Kitech Blue Thunder: Worst Model Kit EVER!

[MFP 2020]

Once upon a time, I had the Monogram Blue Thunder kit, and I assembled it hastily and enjoyed it until it fell apart. (Or I blew it up. Probably.) A few years ago, I bought the Kitech Blue Thunder from an eBay seller. The canopy was broken in shipping, so they sent me a whole new kit for free. (No surprise; they probably cost all of 50 cents to produce.) The kits have been in my closet ever since, and since he was able to speak, my son has been asking to see them. I let him see the box. Then the pieces. Then he started pestering me to build them. Finally, I relented. I said we would build one together—quickly—and he would have to stop bugging me about it.

OK, I'm sure there are worse (general) model kits than this; fortunately I don't know about them. But this was the absolute worst kit I've ever assembled. It didn't help that I chose the wrong blue paint (and didn't realize I'd painted the skids blue instead of black until after one was already glued on), but that's the least of its problems. The parts have only the faintest relationship to each other. (The canopy is so misshapen that I couldn't glue all the joins at once, and it kept popping off, so I finally resorted to hot glue, and there are huge gaps.) The decals are monstrous. I didn't have the patience to mask and paint all the canopy lines, so I freehanded it, terribly.

That said, it was good to get back into the game, if only for a few days (cumulative; total time measured in weeks) and for the sole enjoyment of my son, who has taken possession. One pitot tube went missing before final assembly was complete, and one came off 10 seconds after the handover, but I'm done. It's all his. I've washed my hands of it.



Best part? It's over. Now I can finish my son's foam Halo armor.


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151631020552820.1073741827.694392819&type=1&l=4e850a098f

 

[morrris99]

I think this can be said of most Kitech kits. I got the Airwolf and a V-22 Osprey. I was less than unimpressed with them. The osprey main window had a huge melt mark in the middle of it, effectively eliminating it as a useable part. The parts were warped badly on both. Blades, bodies. I didn't pay too much for them, but I basically gave that seller my money for free. I haven't built either kit yet. It seems like it would take a lot to make them look nice. I suppose Kitech kits can be looked at as a challenge, if you were a "half-full glass" kind of person...

 

[Wes R]

I wish i'd gotten the monogram kit way back when the old toy store had them in stock. I never heard of kitech but now i know to avoid them.

 

[JMChladek]

The Monogram kits periodically pop up for decent prices in the usual places. The hard one to get is the 1/48 Aoshima kit, which goes for sick money these days (and it doesn't even have a JAFO either). Nice build BTW!

 

[MFP 2020]

Thanks. I said we were going to build it quickly, but my ATD (attention to detail) kicked in. It was a constant battle to just let go and get it finished. (The model still has water on it from putting the decals on. I wanted to get the shots quickly because I knew it wouldn't look that good for long.) I did some trimming and sanding, but no seam-filling. As awful as it is, though, I think this might be the model I've taken the most care with (up until the last day or so). I believe the last model I built for myself was a Top Gun F-14 back in the '80s.

The Aoshima looks really nice, but it doesn't seem to have the honeycomb texture on the bottom of the fuselage. I think I'm just going to spring for the Organic Dream Machine 1/32 diecast.

 

[saleem]

I have aoshima 1/48 on my pile,only bought it because its cool looking.

Considering you think its a bad build although your the one with it in hand the pics actualy seem to flatter it and yes I got my specs on.