"Do you follow the directions..." Topic

… when assembling a kit (assuming it is something complicated enough where the manufacturer provided illustrations/writing showing something more complex than "the right arm attaches at the right shoulder and the left arm goes on on the left shoulder" or "the log cabin is a rectangle and the door goes in the door shaped hole")?

Fully, testfitting each piece before assembly
Step by step
I look at them while a I along
I check them when I get stuck/have a question
I glance at them
Not really
Is that what that paper was?
Never! (as a point of honor)

I'll look at them a long while AFTER the model is assembled to figure out what the heck went wrong and why so many extra parts. But ussually I'll glance at them if it looks complicated. For me, more than 3 parts : )

Depends on how expensive the model is. :)

Not really, or until I'm stuck. And that is almost true of everything I have ever built.

Actually #1, But I'm gonna say #8 to maintain my manly image.

# 2, unless I've tried the step by step before and found a better way

I check them when I get stuck/have a question.

Mostly I just build stuff so I am happy with it.

Usually #1 and #2

Yes I follow and test fit. Usually the problem is NO directions are provided, PSC being the exception – painting guides and directionsbeing xtandard with them.

Yes, I usually follow the instructions unless it is something I have built so many times before I can do it blindfold – like Airfix Shermans and Panzer IVs.

It is usually a good idea to test fit the parts too, as many plastic kits just don't fit togther without a ton of hacking around and filling.

I convert damn near everything in some way or another.

Back in the day, I had a 4th edition Warhammer Fantasy undead army that tallied around 14k points. With the exception of 3 Necromancers (level 4 general, level 3 right hand man, and level 1 hedgemage/drifter-type, respectively), their mounts (a *heavily* converted zombie griffin for the Witchmaster General that started out as the old, bulky metal High Elf Griffin, and the old Citadel Gigantic Spider I think it was- the ridicularge one- for the level 1, to turn him into a glorified 1-man all-terrain shocktrooper squad), and an independent (and also heavily converted) zombie dragon, the entire army were "dry" undeads- plastic skellies and a fistful or two of Wights (wight cavalry on skeletal steeds, wight lords leading units, etc.)

Out of all of those skeletons- and by the gods, there were so many that I purposefully never counted them out en masse (I'd count the figs in a given unit, obviously, I just never tallied up the sum totals of each unit)- there were less than a dozen that hadn't been converted in some way, usually fairly substantially.

The other Warhammer players in the area all thought I was slightly mad, it was so bad.

So, I'ma have to add "9. I think I may have a problem."

- NecroMonker

3 & 4

Depends on what I was building.

When I made scale aircraft/AFVs then yes I matched and super detailed the kits. When I made wood aircraft you had to lay the bits on the plan and form them with pins etc. so no options here.

Now – they just get thrown together to use rather than as 'kits'. Come to that all but three or four of my collectors kits have been sold over the last year as I will not build them to the level they deserve.

When all else fails, read the directions.

I am a man. I don't need no stinkin directions.

" always have to follow instructions for their Panther, Churchill, and Matilda"

Oh yes, always follow the instructions for the Churchill.

Some of the modern east european kits are the worst, 200 parts to make one gun and none of the bits fit properly.

I did once have a kit with the wrong instructions, that was quite funny really.

1 & 2. I do it, but I hate building models. I'm a painter, so give me a casting or something with only 3 or 4 parts that need to be glued on.

I guess I should answer my own poll suggestion. I am a "glance at them" kind of guy. If the model is too complex to put together like that, I will likely skip parts that I think are too fiddly. I am also a heavy converter, so the directions are a point of departure for me, not … well … directional in nature.

I do, however, keep the instructions for models I make. If I get the urge, I can pull out those directions for my 70's Shogun Warriors and use them to make one from scratch.

The only kits I've built recently have been with my 5 year old and I'm trying to teach him best practice – he can learn the shortcuts later – so option 1.

Sometimes. Directions of any kind are not easy to understand, specially when they only have b;ack n white copies of pics.

The only kits I've built recently have been with my 5 year old and I'm trying to teach him best practice

The only "I follow directions" response that doesn't get your man card revoked! :) Good on ya!