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The old metal/plastic hybrid Devastators were the bane of my existence. I cried with joy when the pure plastic ones came out.

The metal Balrog wasn't a lot of fun. Some of the older citadel miniatures, large things like dragons and the like were a poor fit, but the for a more recent release the Balrog was a shocking fit. The ringwaiths on fell beasts apparently aren't much better.

I could never work out how the old metal beast of nurgle went together, the body came in three pieces. The back two made the two halves of the body, but the front piece seemed far far too wide to fit onto this. Packed in a lot of milliput, never worked out how it was supposed to be assembled.

See the second image on this page in particular, they've also failed to make any sense of this.
http://store.wargamingtrader.com/item/n283ws

Another vote for the plastic deathmarks/immortals here (and Good Lord, would I know it; 31 immortals, 24 deathmarks later...): those shoulders (and the joints in the cables on the immortals, for that matter!) are an immense pain. It just takes so much work to get them all looking somewhat presentable - no fun!
Of course the dwarf gyrocopter deserves it's sculptor a special place in hell - that thing is probably the only metal or resin model which ever went past the 'yay, /me like challenge!' level for me.
I actually hard-soldered the rotor together and epoxied it unto the hull. about six or seven whole paperclips(!!!) went into assembling just the hull, and it's connected to it's base via a steel rod, which in the end I decided to just weld to a piece of 3mm thick steel plating I use as a base now. on the plus side, it's finally stable. downside: I'm so fed up with the bugger I haven't had the heart to paint it yet and probably never will - and I got it done a month or three before 8th came out and made it fething useless so yeah, no fun.

last special mention goes out to the Tor Gaming Relics Nuem Paenitentiam models:

Yes. Those chains, as well as the rest of the model, are made of metal. Do they have some fancy way to connect the parts together? Nooooo, of course not. just a (very shallow) indentation in the end of the arm to fit each individual chain into. I'm afraid of breathing at these fethers too hard, let alone game with them. Bloody shame too, they're quite nice up close, actually.

Firstly plastic hormagaunts,entirely because of that 1mm square "top of the foot" join at the base. I played Tyranids when it allowed you to built your gaunt species from scratch in the back of the codex, so i designed a super-gaunt I liked, assembled about 30 of them and the first time I used them, between being in my case and the game, fully half had broken ankles. Within a month they'd all broken at some point and I had to just have a section of paper clip running between the base and chest. It wasn't very pretty but it looked better than 30 bases with 30 unattached gaunts perched on them. It's a shame because I loved the sense of movement in those models, I think they look great.

Secondly a recent one, the metal wood elf stag rider. The Stag body comes in two halves which fit together terribly, even after filing for about an hour (because the pieces are pretty much solid metal, and, to be fair, because my file is crap) I still had to fill in gaps all the way around with green stuff and do some sculpting to cover up a horrible gap in its mane.

But wait... there's more! The prize for worst idea in model making history...

The Rider's right arm is a separate piece and carrier a spear, simple enough so far. But the shaft of the spear below the model's hand is in fact a separate piece ... with no ball and socket joint of any description, the join is just two uneven pieces of metal. Then when pinning it, even though i used a drill bit thinner than one you'd use for a paper clip, it took out part of the little finger because the recess of the fist didn't line up with the whole spear shaft and I'd rather have a 3 fingered hero than a hilariously wonky spear

Whoever decided that that right arm could not be altered in the slightest way to allow it to be cast in one piece should never be allowed near the production of models ever again. It was months ago now but thinking about it still makes me angry.

3 Ghost Arks.

Warmahordes models

Frigging Avatar of Menoth,

Metal Cyclops Savages,


GW models

Metal Zoanthrope,

Metal Sternguard,

Metal Broasides,

Finecast Crowe(metal one was much better)

Voidstalker Battleship from BFG. MASSIVE chunk of metal badly balanced on a flimsy plastic stick.

Wouldn't that apply to most of the BFG battleships

Not so much, most of the metal battleships were at least balanced between being long in the front and heavy in the back. The voidstalker is all back.

The old Metal Necron Waiths, would break if you so much as looked at them....

 Ouze wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Jonp wrote:
Another vote for the metal SAG. Oh how I hate that model.

Good call. I too have a metal SAG, giant pain.

Do you mean the newest one? 'Cause I just magnetized every point of articulation and it goes together just fine now.

The newest one is Finecast, so presumably the one right before the finest one.

Not sure we mean the same thing, though - the gun on it is so heavy I'm dubious that a 1/8th magnet in both points would support it, I've magnetized hundreds of models. Not calling you a liar, simply explaining why I don't think we mean the same thing,

I literally magnetized every joint. Spinny bit to shoulder mount, one part of tube to shoulder mount, the other part of the tube to the thing the Mek holds, and then the hand to his wrist. Lots of magnets, but it holds together great.

 DiabolicAl wrote:
The old Metal Necron Waiths, would break if you so much as looked at them....

Weird, i never really had an issue with them. Admittedly half their weigth is now paperclip and superglue but still....


Re-thinking my own list...


Ghost Ark
Necron Warriors
metal Oblits (i dont think any of them ever went toether right out of the box)
metal Havocs
metal Raptors (top heavy much?!)
FW Tomb Stalker
metal LR Crusader Hurrican Bolter Sponsons

The old metal hurricane bolter for the Land Raider Crusader. Those things alone were enough to make me thankful for plastics and resins. I don't care how spindly, difficult, or obnoxious a plastic kit is, it will forever be easier than trying to super glue that thing together. Once you got it together, it was fairly solid, but in the build up, there was barely enough contact surface to hold itself together, and barely enough material to pin with.

Dark elf executioners, those sword tips...

Anyone else have problems with the old Dark Eldar raider? You know, the one with seperate left and right hull sections - and the hold for the flying stand directly between the two...

The bloody metal Chaos Daemon Prince. That thing was a nightmare to put together. And keep in mind I was 13 when I built it. I thought superglue would hold it together. Ha-fething-ha.

Worst thing is that the plastic model came out a week later!

Right, although I would say the metal one looked a lot better than the rather more empty-looking plastic demon prince!

 Grey Templar wrote:


Metal Zoanthrope,

Generally I've always preferred the nicer, heavier tactile feel of metal over plastic. The problem with that Zoanthrope was though that it would fall over on a 0.5% gradient!

Yeah, I prefer the metal one, and metal models in general, but for a 13 year old kid, it's bitch to put together! I didn't even have a drill then, that's how nooby I was!

I do like metal models better, but there are some poses the metal doesn't combine well with.

 Hedgehog wrote:
Anyone else have problems with the old Dark Eldar raider? You know, the one with seperate left and right hull sections - and the hold for the flying stand directly between the two...

Moreso than the Raider was the Ravager with the metal bitz on the side sponsons. I could never get those to stay on.

Still the metal landspeeder. What you really got in the box was a several lumps of ill-fitting, vaguely landspeeder-shaped chunks of metal from which you had to carve and forge actual landspeeder.

You youngn's with your complaints about finecast are amusing.

Ork Bikers. Oh gawd.

So much filing and cutting down... always falling apart and sticking to my hands

It was any large metal kit or a metal kit with many many many small parts for me, it was just cruel.

The ankle shattering of Hormagaunts is atrocious.
(Include the claws snapping off the base and entire swaths of them need to be re-based regularly)

Metal gargoyles were annoying to put together, especially if you don't want to glue them to their base.

Screaming Skull Catapults though. . .

For me, I think it's the old Broadside kits. I hate assembling those Crisis kits (let's make a model where the legs are attached one at a time!), and then there are the stupid railguns. For the life of me, I cannot get them to remain attached to the shoulders of the model. They're attached by half an inch of contact point between gun and shoulder, and the guns themselves are metal monstrosities that stick out a good couple of inches.

I swear, that one kit is the only reason I ever considered picking up the new plastic ones, just because I despise the old one and would like to have Broadside models that don't fall apart if you look at them funny.

Riquende wrote:


That umbrella is metal. A thick chunk of metal.

Wow but that also illustrates why Rackham was so awesome...

Mother
fething
Lich guard

Finecast Inquisitorial Crusader.
No gluing required.
Just flash.
And bubble on detail. (There is a lot of rope and chain on the model)
And mould lines.
And unnecessary vents that are positioned so that the flash that they want to be there runs down the line of some rivets, but is also wider than the rivets, so the rivets no longer exist.

Khador Old Witch's ScrapJack.
Giant full metal ostrich looking stomp robot balanced on a single spindly leg.

Hedgehog wrote:Anyone else have problems with the old Dark Eldar raider? You know, the one with seperate left and right hull sections - and the hold for the flying stand directly between the two...

I had an easier time with them then the new kit TBH. Kinda simple, but you could assemble and paint them fairly easy.

The models that have annoyed me over the years have been metal fire prism from back in the day. And the metal Lord of Change is a real pain too.