Interesting Phenomena with Great Wall Hobby Kits !

[Tiger331]

I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same 'issues' I have had with assembling Great Wall Hobby Kits ?.

Firstly the MiG-29A Fulcrum. Enthused by a couple of rave reviews that claimed this kit quote "fell together" I went ahead and bought one. Now please don't get me wrong, I love this kit and will be really pleased when it is finished and I can start the next one but my certainly has not "fallen together" in the classic 'shake n' bake' style. It's still a superb kit and has tested some of my modelling skills, which I like, but I suspect one or two others may have been put off by the glowing reviews about its buildability, given the challenge with obtaining a perfect fit with some parts and the extensive use of plasticard shims to fill obvious gaps.

Enter the F-15 Eagle family of kits and I started one of these with a degree of trepidation having seen two build reviews by respected online modellers who had experienced some difficulties with getting the air intakes/ramps to marry up with the main fuselage components. One of the reviewers had even resorted to placing some quite hefty spacers between the forward fuselage sections to get everything to join up properly. Guess what ?…..I've just finished putting the two air intakes together and they fit perfectly, with very little, if any, need for fettling to get them lined up with the forward fuselage !.

I must admit that I do find some of the order of assembly in these GWH kits a little odd so I do tend to veer off and adopt a more 'traditional' approach to the final assembly of sub components and this may have something to do with it but I just wondered if others had similar experiences they could share with the BM community.

Mark

[Jens]

I am currently working on the 9-12 MiG-29, and I have had to use a bit of alternative building sequence and filler too. It's still a great kit though. Unfortunately one of the exhausts were crushed so I had to order some resin ones. Getting the right placement of the exhausts is the most tricky part of the build so far (it may have something to do with the fact that I cut off the rear section of the engines in order to add it later).

Jens

[Bobski]

It's interesting how different modellers have widely different views of how well a kit fits together. Sometimes following the instructions leads to a poor fit, whereas modifying the build sequence yourself will lead to a better one. Hasegawa's Harrier II's are a good example of this issue.

Unfortunately, sometime modellers assume that they always know better than the instructions, so they get a new kit and ignore the instructions. Sometimes this works, but sometimes they get caught out. They then get frustrated, decide that there must be something fundamentally wrong with the kit and then write scathing posts on forums about them. Meanwhile, another modeller has followed the instructions to the letter and had no fit issues. I've been on both sides of this and learned some very valuable lessons from it!

The lesson here is to dry-fit everything and then keep dry-fitting until you are sure you've got the best fit before applying any glue.

[Don McIntyre]

I guess I'm just the opposite to a lot of guys. I tend to feel that if things aren't working out right it's because I did something wrong in the assembly myself. I know some kits are indeed a challenge on their own (my two Czech Models kits come to mind) but I tend to be surprised when I have problems with a new Airfix, Hasegawa or Tamiya kit.

[Bobski]

I guess I'm just the opposite to a lot of guys. I tend to feel that if things aren't working out right it's because I did something wrong in the assembly myself. I know some kits are indeed a challenge on their own (my two Czech Models kits come to mind) but I tend to be surprised when I have problems with a new Airfix, Hasegawa or Tamiya kit.

That's the way I tend to look at it now. Have I done anything that may have caused a problem? Certain kits are problematic and require more work, but even then my first question is whether I've done anything to cause a problem.

As I said though, there is often an assumption by modellers that their own skills are infallible, so when they have a problem there must be something fundamentally wrong with the kit. They personally can't build something so therefore it must be unbuildable. Nonsense. I failed miserably to build an Eduard 1/48 Fw190, but I'd never describe it as unbuildable. I know it is buildable because others have built it, I just couldn't manage it.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Bobski

[Gary West]

I must introduce you to Kinetic's Mirage..........you'll just love that