My point in this discussion is that WE ARE lucky to have all the high tech kits of today- they shouldn't be taken for granted. Even if one is confronted by a badly engineered kit, there's no reason why the problems couldn't be worked out with a little bit of thought and some patience. It's quite possible that the bean counters at DRAGON might have gotten into the act with the engineering department regarding cost overruns in the design phase of their T28 project? Bean counters can and will ruin anybody's day; The bean counters' jobs are to keep the cost of doing business as low as possible, so quality will inevitably suffer in the end... My point in comparing 1950s through 1990s models to what WE ARE EXTREMELY FORTUNATE to have here in the 21st Century, is entirely relevant to the discussion at hand; Some of the often frustrating DRAGON kits are STILL much better than the stuff we had to deal with years ago. I cannot stress the credo enough regarding difficult, badly engineered and frustrating kits: "ADAPT, OVERCOME and IMPROVISE"... I'm sure that you'll experience the rewards of some extra pride and a sense of accomplishment in your work after having successfully completed an especially recalcitrant project...

I dunno though how the comparison holds. I was building models in the 70's and the average tank kit had like what, 3 parts and some tracks? And information was less prevalent, so detailing was an awful lot less extensive than today. I'd also suggest that the state of the art for detailing was a lot less advanced as well. in other words, we tolerated a heck of a lot less accuracy back then, building kits that would be intolerable if they came out today. I remember when the 70's Tamiya 1/35th kits seemed like hyperdetailed masterpieces. . .

I'd also suggest its not out of bounds to expect a kit with vastly greater complexity than a kit from the 90's to have good fitting parts and usable instructions. Mind you, I am OK with buying kits that require some TLC and scratchbuilding and putty work but I reserve the right to complain a bit when a $70-100+ kit has glaring traps in the instructions, major pieces that don't fit, or PE that is both inaccurate and borderline impossible to use (Dragon T28, I'm looking at you. . .).