Over the past 5 days I have been assembling the new Walthers "Modern Coaling Tower. Talk about details and tiny tiny parts. I have it about half assembled and have lost more of those tiny parts. I now have to come up with a way to replace those, - mostly pulleys that operate the coal chutes. That I got to solve before I assemble the main building. Whats next many many ladder sections and platforms that need to be glued to the main building.mg: Not that this is my first kit, I have done the round house, machine shop and others, this is the toughest I have attempted to date. So I though I would ask " What is the toughest kit you have come across to assemble?
My choice would be Walthers double track bridge. Man, that was a pain! The floor/track supports were just bent to all hell and it took a 2x4, screws, weights and a bunch of glue during assembly to get the floor straight. I did two of these to make my one Lemont bridge, and I hope to never have to do one again!
All the Walthers kits I've ever attempted to assemble didn't turn out as expected because the instructions were either too difficult, pieces just didn't "fit right" or everything was just bent and twisted. I stick with DPM and kits like those, easy to customize and looks great after paint.
By far is the Walthers steel furnace,built one for the club,or I should say,nearly got it finished ,hoooge job!
Heh heh! I feel your pain. I built one of those bridges using a bunch of clamps and a couple of 1x2s. I had two more to go so I figured I had to find a better way. The trouble with the bridge kit (and many other Walthers kits) is the imprecise molding. If you look closely you can tell that the mold halves don't always line up precisely. In the case of the double track truss, this means that the notches that are meant to interlock to form the floor are too tight. Because those long stringers are notched, forcing the cross-members into them causes the whole assembly to bow severely. The solution is to painstakingly file each notch opening in all those deck parts so that everything falls together without having to force anything. It works great, resulting in a perfectly straight deck that makes the rest of assembly a breeze! It just takes a lot of prep work. So yeah, I too cast my vote for anything made by Walthers. But most of the problems can be solved by careful cleanup and test-fitting. Nothing can be done about the awful instructions, though! Pete D.
I only have a couple of Walthers kits and mine seemed to go together fairly easily. I have the feed store, the coal mine, and some of the modulars. One kit that I did that was somewhat tricky was the new Atlas passenger station. The glass for the windows was printed on a piece of acetate and you had to cut them out your self. It would have been much better if they had run the acetate through a die cutter and left small sprues to keep the windows attached to the acetate. Also, getting the window pieces into the bay window area was almost impossible. I used some testors clear glue to make my windows. Also, there are small corner trim pieces that are added to each corner. These piece are a bear to glue on and line up before the glue sets. Once its finished, its a nice model. But next time I think I'll buy the built up version. I'm sure I used the money I saved from building it myself on headache medicine in the process. Sometimes that beer, er I mean medicine, gets costly. Eric
My standard is still the GHQ L1 2-8-2 conversion kit. Looked at it for almost four years. Had to get out-of-print articles for assembly help, because of vague instructions. Bought a PRR book to get pictures. Bought drills and taps to do it. Ordered special detail parts that weren't in the kit (no injector???). Ordered replacement TT driver from Kato. Lots of filing and finishing, tweaking. Bought more stuff and had to practice to weather it. End resul is fantastic, but its still the absolute toughest kit I've ever seen.
That reminds me. I don't build many difficult kits but the one steam conversion kit I did build was a doozy. It was a Republic Locomotive Works K-37 kit to convert a Z scale Mikado to an Nn3 engine.
Good point Russel,I've been doing a RLW C-16 kit since '02,haven't got past the tender lol.Hope Mike Cheno's site doesn't go down before I finish iy.
Would it be possible to see a picture of these completed kits? I am not familar with the coaling tower or the bridge mentioned above. Thanks. There was a brass coaling tower shown here on TB that I thought would be hard to assemble. Maybe that was scratchbuilt and not a kit?
Guess none of you guys has attempted a Plastruct kit. I would not call them kits, they are a set of plans and a package of raw plastic shapes. I have the N scale swing span kit. The instructions, such as they are, require crossties be cut from a sheet of .080" ABS plastic! :angry: Oh, the drawings aren't even N scale, they're HO! mg:
My worst (FWIW) is an Intermountain covered hopper kit. I tried the PS2 4750, and the ACF 4650; both were a royal pain to build. Does the word 'ZINGGGG' mean anything to you? With am IM car kit, tweezers, and the multitude of tiny parts, you will become very familiar with that little word.
I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned this, but the same conversion with an old Robert Sloan kit was a bear also.
My tougest kit? The Revell model of Shuttle Pad 39A. Had to rebuild half of it cause it was warped... Looked great when it was finished. Model trains? Maybe the SAR F45... Kel
Love the challenge But dont yall love the challenge:angry: ? I had one of those wonderful Walthers doule track bridges. It was .....interesting. Ended up buying two Kato double track bridges prebuilt and costs less to boot!!
I am lucky that these Walthers bridges are not available here, and the Kato/Tomix bridges are ))) I bought these prebuilt bridges and they are great. I have had many problems with resin kits of the Dutch firm Artitec. Walls are warped, pieces do not fit, small pieces have been molded in a thick layer of resin (and therefore it's almost impossible to cut them out safely)..... They recommend super glue, but it glues everything (especially fingers) except the kit parts..... AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Baby Food! Nursing Formula! All easy compared to RLW's Coon Gap Sawmill! I have had the hardest time with that model. I never really finished it. It is an early generation laser cut kit with so many parts that it comes with a book, not booklet, for instructions. I'm talking War and Piece here! The instructions often do not match the parts, and almost half the parts are not cut all the way through, requiring extensive exacto knife surgery. I almost pulled a Godzilla Stomp on it one day where I was having a day of grief cutting out between railing posts with an exacto, then Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla came on the radio and I set the kit on the floor, beer in hand, dancing around the model like I was in a Megadeth mosh pit, and I wanted to stomp it into oblivian! :O I regained my composure after the song, and put the half built kit in a box, where it has stayed for several years now. -Robert
Toughest one I had was a Revell Navy Panther jet from about 50 years ago. When I think back to the dried lines of plastic cement along the seams and the crooked decals, I realize that in FIFTY YEARS I AM STILL DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS INCORRECTLY.
I have tried, and watched others struggle with and fail, assembling the Walters turntable kit. The pit itself looks easy, but try and put the motor on it. :teeth:
