I don't bin kits. Just don't. I can always find a way to fix it and finish it. Really.

I can count the number of kits I abandoned before finishing on my fingers.

I did yesterday. An Italeri Jagdpanzer IV L/70. It was a deal. It needed help.and I dug into the spares to dress it up. Even did it in ambush camouflage. Then I got to the tracks. Link to link.

There was no problem, they went together great. I thought I could snake them on with the kit all assembled. A whole lot of pain and pieces broken off but they were on. Then I put on the sprocket. The tracks were backwards.

Take them off-- wait check it again try the sprocket. No, they're not backwards. Why won't it fit?


Yes, they are backwards and they aren't coming off, now they're going to pieces.

Screw it.

I put it on the floor and stomped on it.

Why do I put myself through this?

Last one I stomped was a Fujimi F7U Cutless. Came out so nice and Fujimi decals stink. Just wouldn't settle on the compound curves. Setting solution time. Tore off the paint. Really bad. To having to strip it. It got worse. I had done it natural metal. Do I strip and repaint? Wait I can make this work. Nope. Onto to floor and STOMP. If only I'd gone with full grey and white.

I binned a couple of armor kits the worst being MP Models M50. That thing was horrible, it didn't have mold lines, it had mold mountains like the molds opened part way thru the injection process.

I’ve only trashed one model in my modeling lifetime. But I’ve come close on some others. Before Trumpeter released their 1/350 “collection” of WWII era Essex class carriers, the only other game in town was the very bad Lindberg 1/420 version, variously kitted as the Yorktown or generic Essex class. I worked off and on for two years on the hull, deck, island and catwalks, and pondered the air group mightily (the 14 or so “Hellcats” that came with the kit were really nothing more than stub slab wings on rectangular tube fuselages). It was a mess. When I was assigned to ROK in 2000, I took this mess with me, thinking I “might” get some bench time on it between my duties as the base commander.
One late Saturday afternoon a few months before 9/11, I was working on some latex molds for the scratchbuilt TBFs I was building, which were not coming out of the molds properly. I accidentally bumped my home built bench perched over the laundry room sink, and knocked mold material all over the aft end of the model. I started to clean it off with water, but realized all my efforts were just yielding a mediocre looking Essex anyway. In a fit of frustration, I just dumped the whole damn thing, box and all into the nearby laundry room trash bin. The next Monday, my Addishe (houseboy) took it out to the main trash bin
Story over right? Not so fast—About three weeks later, my wife and I are walking through the downtown Taegu (where we were stationed) outdoor market, and lo and behold, what should I behold in a pile of junk at one of the vendors stands— the very same kit, box and all. Out of curiosity, I picked it up and opened the box to see two years of my handiwork peering sadly back at me— but whoever fished it out of the trash had rigged it with sewing thread, and rattle can painted he whole thing a bright metallic blue— right over the solidified latex mold material! After 9/11, things were rather hectic, so I figured I’d never have gotten the time to finish that dog of a kit anyway. The moral of the story— even though you bin something, it might come back to haunt you!
VR, Russ

LOL. Back in the '90's a buddy of mine was in Itaewon and bought some $9 Reeboks. When he got home, he realized that they were too small and took them to a local shoe store and tried to exchange them. Picked the wrong store, the salesman pointed out that every section of the shoe was from a different model of sneaker, about the only thing that was authentic was the logo. Apparently some industrious folks were pulling shoe scraps out of the trash and sewing then together for unsuspecting tourists and GIs.

My first binned model I must of been 11 or so. It was Renwal's Ontos. The barrels kept drooping and wouldn't line up straight. My solution was MORE GLUE ! It turned into a gloopy mess and in the trash it went. I was pretty upset about it. A dollar or so back in '63 or 64 was a lot of money to me.
Now, kits I don't finish end up in my "Box of Shame". A part of me thinks that one day I'll return to the kit and correct and finish what ever issue I had with the kit. The other part of me says, "who are you BSing?"
Anyway, lately I've been returning to the "BoS" and digging out a kit and finishing it. Some are shelf worthy and others get used for painting & weathering experiments.
Stephen, don't worry too much. You are not alone !

I think of model kits as people. if you don't p*55 one off on occasion, you're not trying hard enough.

I got some NIKE Air Max running shoes in Iteawon back in summer of 91. Saw them while we were walking through the district for $10, since I had bought a pair from Clothing Sales for $110 I knew they weren't legit. We got back to Zoeckler Station and compared them to my legit ones. They kinda looked like the real thing but the air tubes, visible through a window in the sole, were a solid clear substance the consistency of hardened silicon. Wore them casually until the first time they got wet where they promptly fell apart. I love kimchee copies.

I always consider something like this to be a message from the universe telling me that it's the appropriate time to go and get a replacement model.