Shawn Quillen shares with us a build review of the RPM German Minenraumer.

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Thanks!

I confess to be somewhat surprized that about anyone would do this old thing, given as we now have a much more up-to-date kit available! But my hat is off to you, Sir, for tackling this!

The difficulties you reported in this build are, alas, almost the typical litany for these elderly Polish / eastern-bloc kits, so, by me, pretty much just what I would expect to see. Rough fit, iffy labels and part-numbering (if any at all), oft-times soft detail, etc. But, on the plus side, these folks have done up many things which have seldom, if ever, emerged from other makers, so they do have a niche for subjects not attainable elsewhere. And you have to admit that this kit is of a "different" subject indeed! And your outcome looks to have been quite respectable.

As an aside, I was amused to see someone actually say that assembling a Dragon kit was "easy" - even in comparison, let alone as an experiential referent! Ever try a Tamiya thing?

Bob

A complete dog of a kit, and one that should really be avoided like the plague.

But that said, you are to be commended and congratulated for sticking at it, and producing a decent result at the end.

I had one of these a few years back, got about a quarter of the way through assembly and then binned it. That is something I seldom do to any kit, but I would have felt very bad about foisting it off on some other unsuspecting modeller. But it really was that bad.

Thankfuly the recent Meng release looks to be FAR superior to this abomination, and so should render it completely redundant.

- Steve

Steve, while I agree kit can be, shall we say, challenging , I think your assessment is a bit harsh. It just takes time, patience, and a bit of skill. Shawn seems to have gotten through it pretty well. And, as you can see in this picture, so did I:

Thank you all for the comments! I must admit that when I purchased this kit I was still a little naive about the varying quality of brands on the market. I would love to build the Meng kit sometime in the future to do a real build comparison.