The “Worst Locomotive Manufacturer” thread brought to mind something else that bugs me.
Who, in your opinion, makes the worst plastic structure kits? My vote goes to Model Power. The first MP kit I bought was the “Haunted House” kit. It was high quality with no problems. The second kit was the “Loco Maintenance Building”. It had missing parts and looked like something that had been returned by a dissatisfied customer. The third kit, the Erie R.R. Station, which I received yesterday, was a total piece of crap. The very thin parts were so badly warped that the kit was useless and I threw it in the trash. I have one more kit, a coal depot kit, that I’m almost afraid to open. No more Model Power for me.
You’ve heard my bad experiences with Model Power, now tell me your bad plastic kit experiences.
In my opinion, it has to be Walthers. Great rolling stock and some good locos, but the model kits almost always have pieces missing or won’t go together properly. Since they went to haveing thier stuff made in China, thier quality has gone to ZILCH!
Any plastic kit for which the tooling is worn will be a pain - lots of moulding flash and sometimes poor parts fitment. Personally the kits that cause me the greatest annoyance are those that have design flaws, like the large scale Scania truck kit I tried to build a few years ago. The cab (a pretty heavy assembly) was supposed to be supported on two tiny plastic hinges that you glued to the underside of the cab baseplate. It never worked (couldn’t even get the hinges to stay attached, let alone get the cab to sit level) and I really wi***hey’d just abandoned the “tiltable cab” in favour of a kit that looked good on the display shelf!
Walthers is my vote as well. I have no problems with other kits but when I got a Walthers kit I had to improvise the pieces becase they would not fit together right.[:(!]
Never worked w/ Model Power, now I don’t think I ever will.
McKean has made some really bad kits. I still buy and build their centerbeams and will do so until another manufacturer will release a good 72’. The plastic is soft and doesn’t work or glue well. The instructions are horrible. The open centerbeam kit doesn’t even supply enough parts for all the braces and most winch molds are defective.
Wonder why they’re gone now.
Bob K.
Don’t know about manufacturer but I’ve seen some kits put together and proudly exhibited where I have wondered what on earth was in the mind of the owner/builder.
As is so ften pointed out in this forum:-
you get (or should get) what you pay for.
the range of models available today is incredible compared to ten years ago … and increasing as you go back in time.
The modellers back then took time and effort to creat fantastic models from extremely limited facilities… need I say more?
I’ve got a couple of Model Power kits which I haven’t put together yet, but I’ve opened them up and all the parts seem to be there, and in good shape. What’s more, both of these kits (Baldy’s Barber Shop and Annie’s Antiques) come with an outside sidewalk base, details like lampposts, air conditioners and fire hydrants, some interior detailing, decals and even interior lighting. The kits also have interior light-blocks which prevent glow-through, and the blocks are pre-punched so you can selectively let light out of your choice of windows. The walls come in appropriate colors, so those who prefer simpler construction don’t have to paint them.
These cost roughly the same as a DPM building of comparable size. The DPM kits are very nice, thick castings with excellent exterior detail, but they are basically just 4 walls and a slab of plain styrene for a roof. They are more for people who enjoy the tasks of painting and detailing to get a unique model.
You may, in fact, have gotten a kit that someone opened, decided he didn’t want and returned minus a few parts. The retailer might have thought it was complete, so it’s hard to fault him, either.
I’m glad you’re having better luck than I did. Your kits seem to be much more highly detailed than mine. As I said, the Haunted House kit was very high quality and convinced me MP was a good choice. The parts for the Loco Maintenance Building were loose and some were missing. There were no sprue trees in the box. The Erie R.R. Station parts were so badly warped they couldn’t be seated properly. Maybe there was a problem on the line that day and I was the “lucky” guy who won the prize. I do give MP credit for having an excellent variety of kits. Any way I hope you continue having good luck with MP.
It is funny how different people have different perceptions. I have built several Walthers structure kits and have found them to go together well. I have never had a part missing or damaged beyond use.
I had a terrible time with DPM kits before I learned about squaring the edges for a good fit.
A lot of people say that lifelike kits don’t look good, but they are what i buy, and will continue to untill my layout has buildingd,. then i will weather and detail some, and dispose of those that don’t look good.
I’ve had Walther’s model kits that had never had the parts bag opened and had pieces missing. Parts of roofs, window castings, little things like that. Nothing drastic, like having the mailbox missing from the front wall or something else easy to model. Always something obvious. I guess I get the kits that were made on Friday, when everybody’s in a hurry to get thier work done and go home.
The quality of Walther’s kits varies greatly because many of them are recycled kits that were originally sold under another brand name. This has been a common practice in the industry for a long time. I’ve seen the same kit sold under 3 or 4 different brand names.
My experience has been that the new kits sold under the Walther’s name and are originals are of higher quality than some of the recycled kits sold under their name. Keep in mind that Walther’s is a distributor, not a manufacturer. The newer kits might be of their own design but the manufacturing process is outsourced.
[#ditto] Compared to these Walthers and some of the others mentioned are a dream. There might be problems with assembly but even if assembled without the missing parts they are sooooo much better looking than these toy looking things…
Life-Like structures do not look like like, even if they’re detailed. You’d be doing them a big favor if you piled them up and dropped a match on 'em.
Bachmann’s plasticville, looks just like plastic. Hard to do anything with 'em.
I know, but i have a limited budget, and there are some kits i win’t buy again. The Ace Super market and Mt Vernon Manufacturing aren’t bad, but the Western Homestead is quite bad.
So, consider it a challenge! Yes, it takes a craftsman to build one of those craftsman kits. But it takes a real pro to take a piece of doo-doo and turn it into something you’d want on your layoutl
This is a Plasticville kit I built in the 1960’s, when I was a teenager. It was bright yellow-orange originally. When I pulled it out of the attic, I still liked the structure, but that color had to go…
I’ve found some of the Walthers kits a bit dubious but the DPM ones are worse. Even the gold series kits are a bit vague on what goes where. It’s really the instructions that are a let down.
