"Hi, my name is Mike and I have AMS"
"Hi Mike..."

Ok, so I am not a well man...but who else out there is also unwell..what is your worst AMS moment?

I just spent the last 1.5hrs, for a total today of about 3 hours on the rear entrance 'tunnel' of the BMP3 to dress up the SKif kit's bare bones. cutting, filing, and fitting two plates of spall liner armor and the bolts that hold them on place.

All in all about 16 pieces of evergreen sheet and strip per side and that's BEFORE adding the 16 Eduard PE pieces to each as well..

Let's just put it this way, even my WIFE is noticing me working on this kit and that I have not glued the hull roof on yet!

Sorry, no digicam or pic hosting or I'd shoot up some pics for you.

AMPS east is in 2 months.. I might make it..

So what's your AMS story?

Mike

Building the original Tamiya M1 OOB while in college (1985, bought it on AT at Ft. Drum in Watertown, NY). I was really proud of that kit even though my skills were still very basic back then (still kind of are).

When I enter active duty in 1987 at the Armor School in Ft. Knox, I brought the kit into class when we were doing the PMCS portion of the M1. We spent weeks crawling around the tank, servicing parts, learning how to operate things, etc. I used some of this time to jot down differences in the tank from the kit and various fixes required.

When I arrived in Germany, I started disassembling the kit to "accurize" it. I'd work on it a bit, set it aside, start up again, etc. This began in 1988 and I haven't finished it yet. I still take it out, do something on it, then put it back.

Most anal attempt was trying to use the link and length tracks from the old Esci kit to fix the center guide problem that the Tamiya tracks have. The Esci kit has the same problems, but since the tracks are plastic and not vinyl, I could cut off the center guides, and glue them in the proper position. Haven't finished that chore yet. Now Armour Track Models has a set of T-156 tracks out that I could use to fix up the M1. Do I want to spend $30 for a set of tracks for a 20 year old kit that's been tore up for 15 years?

Shee-it Rob, no freekin way bro! Just bite the bullet and find that round (or square) recycle file.

BTW, I have done this a couple of times. Even that one time when for some reason I gathered all the needed parts, added details, PE, turned AL, stolen wheels , resin zimmeret, plastic and metal tracks (tryign to decide) and a few set aside hours.

Then, DML shows up with their Panther D! #:-)

Remember that old like from "Paint your Wagon": "...out the windeo there she goes,..."

Dave

Hummmmm... so many tough ones to recall I guess. 1/35th scale vehicle log book, taking off and replacing all the tie-downs with Yoshida PE ones for an Italeri/Tamiya/Verlinden/Scratch M901but this is the only proof that I have of the dreaded AMS....



"The Ammo Crate:
This was a real mess. Hardly any detail at all. If you decide to show it in the open position, you'll have to do some work to it. I added 58 parts, mostly in the hinge areas with bolt heads added along with the two locking latches. I also added the rope handles, made from Amati ship rigging and I beefed up where they went with small strips of Evergreen styrene, beveled. I also scribed and re-scribed the wood grain."

I'm not worthy! You guys have got me beat by a landside. I don't have ANY story that comes close. The only sign of AMS I have is the time I spend on Armorama and checking the Hobby Lobby site every Saturday night at 11:30pm to see if there is anything good on sale the following week.

Hmmm, my worst AMS moment has to be my Finnish T-26. I started it long ago from a Spojnia 7tp kit + the old MB Models T-26 conversion. Finally decided to finish it about a year ago. Through in some Modelkasten non-workable tracks, roadwheels from a Mirage T-26 late kit, fenders from the Zvesda T-26 kit, Eduard PE, turned barrel and you have a T-26! TO cap it off, I decided to scratch an early Soviet jack (big thing, looks like a block of wood with a handle). Looked simple, found some photos and went for it. 100 parts later, I had a jack!

I had a few kits like that, but figured it was easier to buy the greatly improved ones and give the kids in my scout troop the old ones. That's me "Daddy Steve" As they say in the commercial "priceless"

LMAO, that's what I thought, you guys are nuts.... well me too then. #:-) My FAMO has not been finished because I still can't get all the AM I need, it had been almost 6 months now!

Da Truth and AMS Induced Never Finished Models are outta there.

Mmmmmm -- good question.

I did the Alan SU-76M kit a few years back. Rebuilt the gun breach and barrel, redid the entire interior, replaced the fenders and exhaust/intakes, and carved a sliver of plastic from each of the two guide horns on the inside of hundreds of individual track links so that they could fit over the road wheels. Scratchbuilt more parts than I want to remember.

I kit-bashed and scratchbuilt a Sherman Crab mine flail tank a few years back. It took several false-starts and rebuilds before I was happy with it.

A current project is an M4 with complete front-to-back interior. This is going to be another one of those projects where I put tons of work into an interior, then no one will be able to see 3/4 of it when it's all done. I'm thnking about making it into a cut-away model, but just can't figure out where I would cut the holes and not make it look stupid.