Howdy all,

I was just thinking about switching back to my Academy Tiger 1 kit (while a piece of my 'Untouchable' is drying) to reattack the placement of the exhaust stack vertical supports. You know, the itty-bitty little 'twigs' of plastic that support the pancake shaped top plate on the exhaust pipes. And I thought..."I hate those things!"
Which brings me to the creation of this Thread. I believe a similar thread was started regarding the things we find difficult in building tanks in general, but what I'd like to ask is this:
Every specific model kit, or a specific manufacturer's kit has some specific 'pet peeve' that drives you nuts. Some part of the assembly or building process that sometimes really detracts from the overall enjoyment of building the kit. Which is it for you?
Me, I just named one. I don't mind the road wheels so much as I just hate dealing with those darn 'twigs' on the Tiger!!! The rest of the kit is just great, it's just those little damn twigs!!
I could name quite a few in the aircraft category, but......it's your turn.....anybody?

Tread.

I'll have to go with....road wheels. At least at this early part of my modeling life.

Sorry that one's so generic. I'm sure I'll have more pet peeves (besides why I'll never understand women =D) as time marches on.

DML instruction sheet drive me nuts - for some reason, I find them much harder to read than instructions from other manufacturers.

How 'bout the fact that nearly every kit starts with the assembly/painting of the roadwheels...what a drag.

Oh yes, and trying to glue down vinyl treads onto your laboriously painted roadwheels is no picnic either!

Mine would be with model companies that put link-to-link track in kits of light armor, mainly late 30's, early WW2. The links are very small, are at times to delicate to remove from the sprue and have no glueing surface. The main culprits are companies from the former Soviet Union.

I'm not too fond of "link and length" tracks. Italeri put them in their Jagdpanther and the eastern european kit makers (RPM and Mirage, in particular) use them also. They can be kind of tough to get them to fit properly.

My pet peeve is over scaled parts made to "work" like hatch hinges. Make an accurate hinge and make the hatch positionable (glue it open or closed), byt trying to trap the hatch pins into a mechanism that would be the scale size of man's arm is ridiculous. That was my main complaint with some early DML kits and the Heller kits of old.

UNBOXED SPONSONS!!!

I love Tamiya kits. A lot of their older kits are as good as anything released today, but WHY are there gaping holes in the bottom of the sponsons!?!?!!

Work is another pet peeve. I have no time for modelling these days. It's final exam/paper/excuse time.

sigh

I have to agree with SABOT on the early DML kits. I had to completely rebuild the hatch hinges on their BTR70 on what was to be completely OOB.

I hate road wheels, and I put them togther first to get them out of the way. I also hate sick holes, which are prevelent on old Tamiya and Italeri kits. I also hate those seam lines that plague older kits, it can takes away from the time that I can put the darn thing together!!

What peeves me?
1. Open sponsons on a $39 Sherman.
2. Seam lines/joints right next to raised details that get thrashed in cleaning up the seam/joint.
3. Selection of figures, accessories, and the like for the Germans is sufficent to model an entire pnazer division. Stuff readily available for Allied armor seems to be inadequate for a platoon, at times.
4. Ok, I have to hate road wheels too...especially if they have rubber tires, ane cannot be rotated easily for touch-up once installed.
5. Kit engineering that provides insufficient support for the secure attachment of subassemblies--DML's HVSS, for example.
6. Also have to hate work as an unconscionable interruption of modeling.

Greg

okay now that the subject has been breeched. I........ HATE....HATE....HATE...PETER PAN"..OOP's Wrong subject.. Sorry Capt Hook...No But I really hate when you get a kit that costs over $30.00s and once you begin building you dicscover that a critical part is warped beyound useability. And you do'nt know how to fix the problem. SORRY GUY'S I did not know about this site at the time. Had I. I'm pretty certain that the whole project could have been saved. As is It met an untimely end. AND I will 2nd even 3rd the Dispisement of holes in the end of box bottoms. i.e. sponsons. where does this make any sense?? Just so you can loose REALLY Little itty, bitty, parts. that "REALLY" matter to the project. It's INSANE...

DAGGER: A weapon with a short pointed Blade: "THE CUTTING EDGE"

I hate molded shafts, poles, gun tubes, etc. that are molded out of register, and when you finally get the seam flat and smooth you discover that the cross section is now that of a severely retarded egg. I hate that! I am now going to make the plunge into AM gun barrels, but I could live without having to replace every pole and handle of every tank with wire or plastic rod.

I also hate the way work cuts into my quality modelling time. That is so wrong.

My sentiments exactly!

I'm with ARENGCA on this one - mold-shift bugs me too. I can understand milking the molds for all 'ya can get but geez!

Gunnie

This one's easy: road wheels that aren't detailed on both sides.

Another pet peeve: those stupid motorization holes, though thank goodness that seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

I also wonder why model companies can't make decent headlights. It seems to me that they could provide hollow housings and lenses like MV makes. Tamiya's Dragon Wagon kit at least provided chrome inner lenses with clear covers. That's better than most kits provide.

Then don't look at any Trumpeter kit or the "new" re-boxed Tamiya like the M-41 or M-42, these are reissued with gear boxes and I saw several high-end Tamiya 1/35 kits (Tigers) that are packaged with RC equipment that are running $100+.

To thick a plastic that makes it sink when it cools. Like the SU-76 from Maquette ,by the time you get it fillled and leveled you might of well just replace it and with the sink holes by detailed parts that are impossible to remove without totaly destroying the whole thing . Road wheels don't bother me that much unless they are the rubber kind as used on latter T-34 type 85s which I have built a bunch of.

The one major thing that gets on my nerves, is bad part fit. GRRRR Nothing's worse than paying 20 bucks for a kit and then finding out that you'll have to spend at least that much to fill all the seams. The kit should at least fit together....

YodaMan
hungry am I

Ouch. I guess sometimes it's good to be poor. As a genuine cheap SOB, who builds STATIC scale models, I can't pay that kind of money for a plastic model. Heck, I can't see paying that for a resin model. I guess I'll always be limited by my budget, and always by my need to "try-to-make-it-before-I-buy-it" attitude to aftermarket.

BTW, I've been around long enough to know what Tamiya re-issues to avoid

Anyone want to buy a Tamiya Panzer III, Ausf. M/N?

Agree I do Yodaman. I get pissed when I have cleaned up seams and then go to line up the parts and ARRGH! they don't fit.

As you can tell I hate, hate this!

I also agree with the "little track links on the small tanks comment" man there is a lot of flash on the Maquette Panzer 38(t) links I'm putting together now. Sigh, maybe thats why it isn't done yet.

MSW

What ticks me off is on the Sherman kits is no one puts the bolt hole strips on the hull sides and rear If Academy can do it for the M113 series why can't they do it for the Shermans?Also on the Tamiya shermans why can't they make grab handles and periscope guards like Italeri does? Another thing no sherman kits except the Academy M10 And M12 have the u-shaped towing clevises
Chad

Instructions that have arrows... with no way to align the part... since there are no mounting pegs on the pieces and the reference photos do not show the part of the kit... Or.. highly detailed parts that simply do not fit (mostly older eastern European kits).

my complaints are:
1). link-to-link track, wish they could be made workable or strip and link.
2). so-called experts who nitpick over everything.
3). dragon should make crew figures for their tanks and afv's
4). clean up resin parts a bit
5). sinkholes suck!
i love this hobby!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

My Pet Peeves are :

Individual Track Link, simply hate them. The time I put into them, I rather making Modelkasten tracks. So, all my dragon AFVs are now using Modelkasten tracks. Anyone would like to buy some Dragon Individual track link from me?

Other than that, I have nothing really dislike about modelling.

i dont mind putting the time in as long as i get good results