Just finished a second building of several I have stashed away. One plan says to install windows and glass then the backside of the wall over the windows. In the next step it says be sure you didn’t put the glass too high or the wall won’t fit. Great thinking. So on the second wall I reversed the order and it was easy. Many other examples that somebody threw the instructions together looking at a finished model. And don’t get me started on the corner seams.
Please don’t think that this situation is unique to Walthers… Over the last two years I’ve built up a few model cars and one very expensive Sherman tank kit. The instructions were a joke, likely translated by a non-native speaking individual - and certainly not anyone that actually built the kits.
I can’t say when I first noticed this, but I recall the kit instructions of the 50s, 60s, and 70s were (IMO) pretty straight forward, accurate, and in proper order.
I have lots and lots of Walthers Cornerstone buildings, and I find them easy to build and the instructions are easy to follow. But, what I do is to read the entire instruction sheet(s) and check out all of the parts on the sprue before starting construction of a building.
Rich
Like many, I’ve built plenty of Walthers and no issues here. What I find is sometimes easier buildng the larger pieces first and then hunting for the smaller ones. Of course I always check that a piece fits BEFORE gluing. Being a visual person, the instructions are more a guidline.
A hobby knife, file, or sprue nipper are invaluable.
Yes, but then there were only 8 parts.
I have A LOT of Walther’s buildings. The biggest consistent issue I have with them is the warping of the bases and walls. Probably from overheating in the containers coming fron china.
Whomever it is how did he (won’t be a she) read all the instructions before he began…
So I will sympathize with you. I’ve noticed issues on a few Walthers building kits. I’ve had a couple now where part numbers in the instructions and on the sprue don’t match up, yet the picture clearly shows the part needed. I also have one of their background buildings that is obviously a partial of the complete building kit. The instructions indicate placing 4 very small pieces in place on the roof that are not included in the kit. I’m sure they are part of a sprue in the full building kit, but apparently Walthers didn’t realize that particular sprue with those particular pieces are left out of the background building kit. If they were visible where my building sits I would care. I let it be.
These problems are universal in the plastic model industry.
Nearly every review of a high-end ultra precision plastic kit in Fine Scale Modeler has a section on where NOT to follow the instructions because they are incorrect.
Sorry about your frustration.
I generally do a “dry run” without glue of most structure kits to find these annoyances.
I have not read the instructions for any freight car kits (except the Intermoutain Caswell Gondola) in years.
-Kevin
Try building the Tank Car Oil Loading Platform sometime. [:O] Those instructions are shot through with errors.
My cousin makes a six-figure income re-writing foreign translated manuals for all things computer. Mostly medical equipment is what he does but lots of other stuff as well.
Back in the late sixties, we would buy R/C model airplane kits from Japan and our eyes would just glaze over trying to decipher the translation of the instructions.[(-D] We got 'em built though.
When I was in college, one of my professors (History-read and write an amount second only to English majors) showed up one day asking if anyone wanted to quit school and get a job several states away, starting immediately, excellent pay and benefits, and the company would pay all moving expenses. He had a friend that worked for some “shake the box” furniture manufacturer/importer and they were having huge trouble finding people who could write coherent assembly instructions for their products. Sometimes I wish I would have taken him up on it. As a society we worry less and less about writing skills and it shows.
All technical manuals we used at work that were originally written in a foreign language contained the original text on the left page, and the translation on the right page.
That way if there were any questions about the translation, it could be resolved by a native language speaker from the original verbage.
-Kevin
I’ve built lots of Walthers’ structure kits, but most were modified during construction by using parts from other kits (usually also from Walthers) or by using two identical kits to create a larger building with a much different footprint.
Many of my structures have only three fully-modelled sides, one of the advantages of an around-the-room style of layout. The unseen wall is usually a blank sheet of .060" styrene, which I buy in 4’x8’ sheets.
Here’s Walthers’ George Roberts Printing, built from parts of two identical kits, and modified to fit into an oddly-shaped location (hence the need for making all walls detailed, rather than blank styrene)…
I used Walthers’ Vulcan Manufacturing to build my version of Bertram’s Machine Tool Manufacturers, making it larger by using the two long walls on the side from which the layout is viewed…
…while the main structure’s rear wall is blank styrene (it faces a “concrete” retaining wall) I thought it wise to replicate the clerestory windows on the normally unseen side, since I had used both kit pieces for the side facing the aisleway, as viewers should be able to see right through, rather than see a slab of blank styrene.
Here’s a view of the backside, possible only by placing the camera on the layout…
…and, as you can s
Wayne,
By any chance did you study under Art Curren? LOL Love your stuff.
oldline1
And it is for those reasons and others on this thread why I so much liked the Revell model company in the 70s. You didn’t even have to read the pages that were only printed in English.
You just took out the page with the exploded view on it and threw the other pages over your shoulder. That exploded view with the lines going towards the center made things so simple a two-year-old could put the model together.
P.S. Great looking models Wayne, I always enjoy looking at those.
TF
Thanks for your kind words, oldline1. I was a huge fan of Art’s work, and it was very inspirational. From the first time I saw his work, it was like a door opening into another world…I wondered why I hadn’t thought something similar on my own.
My thanks to you, too, T.F. I was a big fan of the Revell’s stuff, too, although I started out with their models of the sailing ships.
When they released their HO kit for the engine house, I wanted one, but could find none locally. I decided to settle for the Superior Bakery model, but couldn’t find it either, as they seemed to fly off the shelf as soon as the hobbyshops got them.
I finally settled, reluctantly, for the Weekly Herald version of that same kit.
I always seemed to be a step behind, and wanted the train station model, but settled for the Schoolhouse version.
I did manage to get the farmhouse with outbuildings, the water tower, the sand and fueling station, and the switch tower.
When I found interests other than model railroads, that layout was sold, and I kept only the sand and fuel station, and the Weekly Herald building, thinking that I might later convert it into an enginehouse.
When I got back into model railroading, the Weekly Herald got a slight revision to eliminate that tiled fascia, an architectural feature that was quite common in my hometown, but not one which I much cared for (except on a now-long-gone business called the “Sugar Bowl”, a vintage ice cream parlour with a pale green tile fascia, and the interior also in soft greens, with giant ceiling fans…like stepping back in time…I would have been 5 or 6 at that time).
Here’s the revised W
Love the MASH reference Douglas!
Dan
My favorite is when there are extra parts that are for some other kit… I bought two Walthers Lakeville Modern-Style Warehouse kits and they both have some extra parts.
Dan