Have you ever found a kit so horrible...

[English Electric]

... you don't actually know what to do with it?

This happened to me last night - as I mentioned in a previous post I'm building what amounts to some of the surplus, less-glamorous kits in my stash (think some awful Novoexport stuff etc etc) to hang from my son's ceiling... anyway, having temporarily shelved the Frog P-38 I have for a more comprehensive build, I dug out what I thought would be a quick fix... the Aoshima Helldiver.

Not only is it in a scale unknown to man, festooned with rivets and looks just wrong from every angle, it's beyond belief in terms of moulding, fit and detailing plus clear parts with huge injection marks in them, with the one good point being the box.

Mercifully I didn't pay anything for this - I was given it with a load of other Aoshima kits, that I'm now scared to look at in case something bites me. The Helldiver I just don't know what to do with...

So - my question is, have you ever opened the box and found something inside that just makes you want to hiss and take up a less stressful hobby, such as tree surgery or origami?

Chris

[Beowulf Shaeffer]

got one at the mo.....airfix centurian.............i think it might end up in the bin along side the aifix panther

[JamesPerrin]

Merlin Models Lightning P1. Bought as I was intrigued, currently being sold as I got better things to do with my life than try and build it. A knock off of the Frog kit with vague vacform fuselage halves and incredibly crude injection moulded wings and tailplane. The white metal parts are it's only redeeming feature as they are just about usable.

[Dirkpitt289]

Enchore Mig 3. nuf said....

[Lyell72planes]

Some Polish and Russian kits I was disappointed after buying them.
The model subject was interesting but kit quality and fit was bad.
Still built them though. Lyell..

[MerlinJones]

Just the once...a KP L-39.
Absolutely nothing fitted and I realised that, although there weren't many parts, each one would have to be seriously re-shaped.The decals weren't fit for any purpose whatsoever and I only kept the canopy. This was the only kit I have ever thrown away.

Regards,
Bruce

[ian lanc]

Fonderie Minitures 1/48th Handley Page Hampden and Halifax ! great looking models *when* they are finished
but most modellers are in for a shock for what was in the box.

[carlos]

Many horror stories from my teens - though it was so long ago, I can't really remember specific kits (A SERIOUSLY warped Airfix Wellington springs to mind)
But I always built them, no matter how horrible.

Since I got back into this last October, the worst I've come across is the Airfix RE-8, which is currently about 95% done (just some touching up and flat coat left)
Apart from being VERY basic and having lots of small parts and supports simply not there......
Fuselage halves didn't match-up, huge gaps when fitting wings, tail, etc, oversize locating holes, flash of epic proportions (to the point of obscuring the ends of some parts) - observer's machine gun support would be about 5 or 6 inches thick, if scaled up - and the pilots are just laughable.
Wing struts didn't fit - I fixed the forward fuselage to wing struts first, and ended up having to trim all the rest of them to get the upper wing to sit right - Pilots are so bad I left them out, so had to fashion some basic interior bits (seats etc) out of plasticine.

A massive amount of fiddling about, just to get it to look merely 'OK'

[Softscience]

I'm with Chris, regarding Aoshima kits. They're horrendous!

[Chris]

The one I just started, a Smer RE 2000.

Any resembalnce to a precision scale model is strickly co-incedence.

[Chris]

Aoshima actually makes some pretty good 1/48 aircraft, I have built a decent hellcat and corsair from their kits.

[arni]

But a horrible kit that was good for nothing other than spray-practice was the PM Spitfire Vb. I got all excited about this at the time I got it because it had a Vokes filter. I wish I'd looked in the box first.

I had the float plane version,I actualy stuck with it for a couple of weeks.Then something snapped- me! and it was scrapped,but I kept the floats.I will never buy another P.M.Models kit..

[T-21]

Airfix Tiger Moth springs too mind crying out to be retooled ? Better to convert to a DH.53 Humming Bird. Heller P-47N but I got suckered in as their is a set of Falcon P-47 canopies in the box,so not too bad.

[splash]

The MP Sabre 1/72 it's a dog.



Regards
Splash

[airjim]

The MP Sabre 1/72 it's a dog.

Wow Splash, someone actually built the PM Sabre?

Jim