"I hate white metal vehicle kits." Topic

A while ago I stopped buying white metal vehicle kits and went completely over to expensive die cast models. Recently I've started on the most excellent quick-build plastic kits. I must have forgotten why I switched from white metal kits when I found an old armored car I must have bought in the mid-1990's.

The vehicle had never been built and never left its bag so last night I decided to build it. This thing was the worst kit ever. With only a dozen or so parts what could go wrong? Nothing fit without extensive filing. To get the hull sides alone to not be cock-eyed I had to file for about 1/2 hour each side. Even after that the hull rear did not fit correctly.

I gave up, but decided to give it another go this morning. I attached the hull roof that of course did not fit correctly. The last straw was the turret ring. The turret would not fit and so I filed and filed and filed, finally resorting to shaving away large chunks of the ring with my x-acto knife. By now the armored car had large stripes of green putty to fill in the yawning gaps. Finally I got the turret into the ring and placed the hull roof on the model. It was bent.

The armored car, putty and all, are now in the trash.

Guns and vehicles in most scales fit poorly and to make matters worse also come sans instructions.

A moments silence for a white metal kit. Not a great kit and through no fault of it's own found itself at the sharp end of battle and took one for the team.

I'm sure that there is someone out there in TMP land that could put together that kit.

Fortunately that someone isn't me.

Ther are some that are truly horrible to build. I've found some however that are a joy. By and large, I prefer resin kits and only use white metal as a last resort or for models that have very few parts. ie. UE carriers.

They are a nightmare most of the time. Parts that are two heavy to be held together with glue and require epoxy. Much better in resin and better still in plastic.

It is not in the nature of white metal kits to fit together properly with any amount of dignity. Manufacturers of such kits know this when they sell/sold them. Alas this medium is still used as economy demands but entirely the wrong material for a kit of very many parts that requires dimensional accuracy.

if it's not on the curb yet I'd take the white kit off your hands, and at the VERY least make a wrecked counter out of it…

Always feel bad seeing good (well ok mediocre) wargaming product go into the bin…

Always feel bad seeing good (well ok mediocre) wargaming product go into the bin…

Agree. At the very least, should have put it back in the bag and came back to it a month or two later…

Damon.

White metal models have had their day,poor location points with minimal instructions and questionable fit. Superceded by vastly superior resin castings, accurate in scale with some spectacular detail. Now we are spoiled with an excellent choice of interesting diecasts and plastic ready built models. Further encouraging news is the release of mixed scale quick-builds of wargame models that gamers actually want, by manufacturers eager to please.

me too

I found metal kits to be very frustrating, compared to plastic or resin. I'm with Ditto The Abdominal Snowman, I built WW1 and WW2 airfix aircraft and tanks back in the sixties and still enjoy doing them. The fast built kits are nice for gaming, but do lack detail.

Been there and done that. You won't get argument from me.

Wow, am I the only one who has anything nice to say about England's MMS 20mm metal models?

mms-models.co.uk/#

I've only built a couple (Panzer IV D or E and a Universal Carrier) but aside from being heavy and very expensive, I liked them. I preferred plastic myself but I thought they are pretty good. This WAS back in the day when there wasn't anything else available…

Michael in Cloverdale

I have built a few of SHQ's metal vehicles and I found that they went together quite well. The metal kits were sometimes the only option, particularly when non-German subjects were desired. But I still prefer plastic for ease of detailing and modification

I will stand up in defense of metal kits. I have some lovely post-war examples from skytrex and from peter pig.

Meh, Resin is as equally as suseptible of getting warped and miss-shaped during moulding, besides if its a mis-cast its (white metal) so much easier to recycle. i'm sure if its a dreadful miscast the company involved should replace it.

though I've yet to really splurge, i hear nothing but great things about MMS.

Yes, I don't really care what they are made of as long as the go together well. I've had plenty of good metal models from e.g. Peter Pig, QRF, Skytrex, Old Glory, Irregular, Minifigs, SHQ, Minifigs etc as well as some utterly awful resin models and truly dreadful plastic kits. A 200 part model where every single item has a flash line on it and many of the major parts are warped is not much fun to put together….

Personally I am most comfortable with plastic, as that is what I started with, but I have generally found that metal wargaming models go together much faster than their plastic equivalents (if the bits fit:).

rvandusen, I can spot the RAFM M8 Greyhound kit from 1000 miles away just by your description. It took me a year to build it, and the experience was very much like yours. condolences.

MMS & SHQ kits were a joy to build. I vaguely recall that even the RAFM M5 went together reasonably well. There shouldn't be any reason for a metal kit to be crap unless it started out with a poor master, poor mould design or trying to get too many casts from worn out moulds. Resin has its own issues but the same ideas apply. It generally boils down to the fact that some kit manufacturers do a better job than others…

I have quite a number of 1/350 scale resin ship models from different manufacturers and it's no different there since some are bubble-filled, cock-eyed flash fests and in others, the parts actually fit! YMMV.

The only kit I ever gave up on permanently was a vacuform midievel inn for fantasy. It came with a full interior, and so each wall was at least two pieces that wouldn't go together because the sides were at an angle other than perpendicular and were usually warped.

I gave up on a Science Treasury (Hasegawa rip-off) SdKfz 7, and a Military Wheels VW Type 93 Ambulance and Trailer. They are still cluttering up the house somewhere because I can never throw anything away!

There are some poor plastic kits out there and some lovely metal ones … I have no complaints about my Skytrex, Peter and Post War QRF … I think the PSC T34 is not very good (Zvezda is better … but then again, I just built a Zvezda BA10 and it was not very good at all, getting quite hard plastic so all a bit fragile and 'snappy') …

At least with the metal kits I don't have to fill the inside with plasticine to given them a nice sturdy feel …

So I vote if it is bad it is bad/if it is good it is good (the material is not the problem and there is a lot of good 'white metal' out there) …

Phil
P.B.Eye-Candy

I just built two completely metal 1/56 Centurions from Chieftain Models (soon to be Sloppy Jalopy), and they were the best kits I've ever built.

Absolutely THE BEST.

Oh yeah! I've got goosebumps!

Leading Edge Aliens APC flashbacks, anyone?

MMS are usually little gems!

I think this comes down to the manufacturer, I've built plenty and some fit together well, some are awful.

Conversely, try putting together some of those god-awful plastic kits from the Ukraine, such as ACE Models. They have more flash than metals, there is more detail in a wet tea-bag and they don't fig together at all! Mine went in the bin.

love MMS and most SHQ kits. SHQ went through a patch of quality control issues for a while but everything seems hunky dory at the moment and if a piece is missing or miscast Peter is very good with replacements

I put together 6 Pegasus KV1s in 4 hours, painted but no markings. Wouldn't go back to metal for any reason whatsoever.

MMS and SHQ are quite nice IMHO, and this is especially so for the white metal kits from Reviresco, as they're both actual kits that were rendered to a high standard, and Reviresco makes some very useful but neglected subjects like the 6x6 Laffly S20TL troop carrier for the dragons porte.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen