The Hardest One

[YingJanshi]

So I'm just wondering what the Miniature Masters (that means YOU  :) ) of the community found was their hardest mini to assemble? The one that gave you fits trying to put it together or just wouldn't go together right at all.


For me it's the Reseen Scorpion. It was one of the first minis I bought ages ago. And I still don't have the stupid thing put together. Just can't get the legs to stay on. (Surprisingly I put a Bishamon together last Saturday, and the hardest part of it was putting the two guns on the underside of the body.) The hardest one I've actually got together was the Gyrfalcon. Darn thing just didn't want to stay together. And honestly, whyyyyyy did the talons have to come as a separate piece? That was a tiny little piece of metal to try to glue on...

[TheMaster1955]

I had the most trouble with the old sculpt clan mechs with the bird legs. the hips and legs + the odd feet were poorly designed.  :'(

[worktroll]

I have a Sentinel I've not managed to assemble this year.

I did manage to assemble the Reseen Thud, but ... I still wake at night, sweating, with the memories.

[Shin Yodama]

The reseen Marauder, with those spindly legs. Mind you, I remember the unseen Mad being a pain also, with more glue ending up on me than the mini.

[Sharpnel]

I have a Sentinel I've not managed to assemble this year.

I did manage to assemble the Reseen Thud, but ... I still wake at night, sweating, with the memories.

I remember the Re-Thud. I got so frustrated wih my first that I I simply threw it in the trash because of that frustration. Months later Imanaged to build one and ihave to put three more together since with relative ease. I've never managed to finsih building the first re-seen Marauder with the raised leg. I waited for the later iterations (with both feet on the ground) before I managed to build one of those.

[worktroll]

The MAD-9L should be avoided at all costs; the MAD-5S/9R is infinitely superior in terms of ease of building.  Likewise, the Warhammer (IIRC) 7K came with one-piece feet/legs/hips.

[M4cr0Dutch]

A bit of an unexpected one: Hellbringer C

The shoulder socket joints were miscast; really just incomplete slivers of crescent shaped metal that flaked off at the lightest touch. I guess I could have asked for a replacement, but decided to pin and sculpt new joints. The medium lasers were also miscast, which were very awkward to file back with the equipment I had.

It will be interesting to see how it looks painted, keep an eye out for it  8)

[Domi1981]

Original Marauder was a beast

[RABIDFOX50]

As said above me, the original Marauder and add to that the original Marauder IIC.

[mdauben]

I remember the reseen "stork legged" Marauder being a particular PITA to assemble.  Trying to glue multiple parts together, getting them stuck to my fingers instead or having to break them appart and re-glue them so they would fit the other parts properly.  I learned a lot about pinning and clamping parts when gluing them together before I finnaly finished assembling that horror.   8)

[TS_Hawk]

Dragon II way too complicated hired a master pinner to do it for me :) The Marauders will get my votes.

[dirty harry]

Several minis I would love to hate.

First of all the already mentioned Marauder RE -9L, 'Mr. Crane'. Such a heavy mini on a single spindly leg. More or less impossible without pinning and even then the standing leg bent.

Another candidate for worst mini is the Lobo. I bent the legs while glueing them. Stand is also quite impossible without an additional base. I never understood why the shoulder mounted launchers were two parts. Even worse: an oval launcher and a round endplate. Try and get them together... The AMS on top of the head (that little thingie you can only place with a pincer) needed an intensive file attack to attach it to its place.

White Flame: getting those three standing legs into position was bad enough, but placing it on a base made it worse. And after I had placed it on a base I had to learn that it is quite impossible to paint the underside of this mech, when the base is in place. I needed three attempts to get this thing done, something absolute new to me.

I have a Scylla waiting in the box. Its ten separate fingers scare me...

And finally something different: Shamash scout vehicle. Somebody tried to file that bullbar? Or glue it or those wings or the sensor dome (or what this part should be) without pincers? There are several other vehicles, mostly first generation Clan, that are for experts only.


But I would say there are several points that lead to unnecessary complicated and thus hard minis: multiparts in general (not only two or three per mini but a dozen or even more), multipart legs (as they need a third hand to hold all parts together more often than not), tiny parts (like the rear lasers of a Hercules, said Lobo AMS), fuggly contact spaces (e.g. leg mount of an Hollander, multipart arms of the Marauder) and bad castings (even worse if contact spaces are totally miscasted).
There are several ways to create a desaster...

[Shin Yodama]

I've never managed to put together my Leviathan II warship yet, despite several attempts. Its main shell seems like two halves of different models.

[ActionButler]

Original Marauder IIC.

I would have bought an entire army of them if they weren't insanely difficult to put together.

[Rtifs]

Pouncer.  The half-moon shoulder sockets can't carry the arms.  No way to pin it either.  I had to slowly build up green-stuff shoulder sockets around the arms over the course of a week, while propping the arms on piles of quarters. 

[Reldn]

MAD-4H Marauder II.... *shudders*

Also, surprisingly the Nova-H. For some reason the feet just. don't. fit. Trying to assemble that little [expletive deleted] has reaffirmed my dislike of working with metal minis and even turned me off of assembling my remaining Clan 'Mechs for the foreseeable future.

edit: fixed typos.

[Alex Keller]

2nd sculpt Blood Asp

Marauder 9L

[stevothedivo]

Great...I can tell this Friday is going to be a right pain in the bum as a few of the 'Mechs you mentioned arrived to me from the US in pieces.
They were posted as by the photo the seller supplied completely intact - the fun bit now is what goes on where among 17 'Mechs I've no clue about.
Why did I bother reading this thread.....
 ;D

[Men Shen]

Gurkha for some reason. I had no problems with the thud or the mads

[JadeHellbringer]

Daimyo.

And not even worth it in the end. Screw that thing, in miniature and statistics.

[Fat Guy]

Original Marauder IIC.

I would have bought an entire army of them if they weren't insanely difficult to put together.

 [stupid]

[Jal Phoenix]

Several of the Reseen have made me so mad that I won't ever paint them again, unless someone else has already done a perfect job of pre-assembling them for me.  The Archer, Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk, Goliath, Marauder and Thunderbolt are all on my "Don't you dare ask me for that" list. 

There have been others over the years, including Hellbie's Daimyo, which does suck massively.  I seem to recall the Stalking Spider giving me trouble, as well as the Bishamon.  The Crab is the first mini I can recall giving me a hard time. This was back in 1993, before I discovered pinning.  It would probably be easier now. 

[clansittingducks]

The thunderbolt resculpts were fairly easy to build, the legs were just a pain to get aligned right as the glue dried. The one mini I had the most problems with wasnt due to assembly difficulties, just the number of parts was the new dragon II model. However after the initial shock of everything and dry fitting it went together like a charm.

[Shijima_3085]

 [stupid]

I've got a pair (although one is now missing most of the "chin stubble"), and they both came together nicely.  The re-seen/PP MAD IIC on the other hand, like a lot of that generation, I had problems gluing the various small body and shoulder flanges.

They.  Just.  Don't. Want. To.  Stay.

Oh, and the glue bottle decided to barf on one armof the reseen/PP Locust.  A few choice words came out.   :Jumpy:

[CranstonSnord]

Pouncer. Hard to get the legs glued to the feet and hip, and the arms just suck. If you have a very thin drill and pin vise, you can pin them, a little, but it's not fun.

I didn't have any trouble with the Bishamon or reseen Scorpion, as I pinned all the legs on each.

[HeavyGun]

Dragon II way too complicated hired a master pinner to do it for me :) The Marauders will get my votes.

Pinning it right now  :) Lets hope it goes well.

And I have to say the most challenging was probably the MAD-9S with that leg in the air, was much fun.

[dirty harry]

And I have to say the most challenging was probably the MAD-9S with that leg in the air, was much fun.

That's the -5L. The Steiner model has both feet planted on the ground. With a different hip mount it is much easier to build. Although i pinned every part of it as well.

The re-seen/PP MAD IIC on the other hand, like a lot of that generation, I had problems gluing the various small body and shoulder flanges.

They.  Just.  Don't. Want. To.  Stay.

Pinning, pinning, pinning. I pinned every single part of that mech, even those shoulder baffles and thrust vector shuffles (or what are these flaps in the back?).

[SteelWarrior]

Masakari new sculpt with a giant ball of molten slag in the torso connector.  Took forever to get a solid fit and keep the bugger glued in properly.

[HeavyGun]

That's the -5L. The Steiner model has both feet planted on the ground. With a different hip mount it is much easier to build. Although i pinned every part of it as well.

My package(20-264)says -9S/-5R, and mine is built similar to this -5R one that Jal built but as the 9S. Same package but can be built as either variant and also with leg in air or both planted firmly in ground

http://camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=2886

[dirty harry]

Now i know where this spare feet came from...
Never ever thougt about another catastrophy on one leg. One with bent standing leg was enough for me. But still the -5L is even worse with its ridiculous hip mount. I mean a U-shaped clean gap in the leg to hold all that weight and no possibility to pin that crap until you drill right through the front? Serious!? The sideway ball joints of the -9S are a real improvement over that construction. At least they can be pinned.

[Force of Nature]

Daimyo.

And not even worth it in the end. Screw that thing, in miniature and statistics.

I second the Damn You, I mean the Daimyo. Getting the legs into the feet was a 45 minute fight for me. Yes, I did wash the pieces with soapy water and then let dry for a day. It still fought me.

Probably the one miniature I would have liked to get resculpted into a standing pose...

[manticore72]

Pouncer was a PITA for me too but once assembled it looked good.

The legs of the Owens on the other hand nearly led to me giving up on it. I got it together and decided to leave well enough alone.

The unseen Marauder IIC was likely the most frustrating for me as the many parts didn't fit well on my copy.

Surprisingly I found the PP Warhammer 8-D to less challenging.

I rather enjoy assembling unseen Marauders BTW.

[BirdofPrey]

The legs of the Owens on the other hand nearly led to me giving up on it. I got it together and decided to leave well enough alone.

I haven't put enough mechs together to know what mechs are hard, but my first mech was an Owens, and I had the same problem.  Damn thing was awful, then someone knocks it onto the floor and I have to do it again.

[stevothedivo]

Alas I stand corrected - with help from fellow 'Warriors we managed to turn a box of broken lead into a decent collection of 'Mechs (there's no way I'd have been able to do it on my own!)
I know and well aware I've asked for them to be spotted out before on another thread and was granted a reprieve from having to figure it out myself but since this photo is the actual 'Mechs ON my hobby table and not the seller's, the angle has changed and I can't identify them all now...
Anybody be so kind as to spot them for me so I know what's what as I reaaaaaaaaaally want to start painting them but unsure if I've got my IS (left) and Clan (right) in the right order....
I set them up as two rows, left and right sets....you're welcome to tell me to eat an apple but I'd appreciate it if someone could identify them for a newbie like me again so I can reference them in Camo and paint name them correctly when they're painted (I know it's sort of cheating but I write the name of every 'Mech on the back lip of the hex base as I'm still learning all their names.....)


Thank you for any assistance you can provide (there was a lot of greenstuff I had to chisel out of these guys to make them fit....Dremil is an awesome tool, everyone should have one!)
 :)

[CranstonSnord]

As best as I can make out:
IS front row left to right:
Jenner
Catapult
Bushwacker
Bushwacker

back:
Hunchback 7R
Battlemaster
Uziel
Cataphract

Clan front:
Koto
Shadow Cat
Griffin IIC
Mad Cat

back:
Dark Crow
Vulture
Jenner IIC
Coyote

[JadeHellbringer]

...Was that supposed to go in a different thread, steveothedivo? Let me know if it was supposed to be somewhere else and I can move it there for you.

[Gromik]

I've actually gotten pretty good at assembling 9S/5R Marauders, Archers, and reseen Thuds.  Don't get me wrong, I managed to put the legs together wrong the first time I tried a reseen Thud, so they're not the easiest.  They take me an hour or so each now. I may have to resort to using metal filings to help leg/hip assembly, along with cushions to hold things in place while glue sets, but they aren't terribly frustrating anymore.  Just knowing to treat those sculpts a little differently than others is enough.

The Pouncer, though?  Ugh.  The difficulty in assembling that thing is the reason I only have one, as I'm otherwise fond of the mech.  The arms are infuriating.  On top of that, I've said it before and I'll say it again: bases with integrated feet are bad, mmkay?

I'm obliged to shake my fist in the Linebacker's direction, as well.  I almost didn't bother finishing assembly for that thing.

[dirty harry]

Pouncer? I don't know why people have problems with that one. Glued the arms once and they still stick. Maybe because of several layers of glue in the arm pit, who knows. I was even able to modify mine with rare earth magnets and a twistable torso (although i needed to file down some corners of the hip piece for free rotation).

The bad thing about the Linebacker is its hip piece. Front and rear look - more or less - alike, but it can be mounted in one direction only. Dryfitting and testing which direction is correct is the only way, although one wants an additional pair of hands just for those tests. Filing down the monstrous misalinement out of the arms and torso sides was another problem, but was done with enough time spent on it.

[croaker]

The Linebacker was a very meh build. Mine ended up looking like it was sitting back on its haunches.

The first-run of re-seen Warhammer and Marauder, though, were just an -ass- and a half to assemble. All those fiddly little bits for the gun arms, the elbow joints from HELL, and getting the Whammy's legs into that base... owwww.

[YingJanshi]

Okay...just found my hardest one. Have only cleaned and washed them. Not sure if I can force myself to paint them...

REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED Raiden REDACTED Battle Armor!!!!!!

The little beasts were a complete pain to clean. I would never have bought them if I'd known how much trouble they were going to be. It seems like I could never get all the flash off. I shudder to think about how long it took me to do all 24...

All of you guys that do BA...you have my respect sirs!

[JadeHellbringer]

Until yesterday, I'd never done an unseen Marauder. (Well, technically I still haven't, this was a Marauder II).

...Man, it's the last one, too. That thing was a flaming pain in the ass to get on its feet.

[worktroll]

All of you guys that do BA...you have my respect sirs!

Just use DA BA. Soooo much easier ... I buy a few metals where necessary (the DA Hauberks make great light suits), but otherwise ...

[YingJanshi]

Just use DA BA. Soooo much easier ... I buy a few metals where necessary (the DA Hauberks make great light suits), but otherwise ...

Well, they were sort of an impulse buy. IWM had them on sale and I thought they'd go well with the DC company I've been building. If I had known how much trouble they'd be....

[Jal Phoenix]

Several of the early Dark Age infantry pieces were exact copies of the IWM pieces, or close enough not to tell.  I've used them myself. 

[Sereglach]

Several of the Reseen have made me so mad that I won't ever paint them again, unless someone else has already done a perfect job of pre-assembling them for me.  *snip*Phoenix Hawk *snip* are all on my "Don't you dare ask me for that" list. 

This made me wince, as I just got one of these in a lucky auction win.  Opening the blister and looking it over makes me see why . . . even after I file off the bur I don't think the barrel is going to fit into that arm socket properly.  That's just to start of the nightmare I see coming from this thing.  So many loose, open, and tiny ball joints.  *shudders*

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm no expert assembler by any means, and I only just started building a personal mini collection after coming back to Battletech after 20ish years (thank you Alpha Strike . . . you're awesome). 

That being said, the Tarantula was an extreme pain in the arse for me . . . especially being one of the first minis I ever got to assemble.

An original sculpt Avatar was also a pain . . . balancing those hips on the half-moon-paper-thin leg sockets that didn't want to sit even on the pre-based feet and keeping everything level was not easy with my shot nerves.

Also making the feet and hips meet up on a Beowulf IIC was a little tricky, because I think it must share a base and legs with the IS Beowulf . . . and I'm guessing that one has thicker hips.  One way or another, both legs were not meeting up flush with that body.

Of course, I'm pretty well an amateur with shot nerves and anything but steady hands, so take it for what it's worth.  Definitely paying closer attention to this thread on what mechs I'll probably want to avoid ever owning.

[Gromik]

snip

A suggestion, as I hate bases with built-in feet:  clip the base in two.  Trim away as much of the (now) two halves of the base as you can, leaving the feet with enough to stand on.  Having the feet separate allows for much more wiggle-room on minis with tricky leg-to-feet and leg-to-hip connections like the Beowulf IIC. 

I've done this with older Vulture/Timber Wolf and Kit Fox/Adder sculpts.  It can make the leg assembly far less frustrating.

[Vash The Stampede]

Timberwolf. Love the mech, those legs!

[SC_Dave]

The hardest one I've actually got together was the Gyrfalcon. Darn thing just didn't want to stay together. And honestly, whyyyyyy did the talons have to come as a separate piece? That was a tiny little piece of metal to try to glue on...

I'd have to second you on the Gyrfalcon. I recently spent about 3 hours putting mine together (including careful mould line removal & gluing). For a start, there was no built in base below the feet so improvisation to mount it on the hex base was required. Then, to avoid issues with it falling apart during construction, I decided to glue on one leg and give it some time before doing the other. Part way through this realised that the legs are not the same length.

I also noticed that the original bird legged clan mechs got a mention here. Years ago I was playing a game & my opponent was using one of the early Mad Cat sculpts. It started to fall apart piece by piece during the game. By the end of it there was only two legs sticking up from a hex base. It was almost like the damage was being simulated on the miniature.

[Nahuris]

I have a Sentinel I've not managed to assemble this year.

I did manage to assemble the Reseen Thud, but ... I still wake at night, sweating, with the memories.

It took me 3 days to assemble one of the reseen Thuds..... and both of the reseen Warhammers I was given as gifts like to fall apart at any opportunity...
those really soured me on most of the reseens.... although, oddly, the Marauder didn't give me a moment's problems.
I have to say, though, that the mechs standing on one leg, in running poses, are both a pain, and also annoying to store.......

Nahuris

[YingJanshi]

I'd have to second you on the Gyrfalcon. I recently spent about 3 hours putting mine together (including careful mould line removal & gluing). For a start, there was no built in base below the feet so improvisation to mount it on the hex base was required. Then, to avoid issues with it falling apart during construction, I decided to glue on one leg and give it some time before doing the other. Part way through this realised that the legs are not the same length.

I also noticed that the original bird legged clan mechs got a mention here. Years ago I was playing a game & my opponent was using one of the early Mad Cat sculpts. It started to fall apart piece by piece during the game. By the end of it there was only two legs sticking up from a hex base. It was almost like the damage was being simulated on the miniature.

Actually, now that I've been basing them before I even prime, I've found the ones without a base are the easiest. Just grab a hexbase fill it with green stuff (you can mold it if you like, give the ground some texture), then when it dries, glue the mini on it. I've found that's just sooo much easier than the ones with bases on them.