N Scale of Nevada had a B40-8, that did fit together well, but it took a long time. The Jim Semikowski tunnel motors were pretty involved, too, as you had to slice and splice a Kato SD40 frame stretching the frame and the drive train about eight (?) scale feet. The walkway and porches were built up from strip stryene. It was do-able, of course, but slicing a perfectly good Kato SD40 mechanism in half was the hardest part.
I haven't had the time this whole summer to try to build the 4 I need to do.. That doesn't help build my ambition, lemmetellya!
I would have to say the hardest one I have put together yet is any of the die-cast models by Railway Express Minatures. The first one I put together was the Bucyrus Erie 30B shovel and what a bear it was. The counter weight was warped, the excess flashing is horrible and really hard to file. The directions are a really vague and sometimes have to look at the picture to see if how the kit goes together. After building the entire kit I realized I could have saved time and assembled the kit differently than the instructions told me to. I have put 3 of their kits together so far and I think I have 2 or 3 left to go. I might get rid of the rest of them at a swap meet or something along those lines.
I too, will throw my vote toward the Double Track Truss Bridge. I put it together, so I thought, and it warped like a piece of plywood. I cried about it to Walthers, and they sent me new parts for it. I filed the heck out of it and finally got it to work. Inevitably, it ended up in the recycle bin and I bought a kato double tracker for much less. The ADM Grain Elevator is a somewhat close second.
Okane, Try some of the N Scale Architect's early kits (am afraid to try the latest ones). The coal mine and Cat Hollow Creamery are just parts for scratchbuilding. I just finished the Sheffield Farms Creamery and it looks great, but it had missing parts (solved by my parts box), instructions that were vague or out of order and finishing problems that I had to improvise to get to look right. And I still have the lumbermill and the cement plant to struggle through! The question is, did I enjoy the process? Sort of, especially when the end result was worth it. You really have to be willing to invest the time it takes though, you could have spent that time running trains! Ernie C
I just looked at the instructions and parts for my new RLW steam donkey last night. I might as well shave my head before I start, I can already see myself pulling my hair out over this one. I think it's going to be a long and painful road to assemble and look anything like the included photographs.
Ah, the Panther (F9F) kit! It wouldn't even blow up properly--just split at the seams. Who ever tried the early Ford GT-40 kit, the one with the opening doors? Walthers kits are generally warped and twisted. I haven't bought one for at least a decade. The old Walthers turntable was dysfunctional--I used the only pit and designed my own motorizing scheme around a 0.4 RPM drive. The new TT is ok by me. I rarely build kits these days, although I very much enjoyed two of N Scale Architects kits. Jeanne, however, still does, thank the N scale gods. She hasn't had many problems with a slew of DPM buildings, once I showed her that they are sometimes not square.
Try just about any of the craftsman kits in wood that aren't laser cut. Or a wood trestle. And then in the plastic end of stuff there is a IM tankcar kit. Also try a full rigged clipper ship includes all sails set or furled.
You worry too much. I don't think it will be that hard. It's the only kit on my bench right now. The big trick will be making the Lima FP45 look like a WC unit.. Oh yeah, Detail Assoc. HO Sugar Beet Gon... That's a MAN's kit! Modelers cry opening that box.. My Christmas present this year will be a Trumpter ALF Pumper truck in 1/24th. I picked up the box for it at a shop an felt the *weight*! Besides, it's not a real kit unless there's 200+ pieces.. Kel
Father Nature shells require extensive surgery. Not only cutting, sanding, and filing to fit what it claims it will, but also to repair poorly cast shells. Walthers kits demostrate why any kitbuilder needs the requisite tools before attempting to build ANY kit. They require extensive preparation. They do not go together too badly once you do the proper preparation of the parts. My nomination for the absolutely most impossible kits to build are the InterMountain box-type car kits. The grab irons that do not break when you cut them from the sprue launch when you attempt to put them onto the car. It does not matter if you try to open the holes, they still launch. The silly thing is that the same thing does not occur when you try to put the grab irons onto the gondola kits. I love the gondola kits, I hate the box-type car kits
man,thank goodness this post came out. i was really close to buying the walthers double track bridge, i gonna stick with bashing 2 atlas warren truss bridge's together
okane, I have to agree with you ! In all the structures i've built that Walthers "Modern Coaling Tower" was a trip. Never thought i'd get through with all the stairs. Had to use tweezers and magnified eyeglasses to run all the black thread I used for all the pulley operations for the chutes. And then when I went to design my steam service facilitys and was ready to put the coaling tower in the coal car dumping house was setting higher than my track and cork roadbed. Ended up using my Dremel with the cut off wheel and a sharp steel scraper with a hammer to remove some of the wood so the dumping house was setting level with my track. Since my coaling towers also sitting on cork now I need to add some plastic pieces as now the roof of the dumping house is lower. I almost believe my scratch built two track ash pit & conveyor w/hoist house was easier ???? Ernie
Ernie - any chance you could post a picture of the tower with the outside chutes showing. How the $$^%@# did you get the pulleys glued together? I am still struggling with that.
okane, since my service facilitys are just two tracks I didn't use the outside chutes. But I believe I did take some pictures of the inside chutes and pullys which would be done the same as the outside ones. Give me a few minutes to locate and post pictures. As far as glueing the pulleys together, use a magnifier, makes it easy. A few of my pulleys where the thread went through had glue that filled the small holes, I just used a jewelers hand drill and small bit to redrill the holes. Ernie
okane, go to this Village photo album of mine, left click on the last photo, then next page click on ZOOM. http://villagephotos.com/members/album.asp?folder_id=1755031
What! No one mentioned the Walthers Blast Furnace Kit, 6,275,315 little pieces, and 2,675 medium Pisces, 319 large pieces. mg: :rolleyes2: OK, OK, so I exagarated a little bit. But most did not fit without a lot of work, prayer. And instructions to make you cry in your gallons of beer. Number 1 of 41 mostly Walthers kits. How does selling on EBay work?? :wink2: :cry2eh:
Gee, I don't have any horrible stories..... but that's because I've only done a few MRR kits. Most difficult: The Walthers Intermodal Crane. Took me quite a while to put it together, then I dropped it and discovered the incredibly poor shock resistance of superglues.... grrrrrrrrrr The one DPM building I've done was easy to build. The Red Caboose coil cars are a bit challenging to get the hood hooks to square up and STAY ON. The MDC old timer "kits" are easy. Hmmm, what else... Bachmann's "Car Shop" kit, easy, except keeping the glass in place. American Limited's TankTainers, fun to build, challenging to decal. Now, I have done more than a few challenging kits back in the day.... 30+ 20mm guns to mount on a 1/700 waterline series carrier come to mind...
The toughest yet was the intermountain 40' boxcars that the issued a few years ago all the trees where to close to the parts and next to impossiable to get out. second was all the bodies where warped man what a mess i still have 10 i have not finished in great northern
