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The Weirdest Instructions I've ever seen


Crossiant Oliver

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1 hour ago, Crossiant Oliver said:

Speaking of terrible kits, the worst kit I've ever got was the Revell P-40B tiger shark. It's from 1964, and the mold shows it needs a replacement. There's a lot a flash, the kit barely fits, and there are raised surfaces. The only good thing are the decals, which can be made into 3 different planes (lucky for me, Revell accidentally gave me 2 decal sheets! Good thing I got the airfix 1/48 version, it's amazing!

 

Gee I am old enough to remember when the Monogram 1/48 P40B was the absolute bee's knees. I built one the moment it hit our shores. The amount of detail was by the standards of the day stunning. O tempora o mores and I remember back in the 1950s how the plastic bag and header on Airfix kits was my primary source of knowledge about the aircraft I was building.    

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In the early 70s,I had a Japanese kit, I think it was a Kate,I don't remember the manufacturer . The instructions were in English but must have been translated by a college student.The page with the colour scheme was titled: THE WAY OF PAINTING.

 

 

First, clear your mind before you pick up the brush.:pray:

 

Garry c

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13 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

 

Only that the single engined ones are no longer available new, and that the current iteration of the Mosquito doesn't seem cheap at £25.

 

But for those who are prepared to root around the second hand boxes at shows they are excellent value, and I've bought many over the years to pass on to newcomers, especially the 109F, Hurricane and Stuka, which I like a lot and can still be bought second-hand in the £5 to £6 range if you keep your eyes open, You do normally have to think about after-market decals for old Airfix kits, though of course lots of us have spare options we can snip out and give away. There are also Monogram 1/48 kits that I like a lot, especially the P-47D Razorback, though I note that those have now stopped being cheap (I blame the forthcoming MM group build!)

 

And Otaki / ARII Hellcats and Corsairs are excellent low-cost practice pieces too.

There are still people who say that no kit has captured the Hellcat's "smile" quite as well as the Otaki/Arii kit.Their P-47D Razorback is quite nice too. There's also a J2M3 Raiden, A6M5 Zero, Bf 109G-6, and Fw190 that, while clearly superseded by newer kits are still fun to build. 

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4 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

There are still people who say that no kit has captured the Hellcat's "smile" quite as well as the Otaki/Arii kit.Their P-47D Razorback is quite nice too. There's also a J2M3 Raiden, A6M5 Zero, Bf 109G-6, and Fw190 that, while clearly superseded by newer kits are still fun to build. 

 

The Monogram P-47 is a more accurate low-cost option though. The Otaki one, which I enjoyed when I built it, has nice surface detail but is noticeably too fat around the rear fuselage. The P-51D also has some significant shape issues. I can't really judge the Japanese or German subjects.

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9 hours ago, MilneBay said:

 

Gee I am old enough to remember when the Monogram 1/48 P40B was the absolute bee's knees. I built one the moment it hit our shores. The amount of detail was by the standards of the day stunning. O tempora o mores and I remember back in the 1950s how the plastic bag and header on Airfix kits was my primary source of knowledge about the aircraft I was building.    

 

When it was new it was excllent, but it has not only suffered from changes in standards, it seems also to have suffered a great deal from deterioration in the manufacturing. I f you can get an early release its still well worth building in my opinion, but the later releases are very difficult, typically badly warped and ill fitting.

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10 hours ago, Garry c said:

In the early 70s,I had a Japanese kit, I think it was a Kate,I don't remember the manufacturer . The instructions were in English but must have been translated by a college student.The page with the colour scheme was titled: THE WAY OF PAINTING.

 

 

First, clear your mind before you pick up the brush.:pray:

 

Garry c

I was doing maintenance on a Yak 52 some years ago and the manuals had been translated by something like google translate

on an off day by an unwell spider monkey.

Every servicing instruction started with the line "Find a plane" didnt state that it had to be a Yak, could have been a Cessna you just had to

find one.

The best one was the description for bailing out of the aircraft "Departing through side of plane with parachute"

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My return to plastic modeling in the early 90s was made better for the Airfix Mk.Vb and the Otaki Mk.VIII Spitfire kits. Both of which needed modification to represent RAAF aircraft. The enjoyment drawn from them was like building my first Aurora Sopwith Camel and D.III Albatross before teenage. Around 1963 I strayed into automobile modelling in 1/32 scale. Very rewarding and encouraged creativity vis á vis colour, detail and later, form. 

 

Prior to that anything released from 1956 that cost less than two bob were my plastic. All fell to bedspread ack-ack. 

 

Instructions. The newer kits I have for my retirement are lusciously moulded, with assemblies which require direction. Wingnut Wings and Tamiya 1/32 scale kitsets being a case in point. Then aftermarket. 😎 If you eschew instruction, resin kits. 

 

I do like to slap together an old kit such as Smer reissues of someone else's product. Fiat G.55. Talbot Lago, old Glencoe kits etc owe me nothing financially and deserve to be built after being stored and carted around all those years. 

 

Grant

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On 13/01/2017 at 7:26 PM, Work In Progress said:

 

 but were stiff, unresponsive and brittle.

Sounds very like many of the people I've had to work with over the years.

 

Actually, reading that, perhaps I was the problem......

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On 14/01/2017 at 6:51 PM, Crossiant Oliver said:

 

sorry, but ... WHY?

 

Really of interest only to people living in LA or possibly planning to visit!

 

Most of us will have favourite LMS's.  Some of us also lament their passing too.

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On 2017-01-14 at 7:28 PM, Crossiant Oliver said:

What do other people think of the Revell-ogram kits?

Some of them are still the best of their respective subjects, and while others may have more detailed/accurate alternatives available, are still very good and certainly much cheaper.

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at the present time I happen to be working on a pair of 1989 re-issues of the MONOGRAM P-40C.

one for the RAF and another for the AVG.

I have built (or am building again) several of these classic 1/48th WWII planes over the years.

2 P-61's ,2 B-26 Marauders ,B-25J ,F4U-4N,Avenger,SBD,2 Hellcats,a Mustang,Spitfire IIA,2 bubbletop Thunderbolts,3 razorback Thunderbolts

2 P-38's ,3 Hurricanes 2 Typhoons and 5 P-39 Airaobras.

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Back to the Airfix instructions discussion, I remember those picture-less written instructions and I must say they were the first source of aeronautical data I came across. I can thank these instructions for learning what an aileron, pitot , elevator and other bits and pieces were, I still recall being puzzled for a while by the words "anti dazzle panel", yes instructions are much better today but I do retain a fondness for the old ways

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On 12/01/2017 at 1:43 AM, Crossiant Oliver said:

First of all, thanks for the pictures. If you want to look at them, look at the first reply. 

 

 

But Airfix at least has to redo a 40+ year old kit and instruction sets. What beginner modeler wants to continue the hobby when they see instructions like this! I've built older kits, and some of them in my opinion had better instructions (the monogram wildcat, etc.

 

 

also is the Revell 1/48 dauntless a good beginner kit? I gave a friend who wants to start the hobby it for x-mas

 

I don't really get the problem tbh - I grew up with this style of instructions. I always just ticked off each part on the sheet as I went if there were lots to do in that panel.

 

If nothing else it taught me to test-fit first before glueing anything!

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On 11/01/2017 at 5:59 AM, Crossiant Oliver said:

Honestly, Airfix REALLY needs to change these instructions. Even I'm an intermediate modeler, and these instructions still give me a sense of confusion! Someone call Airfix and tell them about this!

 

Honestly, I don't understand this kind of sense of entitlement. Is it something cultural or is it a generational difference? Reading your other posts, you seem a nice enough young man, but as the majority of the answers indicate, the instructions don't seem to be a problem for most of us. I do hope you can appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humour in this thread, I certainly do! ;)

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44 minutes ago, ivand said:

 

Honestly, I don't understand this kind of sense of entitlement. Is it something cultural or is it a generational difference? Reading your other posts, you seem a nice enough young man, but as the majority of the answers indicate, the instructions don't seem to be a problem for most of us. I do hope you can appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humour in this thread, I certainly do! ;)

 

I agree. With the benefit of a bit of age behind me now, I can recognise that in life in general, we don't always get information given to us in the exact format that works best for us individually. Even in schools lessons are delivered in a particular way which aren't ideal for many of the individuals in a class.

 

Simplistically, one can either take information however we can get it and learn to work with it, or fail.

 

Learning to comprehend model kit instructions presented in different ways is a very gentle way to learn that sort of can-do mindset.

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