Fokker D.VI by ccoyle - MPModel - 1/33 - CARD - TERMINATED

[ccoyle]

Well, friends, I have made an executive decision on this model, and maybe you saw this coming.

 

I sat down to attempt skinning the lower wing, and dry-fitting revealed several problems:

• The ribs are too long and need to be trimmed (this was the least problematic issue and could have been easily dealt with if it had been the only problem).
• The wing framing itself is too short from root to tip, i.e., shorter than the wing skin. When the wing skin is held tight to the fuselage, the skin overlaps the outboard rib by at least a millimeter, meaning the upper and lower wingtips, which are separate parts, have no sub-structure to adhere to. 
• And lastly, there is simply no way to make the wing root join neatly (i.e., flush) to the fuselage without doing some significant surgery -- there are significant gaps on both the upper and lower surfaces.

None of these issues is insurmountable, but they are individually annoying and collectively beyond annoying: they simply make the model not fun to build. And model building should be fun. IMO, a designer whose kits are not fun to build is asking me to invest more creative problem-solving into his design than he could be bothered with himself before the design went to print. Any card model requires a bit of such effort here and there, but this kit seems to be dogged by fun-killing design issues at every step. As I stated somewhere earlier in this thread, this may be why I was unable to find any finished examples of this kit online.

 

So, this kit has been moved to the Shelf of Shame, and I will now take some time to think hard about what to work on next. That Sakae radial in resin might be hard to resist . . .

[Gene K]

13 hours ago, ccoyle said:

So, this kit has been moved to the Shelf of Shame, and I will now take some time to think hard about what to work on next. 

 

Sounds like a wise decision, but I'll miss your comments and great photos - I learn a lot from them.

 

I don't know if you've built any Luis Igualada kits, but I think they are outstanding in all respects. Luis' kits are can be purchased/downloaded here. They are more detailed and time consuming (in a good way) than those of your (and my) favorite Pawel Mistewicz

 

... speaking of which:

 

 

Gene K

 

Edited January 11 by Gene K

[amateur]

Hi Chris,

It’s a pity, as the plane itself is a nice one.

 

Is the problem in the design of the kit itself, or in a sloppy execution of the lasercut parts? (Meaning: should we avoid these kits, or should we try to build them without the laser-parts?)

 

Jan

[ccoyle]

5 hours ago, amateur said:

Is the problem in the design of the kit itself, or in a sloppy execution of the lasercut parts?

 

I'd say it's a combination of both for this kit. I don't like to speak ill of the people (designers) who make this hobby possible, but I've had trouble with every Marek Pacynski kit I've attempted, and I've received feedback from other card modelers with similar experiences with Mr. Pacynski's work. To his credit, I have seen very fine examples of completed kits designed by Mr. Pacynski, but I'm becoming increasingly less interested in trying another of his kits and hoping I've found one of the good ones. I have plenty of kits in my stash from designers whose work I can rely on.

[thibaultron]

Is there a company that his models were mostly designed for, so I can avoid them in the future, or some other way of identifying his designs?

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, thibaultron said:

Is there a company that his models were mostly designed for, so I can avoid them in the future, or some other way of identifying his designs?

 He is a prolific designer, and many publishers have issued his models, including Models by Marek (digital), MPModels, Modelarstwo Kartonowe, and probably others that I've either forgotten about or am simply not acquainted with. If you buy and or build enough kits, you learn to recognize the work of various designers based on a kit's appearance. Oftentimes, the names of a kit's designer and graphic artist are available on a vendor's website.

[ccoyle]

As a follow-up to this episode, I had an exchange with the designer this morning on one of the Polish card modeling FB groups:

 

 

I like the part where he leapt to the conclusion that I must have worked from a pirated kit. 🤨

 

I have previously suggested that some of my problems with certain Polish kits may hinge on the fact that I'm not Polish, since Polish modelers have been known to complete fine examples of models I have struggled with. But I simply cannot accept Mr. Pacynski's argument at face value, since I have attempted five of his kits and only managed to complete two of them. Even those two finished models had numerous issues (as documented in my MC.200 Saetta build) and were not very much fun to build. And I'm not alone in this assessment, since other builders have shared their MPModel struggles with me in the past. For whatever mysterious reasons, I have never had the same struggles with one of Pawel Mistewicz's KK kits, so draw your own conclusions. 🤔

[Ferrus Manus]

5 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I must have worked from a pirated kit.

If someone is going to go so far as to accuse you of collaborating with pirates, you might as well not give them another second of your time. As a modeler (and a person) I value honesty, integrity and personal responsibility. If you design a crappy kit, you own up to it. Doubling down and pinning it on the modeler does not work and isn't a good look. If I'm paying for your model, I expect a good standard of quality. I am currently building a Roden kit (as you know) and I definitely have gripes about the design and execution. Fortunately for me, the issues I'm having aren't model-ruining. 

 

You deserve better that to have to deal with someone like that, and they need to seriously reevaluate their business practices. 

Edited February 3 by Ferrus Manus