The model that broke the camel's back

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Niek Nijsen

Somewhat of an all-saying title, no? I’m not referring to the fact I’ve called myself the camel in this case, but more to the part in which I break my back. And if nothing else, that’s definitely what this model has achieved. Yes, I’ve put the entire model and its parts back in the box and placed it on the shelf for now. To make matters worse, it actually pushed me to the point at which I completely cleared my desk of all models and not wanted to do any of them anymore. My mojo is gone, my back is broken.

Remember when I praised the instructions in the previous post? Yeah, scrap that. Fair enough, in general they’re very detailed and show clearly what’s expected of you. But there’s no numbering of the parts other than in said instructions. So, for example when I’m told to look for “Pin #123”, I have no bloody clue where to start, as all those pins look the same! Assuming that you eventually find the correct pin (which is a small chance after a lengthy and frustrating search), the hole it’s supposed to go into to hold two items together, is completely missing…

Which brings us back to my earlier conclusion, none of these parts fit without extensive reshaping work. The fact that they (the manufacturer) have simply thrown all those parts into the box and that the shipping company probably isn’t too careful with the package either, have resulted in most of the parts being completely bend out of shape or even worse, snapped in half at the weakest points. The latter which turns out has happened to most of my suspension parts.

Imagine this; you’re at your bench following the poorly written instructions, after many minutes/hours of searching you finally find the required item to then notice it’s no longer straight and half of it is missing since it broke off. I’m sure you can feel my frustration by now… Let’s take it a step further and assume you’ve fixed the part and got it glued in place. You place the model on your desk to admire your 2 hours of work to notice the part isn’t straight at all and starts to sag under its own weight…

That’s exactly what happened to me when I tried to glue the suspension arms in place for the front wheels. None of them line up, they’re far from straight and they slowly start to sag no matter how much “super” glue I add to the kit and the screws that are supposedly holding them in place have already fallen out and are somewhere on the floor by now. Good luck finding those again.

I already briefly touched on the fact that the holes in which the screws and t-pins go are missing. Nor are any of these screws of the self-tapping kind, so you have to drill all these holes to the right size. It doesn’t help that said screws then simply fall out because they don’t “bite” into the material they’re inserted in. All in all, these screws don’t do anything other than adding to the frustration that’s already there, instead of strengthening the joints of various parts. Let alone that to drill these holes (be it in resin or white metal), you have to hold the fiddly parts, which keep bending as you add pressure to the drill to the extend they’ll actually snap off if you try to twist your drill more than once an hour…

Hah, you thought this was the end of the misery. Think again. In the previous update I mentioned the poor adhesion and fit of the decals. Add to that the fact that the main sponsor is missing (I assume this has something to do with them being a big cigarette producer) and you end up with a job that’s near impossible. No matter how much “adhesion additives” I throw at it, this stuff doesn’t stick to the model. I don’t get it, as the process and underlaying coats of paint are no different from my usual approach. Heck, even the bits that I literally glued on with a “hot” glue (the kind that melts parts together), the decals keep peeling off or simply crack and flake. No point in spraying the model in a coat of varnish, as this simply comes off along with it.

In the end I felt the only option I had left was to put everything back in the box before I started throwing bits around the room and slam my head against the wall. The damage was already done, as at this point in time I do not enjoy the hobby anymore, at all. I can’t be asked to start another kit, or finish ones I’m already working on. And that is the most upsetting and frustrating thing of all.

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