discussion Not a build thread: Mirage Hobby PZL 37B 1/48

[BarryW]

I have decided not to do a full build thread for this.

It is not a subject that particularly interests me and I am just getting on with this to just get it out of the way.

It is not a large or complex kit. The plastic looks OK but, on cutting, I find it is soft and fragile. The detailing is crude. I could say that it is a typical limited run kit, but that would do the latest limited runs a dis-service. Special Hobby are better and I am far from being a fan of SH!

So far I have had no real fit issues but I am getting no real pleasure from the build. It is just too toy-like for me and there are none of the refinements that I really enjoy with modern kits.

I will press on despite keeping on glancing over at my stash with all those kits I really am looking forward to getting on with. Given my low motivation I might well bin it if I get any issues. I would say that there is not more than a 60% chance of finishing this. If I do, I will post a completed build if I finish alternatively you might just see me start a full build of another kit.

Question: Do you taken on builds and persist with a subject that does not motivate you and, perhaps, is rather substandard? If so what is you motivation? I am genuinely interested.

A couple of pics of this kit

 

[minitnkr]

Sometimes to fill in a missing item in a series of ships, aircraft or a TO&E.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
Personally I only start a build if it interests me. Sometimes as the build progresses my interest wanes a bit, especially if I hit snags which I can't sort out. It is rare for me to give up on a build, either by binning it or putting it away to return to later.
This is a hobby which is done because we choose to and it's something we enjoy. When the fun is no longer there it's probably time to move to another kit.
Jim

 

[rtfoe]

Hi Barry, my motivation is the challenge to make it better than what it's intended to be so it becomes my signature finish. I always get a kick if someone says I can't believe this is from that shitty kit...how did you do it? One of the ways is to approach different angles of construction if the steps in the destruction sheet don't make sense. Also to know when to put it aside and attempt at a later date perhaps with new ideas and approach. It's a hobby and not a race. I don't like wasting money knowing a fraction of what we spend on a kit can feed someone in another part of the world so if it's bought it better be built.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Dave Ward]

Barry,
sometimes I start a model that doesn't really have my full enthusiasm, but generally not. I have one stage of perseverance - if things don't go well, through loss of interest or frustration - the part build model goes back into its' box, with the full intention of revisiting it! If it is really bad, then it's landfill. Usually I can work this out before too much time has been wasted, although sometimes I will finish things through sheer cussedness! ( like my Maquette T-34 I recently did ). In the past I've had a bad habit of dropping nearly complete models & writing them off, but I haven't done that in a while.
I do have to remind myself regularly - it is a hobby and getting riled & raising your blood pressure isn't the goal of what should be a relaxing pastime!!
Dave

 

[Tim Marlow]

Once I start I will usually finish the kit. However, I usually won’t start if I’m not interested in the subject at the time. The only exception is to take part in group builds, which I find good for pushing me out of a rut occasionally.

 

[Guest]

Do you taken on builds and persist with a subject that does not motivate you and, perhaps, is rather substandard? If so what is you motivation?

When I lose interest, the model goes back into its box, to be finished later. Sometimes, “later” is a few months, more often it’s years, and occasionally it’s been a decade or two and I still haven’t continued. To be fair, with these last ones, chances are I never will because I end up considering it a historical thing that should stay in the state it’s currently in Though I must say that military vehicles are generally a lot easier to put back into the box than aircraft are. A tank or truck will nearly always actually fit in the box even when mostly built …

Motivation to continue is usually renewed interest in the subject, but occasionally may be something like a group build

Substandard kit/fit/etc. doesn’t bother me: I just correct the problems to the best of my ability, or decide it’s too much bother for too little gain so I can live with the parts as they are. No model I have ever built, in my now ca. 40 years of having this hobby, has gone into the bin as far as I can remember.

 

[boatman]

HI Barry well my motivation is the challenge to build my seakings kits for my tiger an get one working
chris b

 

[AlanG]

With only limited available funds for model making, i don't have the liberty to buy kits that don't interest me. Hence why my stash is kind of 'wurger heavy'

 

[outrunner]

I have been known to chuck a kit or two in the bin and have no problem with it. I do not have a big stash only 4 boxes under the bench, all models that I think will be interesting for me to build. Sometimes I do lose interest in something and I lay it aside for better times and will come back to it but now and then I have decided it is not worth the effort and binned them. Others I have bought then thought this is not for me and have either sold them on, or given them away to others.

Andy.

 

[GerryW]

Only kit that is languishing in a box is a large scale Airfix Norton Commando, got so far and just lost interest in it - know that I hadn't bought it new, so one that was picked up through either a fete or charity shop. I will just add that it's been in the box for about 25-30 years!

 

[Andy the Sheep]

I'm so slow in building my models I never experienced the need to put a kit aside: my ongoing builds are all "aside" considering my snail's pace. In that situation, I often experience the opposite: my motivation is high but there are a lot of intermingling issues between me and my bench.
As to binning: as a teenager I preferred to set my planes on fire (hope John will not read this... and Matron too!:smiling6and throw them from the window into the garden 8 floors below then go down an check if the remains were still usable as a credible wreck, which seldom were.
At that time Santa Claus was descending through the chimney to fill my stash with kits every year, fact that I always accepted without any criticism as my philosophy was: "it's a model, it's fun" whatever the model was.
Today I just buy what interests me... but gifts (from Santa or any other real or unreal creature) are always welcome and always accepted with the same philosophy.

Andrea

 

[Ian M]

If it has little or no interest I don't even buy it let alone build it.
Yes I have things in the stash, Some less interesting now, than when I got them. But still in my area of interest..so when the inspiration hits they will get built.
Of the kits I do have in the stash that risk getting sold on it is more due to lack of space more than lack of interest.

 

[BarryW]

Interesting replies thank you.

I said that this Mirage kit was crude. Look at this

I have never seen such a poor horrible and, yes, crude fit before. Yes I can add plastic card ‘shimmies’, fill and sand, but we should not have to do this in this day and age.

Still looking at my ICM 1/48 Do17Z thinking, shall I? We will see….

 

[rtfoe]

My goodness!! A round peg fitting a square hole. :surprised: Plasticard shimmies will do half the job...putty does the rest.
The manufacture sure wasn't worried about fit issues as long as there's a hole. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Dave Ward]

What is known as a rattlin' good fit! Are you sure this is going to be worth it? I think you've gone further than I would have bothered - it would have been it's box yesterday!
Dave

 

[BarryW]

Well I just test fitted the fuselage sides with the cockpit internals dry fitted. I looked at the amount of filling and sanding that will be needed and, that was it. It really is not worth the bother…

When I build a kit I enjoy the painting and weathering most, but I also love the build process with three stand-out aspects:
1/ the plastic porn of handling beautifully engineered, nicely detailed plastic parts.
2/ the pleasure of the parts fitting nicely. Seeing complex shapes coming together to a whole.
3/ building a subject that interests me, some more than others.

With this kit none of those apply. If even one of those three aspects applied then I would almost certainly have finished the kit. There were no real insurmountable problems and it is not a large time consuming kit after all.

What I had were crudely moulded parts that did not fit at all well. Ambiguity with the instructions and the usual short-run lack of attachment points or even an exact idea of where or how parts should fit together. Then the subject, I thought it might be nice to have this obscure Polish bomber on the shelf but, no, it is just not worth it.

I won’t bother with Mirage kits again regardless of subject. I recommend that you too avoid them.

Now, that Do17Z from ICM.

 

[boatman]

SO its in the bin again Barry ?
chris b

 

[BarryW]

Yes, as I said, not worth the effort. On now to a model of a subject I want to build from a company that makes decent kits.

 

[boatman]

Yes, as I said, not worth the effort. On now to a model of a subject I want to build from a company that makes decent kits.

WHATS that then that big lanc ?
chris b