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Actually, if we're counting non-GW models I take back everything I said about the Fire Raptor.

A long-term project I've been working on is a 1:200 model of HMS Nelson. It's about 5' long and contains around 2500 pieces, of which about 1500-1700 are tiny brass components, and I mean tiny.



This is one of the 20mm Oerlikon cannons with a Skitarii for scale. That tiny gun has 11 brass components that have to be folded and bent into shape by tweezers. There's 62 of these horrific things to make, I only got to around 10 before my patience gave out. I would gladly without a second thought build a dozen Fire Raptors before I go back to making those. It's the perfect kit for your inner masochist.

Disclaimer: I love metal miniatures.

There is a special hate that exists for multi-part metal models which are too big for their own good (read: any multi-part metal kit from the GW in the 90's).. The metal land speeder being of particular vile nature.

I love metal minis, but give me vehicles in plastic.

Metal landspeeder is the worst I've personally assembled. I think the award goes to the 2nd edition one, though the RT model was also awful to assemble.

I think the unspoken champion here was the short run of metal Thunderhawks from GW...those are classic sadist toys.



$650 worth of self-hatred.

Yeah, that awful rogue trader/2nd ed landspeeder was a paint to put together and keep together!

 Elbows wrote:
I think the unspoken champion here was the short run of metal Thunderhawks from GW...those are classic sadist toys.



$650 worth of self-hatred.

Yeah....that clearly wins. I mean it's likely the only model you need to establish a safeword before you start building it.

"My safety word is 'Heresy'".

 Ratius wrote:
Old metal Hive Guard.
Old metal killa kans.
Old metal Eldar Wraithknight.
Yea. Just no.

What? Metal tyrant and Wraithknight are easy lol


Thunderfire Cannon is harder than both for sure

I found the Penitent Engine easier with a long striding pose, to balance the heavy body. But the Wraithlord was frustrating, especially when 14 year old me starting cutting up metal limbs and jamming in green stuff to make more dynamic poses... I've come back here after 10 years, and the models I dared to present make me shudder.

My Tetras were harsh.

So small, so many tiny bits that sit in wierd interlocking positions.

I have a 2nd ed land speeder, which is ready for paint but when I stripped it and started test fitting, it needed a lot of filing to fit flush which is what I didn’t do before

forge world fire raptor, nothing comes close to how much pain that thing put me through

Ratius wrote:Old metal Hive Guard.
Old metal killa kans.
Old metal Eldar Wraithknight.
Yea. Just no.

Just to add to the list of old metal minis, and maybe it was just because I didn't own a pin vice at the time, but I recall Old One Eye being quite difficult to put together (and have it remain together!)

 ChargerIIC wrote:
Malifaux has this little (shorter than 1 cm) Chihuahua that has a separate paw and tail piece that has to be glued on. I hate that dog so much,

The Taurox was annoying. All these extra parts that didn't add value.

I have assembled this dog!

Malifaux is notorious for having incredibly fiddly models to assemble, though they are absolutely gorgeous.

The Zombie Chihuahua, while the smallest overall model, is not the one I found hardest by any means though. Translucent Bete Noir takes that trophy from me. I never assembled Yan Lo, but many people cite him as the peak, with 'Yan Lo's Beard!' being a general expletive in the community. The model had a tiny beard that was a separate piece!

Here's the model for anyone interested:
https://goo.gl/images/RYfNcD

Ah Old One Eye. A truly wacky looking beast.

Some of the hardest models I've built are some of the teams from Blood Bowl 2016.

My two personal hardest were the limited edition metal Razorfang model from the Vor line, and the metal Brain bug for Starship Troopers from Mongoose Publishing.

Razorfang was just ungodly huge for a metal model. Imagine something close to Magnus size, all metal, in a leaning forward pose with really small legs and 90% of the weight positioned near the head. Then fix it so the arms are equally huge and heavy, and also separate parts. Parts that only add to the forward leaning. NO amount of pinning in the world helped. lol I had to pin, weight the base, and sculpt extra scenery in apoxie sculpt to get it to work.

The Brain bug was just a complete disaster of a casting (typical for MGP at the time). The two main parts were totally misaligned (only way to make it worse would have been to include two lefts or two rights instead of a left and right), and there was so much think flashing that by the time you were done grinding and filling, you had practically resculpted the whole thing from scratch.

For GW models, I hated the original Thunderfire canon w/metal bits. As others have said, I generally hated all the 2nd/3rd ed kits that involved large, heavy pieces of metal being attached to thin light pieces of plastic.

Presicion-wise? Skitarii troops. So many recesses, bumps and tiny fiddly bits that are so easy to break. Cleaning was absolute pain.

Otherwise, Avenger Strike Fighter. It needed heavy pinning and adjusting. The model is very heavy for an airctaft. I also magnetised the wings for easier transportation.

Penitent Engine for sure. It's a good thing the rules for it aren't great, I wouldn't want to feel the need to have a bunch of them.

Tycho wrote:
My two personal hardest were the limited edition metal Razorfang model from the Vor line, and the metal Brain bug for Starship Troopers from Mongoose Publishing.

Razorfang was just ungodly huge for a metal model. Imagine something close to Magnus size, all metal, in a leaning forward pose with really small legs and 90% of the weight positioned near the head. Then fix it so the arms are equally huge and heavy, and also separate parts. Parts that only add to the forward leaning. NO amount of pinning in the world helped. lol I had to pin, weight the base, and sculpt extra scenery in apoxie sculpt to get it to work.

The Brain bug was just a complete disaster of a casting (typical for MGP at the time). The two main parts were totally misaligned (only way to make it worse would have been to include two lefts or two rights instead of a left and right), and there was so much think flashing that by the time you were done grinding and filling, you had practically resculpted the whole thing from scratch.

For GW models, I hated the original Thunderfire canon w/metal bits. As others have said, I generally hated all the 2nd/3rd ed kits that involved large, heavy pieces of metal being attached to thin light pieces of plastic.

Anything by MGP/AOG is and was an horrendous mess, I got a model of theirs that was misaligned by about a quarter of an inch over 5 inches of model...
For 40k though I would have to vote for the old metal Wraithlord, had three of them and they were all horrible.

 Creeping Dementia wrote:
Penitent Engine for sure. It's a good thing the rules for it aren't great, I wouldn't want to feel the need to have a bunch of them.

I have 3 of them and i still think Thunderfire cannons are worst

 Reavsie wrote:


I'll raise you - old metal Bloodthirster.

Especially since it couldn't be pinned.

The Storm Eagle was a pretty frustrating kit to build, but I feel like it was pretty straight forward compared to building a Reaver Titan. There were gaps, there was bending, heating, reshaping, all that jazz.

The Reaver has stuff like the legs, which were a pain to put together. Trying to dry-fit it to make sure the pose would work with the pelvis, and actually stand up was annoying. But the toes. Those goddamn toes. All the toes have pairs of pistons behind them that need to be cut to length before assembly. So you need to dry fit all these pairs of pistons behind the toes before cutting all the toe pistons down to size individually... and it's all resin, so superglue, and a lot less forgiving.

It just had so many fiddly bits like that.

It has to be the penitant engine hands down. Some of the FW stuff can be a pain but at least it can be coaxed back into place.

As far as plastic goes, I'd say the older model Land Speeder kit. You have to use rubber bands to hold the stupid thing together while it dries because the parts just don't fit together like they are supposed to. And even after all that, there are noticable gaps. I built three like that, and that taught me to appreciate the newer ones.

Special shout out to the Primaris Inceptor flight stands for being a major pain in the ass. They look cool, but such a tiny contact point that breaks if you look at it wrong? What kind of stupid idea was that? I've got 9 of the things built and painted already, and three more to build. Not looking forward to it.

Forge World Fellblade
Privateer Press Cylena Renfall and the Nyss Hunters
Privateer Press Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
Privateer Press Legion Typhon

Those are the four models I have nightmares about.

Malifaux models in general made me want to eat a bolt round.

I remember doing a commission for a friend, it was the Lawyers guild that could also be used with the Daemon guild.

The two sergeant level lawyer models, you had to put the dang fingers on the palms! And there was this totally not female McCree model, her cape was three different pieces and the online support was not extremely helpful to explain which part went where.

For me Hardest 40k would probably be the old Crisis suits.

The torsos never fit right and you had to either put them in a clamp until it dried, or wrap the whole torso in rubber bands.

The metal incubi. They are a nightmare.

I once tried to build a helicopter from Revell. This bloody thing had so many tiny parts that everything compared from GW was a walk in the park. In the end there was only a three step process left:

1. Pick up hammer.
2. Use hammer with Revell monstrosity.
3. Repeat step 2 until you are satisfied.

I had to repeat step 2 ten times.

 awbbie wrote:
The metal incubi. They are a nightmare.

Are those the PP ones? Trying and Failing to assemble those things actually sent me on my journey of converting miniatures