Nic
Armor/AFV
For discussions on tanks, artillery, jeeps, etc.
For discussions on tanks, artillery, jeeps, etc.
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model pet peeves
Folgore
Joined: May 31, 2002
KitMaker: 1,109 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Monday, August 19, 2002 - 08:23 AM UTC
Just found a new one today. The sprockets on the sprocket wheels of my Zvezda M13/40 are unevenly spaced. As a result, it is impossible to get them properly aligned all the way through. Doesn't help with putting the tracks on, that's for sure.
Nic
Nic
Posted: Monday, August 19, 2002 - 10:41 PM UTC
I bought the Maquette Marder lll, very nice kit by the way- BUT, their are some $%#@)! sinkholes in the interior of the kit, and the interior is very nice. It is too bad that the eastern European manufacturers do not have better quality control. They have subjects that no one else even thinks about, but they rush things before they inspect their work.
Chris
Pig no.1
Chris
Pig no.1 
210cav
Joined: February 05, 2002
KitMaker: 6,149 posts
Armorama: 4,573 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 12:39 AM UTC
Here's another to chew on. The holes in the hull caused by the desire of someone to put an engine and batteries in Tamiya models. I hate them.
DJ
DJ
GunTruck
Joined: December 01, 2001
KitMaker: 5,885 posts
Armorama: 3,799 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 12:41 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Here's another to chew on. The holes in the hull caused by the desire of someone to put an engine and batteries in Tamiya models. I hate them.
DJ
Ditto! Those are a pain to fill back in...
Gunnie
Bravo-Comm
Joined: March 20, 2002
KitMaker: 525 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 12:57 AM UTC
I Totally Agee !! I hate it when they do that. I wish they wiould not put those in them. Or if they do. Then do it for only specific kits that are set up for that type of kit and not for a static kit.DAGGER-1
210cav
Joined: February 05, 2002
KitMaker: 6,149 posts
Armorama: 4,573 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:23 AM UTC
Regarding those holes, what do you do to counteract them? I usualy glue a thin strip inside the hull then apply green putty to the exterior portion, smooth it and paint. You can still see the indention.
DJ
DJ
AJLaFleche
Joined: May 05, 2002
KitMaker: 8,074 posts
Armorama: 3,293 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:27 AM UTC
" Totally Agee !! I hate it when they do that. I wish they wiould not put those in them. Or if they do. Then do it for only specific kits that are set up for that type of kit and not for a static kit"
Does Tamiya even sell motorized kits any more? You'd think they'd realize their market and either clean the molds or provide a small sprue with plugs. Hmm, maybe some enterprising aftermarket guy will run with this and male some nice little resin plugs.
What's really a PIA is when a second company gets Tamiya molds and doesn't bother to fix these.
Does Tamiya even sell motorized kits any more? You'd think they'd realize their market and either clean the molds or provide a small sprue with plugs. Hmm, maybe some enterprising aftermarket guy will run with this and male some nice little resin plugs.
What's really a PIA is when a second company gets Tamiya molds and doesn't bother to fix these.
AJLaFleche
Joined: May 05, 2002
KitMaker: 8,074 posts
Armorama: 3,293 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:30 AM UTC
Fixin' motor hole in the bottom of the hull blues:
The smal round or oval ones get a big chunk of sprue while the big rectangles get sheet stock. Both get flooded with superglue and a spritz of accelerator. No shrinkage but a whole lotta sanding.
The smal round or oval ones get a big chunk of sprue while the big rectangles get sheet stock. Both get flooded with superglue and a spritz of accelerator. No shrinkage but a whole lotta sanding.
Folgore
Joined: May 31, 2002
KitMaker: 1,109 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:31 AM UTC
Yeah, you'd think that maybe for rereleases of their old kits (which are the only ones with those awful holes) Tamiya could fix those things. Of course, I don't know what goes into manufacturing a model kit. Maybe it would be too difficult.......
Also, my last post in this thread led me to another peeve. I don't like it when the locator pins and holes do not properly align. It's easy enough to correct (just remove the pins), but it's still a pain.
Nic
Also, my last post in this thread led me to another peeve. I don't like it when the locator pins and holes do not properly align. It's easy enough to correct (just remove the pins), but it's still a pain.
Nic
kkeefe
Joined: May 12, 2002
KitMaker: 1,416 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:36 AM UTC
....Waiting on a cottage mfr to send parts (and the instruction sheet) that were missing in the original purchased kit, even tho they were promised MONTHS AGO. I've even gone out on a limb to supply him with info on a future kit (per his request) to show some sincerity. I've even offered to reimburse him for any monies for his troubles. Not a gawd dang thing has been recieved.
I feel better now... sorry...
Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature
I feel better now... sorry...
Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature
GunTruck
Joined: December 01, 2001
KitMaker: 5,885 posts
Armorama: 3,799 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 01:39 AM UTC
Quoted Text
....Waiting on a cottage mfr to send parts (and the instruction sheet) that were missing in the original purchased kit, even tho they were promised MONTHS AGO. I've even gone out on a limb to supply him with info on a future kit (per his request) to show some sincerity. I've even offered to reimburse him for any monies for his troubles. Not a gawd dang thing has been recieved.
I feel better now... sorry...
Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature
Ouch - guess I've been lucky in that respect. Only MFG I ever had to deal with was Tank Workshop. They took care of me so fast, I was dumbfounded. Good experience to say the least...
Gunnie
210cav
Joined: February 05, 2002
KitMaker: 6,149 posts
Armorama: 4,573 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 02:00 AM UTC
Gunnie--those folks at Tank Workshop do great work. I am equally impressed with their responsiveness. They respond to inquiries in a short while. As an aside, I got my first set of Fuilmodel track. Does someone have a pet peeve about them? I think the instructions leave a little to be desired.
DJ
Ps--are you guys also at work like me and hitting this site fifty times a day....??
DJ
Ps--are you guys also at work like me and hitting this site fifty times a day....??
m1garand
Joined: February 08, 2002
KitMaker: 1,248 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 02:06 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Ps--are you guys also at work like me and hitting this site fifty times a day....??
That would be me.
GunTruck
Joined: December 01, 2001
KitMaker: 5,885 posts
Armorama: 3,799 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 04:50 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Gunnie--those folks at Tank Workshop do great work. I am equally impressed with their responsiveness. They respond to inquiries in a short while. As an aside, I got my first set of Fuilmodel track. Does someone have a pet peeve about them? I think the instructions leave a little to be desired.
DJ
Ps--are you guys also at work like me and hitting this site fifty times a day....??
Yep - that is primarily the time I'm on the site. I contribute a lot of page views between appointments and work here in the office
Yeah - Tank Workshop is a bit of all right in my book too. Speaking of Fruil tracks - I like 'em, no real peeves about them at all. The effort and time spent to put them together really pays off in the end.
Gunnie
Folgore
Joined: May 31, 2002
KitMaker: 1,109 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 06:18 AM UTC
Speaking about aftermarket tracks, I'm currently building some for my M13/40, and they're probably the easiest individual link, workable tracks ever. The ones I got are made by Model Victoria, a little Italian company, and they are the only tracks they make. All you have to do is cut them off the pour block (but no sawing required), scrape away a little flash on some of the links, and stick them together. There are no pins and no gluing required. They just fit together snuggly on their own and still bend realistically. These are the first AM tracks I have ever bought, so I was wondering how others worked. I don't have the impression that they're all this easy.
Nic
Nic
GunTruck
Joined: December 01, 2001
KitMaker: 5,885 posts
Armorama: 3,799 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 06:26 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Speaking about aftermarket tracks, I'm currently building some for my M13/40, and they're probably the easiest individual link, workable tracks ever. The ones I got are made by Model Victoria, a little Italian company, and they are the only tracks they make. All you have to do is cut them off the pour block (but no sawing required), scrape away a little flash on some of the links, and stick them together. There are no pins and no gluing required. They just fit together snuggly on their own and still bend realistically. These are the first AM tracks I have ever bought, so I was wondering how others worked. I don't have the impression that they're all this easy.
Nic
Some can be a real pain. I first tried the DML individual links - I think the 40cm StuG set if I remember correctly - and the experience wasn't good at all. Probably why I don't remember it well
. The next one was one of the early Fruil sets for the Pz.II - I was putting them on a Wespe - I got them on, but that wasn't a "fun" experience either. When Fruil came out with the pin & link system, I was a little leery, but I bought a set for my M24 Chaffee. It was a challenge, but not as bad as the others and wound up great in the end. I liked it a lot. I bought a set of Model Kasten's for my M39 Armored Utility Vehicle conversion of the AFV Club M18 Hell Cat - but haven't tried them yet. I think these will be nice to use too...Gunnie
ARMDCAV
Joined: July 29, 2002
KitMaker: 115 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 08:35 AM UTC
The T80 tracks from AFV. Finally threw the whole mess back in the box. Boy did they look good on the sprue though. Getting the blocks off without breaking them was all most impossible. The few I did manage promptly broke when I inserted the center guides and tried to force the pins close enough together to join with an end connector. Yes I did file the edges of the center guides and the track blocks. Nothing I did worked. Yanked a set out of a DML easy 8 kit and finished the job with those. This cannot be a common occurance else why would anyone by these tracks? or do they? #:-)
SS-74
Joined: May 13, 2002
KitMaker: 3,271 posts
Armorama: 2,388 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 10:47 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Yeah, you'd think that maybe for rereleases of their old kits (which are the only ones with those awful holes) Tamiya could fix those things. Of course, I don't know what goes into manufacturing a model kit. Maybe it would be too difficult.......
Also, my last post in this thread led me to another peeve. I don't like it when the locator pins and holes do not properly align. It's easy enough to correct (just remove the pins), but it's still a pain.
Nic
Hi Nic,
From the molding/tooling side, the holes actually very easy to fix, all you need to do is remove the extrusion on your plastic tooling, and you are home free, and while you at this, if you wanna to be nice, you can also cut indents in the plastic tooling to get some details for the bottom of the chasis. I think tamiya just doesn't bother to do it, for them they don't need to be extremely nice as long as the box bear the Double Star logo, people will buy it.
SS-74
Joined: May 13, 2002
KitMaker: 3,271 posts
Armorama: 2,388 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 11:10 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Quoted TextPs--are you guys also at work like me and hitting this site fifty times a day....??
That would be me.
Hey, me too!
Plasticbattle
#003
Joined: May 14, 2002
KitMaker: 9,763 posts
Armorama: 7,444 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 04:45 PM UTC
I hate it when you have to assemble the whole vehicle before painting. Sometimes to complete the body of a tank it caanot be left off until after base painting. I like to keep road wheels and tracks off to after most work is done and only fully assemble it just before final weathering. Tamiya´s sherman that I am building now, the driver and gunner have to be painted first before compition and then masked off until after spraying for example!
bytepilot
Joined: June 01, 2002
KitMaker: 381 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 05:23 PM UTC
Well, her'es mine(from an A/C Modeler):
1. Printing camo colours in black, white and different greys, and referring to them with equally weird shades of black, white and grey.
2. Putting canopy stuff on clear plastic sprues, and which are a real PIA to sand off.
3. See thru decals, esp if you are putting them on a dark shade.
4. Lousy microscopic ordnance attachment stubs. I always knock off a missile or two on my model at the end, and have to put it back on again. DAMN! (PS: You should try this on 1/144 scale A/C's.)
5. Pathetic, incorrect or inadequate instrumentation details/decals.
6. Missing spaces for aircraft wing lights, as well as clear coloured plastics for these.
My 2 bucks!.
BP.
1. Printing camo colours in black, white and different greys, and referring to them with equally weird shades of black, white and grey.
2. Putting canopy stuff on clear plastic sprues, and which are a real PIA to sand off.
3. See thru decals, esp if you are putting them on a dark shade.
4. Lousy microscopic ordnance attachment stubs. I always knock off a missile or two on my model at the end, and have to put it back on again. DAMN! (PS: You should try this on 1/144 scale A/C's.)
5. Pathetic, incorrect or inadequate instrumentation details/decals.
6. Missing spaces for aircraft wing lights, as well as clear coloured plastics for these.
My 2 bucks
!.BP.
Envar
Joined: March 07, 2002
KitMaker: 1,088 posts
Armorama: 0 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 05:41 PM UTC
Reading this kind of thread is truly relaxing!
I would put Skif, Zvezda and ICM in the same place that the engineers that designed the plastic cover for CDs. I know, these kits don´t cost much either but you can truly call that scratchbuilding! The Skif D-30 122mm Howitzer instructions are a mystery to me, though being a graphic designer myself, I could think about framing those instructions to remind myself in a moment of despair to lighten up because all places for graphic designers in hell are already reserved and they design these instructions there next to the guys that design the CD wraps!
Phew.
Toni
I would put Skif, Zvezda and ICM in the same place that the engineers that designed the plastic cover for CDs. I know, these kits don´t cost much either but you can truly call that scratchbuilding! The Skif D-30 122mm Howitzer instructions are a mystery to me, though being a graphic designer myself, I could think about framing those instructions to remind myself in a moment of despair to lighten up because all places for graphic designers in hell are already reserved and they design these instructions there next to the guys that design the CD wraps!
Phew.
Toni
Sabot
Joined: December 18, 2001
KitMaker: 12,596 posts
Armorama: 9,071 posts
KitMaker: 12,596 posts
Armorama: 9,071 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 06:44 PM UTC
Quoted Text
" Totally Agee !! I hate it when they do that. I wish they wiould not put those in them. Or if they do. Then do it for only specific kits that are set up for that type of kit and not for a static kit"
Does Tamiya even sell motorized kits any more? You'd think they'd realize their market and either clean the molds or provide a small sprue with plugs. Hmm, maybe some enterprising aftermarket guy will run with this and male some nice little resin plugs.
Yes, the Tamiya M41 and M2 were recently reissued with complete motorization. I guess they knew with the Skybow and AFV Club kits on the way, that they had to toss in a gimic to get baby boomers interested in a kit they built as a kid. Also some of the high end German armor kits like the Tiger (King?) have been issued with complete R/C motorization in 1/35 scale. I even have an Tamiya M1A1 that comes with R/C. Same basic kit as the normal M1A1, but with an R/C module and remote to operate the tank. This kit cost me $50, the Tigers are new in the stores and run about $100+.
210cav
Joined: February 05, 2002
KitMaker: 6,149 posts
Armorama: 4,573 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 07:58 PM UTC
For the life of me, I can not envision building a forty dollar kit and putting a ten cent motor in it. What am I missing?
DJ
DJ
MLD
Joined: July 21, 2002
KitMaker: 3,569 posts
Armorama: 2,070 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 08:20 PM UTC
I've already weighed in once, but after sweating and cursing my way through the Eastern Experss Bleriot in 1/72, I think there is a special layer of the afterlife waiting for , as mentioned before, poorly done instructions and for molders who produce kits where the mold plugs/flash is indistinguishable from the mounitng pins.
The only things this doggie of a kit have going for it are that
1 it's the only one out there. And I need it for the timeline of powered flight in my classroom and
2 the plastic reacts well and quickly with Testors Black diamond applicator cement.
It's almost as bad as my block of putty that started out as the A Model Rutan Voyager..
Mike
The only things this doggie of a kit have going for it are that
1 it's the only one out there. And I need it for the timeline of powered flight in my classroom and
2 the plastic reacts well and quickly with Testors Black diamond applicator cement.
It's almost as bad as my block of putty that started out as the A Model Rutan Voyager..
Mike
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