Many of us do this for the enjoyment of assembling and painting the models, but every once in awhile a model comes along that just makes you want to pull your hair out. What's the worst or most difficult model you've ever assembled or painted?

I'd have to say personally that the Necron Ghost Ark/Doomsday Ark is pretty high on the list. Sooo many parts, and it seems like it's impossible to get the ribs perfectly straight.
I'd vote wraiths as a close second, but maybe that's just because I did 6 of them at once.

Wraithlord..... so... much... metal.

i hate them all. i just like the game.

When you put together 60 necron warriors you realize how awesome space marine arms are. My vote is probably for a drop pod that model is a bear to make look nice.

The metal thunderfire cannon was a monster...also the warhound titan, while not incredibly difficult, takes a lot of extra time and thought (and epoxy rather than glue) and it's fairly easy to mess up the look of the feet and legs

Drop pods. Even the picture on the back of the box is put together flawed.

There might be worse out there, but not that I've had the displeasure of working with.

A Ghost Ark.

/thread

Penitent Engine.

The worst time I have ever seen someone have with a model was the metal Battle Penitent Engine. It did not look to fun.

For me personally ill have to go with a drop pod trying to get it 100% perfect.

 Sasori wrote:
A Ghost Ark.

/thread

It's like building a ship in a bottle...inside a Faberge egg. The new Necron non-infantry stuff in general is annoying. So much greeble.

The old models of the Chimera/LRBT. Those tracks were a pain in the ass for me. Never thought I would use so many track guards... The rest went pretty OK.

I can only imagine what it would be like to assemble one of the first thunderhawk models...
Yep...

The metal ones!

f(*&^*g metal TFC is a pain in the hole. I also have a stormraven kit lying in the corner of my room. I've been eager to get it finished for my GK's, but everytime I look at it I feel bored already

EDIT: Just remebered - I have a metal Keeper of Secrets. I have had it built, twice now, but currently it is lying in bits. And thats after it has been pinned. 6 long limbs, in metal? not great.

bah was going to say metal TFC. my vote for plastics go to firewarrior arms.

as ive not really put together anything but orks, i'd say the ork trukk, or the ork warbike. I built about 30 bikes, and i dont think any of them are done right... Why do i have to cut off a handlebar, the exact right length, to then glue it to the arm, but only if the ork is at a perfect angle, in order for it to work?!

Fantasy Greatswordsmen

I would vote the metal TFC too..

I vote for the Balrog. That thing was a nightmare to assemble and paint. The metal predecessors are even worse!

Fantasy Stonehorn followed by the FW Wraith seerer kit

The metal hive tyrant I have has 4 pins in it's waist to keep it from falling apart all the time... that stupid was a pain to put together initially. He still manages to snap his pins every once in a while too..

The Tauros assault vehicle is a horrifying pain.

Eldar war walker.

Pentinent engine. Just a huge pain.

Anything metal. I absolutely hated working with that crap and was happy to see most of it go. Ended up using liquid metal as glue to hold the bigger models (hive tyrant, etc) together. It was also hard to compensate when they were top heavy or extended to far out to one side.

The next worse are the large models with warped pieces.

If you aren't extremely careful hot water will only make the warped large panels worse. I had a monolith and a storm raven each with a bad piece. Took a fair amount of time just to try and get those panels straight enough so I could use filler to close the final gaps.

Next worse was a Ghost Ark. I might actually have that finished before summer. Way too many pieces.

I found the old metal Necron Wraiths to be a massive pain given the relatively thin connection point between the upper and lower parts of the tail. The only way to do it I found was to hold the two pieces together until the glue dried which required both hands for the best results. Of course, that would inevitably be when I got an itchy nose...

Without a doubt a tie between the metal tomb kings screaming skulls catapult and the tomb scorpion. I built most of mine before I learned about things like pinning and green stuff.

I had the misfortune of putting together a landspeeder once for a guy.

The old metal talos models, fiddly and clumsy to assemble

The old metal Thunderfire Cannons were terrible to assemble. Just a bunch of tiny parts that never fit right together and you had to pin it in odd places that you could never tell if it was going to hold. It took me 2 days to put one together and by the end I was looking up how to weld pewter because that felt like the only way to get everything to hold.

The old chaos metal dreadnought hurr...... assembling it wasnt fun... but painting is another story

I've heard horror stories about the vendetta.

As for personal experience, that would be a tie between the plastic catachan trooper box and the old leman russ kits. Catachan infantry due to the fact you have to cut off the stock and grip of the lasguns and line them up just right with both arms. Although to be honest part of that might just be because I was using GW plastic glue (absolutely worthless. Give me some loctite super glue any day) The old leman russes get an honorable mention to the track assembly and the completely unnecsecary axles inside the tread housing. Thank god I got a ton of tread guards for dirt cheap, or I would've torn my hair out months ago

I haven't done this one myself but it looks like a pain to assemble and paint.

for me, it would pretty much anything metal. i hated metal, glad its gone.

in plastic, it would landspeeders. every single one ive bought over the years, easily 10+, have been warped to hell and back.

Dumah12 wrote:My vote is probably for a drop pod that model is a bear to make look nice.

yup, plastic-wise, drop pod gets my vote. Not really built many metal or resin models to make much of a decision on the others, though I remember Ghazghkull Thraka's arms were a to stay on.

The metal thunderfire sucks, I've got an extra I'm trying to sell if anyone wants to try....... and the ghost ark did have way too many pieces, I'm still gluing random bits on that were still on the sprue. Model wise, if I had a pining drill I think it would be easy, but the metal Lysander and VV Blood Angel with the sword both suck. Army wise, gluing Necrons by the dozen is awful, warriors, immortals and lychguard are just miserable because there are so damn many skinny bits.

spartiatis wrote:
I would vote the metal TFC too..

Nothing can/will beat this. Entire threads have been devoted just to hatred for this model.

For me its Drop pods and Thunderfire cannons.

While I haven't assembled any myself, the Drop Pod looks...awful to have to put together.

I *HAVE* done a Thunderfire cannon, and that easily put to rest any thoughts of doing more.

The Goblin Scraplauncher was even worse.

old IG tanks were annoying because of how many unnecessary, hidden wheels they had.

Landspeeders used to be awful, the kit never fit right, even the box art one you could tell had a good deal of Green Stuff work done to it.

The new Necron stuff looks pretty bad...but more than that I'd dread painting them. The idea of having to paint them alone is what kept me from trying to build a small Necron side-army.

some Forgeworld models have been pretty nasty, but they're upfront about that (usually). Hydras were a bit of a surprise there in how difficult they ended up being and how much modification to the basic Chimera hull was required. The Eldar Vampire Hunter I'm working on requires a good deal of work but I think that's because of the lower main fuselage being mucked up more than anything else.

The Corpse Cart was terrible to build.



You need to build it so the framework is sturdy enough to slip the Corpse Piles and Corpsemaster in. I haven't attempted painting mine yet, because I feel it's going to be a nightmare.

For me there are two. The metal penitent engine and the metal thunderfire cannon. Those two were horrible to put together.

The Penitent Engine isn't too bad, it just needs a lot of pins.

The Exorcist's Organ was worse, even pinned and green stuffed it still didn't look like it was out of one piece.

Anything in metal! Especially most of the old spiky chaos ones, number of times I have cut myself and drawn blood with those things is ridiculous

 Lobukia wrote:

spartiatis wrote:
I would vote the metal TFC too..

Nothing can/will beat this. Entire threads have been devoted just to hatred for this model.

Seconded, I could of quit the entire hobby at times during the making of mine

 Desubot wrote:
bah was going to say metal TFC. my vote for plastics go to firewarrior arms.

FW arms? this requires some explanation. I never had any issue with them. as long you don't mix them up and then its a bother to fit what left arm goes with what right arm.

Plastics for me would be the drop pod or the space marine devastators, I don't know why but I can never get all the bits to join together.
Metal wise, the metal Treebeard the bottom of his feet were rounded, so whenever I did manage to stick it all together it just fell over and broke.

 Snrub wrote:
I had the misfortune of putting together a landspeeder once for a guy.

The old one was impossible. Nothing fit. The new one goes together perfectly. It was replaced by the TFC as the worst model to assemble.

I got a landspeeder from the Ravenwing kit.
I think it might be embedded in the drywall still.

I have avoided metal at all cost, because I just hate how much effort it takes to make the model work.
Plastic-wise, its the drop pod. Hands down.

The old school metal Hive Tyrant was a complete pain to build as far as metal is concerned. I call the worst plastic model build and to paint the plastic Eldar Guardian Defenders. The split legs, split torsos, head, and double arms mean that each individual model is seven pieces before the base (not including any other bits you decide you may want to give them from the kit) for a model that lasts less than five seconds on the table top. Of these models there are only a small handful of variations on pose which has the effect of making the painting as monotonous as Space Marines whilst being more difficult due to the small fine features.

The old metal bloodthirster was a huge pain to assemble. why would they make a model with heavy wings and have tiny imprecise holes to put them in? And the whip? dont get me started, after the millionth time it broke off and i modeled it like a skull, now he also doubles as Orcus from DnD!

To build was the older SM landspeeder before they recut the sprues 5-6 years ago. I've really not had a problem building the drop pod. Painting the drop pod however is a tedious soul sucking task. You have to paint the exact same thing 5 times. 5 fins, 5 doors, 5 chairs, 5 engine panels, etc. About the only thing that there is one of is the center console and stormbolter.

Metal Deff Dredds did not even fit together. You had to spend ages filing so the bits would even fit.

Etched In Pride wrote:
The worst time I have ever seen someone have with a model was the metal Battle Penitent Engine. It did not look to fun.

For me personally ill have to go with a drop pod trying to get it 100% perfect.

Speaking as someone who has built two Penitent Engines, they are the worst I have yet to build. So bad that I spent a few days trying to build one, then got exceedingly frustrated and put it away for two months until I decided to use copious amounts of greenstuff to adhere the joints and a boatload of superglue.

There is no other model that I have built that has made me take a break of over a few hours - not counting a sleep period if it was late at night - while building it.

I'll admit I haven't tried to build a drop pod yet. Or a metal TFC.

By the way, when building my quadgun from my defence lines, I noticed that in the instructions, they had the guns upside down.

 -Loki- wrote:
The Corpse Cart was terrible to build.



You need to build it so the framework is sturdy enough to slip the Corpse Piles and Corpsemaster in. I haven't attempted painting mine yet, because I feel it's going to be a nightmare.

I assembled and painted one of these a few years ago for a friend...I found the same issue you're having with the corpse piles,, what I wound up doing was puting them in as bes I could, and then putting in a glob of greenstuff that I then modeled to the best of my abilities to look like giblets, then I painted the thing...it actually turned out really well and I was finished in only a few days

I will also add that for smaller metal models that super glue accelerator spray works very well, jus make sure the glue isn't anywhere but the spot you want glue on. Spray a bit on and you're good to go after a few short seconds.

For me its the old LRC hurricane bolters, if you looked at then funny they would collapse, god help you if they weren't perfectly straight in the box...


why so many votes for the drop pod, i've had no problems with mine

Thunderfire cannon (metal) is the worst and the Ghost Ark is coming 2nd.

Vendetta isn't pleasent; kit doesn't fit together well, especially the wing booms, and falls apart at the drop of a hat. I use plastic cement, and even when chemically bonded together (re: melted together) the damned thing still snaps apart at the slightest provocation.

The landing gear also break off very easily, and it was overall decidedly not fun. I have no intention of buying another one, both due to its rather distinctly high power level, and the fact the kit's a pain in the arse. Bring in a plastic thunderbolt as easy to put together as the storm potato, and I'll be happy.

The monolith and the drop pod nearly gave me an ulcer. Both have the same problem of having a weak, and ill designed, central shaft with complex pieces that must be hung from them. I think I threw my monolith at the wall at one point just cause I was so frustrated with its shoddy design.

The old metal Killa Kans did not fit together out of the blister pack. you had to take a metal file and practically carve out the inside to make it work.

Any of the large metal models, like the Penitent Engine or the less recent Azhag the Slaughterer.

Oh, and the Monolith, that thing doesn't even fit together... grr...

Stormraven. Horrible.

Toss up between the old school metal land raider crusader sponsons and the old school tomb kings skeleton catepault.

I would have to agree with some others and say that awesome mode (pile of crap) called the drop pod. 5 days and I still couldn't get the panels to stay shut!

vampire counts grave guard are horrible and tiny to boot.

I'd definitely have to agree with Penitent Engine's and Exorcists.

 Kilgore Trout 420 wrote:
I'd definitely have to agree with Penitent Engine's and Exorcists.

Honestly, the only parts of my Exorcist that gave me a problem was that blasted loader, minor issues with the pipes of the organ, and maybe the gunner's arms.

But, I used a gob of green stuff to adhere each metal piece so it didn't fall off while the superglue was drying. After my Penitent Engines a while earlier, I was not willing to frustrate myself, so I skipped right to the greenstuff.

And by "adhere" I mean of course that I put a dab of superglue on the metal plate, then stuck on a decent gob of green stuff, then added more superglue to the uncoated side of the green stuff, then stuck it to the tank and squished the green stuff between the plate and the tank.

Green stuff is my crude and craptastic alternative to learning how to pin.

Worst GW model to put together? The all-resin Stormblade. That thing can go and die in a fire. I've said this before in similar threads, but there was a point during its construction where I almost threw it into a wall it was driving me so mad. Plastic Gaunts are the most tedious. Two part heads can feth right off, especially when you have to put together a hundred of the little blighters!

But nothing GW has ever made will be as bad as this. The Stormblade almost went into the wall. This thing went sailing across the room. I can't even begin to describe the levels of blood rage this mini put me into. It's the feet... and the ankles and... uhh... I hate it so much!

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
I've heard horror stories about the vendetta.

You mean FW's Vendetta conversion kit for the Valk? It's like... 6 pieces. They were a complete piece of cake to put together. Each TL-Lascannon comes in two pieces, then there's the third TL-Lascannon that slots into the front, and a targeting thingy that sticks on the front (that you don't even have to use - you can just use one of the three plastic ones the kit gives you). It took about much time as all the other Valk weapons I put together.

I'd be amazed if anyone had trouble with those things...

 Shandara wrote:
The Penitent Engine isn't too bad, it just needs a lot of pins.

Heh. The second part of your sentence invalidates the first part. If something requires a 'lot of pins' then it is, by definition, a bad one to put together.

having just finished my first metal model, I can't even tell you how happy I am that I missed the all-metal years. I'll stick with my new-fangled plastic, thank you very much.

building my land speeder wasn't a ton of fun. the hull plates were all kinds of warped and took a lot of work to get everything to line up without gaps and overhangs. that was my first vehicle. I was pretty nervous when I opened up the box for my first rhino later on...

Definitely the Ghost Ark. I never built one, but I had a week off work once and it took me a whole week to build and paint two Doomsday Arks from start to finish.

The Ghost Ark looks even worse than that.

For me it was the Gondor Trebuchet. Whoever thought it was a good idea for the heaviest piece (The two part counterweight) to attach to the model via a tiny slot half a millimeter wide was either an idiot or drunk.

The phantom titan was quite a trick to build soooo much pinning.
Ended up using a 6mm piano wire going through the whole body up to the head.
Building 2 revenants when they arrive. Lets see how hard they are...

Ogard

The old Eldar Fire Prism was the worst model I ever had to assemble. Having to attach a giant metal gun that weighs more than the rest of the model to a tiny plastic turret was a nightmare.

Old metal Lord of Change

well.... i would argue the phantom titan is not THAT bad. i took mine in pieces, assembleing and painting each individual component, before glueing everything together into the final product, and mine has a bunch of additonal conversion work done, gems trimmed off etc to fit it into my DE army. as for the models ive had the most issue with, i would have to say the most issues ive had were the metal bloodthirster, and lord of change, followed close by the old emporer battleship for BFG. getting the back and front sections together was near impossible, and making them straight was an effort in futility.

the first drop pod i made (and ive done 7 so far) was finicky, but then i just figured out how to build it. ive also started pre painting most of its pieces nbefore glueing them to make that job simpler. the same thing for my necron stuff. wraiths are no prob, (although the whip coils tend to break in transport) - they do have lots of things going in every direction, so i've taken to just painting them before i assemble. however.... the winner for me on the worst:

the old metal ogre kingdoms gnoblar scrap launcher. nuff said.

Valkeries/ Vendettas are a pain to fit together and I find them horrible to carry around without breaking either the landing gear or rear tailfins.

I've not had too much bother with Drop Pods - although I think you're better looking up a good guide of how to put them together online rather than following the instructions that come with it.

So far:

Drop pods. Dry runs are a waste of time, as the doors don't close when you've painted the bay. The machinery in the top doesn't hold the vanes on well, and the whole thing falls apart while you're steadying them.

Eldar war walker. I've had to build it upside down, to get the cockpit section to fit onto the axle.Then, the legs don't go back on properly :(

And, the only FW upgrade kit I bought was for the Falcon. The tail extension has been bent to fit, but I'm sure it's just the wrong size.

My Forge World Warhound Titan took forever to build, and is the most difficult one I've done to-date. To get the paint job where I wanted it, I painted the individual components separately.

But i wouldn't call it the worst as that's too negative. Assembling and painting is the part of the hobby I enjoy most.

Necron arms and Ghost Ark are PITA

The last edition metal Hive Tyrant, seriously how can you have such heavy pieces with such tiny surfaces areas to connect them!

The finecast resin TFC is just as bad ad the metal one. All three of the resin ones were warped just as bad as the metal versions I've seen/built.

Ghost Arks. It took me 4 days to put 2 of them together, and I had abox full of stuff I didn't even use afterwards. Made some cool Wounded Warrior conversions though with all those extra parts

The old metal Balrog was my personal favourite for building. Huge parts, small contacts and bent parts. Closely followed by the BFG Retribution battleship. Front heavy, a million pieces in metal and no instructions. Oh joy.

 XT-1984 wrote:
Definitely the Ghost Ark. I never built one, but I had a week off work once and it took me a whole week to build and paint two Doomsday Arks from start to finish.

The Ghost Ark looks even worse than that.

And if you think that was bad, try putting an LED in a Doomsday Ark! Mine took me the better part of 2 months, but it was worth it.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dundas wrote:
Valkeries/ Vendettas are a pain to fit together and I find them horrible to carry around without breaking either the landing gear or rear tailfins.

I've not had too much bother with Drop Pods - although I think you're better looking up a good guide of how to put them together online rather than following the instructions that come with it.

I'm in the final stages of my first Valkyrie. It took a lot of rubber bands and masking tape to make everything stay true and fitted while the glue dried.

For me so far it's definitely the TFC. I can only imagine what a horror the metal one is, the Finecast is bad enough. It's so bent and such.

Really not seeing the issue with drop pods though. Perhaps not the easiest model, but not difficult either.

On the opposite end of worst though, I just love assembling Rhino hulls.

Metal Space Marine Battlebarge-That thing is a pain.

The metal SoB Exorcist. Huge metal slabs for panels, and the organ is about 4 huge heavy pieces that don't seem to bond in the slightest, and break if you even think about looking at it.

I don't even collect SoB but had to repair my brother's so many times

Urien Rakarth in Finecast is horrible too, easy enough to build but the stuff growing out of his back breaks constantly.

Pentinent engine and exorcist. Solid metal. Solid pain. I finally used gorilla glue for the feet and arms. Along with green stuff galore. Love the models but such a pain to put together for me.

Daemonettes...

Just...

 BlapBlapBlap wrote:
Daemonettes...

Just...

Oh god yes! Those infernal things can burn in the agonizing fires of the ninth circle of the abyss! Oh and the Hell drake can join them for painting related rage

Ah, yes, Daemonettes X|
their arms are just too small...

Whose idea was it to have the models with scultpted shoulders where you glue the arms onto the shoulders instead of the classic "shoulder onto the torso"

No no...gentelmen gentelmen

Worst Models to Assemble
Valkyrie
Any space Marine Tank.
Ghost Ark

Worst models to paint
AOBB - Deff Kopta - I don't care HOW good you are at painting. No one...and I mean NO ONE can make that pile of trash model look good!
Tau - I tried everything except an airbrush which unless you have that. Tau are annoying to paint right, get that coating just the way it ought to be and made looking like it is suppose to. The armor is too clean and crisp and toy/candy coating like to be fun to try and paint....hate it so much

Orks - I love painting them but if you "truly" look around the model and notice the 90% detail of the model that people choose not to paint or do not see and paint it one color you will find that a AOBB Warboss boots are made out of like 5 different materials so the shoes alone need 5 colors. All the Jewlery people miss, Gum lines, Teeth, Inside the cheecks if their mouth is open and tounge and eyes and highlighting and there is SO MUCH there that people neglect its no wonder why people say painting orks is easy...lol...Pathetic fools don't know how bad it gets.

GW sculptor : "I know what'll make this model great! Seperate legs that only match in specific pairs, tiny arms that can't support their extensions and painful to fit shoulders and heads!"

The old resin shadowsword from forgeworld with the interior...
All pieces were warped, nothing fits together very well even once they're straightened and each little pair of wheels was a separate piece that had to be aligned to the treads much like the old Leman Russ but on a huge scale..

hated that thing *so* *much*

I hate the metal techmarine the most, his servo arms always fall off.

Drop pods, SM tanks are pretty bad too. My Tau battle suits always seem to snap off at the shin.

Nothing is ever as bad as the miss-moulded Krootox...

Trying to build a Stormraven such that I can take it apart to paint interior details too, and be able to open it to view the interior detail after I'm done...

...Yeah, needless to say, two months later I've half given up on it.