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SO I got my Open Fire box and giddy with excitement I dug in and went on a building spree. All was going great, love the infantry, right up until the pak40s came around. As I was clipping the gun shields out, they broke. Both of them. Right at the same two points on each side of the arch in the shield. I was able to repair them, but it still pissed me off. I then got into the Stugs and all was well again until the Shermans. Gaps everywhere between the sides and the top. I'm a bit pissed off at the quality of this box. Is this common with Open Fire or did I just get a bad set?

 Surtur wrote:
SO I got my Open Fire box and giddy with excitement I dug in and went on a building spree. All was going great, love the infantry, right up until the pak40s came around. As I was clipping the gun shields out, they broke. Both of them. Right at the same two points on each side of the arch in the shield. I was able to repair them, but it still pissed me off. I then got into the Stugs and all was well again until the Shermans. Gaps everywhere between the sides and the top. I'm a bit pissed off at the quality of this box. Is this common with Open Fire or did I just get a bad set?

I had the same problems with the pak 40s, both gun-shields broke at the exact same spot, also one of the carriage rails broke off

Also, everything in the set looks big compared to my PSC stuff, especially the stugs

I have had the same problem with the Paks.Sheild split and the barrels broke.Some said that they were cut out.but in my opinion i think the plastic was to hard. then again i have had problems with GW suff too.
aAs for the Tanks did you shave off the plastic nips that are left over after cutting them? That is what most people have a problem with.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 EmilCrane wrote:

 Surtur wrote:
SO I got my Open Fire box and giddy with excitement I dug in and went on a building spree. All was going great, love the infantry, right up until the pak40s came around. As I was clipping the gun shields out, they broke. Both of them. Right at the same two points on each side of the arch in the shield. I was able to repair them, but it still pissed me off. I then got into the Stugs and all was well again until the Shermans. Gaps everywhere between the sides and the top. I'm a bit pissed off at the quality of this box. Is this common with Open Fire or did I just get a bad set?

I had the same problems with the pak 40s, both gun-shields broke at the exact same spot, also one of the carriage rails broke off

Also, everything in the set looks big compared to my PSC stuff, especially the stugs

Alot people consider PSC true scale where as BF is considered 15mm Heroic.Think the worst for me is The FIB Schimwagens they look like they are 20mm.

I didn't have the trouble with the PAK40s but I did with the Shermans, they just aren't well designed. A little greenstuff work is needed.

Yeah the Paks gave me problems too. I just went without gunshields...

In regards to the Shermans, BF knows about this. If you go on there website there is actually a building guide to the Sherman that says due to a mold error (or something like that) the ledges on the tracks were too wide which leads to gaps. You have to file that down. After that, the rest of my Shermans went together nicely (with a bit of GS touch up afterwards of course, like any plastic model)

If you had problem with the Paks.... think about the Schurzen on Panzer IV... seriously I think that's the worst I have ever seen. On Panzer IV H Schruzen fixations all of them broke when I tried to unsprue them, even the long support. Conclusion... try to glue 2-3mm pieces all together perfectly align without losing your mind. The shield of the Pak have a great surface to rework with... but seriously if you play Germans and think of tanks... I think I will just go with Panthers and Tigers just to avoid to glue the schurzen on Panzer IV H.

Those shermans were the most annoying models I've ever put together. I'm surprised any new Brit players stay with the hobby after that madness.

Oh dear lord...

The Shermans are an absolute freaking nightmare! Had th same problem as you but I only bought two from Ebay... Two for the price of one!

Only one side has popped out and you can see inside the tank. Really put me off too, my second and third tank and that crap's happening!

Finished them though.

It's just such a shame that they are like that, sorta glad I haven't bought the Open Fire set since models braking as I clip them really annoy me, my Chaos Cultist almost completely broke as I was clipping him so I just put it down. I'm going to have to modify that bad boy now instead...

I had the same problems as you Surtur. The Shermans seem to be a consistency so I'm just going to agree with everyone else and say it's common.

Aaaargh. Don't get me started on those thrice-damned Shermans. They're terrible, awful, horrible. I struggled with them, tried using a multitude of glues and green stuff solutions to get everything together. Eventually I just said feth it, and got them painted. At least from 3 feet away the gaps aren't noticeable with everything painted.

 washout77 wrote:
Yeah the Paks gave me problems too. I just went without gunshields...

In regards to the Shermans, BF knows about this. If you go on there website there is actually a building guide to the Sherman that says due to a mold error (or something like that) the ledges on the tracks were too wide which leads to gaps. You have to file that down. After that, the rest of my Shermans went together nicely (with a bit of GS touch up afterwards of course, like any plastic model)

...It's so nice of them to fix this problem. Even a small paper insert warning me of this would have been nice. Well, it's too late for my shermans, but thank you none the less.

 Surtur wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
Yeah the Paks gave me problems too. I just went without gunshields...

In regards to the Shermans, BF knows about this. If you go on there website there is actually a building guide to the Sherman that says due to a mold error (or something like that) the ledges on the tracks were too wide which leads to gaps. You have to file that down. After that, the rest of my Shermans went together nicely (with a bit of GS touch up afterwards of course, like any plastic model)

...It's so nice of them to fix this problem. Even a small paper insert warning me of this would have been nice. Well, it's too late for my shermans, but thank you none the less.

Just as a warning to anyone else, the BF solution doesn't work on all the shermans, with some you also have to locate the end of the bottom chassis piece (the end that looks like a squat, fat 'T') and hack away at the bottom of the right-hand arm of the 'T' until the track fits underneath it.

 Surtur wrote:

 washout77 wrote:
Yeah the Paks gave me problems too. I just went without gunshields...

In regards to the Shermans, BF knows about this. If you go on there website there is actually a building guide to the Sherman that says due to a mold error (or something like that) the ledges on the tracks were too wide which leads to gaps. You have to file that down. After that, the rest of my Shermans went together nicely (with a bit of GS touch up afterwards of course, like any plastic model)

...It's so nice of them to fix this problem. Even a small paper insert warning me of this would have been nice. Well, it's too late for my shermans, but thank you none the less.

Yeah that would have been nice. Supposedly they didn't know about it until a lot of the boxes had shipped. In any case, I had never had a plastic kit go together so poorly so I knew there had to be an issue with mine. Turns out I wasn't the only one.

Well, at least the plastic Infantry look really nice.

Oh man I thought I was just terrible at building Shermans. I was so angry in the store building the dang things.

Its so weird too since the German stuff goes together so easily.

I used my clippers for the first one, and the gun shield broke. On the second, I used my hobby knife and things went better. I didn't have any problems with the barrels. In all, I've built 4 pak40's and the gun shield broke on one.

I just had the same problem with my Pak 40's. I was able to rig-up some shields but they look like orc guns. One of my support legs did one of those " to infinity and beyond " moves when I first clipped it and is now lost to my room. Not too happy. I understand that the point of a starter kit it to make things easier by using plastic. I would have preferred the pewter models for the Paks. The Spruces and the plastic just seemed so disproportionate and it caused nightmares.

One of my pak40's gun shields broke in half and got lost, so I gave that one sandbags. (not on the gun itself like the gun shield of course) Those shermans were terrible, I just greenstuffed the gaps andsculpted them like welding lines. then I dropped one while spray painting them and it fell apart. Still not as bad as plastic soldier panzer 4 with schurzen.

Seem to me, that they should have used a softer plastic for the PAks.

I suspect that the PAks' issue is with the mechanics of getting the plastic into the mold. I'm not sure what's up with the shermans.

Thats the least of that guns worry... Making it look like a Pak 40 should be the first thing they fix...

I just used some hand vices when constructing my Shermans. You know the kind...as you grip them they scissor down and clamp as tight as you grip.
I can see how folks would be a little steamed..

If you're one of those people that like to camouflage up your gun teams with foliage then you'll be able to hide most of the gun shield. I don't really trust those plastic gun barrels though.

 George Spiggott wrote:
If you're one of those people that like to camouflage up your gun teams with foliage then you'll be able to hide most of the gun shield. I don't really trust those plastic gun barrels though.

I F@#$%Ing hate plastic Barrels.