seat belt culture in the 1960s so from the time I remember all our cars had belts and we used them. And I carried on in life that way right up to today.

As far as belts in models I usually put them in unless they are early cars, 1950s and earlier, modeled in their period. 

I try to make them fit the personality of the build. Here is the seat from my Volare messenger car. Belts are messy and random. And as said in this thread I didn’t do the end that would be on a retractor. 
 

Here’s a street rod I did with Model Car Garage photo etch buckles.  Neatly placed, no retractors. Note that I add thickness to the buckle, a peeve of mine is those that don’t and the buckle just looks like a wafer!

[Snake45]

I like what you did there, Tom. 

Here was a tough case where I tried to do something similar.  '68 Javelin promo, with the belts molded into the seats and the seats molded into the tub. The belts were very faint to boot. Instead of trying to paint them, I cut the belts out of black vinyl tape. Tried to put a little "kink" in one of them for a little more candid look. Not perfect, but the best I could do. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

12 hours ago, slusher said:

When the buzzers started staying on my dad buckled the driver seat and tucked it...

You must be talking much later than I remember.

I don't remember any buzzers in any of my folks cars from when I was a kid.

 

I didn't even know that my 1:1 '69 Grand Prix had rear seat belts until I ripped the back seat out a few years ago to find them under the seat in a sea of dust and gunk!

 

 

 

 

Steve

[slusher]

8 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

You must be talking much later than I remember.

I don't remember any buzzers in any of my folks cars from when I was a kid.

 

I didn't even know that my 1:1 '69 Grand Prix had rear seat belts until I ripped the back seat out a few years ago to find them under the seat in a sea of dust and gunk!

 

 

 

 

Steve

The one I remember was his 72 Monte Carlo and my mother’s 74 Vega...

[Bucky]

My dad's '73 Dodge pickup had a buzzer. He did the "Click-N-Tuck" procedure with the driver's belt. Somewhere along the line, automatic interlocks came out, making it necessary to click the belt before you could start the car. And how about the "Hangman" belts? The ones that automatically belted you up when you shut the door?

[NOBLNG]

HEADS! Why can’t the kit manufacturers give us some proper locating pins on the heads instead of just some vague bumps. I always have to use the intake manifold as a gauge to get their positions correct. Usually I will wrap an elastic band around the four pieces to hold them until I can get the heads glued. I often don’t want to paint the manifold with the engine, and I don’t want to accidentally glue it in place either. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by NOBLNG

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, NOBLNG said:

HEADS! Why can’t the kit manufacturers give us some proper locating pins on the heads instead of just some vague bumps. I always have to use the intake manifold as a gauge to get their positions correct. Usually I will wrap an elastic band around the four pieces to hold them until I can get the heads glued. I often don’t want to paint the manifold with the engine, and I don’t want to accidentally glue it in place either. 

Ain't that the truth!

You pretty much have to glue the block, heads and intake all together in one shot if you want them aligned properly.

 

 

 

Steve

[slusher]

3 hours ago, Bucky said:

My dad's '73 Dodge pickup had a buzzer. He did the "Click-N-Tuck" procedure with the driver's belt. Somewhere along the line, automatic interlocks came out, making it necessary to click the belt before you could start the car. And how about the "Hangman" belts? The ones that automatically belted you up when you shut the door?

My 77 and 80 Dodge pickups buzzed for a few seconds then go out and was not a loud buzzer..

[Bucky]

I don't remember how long the buzzer lasted, but just a few seconds would have been enough to annoy my dad!! HAHAHA

[Bucky]

1 hour ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Ain't that the truth!

You pretty much have to glue the block, heads and intake all together in one shot if you want them aligned properly.

 

 

 

Steve

A side note to this one is that the two block halves don't line up flush with each other. One half sticks out far enough past the other one to be very noticeable, and makes the heads and intake not line up right. In those cases, I saw off the locator pins and slap the glue on and grip it with the clamps!

Edited April 2, 2020 by Bucky

[NOBLNG]

5 hours ago, Bucky said:

A side note to this one is that the two block halves don't line up flush with each other. One half sticks out far enough past the other one to be very noticeable, and makes the heads and intake not line up right. In those cases, I saw off the locator pins and slap the glue on and grip it with the clamps!

I’ve done that too. And then you’ve got to file the bottom flat so the oil pan doesn’t wobble.☹️