What's your "unicorn?"

[FactoryStock54]

In "Gone in 60 Seconds" it's Eleanor, the 67 Shelby Mustang GT that our intrepid car-thief/hero can never get away with clean. . .

But what about a model you try and try and try to get right and just can't?

My model unicorn is the old AMT 63 Avanti. . .no matter how close I come I just can't get it. It's the one kit in my adult life that drives me up the wall (often because of the tricky glass). I despair of ever bringing one to a satisfactory conclusion.

I have a well-done chasis with a beautifully wired engine and have painted/foiled several bodies as well as I've ever done anything. . .but there's just something that evades me about this kit!

What are some of your model unicorns?

[evilone]

mine is the revell lowrider caddy kit everytime i build one something always tells me to redo it

it might be the fact that i own a 89 caddy or something but it makes me mad when i get a good paint job on it then put it into the purple pond for the reason that it don't look right

[Guest 66dragfreak]

Minw has to be the old '86 Monte Carlo SS kit from Monogram. Having owned over a dozen of the 1:1 cars, I knew what the cars looked like firsthand but could never get the "right" look on the models I built. Can't really explain why they never looked right, but I was never satisfied with the end results. I have since packed the dozen or so Monte kits away and moved on to other kits of interest and havn't had this issue with anything else I've tackled...so far, that is.

[MrObsessive]

Minw has to be the old '86 Monte Carlo SS kit from Monogram. Having owned over a dozen of the 1:1 cars, I knew what the cars looked like firsthand but could never get the "right" look on the models I built.

I always thought that the finished product sat too high off the ground. That's a problem that plagues a lot of Revell/Monogram kits.

It's like they overcompensate for the suspensions to make sure the model doesn't have a tight fit?

[Lownslow]

lindberghs 1948 lincoln i have yet to complete one

[gasman]

Revell 06 Mustang, I scrapped the first two, i'm on #3

[FloridaBoy]

I never heard these cars referred to as 'Unicorns" but the term is so apt Mine are two cars which every time I tried to build them a catastrophe hit.

61 Ford Styline

My firstunicorn is a 61 Ford Galaxie Styline Kit. My first one I built with the styline add-ons way back in '61 when it came out, and painted it my very first two tone, candy apple red on the body and white top. Sounds OK but it looked horrible, so I took it apart, and sectioned it, and opened and hinged the doors, and put in an engine compartment. I even sectioned the front headlight roll pan attachment to keep it proportional, and the body work worked the first time. One Thursday night when my parents were watching "Perry Mason" I got bored and fell asleep on the floor, and rolled over on the car totally demolishing it. I too, was demolished.

Then in 63, when hit with the surfing bug, I found another Styline kit in my surf shop which also sold bicycles and hobbies. He was so tired of looking at it, and gave it to me when I ordered my board. Great!!!! Off to a positive start. I again sectioned it, and actually got it painted and built, to enter it into a car contest and it was stolen. Bummer.

In 1970, I finally found a third kit, and again sectioned it, opened the doors, and used the more detailed frame and components from 63 Ford, installed a Revell parts 427 motor, had it primed and ready to paint and assemble, and my wife accidentally threw it in the trash when I was hospitalized. I think I found a 4th kit, including the styline parts, but dagnabit I am a little reluctant to usher in a fourth disaster.

59 Ford Craftsman

There must be a curse on me with late fifties and early sixties Ford customs, but another one, a 62 Skyliner Convertible did win 2 Pactra trophies and is now in the Model Car Museum in Salt Lake City.

The 59 Ford was an old kit I had on the shelves for many years unbuilt. It was a streetside AMT model, crafted by the original AMT 3in1 tool. Still grieving from my 61, I sectioned this one, sectioned the grille and bumpers to make them unicolor with the body, opened the trunk and hood, and used components from the 57 Ford kit which fit like a glove. It too met its end with the Galaxie when my now ex-wife tossed out by accident a number of projects in the garage.

I just landed a 59 Ford original 3in1 from Wayne Stevens at a contest, and it is done up, like we used to when these came out, with turnpike cruiser skirts, scoops, glue on louvers, decals all over, moons, scallops and race numbers and continental kit, to really create an unpainted cluttered custom. I am taking photos of it now, before deconstruction, and then will customize it and try to recreate it like I originally intended on the first. It will be sectioned, with sectioned grille area, new headlight lenses, rolled pans, 57 Ford components, and another Ford 427 motor, which will fit into the engine compartment. I plan to make it pearl white, pearl blue two tone, and really make it a smooth looking car, but leaving the side chrome under the spear.

So, here I am old guy I am, fighting off the willies when it comes to curses and model cars, wouldn't you thnk?

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Clay]

I guess I havent really been building that long to have a unicorn I guess. Well, its never just one kit, mess up the paint on one, break a needed part on the other. And plus I havent built the from the many companies that there were/is. I have only built AMT and Revell with a few Linberg kits in there some where.

But to show that it can be done.

[FactoryStock54]

I guess I havent really been building that long to have a unicorn I guess. Well, its never just one kit, mess up the paint on one, break a needed part on the other. And plus I havent built the from the many companies that there were/is. I have only built AMT and Revell with a few Linberg kits in there some where.

But to show that it can be done.

Oh great! Rub it in why don'tcha?

But seriously, excellent work on those Avantis (I love all things Stude). The one I was working on most recently was supposed to be metallic green (Tamiya TS color, looked sweet!) but that didn't work out so I ended up using Tamiya TS Silver Leaf which also looked great, except for exposing every last flaw on the surface of the model (which I hadn't noticed!)

I guess I have enough parts to go back and try and finish it, but right now I'm so gol-durned frustrated that I think I need to just box it up and put it away for a couple more years.

I think I can safely say that I HATE just about every single one of the old AMT kits with opening doors, though this is the only one that's managed to fluster me so much; I've done good work on the '56 Crown Vic, the '57 Fairlane and the '58 Impala, but each one has some weird little flaw related to the body warping out of alignment due to those stinkin' opening doors!

Maybe I just need an extended vacaction!

[Clay]

Oh great! Rub it in why don'tcha?

But seriously, excellent work on those Avantis (I love all things Stude). The one I was working on most recently was supposed to be metallic green (Tamiya TS color, looked sweet!) but that didn't work out so I ended up using Tamiya TS Silver Leaf which also looked great, except for exposing every last flaw on the surface of the model (which I hadn't noticed!)

I guess I have enough parts to go back and try and finish it, but right now I'm so gol-durned frustrated that I think I need to just box it up and put it away for a couple more years.

I think I can safely say that I HATE just about every single one of the old AMT kits with opening doors, though this is the only one that's managed to fluster me so much; I've done good work on the '56 Crown Vic, the '57 Fairlane and the '58 Impala, but each one has some weird little flaw related to the body warping out of alignment due to those stinkin' opening doors!

Maybe I just need an extended vacaction!

Sorry I just had to do it, but the one on the right was built by Raul Perez as a gift.

And you and I see eye to eye about studes, and you would like my father-in-law. I just wish they made more Stude models, like a truck maybe....

[kk916]

amt/ertl 59 el camino I've built 4 now and they keep going in the parts box.

[62SS]

AMT 56 Ford Victoria.

I've built this 4 or 5 times and it never looks right,

Ed

[Scott H.]

My Unicorn isn't exactly one kit per say, but a collection of smaller models...

For the life of me, I just haven't been able to get a Diorama to look right to save my life!

I have a drafting back ground, so planning everything out on paper has never been a real problem for me. It's just getting everything from 2D to 3D that I never have been all that great at. I have full plans on remedying the problem though as I'm going to get one right if it kills me!

Hopefully it's not going to take running a '72 Mustang Sportroof into a light pole on a highway (original) or jumping a '67 Mustang GT500 over a crash scene (remake) for me to get it right!

-Scott H.

[Harold]

....and there were several. The Trumpeter Monte Carlo is in that purgatory right now. The engine (?) in this thing looks like a 750 CID monster (and was replaced by the V-6 from the Monogram El Camino), and the front suspension is too fiddly for my liking. Also, my '57 Chrysler has been hanging in that limbo between "great paint- when you gonna finish it?" and "When you gonna finish it"?

[Farmer Wilding]

I'd agree the AMT Avanti is a tricky one. I love Studes too. I've been building for 40 years, and I find I have to distinguish between "tricky" and "well-nigh impossible"

The old AMT kits with opening doors and such can be tricky, but the problems with the doors can usually be solved by careful fitting and trimming before painting and asemby - says he who hardly ever does this!! I love the old '56 Ford kit - I've built about eight - though now that I think about it the doors usually don't fit properly, but as I never show my models that's never bothered me.

My unicorns would have to be kits which have taken 20+ years to build. No, not Pochers (never tried one!); kits that I've got stuck on, and put away in disgust, to revisit them years later. So what fits into that category, you ask?

Well, there was the Otaki 1/20 scale Datsun 240Z (Fairlady Z432) from the seventies. I started it before I was married - we celebrated out 24th anniversary last month. It's still not finished, but only needs some BMF now. This one was a unicorn for several reasons. Firstly, the electrics. It's motorised for forward and reverse, as well as working headlights. Trying to feed those wires front to back where they wouldn't show was no fun. I think everything will work, but I have no intention of putting batteries in it to drive the fruit of my not-inconsiderable labour. Then there were the seats. Working reclining seats sound great, but there's no friction in the mechanism, so they instantly fallback to the fully-reclined position. I stuffed up the paint - but that's not the kit's fault. And then, when I got it all together, I find you can see the ground through the side windows - despite the opening doors, there are half-inch gaps between the firewall and the centre console, and between the battery box under the hatch and the side of the body. UNICORN!

Then there was the old 1/24 Pyro VW Beetle. It sorta,kinda went together OK, but despite the opening trunk with luggage, there were no trunk side panels so you could see the wheels as soon as you opened the trunk. Same in back with the engine.

My biggest unicorn at the moment is more like a rhinoceros. Well, mentally, anyway. It's the Heller 1/16 scale Citroen DS. Has anyone else tried this? It has a lot of things right, until you go to install the body on the chassis - and find the rear seat and parcel shelf doesn't want to tuck up into that tight tapered tail. Unicorn? Yep - 30 years and counting.....

[Jantrix]

Apparantly my unicorn is my 300C Deathracer. I've gone so completely off the deep end with it, I can't stand to look at it.

[Peter Lombardo]

A few years ago I was at the NNL East and saw a magnificent build of a stock Shelby Series One Roadster by, I think, A Philadelphia modeler named Andy Such ( I could be wrong, but I think that was the guy). I thought, wow, what a great looking car. I took some photos of it and went into the vender section and brought one because I wanted to build one as good as that one on the table. Wrong.

What I found was a beautifully designed kit but boy is it a difficult kit to get right. The sub assembles look great until you try and combine them…man is it fiddly to fit together. I, just to be different, added a C5 Corvette hardtop to the car (that worked out great), but the hood would not work or fit properly, the front and rear lower roll pans were extremely difficult to fit without gaps, the interior did not want to fit properly into the body and the wheels were way too far below the proper location (car sat way too high).

Now the car sits, in a few strategic pieces on a shelf in my workroom as a reminder to me every time I think I am getting too good at this.

[VW Dave]

The nearest to a 'unicorn' for me is the AMT Meyers Manx. I bought an unbuilt one a few years back...for more than I care to say....because I wanted to replicate my 1:1 original Manx:

I have since painted and stripped it twice, because matching the 1968 metalflake gelcoat has proven tricky to say the least. I seem to get either the color OR the flake size right, but not both at the same time. To date I've spent nearly half the kit price again on paint.

[Foxer]

I never heard these cars referred to as 'Unicorns" but the term is so apt Mine are two cars which every time I tried to build them a catastrophe hit.

61 Ford Styline

... One Thursday night when my parents were watching "Perry Mason" I got bored and fell asleep on the floor, and rolled over on the car totally demolishing it. I too, was demolished.

... I again sectioned it, and actually got it painted and built, to enter it into a car contest and it was stolen. Bummer.

....In 1970, I finally found a third kit, .... had it primed and ready to paint and assemble, and my wife accidentally threw it in the trash

59 Ford Craftsman

The 59 Ford .........met its end with the Galaxie when my now ex-wife tossed out by accident a number of projects in the garage.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

OMG!!!! This is the saddest story I've ever heard! (I did notice the EX- wife reference) They could make a TV series based on this ...

Edited March 15, 2009 by Foxer

[Foxer]

My Unicorn is a 59 Chevy hardtop. I had a white on red one and this was to be the miniature version. It's been done for 15 years except for the BMF. I think it had 15 miles of chrome and my mileage is not what it used to be. What gave me the problem was the tail fins.. getting the foil around those corners without creases.

[FujimiLover]

I guess the closest to a unicorn for me would be my beloved Koenig Specials Comfort "Testarossa" models by Fujimi. They are very nicely detailed, and well built. Every one I've worked on I've had difficulty getting right. The amount of parts to complete the downpipes, air-intakes/exits, exaust pipes was very complicated to fit all together. Also, the paint didn't turn out the way I wanted to. The best one was my white convertible, but it fell off the shelfe and broke.

I tried doing an Italian Red one a while back, but the red looked too flat and when assembling the body, those details some how messed up the paint work. I've yet to perfect one and been able to keep it for the long run.

Also, yellow paint. I hate yellow cars in general, but sometimes when doing an exotic sports car, yellow works. However, yellow paint has always looked horrible for me.

The most successful color's for me are the metallics, particularly gun-metal gray's. NEVER paint red directly on primer. At least for me, it always turns out looking flat. If I want a red car, I use primer, white base coat, then red coat, then clear coat.

Edited March 15, 2009 by FujimiLover

[Rick Schmidt]

Mine was the AMT 67 Mustang. Every time I built this car it either looked like Junk or got turned into Junk by a disaster of some sorts been trying to build these cars for well over 10 years and between my early lack of skills ( like I have any now lol) and outside sources they are all parts now Except for one. I had just got two of them finally looking nice in a burgandy paint and all stock and all when my wife decided a can of paint needed to go in the room by air mail the two 67s were taken out not by the spraying paint but by the can itself. That can came down square on top of one 67 and wrecked the tail end of the other, by hitting the trunk rear panel and seriously screwing up the suspension. That car is actually how I think I conquered it tho I figured since disaster already struck the car that was out of the way and if I wanted it to look bad that would solve that This car is that survivor Hopefully I can keep it under the radar of the forces working against me having this car