Your most challenging kit?

[JMaurer1]

The traincat chlorine cars aren't a piece of cake either. They do make a unique and interesting car though. I wonder where mine are ?

Randy

This is the one I was going to point out. LOVE the Traincat kits, and this is the only way to get this unique car, but the thing that has stopped me from completing the car (other than the lack of decals...now filled by Tichy) is cutting the brass tubing into the 15 lengths needed to model the chlorine tanks. Still haven't done that yet...

[peteski]

This is the one I was going to point out. LOVE the Traincat kits, and this is the only way to get this unique car, but the thing that has stopped me from completing the car (other than the lack of decals...now filled by Tichy) is cutting the brass tubing into the 15 lengths needed to model the chlorine tanks. Still haven't done that yet...

I have one of those too. Going to make my own decals (didn't know Tichy makes them, but their decals are *WAY* too thick for my taste anyway) and I was going to make a master and cast my own tank from resin. One of my many to-do projects.

[C855B]

... cutting the brass tubing into the 15 lengths needed to model the chlorine tanks. ...

I find this indispensable for "mass" cutting: http://www.micromark.com/Duplicating-Jig-for-Cutting-Strip-and-Tube-Stock

My biggest use for it has been axle tubes for custom wheelsets. It holds dimension very well.

[casmmr]

For me it was the Airfix 1/72nd Corvette ship model, nothing was correct, some pieces too long, others too short, nothing fit without a lot of work, I finally gave up and trashed it.  If memory is correct lost about $150.00 on the kit.  Felt really good to see it go into the trash.  One reason I gave up on plastic models, ships. planes, and tanks, just poor fit of parts and really bad instructions.  At least with the model RR kits, they do fit together without a lot of modification. 

[peteski]

For me it was the Airfix 1/72nd Corvette ship model, nothing was correct, some pieces too long, others too short, nothing fit without a lot of work, I finally gave up and trashed it.  If memory is correct lost about $150.00 on the kit.  Felt really good to see it go into the trash.  One reason I gave up on plastic models, ships. planes, and tanks, just poor fit of parts and really bad instructions.  At least with the model RR kits, they do fit together without a lot of modification.

Sorry to hear that you gave up on plastic model kits. There are lots and lots of excellent well-fitting kits out there. Especially from companies like Tamiya, Fujimi, Aoshima, but also from many other companies.  Also, the reverse is true too - quite a few model RR kits have ill-fitting parts.  Just look at Daniel's most challenging kit (mentioned here earlier): Worcester Station.

[Lemosteam]

Waiting for @cbroughton67 to chime in here....

[Rossford Yard]

Haven't read this entire thread, so apologies if it has been covered, but those old Plastruct kits were hard.  Tried the Oil refinery one and had to give it to a friend to build.

[robert3985]

Wellllll....I've been thinking about this thread...and I gotta say that I have never had a kit that was really challenging to build. If I were to rate the ones that had been most complicated, I'd say the first ones were the Guillows balsa flying model airplane kits my dad taught me how to build when I was about ten or so.  I loved the WWI models, especially the Fokker "Tripe" and the Spad. 

Then, the Revell 1/8" model ship kits took a while to build properly...the Cutty Sark, the Thermopylae and finally "Old Ironsides" which still has a place of honor on my mantel even though I built it in 1964 when I was 15.

I have had some challenging scratch-building projects however, not necessarily because of their complexity, but because of the ridiculously short time period museums and customers normally give me to research and build 'em.  The worst one was a model of a section of wall and the Roman siege tower and battering ram which finally breached the double wall at Masada in 73 AD.

The museum/art gallery had contacted me about a project they were interested in, so I made an appointment with them to discuss it in person.  They told me what the project was, which was to build a large model of a Roman siege tower or "engine" and I had 3 months to do it before the doors of their "Masada Exhibit" opened up for public display.  I spent three days evaluating the project and determined that I could only get it done on time if they did the research because I was not an expert on Roman implements of war.  I met again with them in four days and they agreed to my terms.  However, as it turned out, they did not do any research or provide ANY drawings or plans of a Roman siege tower and what was in it...so, a whole month went by that was totally wasted.  That gave me two months to research and finish a model that was to be approximately 6' tall, with a fully detailed interior in time for their opening.  I let them know that they had reneged on the deal and that I would continue to do the project, but it would be placed in their exhibit incrementally as I finished it.  They agreed.

To make the long story shorter, I worked day and night on the project and finally delivered the final pieces one month to the day after the exhibit had opened for its three month stay.  They were very happy with the model, but I determined that I had drastically underbid it, since a goodly amount of extra time had been spent on research and drawing plans, which was not included in my original bid.  Of course, they weren't willing to compensate me for it, so I had the choice of either refunding their deposit or going ahead with the project, and I elected to finish it for much less than it was worth.

I farmed out the scenic base of the model to my good friend and respected modeler Kelly Newton, who built the section of the Masada casemate wall and the Roman siege ramp on the outside of it upon which the iron-clad Roman siege tower made it's slow way up until it was close enough to use its large battering ram to breach the outer wall.  When I asked Kelly what he was going to charge me for his labor, he told me that if I'd custom paint his unfinished NP diesel motive power, that would do the trick!  The middle of the double casemate wall was filled with sand and wood, which formed a nearly impenetrable barrier to the battering ram because of the spongy, forgiving nature of the wood/sand combination.  The Romans gave the order to burn it if possible, and it was set on fire...but winds started driving the flames into the Roman siege tower positioned directly outside of the breach, and for a few hours, it appeared the siege tower was going to burn up.  The winds changed and the wood burned out of the central space between the walls...and so the battering ram could then be used to easily knock down the inner wall, which had nothing but air on the other side of it.  The Romans needed to wait for a day before proceeding so the stones and sand would cool down, and if you know the story of Masada, that's when the Jewish "zealots" or patriots made their fateful decision because they knew the three year siege was going to be over the next morning....and they had nowhere to run.

Kelly and I didn't know what color or texture of rocks to use for the Masada walls or the Roman siege ramp, so we guessed.  When we delivered the base of the model to the exhibit, the pieces of actual stones and photos on display there confirmed we had guessed better than we could have expected...the color and textures of the rocks we used were a perfect match!

Photo (1) - Roman Siege Tower at Masada:


Photo (2) - Roman Siege Tower at Masada Another View:


Photo (3) - Roman Siege Tower Interior Closeup:


Photo (4) - Roman Siege Tower Battering Ram:


Photo (5) - Roman Legionaires:


Photo (6) - Me, nearly 20 years ago:


As you can see, there's not much weathering done on the inside of the tower...that's because it is newly built...less than a month old when it got to the top of the siege ramp.  However, the iron sheets adorning the outside had been burned, bent and otherwise abused by the inhabitants of the fortress on it's slow creep up the ramp. 

My major frustration with the model was that I specified that because of time constraints, it would be constructed in "one exhibit" quality...then at the end of the exhibit, the museum/art gallery people informed me that the Masada Museum wanted it for display at the actual Masada Museum in Israel.  Once again, I informed them that it was not built to last forever and the Masada people should be notified of that fact.  Whether they were or not is anybody's guess.

Anyway...this is my "most challenging" model project, and I guarantee I'll never have one like it again.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[cbroughton67]

Waiting for @cbroughton67 to chime in here....

LOL! Believe it or not, your K4 isn't the most challenging kit I've built, but it might be second! The GHQ L1s gets that honor, although I built it forever ago. It might not be as bad if I built it now. The K4 is a completely different bird to build being 3D-printed. It is also one of the most precise kits I've built - everything fits like a glove so far. That's testimony to your major league design skills! Kudos to you, Sir!


The most challenging build ever was rehabbing those brass GHB L1s'... Good lord, I took up building model tanks for a while after that - anything that wasn't trains!


Chris

[randgust]

I'm going to put a little spin on this....

I was thinking about my own, and wondering if the most challenging kit was the one that I have to admit I never built; either because it was more or less not worth building or effectively impossible to build.   

It's a sure sign you've met your limit on abilities or patience when you admit you sold it rather than build it.

Mine was a "Long Time" before the Atlas Shay when I-can't-remember-who was doing a resin Shay on a Green Max chassis.   What a complete POS between the bad chassis and the poor castings.    At best it would have had a minimum speed of 40mph, grinding like crazy.   I put it away, and put it up on Ebay seconds after the announcement of the Atlas Shay.

Second place goes to the "Nigel Nightmare" 4-wheel mine locomotive chassis that I got early in the critter years - a Nigel Lawton all-brass N chassis kit that Richie started to build and sent to me - he'd just about had it with it.   I replace the motor rubber-grommet drive with a real gear/spur, and came to the conclusion that nothing I did to it would work any better either.   It's still in the parts box.   See for yourself - this is Nigels photo, not mine:
 
Same design principles as in a Triumph, including the electrical system!  Note that the motor is sprung, has a pivot underneath, to control the contact between the shaft and the grommet.  What you can't easily see is that one wheel of the frame is sprung so it's a three-point stool with a movable 4th point, both brilliant and impossible to maintain at the same time.

 I do have to say though, that he recognized you had to at least try to develop equalization in the frame, it just won't work with tread pickup.   Did actually run though, and I learned a lot.

[bnsfdash8]

Kaslo's GATX whalebelly cement cars are a pretty good challenge. I've done 2 and the first one was definitely the hardest, but they still turned out well.

[peteski]

Kaslo's GATX whalebelly cement cars are a pretty good challenge. I've done 2 and the first one was definitely the hardest, but they still turned out well.

Nice!  Are these still available?  I drove by the Dragon Cement plant in Maine few months ago and I would love to build few of these cars.

[mu26aeh]

Nice!  Are these still available?  I drove by the Dragon Cement plant in Maine few months ago and I would love to build few of these cars.

https://www.kasloshops.com/products/nk-18

[peteski]

https://www.kasloshops.com/products/nk-18

Thanks!