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The Hellhound. The turret base is warped like crazy and I just can't get it bent back.

Penitent Engine.

There is two paperclips worth of pinning and three full sticks of sper-glue.

And it still keeps falling appart.

I'm thinking of giving it a bath in Silcone or PVA or something so it's sealed up like a bug in amber.

I haven't assembled a penitent engine but I found the old wraithlord to be a real pita.
However I had fun assembling the landspeeder. I didn't have any trouble at all.

I prefer assembling Guardians over painting the fiddly buggers.

Crusader.
Carnifex? I think it just take patience.

I've heard the old Nagash model was a b i t c h to assemble.

Never had problems with Landspeeders.

Re. the Land Raider Crusader.

Jeez guys, thanks a lot. I just got an LRC kit and now I'm staring at the (unopened) box like it's a poisonous creature just waiting to strike!

:-D

Of course, I'm almost didn't get it precisely because it comes with metal parts. I hate, hate, HATE assembling metal miniatures; they are the bane of my gaming existence. I have three unopened BFG battleships which have been sitting on my shelf for YEARS now because I dread the thought of trying to assemble them.

I live for plastic minis! Working with plastic cement is almost a transcendent joy compared to the hell that is super glue or epoxy!

Cheers,
Rob

Penitant engines do indeed suck, I'm probably the only idiot ever to build a full EIGHT of them for a theme list. I still have traces of glue and accelerent on my hands and that was 3 years ago. (the list sucks and the engines always fall apart because they arent pinned)

...Beaten out for difficulty by the Land Raider Crusader. At my store, regarding putting it together, we call it "The Emperors Test".

Nah, Deadshane. There was a guy posting lots of penitent
engines on the AWC some time ago. So don't feel lonely.

Unless that was you.

The worst models I have ever assembled were all forgeworld models. That two-headed fantasy dragon thing and the huge bloodthirster thing.
Gah! I wanted to kill myself after that. All the pieces are so heavy that the superglue won't hold them together, even with steel rod pinned in them. And the seams.....AH!...I don't even want to remember the seams and gaps. Every joint looked like gollem smiling!

DeathJack - lost 2 drill bits to that sucker. Had to cross pin a pin and also added extra pins to the legs to stop body roll.

Next up: FW Destroyer Tank Hunter (FW Baneblade a long tiresome joy cause it was so big!) as i had to custom build the rear end.

Also FW Valkery - had to send some bits back twice and the wings still leave a large gap between them & the fusalarge and i still haven't figured out how to fit the wonky canopy - any hints?

I've also noticed that both the Chimera & Leman Russ kits are starting to fit badly - a few minor mods is all it takes to fix but is a bit annoying if you're doing 10 and it's a mass-produced plastic kit - i thought those steel molds would be stable for decades!

Warmachine model, same "class" as the deathjack. Khador. BIG jack, bombard on each shoulder. WHat IS the name? Dang it. Anyway, this thing is about a pound or so of pewter, required more pins than it has pieces. Kept wanting to swivel at the hip joints, ended up having to put 3 pins in each hip. Mein GOTT. Doesn't help the thing is modeled with one foot int the air, somewhere halfway between taking a step and breakdancing.

I hate models with loads of mold lines, they are a pain to remove. No model is hard to assemble IMO. I didn't notice anything espessially hard about the LRC sponsons?

Cheers

I am currently working on the Forgeworld avatar with spear. This model is very intricate and the pieces are so delicate that I am intimidated to assemble the thing, let alone paint it.

Darrian

If the Hilt on my FW Avatar broke, I GUARANTEE that your spear will break.

I can only hope you are wrong. Sadly, I fear you are going to be right.

Darrian

Stelek wrote:100 Eldar Guardians.

Did it once over a weekend.

I think I was technically insane by Sunday night, but thankfully it cleared up by Monday morning.

Oh god this.

They're not the most challenging kit out there, but you generally only put a Crusader together once. The arms are a pain, the back spines are a pain, and the legs suck too, and doing 5 squads of the damn things was a brutal task for a guy just starting this game.

I'm putting more together now that I'm older and wiser and it's fine, but back then...

The first land speeder I put together gave me issues, but assorted clamps, rubber bands and good model cement made it go together well.

The first Land Raider likewise benefited from the clamps and rubber bands method (works for the baneblade, too).

Never done a FW piece, but I have assembled other resin (armourcast - phantom titan) pieces, but I have access to a workshop with a lathe, drillpress, grinder/linisher with dust extractor and assorted other tools, and with a little work, all went together relatively easily (but I have been putting models together for 30+ years).

Doctor Thunder wrote:The worst models I have ever assembled were all forgeworld models. That two-headed fantasy dragon thing and the huge bloodthirster thing.
Gah! I wanted to kill myself after that. All the pieces are so heavy that the superglue won't hold them together, even with steel rod pinned in them. And the seams.....AH!...I don't even want to remember the seams and gaps. Every joint looked like gollem smiling!

Heh, I thought Ang'grath was easy. Then again, I haven't tried to put on his wings yet.

Killer Kans were rought for me.

Rogue Trader era land speeders sucked. Of course this was back before I knew how to pin and I was still using 2 part epoxy. Probably wouldn't be that bad today.

Crusader sponsons were a pain to the point that I sold all of my space marine stuff to a friend. I liked the models but couldn't bring myself to play 40k.

Goblin Hewer looked like a pain as well. So much so that I hired a friend to assemble and paint it. We both agreed later that I got the better end of the deal.

Screaming Skull Catapult. I still need to go back and pin half the joints since it fell apart in it's first game. This was back when the Army Book was released so you can tell I'm very motivated to do it.

Swoop!

I did nine penitents (I had the pics on AWC) - one was the first 40k model I painted. I had no problem with them - well, at least not making them, they play for crap. But, I pin everything. To me, the extra minute (I use a low-speed electric drill) it takes to pin something is worth knowing that it won't break after it's painted.

The worst models I've assembled:

Killa Kans - it always seems to take a ridiculous amount of filing to get the back and front to fit together.

Daemon princes - Similar problems with filing to get the front & back to fit together, arms really don't connect well either.

Other useful tips:
I got four cheap plastic clamps at a local hobby store. I haven't had any problems with warped plastic parts since I started using them, as the clamps can hold the tank together while the glue bonds. That includes land speeders, land raiders, chimera and russ chasis, and falcons.

Always pin any place where metal and plastic join - they're the worst joins, IMO, but once I started pinning everything, I've not had any break on me since. Metal-on-metal is a close second.

forgot about Rackham's minis - esp any female or elf infantry - they make some seriously small parts that i'd love to pin (arms for example, as the contact points are minimal) but even my 0.5mm bits are too big!

3ed Whirlwind. It's not so much getting it together as getting it to STAY together. It's unbalanced and keeps dropping, and every time it does, all the metal parts fall away from each other.
It currently inhabits a box in pieces awaiting reassembly.

The Landraider Crusader is fiddly as hell. Friend of mine kept up a litany of swearing at it for two hours, until he dropped a crucial but tiny part which took three people an hour to find.

Landspeeders. Why oh why did they include THEM in the 3ed box?

Dark Eldar anything, due to the spikes.

Space Hulk terminators. Every so often I pick one up and it falls apart.

Metal devestators. Hard to put together, keep falling apart, and unbalanced. Mine have pennies weighing down the base, and it's still unstable.