Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What kits have you put together that have been a dream, either assembling well, were fun to paint, had lots of options or were just very satisfying?

I recently put together a Space Wolf Tactical kit. So many options and added extras, they were a joy to individualise and assemble. No issues barring one of the thunder hammers not posing great. But aside from that really enjoyable.

Another of late was the Crone kit. Took about an hour, which for me is very fast and came together seamlessly. Painting it was also very enjoyable.

An honorable mention goes to the Stompa kit, a dream to assemble for me.


And so on the flip side, what kits have been a nighmare for you?

The two that stand out for me were the old metal Hive Guard. I literally, without hyperbole, gave up on them, they are still under my bed in pieces.

A close second is the old metal Killakan. OMG just why, oh why?

Painting wise, I loathe Orks Im afraid, just cant get their skin right so try and avoid them!

I seem to always enjoy building the Grey Knight kits. The terminator or the power armored ones. So many bits and ways to arm them. Not to mention all the left over goodies you get.

Now on the flip side...

I hated building the old metal Land Raider Crusader. The old hurricane bolters were a pain! Also, I hate building drop pods.

Sternguard is great kit, so many bitz left over.
Commissar kit in plastic goes together near seamlessly, I only had to trim abit on hat.

Bad kits, sorry no real experience.

FW KoS - total nightmare, almost literally shredded my fingers attaching all the teeny tiny spikes.

Heldrake - not hard to assemble, but woe betide you if you have put it together entirely before painting it.

Land Raider and Rhino - yo dude, we heard you like gaps!

Can't honestly think of any that were particularly pleasurable, it's the trauma that stays with me.

Delicious:

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad. I was able to make two entire squads out of the one kit and had loads of bits left over.

Tomb Blades. They fit together so well and have loads of bits left over.

Disgusting:

The Immortal kit is horrible to prepare, the Shoulders break oh so easily and the pieces generally don't fit together very well.

The Ghost/Doomsday Ark as well isn't fun to make either.

Delicious: Venerable Dreadnought
Disgusting: Drop Pod

Delicious: Stormraven, really nice to build and paint. She may be an ugly bird but it's a nice kit and a solid unit.
Valkyrie, again nice build lovely to paint.
Stormtalon, really nice little kit to build and customize.

Disgusting: Drop Pod, it's all right once it's done but it's hellish to build.
Sentinel. It's.. I don't know I just don't like the kit.

Delicious
-Night Scythe - goes together really easily, makes me want to buy even more

Disgusting
- Ghost Ark
- Necron Warriors: I always struggle with getting the arms to go on in a good position. Even worse was putting Deathmark arms on the warrior bodys.
-Heldrake: nightmare to paint

Scourge kit is amazing in terms of what you get. There's lots of options and extra bits and they look great. I've bought three kits even though I've only one unit of Scourges, the others I've converted to Warp Spiders, Imperial Assassins, Necromunda Spyrers and my Archon. On discount sites it's only £13 which makes it one of the few GW products I consider good value for money.

Eldar Jetbike kit is horrible. I bought one to convert and put an Autarch on top and it's completely outdated with only coarse details. Bit of a rip off as well, £8 for a 17 point model.

In the middle: Raider kit looks good and has plenty of extra bits but I found it a nightmare to assemble.

Delicious:
Venerable Dreadnought was awesome to build, a lot of cool options to make.
Orks boyz: You really can combine them in any way and can kitbash almost any of the units. I also found that the Nobz from the Nob box will fit perfectly on the Warbiker bikes. Had some fun making nob bikers.

Disgusting:
Drop pods. I hate them.

Delicious: Dakkajet. One of my favorite kits.

Disgusting: The metal Galrauch, the chaos dragon.....sooooo much pinning....

Vyper was a fun kit to put together. Nice and clean, no small bits, it was very plug and play almost.

But Guardians are a pain. The little backpack antennae... They suck. But atleast they aren't Fantasy Elves

The metal Thunderfire Cannon was by far the worst model I've ever had to deal with. Nothing fit right, lots of metal filing/clipping/etc required, tons of material needed to be removed, things that were supposed to be square would be slanted and not go on, etc. It was awful.

Also, DKoK Grenadier hellgun cables, nothing but nightmares.

My Eldar Vampire Hunter required some extensive pinning to fit together and stay together. Lots of engineering work required on that one.



Some of my favorite models to assemble have been Heavy Gear mini's, they're just so cool.

I enjoy putting together walkers typically, the FW Dreads are a lot of fun.

The new(ish) Leman Russ kits are fun now that they don't have individual invisible road wheels


In terms of painting, I can't bring myself to paint basic marines anymore. It's just too boring. I also haven't yet been able to bring myself to paint my Heldrake, too much stuff.

I like painting tanks they're easy and you can pick out as much or as little detail as you want.

Painting my FW Decimator was a great chance to try out some scarred tissue over metal looks, that was fun.

The good: Newer SM kits i like all of them (though i do have a major issue with the hand guns (less ability to customize)

The bad: Drop pods and TFC (shudders)

The ugly: larger FW kits (oh god the gorgon was a pain to assemble. now to do a tigershark :( )

Drop Pods are the worst.

As for the best, the humble Tactical Squad. Tons of bits, tons of options in assembly, and actually good value! Honourable mentions to Space Wolf packs and GK Termies.

Delicious: Fenrisian wolves, they have about four parts and take seconds to put together once you've cut and cleaned off the sprue.

Disgusting: Rhino, which has been said so I don't need to reiterate. I don't even use pods because I have one that I still need to put together and looking at it makes me a sad panda let alone attempting it.

Worst without a doubt: Tower of Sorcery, seriously whoever designed that wants shooting, then cutting up, then shooting again. Utterly horrible kit.

Best is probably some of the more recent Plastic Solider Company tanks, think the Stuarts essentially fell together, no mould lines to clean off, no flash and everything fitted perfectly.

Best: the SM Commander kit. Enough bits to make several SM HQ models.

Worst: Drop Pods. They totally suck to put together, nothing every lines up correctly.

Best Kit
death Company

Worst Kit
Tau crisis suits

Hence the reason all mine are converted

Delicious:

The Land Speeder Storm. Everything fits perfectly together. It really tells a story with all the crew models
Great to paint as the crew models can easily be assembled separate from the model, and all the small details can easily be reached due to it open construction.

Tip of the hat: Centurions (literally contains all the bits to outfit them in any combination), wyches, hellions, scourges, and warriors (almost all the DE line is parts interchangeable, and gorgeous to boot).

Wag of the Finger: metal Wraithlords (so damn fragile), storm talon (ugliest thing in 40k), and wild riders (absolutely gorgeous, but almost literally no parts are interchangeable).

The first time I put a rhino together it was caked in glue all over, so awful

Absolutely loved assembling the Ghorgon kit for a Soul Grinder conversion (see my sig!). A number of the WFB kits I've used for conversions have been absolutely fun to work with.


Flipside: Metal obliterators. Assembling these were so frustrating to get the hands assembled that I nearly gave up after the third. I've built four.

My favorite kits to build were centurions and the SW flyer. I liked that the centurion kits come with every option possible unlike the devastator squads. The stormfang was just a fun kit and everything fit together and lined up properly the first time. No weird gaps, no filing stuff down or green stuff.

My least favorite seems to be a popular choice, drop pods. I've had 3 sitting on my closet shelf still in shrink wrap for months because I hate building them. I finally got one out the other day and knocked it out in about 3 hours while doing laundry and watching TV, and actually got it all to line up perfectly. I also hate land raiders because they always seem to have a weird gap somewhere or require filing to make them fit right.

Delicious: New Russ kit.

Disgusting: Old Russ kit.

I still sometimes get nightmares from the hours I spent trying to make my Forgefiend's four feet all be firmly planted on the ground as intended.

I gave up. Bad, bad, bad design.

Delicious: Heldrake, rhinos, pretty much everything. Love assembling models!

Disgusting: DKoK weapons + arms. For some reason, I just struggled to get them fully right so I was happy.

Favorite: any tank with interior detail and crew. I love creating a little scene and showing off that there's something inside those models.

Most hated: Malcador (tracks are a nightmare to align properly and it's very visible if you fail), the old metal Tau sniper drones (horrible mold problems), anything in finecast (the obvious).

My favorite kit of all time is Treeman Ancient It was just so cool to put together.

Delicious: Most of the current MPP plastics! Most of the larger models are a real treat. Almost everything Dark Eldar is beautifully crafted.

Disgusting: So much of the Eldar :( They seem inversely proportionate to the quality of Dark Eldar (I guess it pays to be bad!). They just feel so dated. Pet peeve models are metal PP where one hand holds a big staff as a separate part, and it doesn't glue well, but is too small to pin. You glue it, paint it, and it falls apart if you breathe on it wrong. Yes, I know, but I hate working with epoxy.

Also disgusting: any metal model where the finish is badly pitted, and it takes more time smoothing it out with greenstuff than it's worth. It's like the metal version of failcast.

Very disgusting: so many Finecast pieces of garbage that take coaxing to straighten and look just right... only to revert to warped and ugly a few months later.

You guys will think I'm crazy but I really liked building my drop pod. Other than that I loved the GW Baneblade, crisis suits, the new Tau Pathfinders, FW Heresy Predator and the newest Space Marine kit.

Worst are DE Raiders, first batch of the "new" Lizardmen Saurus Cav, Space Marine Predators are just horrible kits ( loved the FW one oddly enough but my other ones had all the problems of the Rhinos and horribly weak sponsons...) and the pewter Thunderfire Cannon thats still not put together. I hate those kits, they make me want to spend the money on one of those NASA tickets to space just so I can throw those kits into the sun...