Ha ha, so I have been told.. many friends said fill it full of rust and leave it broken down with the wheels off! Which if it was my kit I could have done, but it was a commission build to look like Jasons car from his youth
I've built many Italieri Kits since the 1970's. I have a love/hate relationship. Love the choices of builds, hate assembly. Plastic thin, brittle, snaps etc but they had the only models of particular vehicles. Many were tossed because of bad fit issues, brittle parts, etc.....glad to know they haven't changed in 40 some odd years
The sad part of all this , There are different grades of plastic some are fairly strong. Clearly they use the cheapest weakest plastic they can find. Sounds very Euro to me.
Hi Harry, those pesky big marks are actually called ejection pin marks. They are the pins that push the part out of the tool. I have the new Italeri Lancia Delta Integrale. That thing is £240 GBP and is no different to what you have found in the 500!! Weak plastic suspension components with moulded on pins of 1mm diameter, AND heavy rubber tyres. Ejector pin marks everywhere, there are 22 on the hood alone!! Oh, and all the body parts are covered in sink marks. When you compare it to Tamiyas old 1/12 Porsche 934/935 for around half the price, or some of their 1/12 F1 cars for £100 GBP, it's a bloody joke.
Thanks for the information Harry. I’m into WW2 planes after a long rest from modelling. For Christmas, my beautiful little daughter got me a Henschel Hs 123 bi-plane from Italeri. Well…where do I start? Many parts didn’t fit properly. There were huge gaps that needed filling and sanding. Plus so many little circles on the parts…(I forget the correct term). They all needed filling. In the end I got it finished, and now I’m up to the weathering stage, but the build itself was not pleasant. I only continued with it because my 13 year old wanted to see the finished product and was happy when it was painted. Goodness it was tough! I won’t be buying Italeri again in a hurry. Thanks again for your channel. 😀
If you want a good version of the Hs 123 then I would suggest the GasPatch kit. www.scalemates.com/kits/gaspatch-models-48096-henschel-hs-123-b-1--1080700
Thanks so much for your feedback and I’m grateful for your link to to the other Henschel. I will check that out. I’m enjoying you videos. Yep, the Italeri was a challenge. My daughter said that the guys at the shop told her it would be a challenge. I figured the build itself would be the challenge. Nope%! It was the bloody kit itself. Poor workmanship etc. Anyway, I eventually got it built, and my little girl is happy.
Ai. A few weeks ago, I bought the Fiat Abarth 695 from Italeri. Same model, same size. I just started with the build. On my box, it says "New Moulds". I hope that in this kit they have improved on everything. Somewhere I had read that the chassis is the biggest problem, but I hope that is also improved. The reason I bought this kit was, that last year I had built the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Roadster. It was a nice kit and everything went fine. So I thought that it would be the same for this kit. We will see. The "advantage" maybe will be, that when it is built, it will stay on the shelf. No playing around with it. We hope for the best. 🙂
I hope for your sake they have finally fixed that moulding issue Pierre. The kit looks great on the sprue and has a lot of nice detail. Mine just self destructed on the shelf under its own weight.
Have found that Italeria kits are a cat of a different color! Some good some just bad! I understand the let it stand and things just break! I have a Italeria Sherman and it’s the only 1/35 tank model that sheds parts just sitting in the shelf! Well, all the best to you Sir!!
@James Lochridge oh no the horror! Either replace anything thin which needs to support weight with a metal rod. Or expoy glue things so they never come loose or break!
I agree with your assessment. They are good looking kits,but putting them together can lead to excessive expletives. Also Miniart kits, they're very detailed and look fantastic, but putting them together can also lead to expletives.
I don't build vehicles very often but I do enjoy WW2 aircraft. When it comes to Italeri it seems to be a totally different story when it comes to their aircraft. I recently completed an original 1976 tooled Messerschmitt Me321 Gigant in 1/72 scale. With the gigant being the largest aircraft of ww2, naturally this kit is MASSIVE! I had no issues what so ever with this kit and this was the first release of it. I enjoyed it so much I have now got the 1980 engined version, Me323 Gigant. I really love building Italeri aircraft kits but obviously cant speak for vehicles. I am thinking about getting the 1/35 Tiger 1, hopefully that'll be a good kit. 😅🤞
Italeri is a bit hit and miss.. they have some very nice kits and some awful ones. This Fiat is nice in the box on the sprue, but just doesn’t go together, or even stay together, once built. Shame really as the kit held so much promise.
I bought an Italascari Lamborghini countach back in the 80’s - while the box art is what sold me on the model , I wish I had known what I had actually bought. The absolute worst kit I have ever tried to build - I got so pissed, I threw the kit away- I didn’t want to salvage any of it. I definitely feel your pain. (And yes, by the time I had gotten to this build , I easily had 12 years of experience and at least 35-40 kits (1/25 to 1/8 scale built). I literally stepped away from building kits for the next 10 - 15 years. Looking for that happy place again, though- I’m getting to old to deal with the full-size fun. Best of luck to you and your endeavors.
Stumbled onto your channel - love this video, fella! I build aircraft, and 1:56/28mm vehicles for wargaming. I've had mixed experiences with Italiari over the years. I built the 1:72 AC-47 Spooky gunship two years ago, and it was a bit of a 'mare - mating up the fuselage once the interior parts were fitted was tough, huge gaps with the wings, and the suspension collapsed - same as your Fiat! - after about a day on the shelf. I'd get metal replacements, if they exist, for next time. Still, painted up well and looks good from a distance. On the other hand,. their 1:72 F-100 Super Sabre went together like a dream. They make plastic 28mm kits for Warlord, and I've had no issues with them so far (I've built various marks of the Sd. Kfz. 251, a 38(t), and a Puma), but they are simpler kits, designed to be assembled quickly and got on the table, so the "over engineering" problem tends to go away, I suppose. Even then, the suspension on the Puma was a bit fiddly, and slowed things down. Anyway, glad I found your channel. Cheers!
Italeri do have some great kits, like your Sabre, which was even reboxed by Revell, Academy and surprisingly Tamiya. So it can’t be that bad. My Fiat however was a horror story
Absolutely love your description of losing your mojo and the kit having the gazonka !! I've been lucky enough not to have had a kit give me problems like this but I did have a real car give me the gazonka 😂🤣😂 Cheers from Florida mate !! Thoroughly enjoy your channel !!
I've built many italerie kits, let me say it was a love/ hate relationship. just finishing up their f-14 tomcat on commission it is just horrible. I would rather build the Tamiya tomcat, even though the Tamiya kit cost as much as 3 times the cost the Tamiya kit is so much better in engineering and accuracy. And is a joy to build.
There you go… if Tamiya works for you great… I am yet to find an Italscary kit I’ve enjoyed building, and I don’t mind some fettling or scratch… but really poorly designed kits with just sloppy fit don’t float my boat.
I think I would have cut some clear posts for the bottom of it for support. Maybe 2 down the center. I've built a couple aircraft that needed it because all the weight was in the back to it would tip. Works great for display. You had a good go at it and most times even the best builder like yourself can't fix manufacturing mistakes. Keep up the good builds!
That has been a frequent suggestion… if it had been my kit, not a commission job with no budget, I would have epoxy glued up all moving parts and added supports on a base..
There are kits manufactured that are never meant to be made. If you went to italeri, you'd not see that kit in their showcase. I'd bet money. That suspension looks horrendous. Awesome video, Harry.👍👍
there is a trend by some companies to mold parts so close to scale that they are impractical when building the model. For example axles so thin they bend with the weight of the model. Thin panels that are melted by normal cement or large strips of photo etched brass which expand and contract with the temperature of the room.
I am new to your channel and I like your presentation, no nonsense, and straight to the point. I thought 💭 I had a big “stash” of kits, but compared to what you have in the background makes my meagre offering look smaller than a gnat hiding in a swamp. I have only got back into model making recently after a 40 year break to work in the real world. Everything is so different from when I was a kid with so much choice of kits and the necessary tools, paints, etc etc etc, I am like a kid in a toy shop. Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts 💭, subscribed. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
I nearly didn't get started in modelling because when I was( a lot) younger maybe about 10/11 I attempted Airfix's Churchill tank.All those fiddlly wheels had to line up with the two housings where the tracks go.Glue everywhere.wheels lost Arrgh.Mowed the lawn again for some pocket money and bought it again.Same scenario.No,no,no!.But I went ahead and built Spanish galleons,bi-planes all with fancy rigging,painted hundreds of ho armies,candy apple hot rods all without too much problems except that Churchill tank.It haunted me for years.Now some 45 + years later I purchased not only one but two brand new Churchill tanks to build during lockdown.There still there,in the cupboard,their gleaming red boxes staring at me at eye level,never opened.I am sure I am capable of doing a good job now all these years later but each time I reach for the boxes I get sweaty,legs,hands tremble and just a terrible feeling of unwellness and fear .Oh well back to my little Golden Hind ,everyone's first kit.
I've only built one Italeri kit, the 1/72 scale Zweilling" glider tow aircraft, which was made from two Heinkle He-111 bombers joined using a common wing center section. The real aircraft was certainly unusual looking, & made for an interesting model. I built the kit in the early 1980's, & was a bit challenging, as I recall. One of the issues was that the kits interior parts often had inadequate attachment surfaces for proper locating, & for a strong glue joint, resulting in questionable part orientation & unsecure attachment. Example; the engine nacelles were single pieces that were glued to the front of the flat, featureless engine bulkheads, with no locating pins, as I recall. The kit had had about 8 machine guns, which were very fragile (& were broken many times). That was a kit I just wanted to finish & be done with. The detail was mediocre to average, I suppose, even by standards of the early 1980's. I have never built another Italeri model, although I have considered buying some of their kits, but only for the subject matter, not for "superior quality".
Italeri can be quite hit and miss. My Fiat should have been a good kit with all the engineering that went into it. But sadly the sum of the parts left a lot to be desired.
Well, i love especialy the old motorcycles serie of Italeri (Esci) and i find it very good. Same problems with them like wrong injecting points etc but, with a little bit work about it, they finaly becomes great models. And, like you say, don't try to move any moving part, it's not a toy, it's a model to store under a strong showcase. (excuse my english, i'm french) :o)
Your English is fine Daniel… those reboxed Esci motorcycles can come up well, but they were kits designed many years ago. The Italeri Fiat is a newly tooled kit from only a few years ago, so they have no excuse for the poor design.
@@HarryHoudiniModels They still use the same design procedures... at least in Italy... My best results from Italeri kits are rebadged ICM models from Ukraine. I've had good results with the older Italeri military models - using Tenax or more often Plastruct's original Plastic Weld solvent cements, which contain methylene chloride... not sure which brands are available in Australia, but you may need to buy a suitable solvent cement from an acrylic plastic shop.
Fantastic. I sometimes think that all my models are like this, but I keep at it any anyway cause I love to build. Thanks so much for this great video. Really enjoyed it and it reminded me to be patient and persisyent.
Italeri Tiger 1 World of tanks edition is when I gave up on Italeri, I didn't like the softness of the plastic, nor the many mistakes in the manual, nor the downright stupid design choices in the kit's assembly. Don't get me wrong, I have seen similar in Eastern Express and Revell, but those companies charge me half as much for their kits (especially when you get them on discount) and they don't do it to that extent. I feel price does come with a form of expectation, and really it's a matter of paying for those features/aspects of the kit that we are interested in. For me and you that means not paying for time saved during building.
Thanks for the video. Bought a couple Italeri rally car kits years ago and will have to break them out and build them. I pretty much do American or Japanese kits so this will be interesting. Thanks!
I steer clear of kits with functioning parts. The tolerances just aren't there at such a scale to work properly. Plus it's a car model.......not my cup of tea. Sorry for your bad experience. I like Italeri kits. I've built a lot of them and have never ran into the type of trouble you had. I'm glad the bad experience didn't put you off of models all together. Keep having fun Brother. Carpe Modellum!!! Bill
It was not a subject or kit of my choice, just a commission job I was talked into for someone else. If it had been my kit I would have left the wheels falling off, rusted it out, and added a mechanic scratching his head.
Thanks for sharing Harry! I’m working on a kit right now that I’m having a lot of problems with. My wife’s first car was a ‘69 Cougar. I found one on eBay and started to work on it. I researched the original colours, yellow for the exterior and ivy gold for the interior. I tried painting the interior with a brush, but the paint is too thin and it took me 3 coats to get a somewhat even coat. I left the model for a couple of weeks, and the paint was still tacky. I just painted the exterior, and the paint came out of my airbrush like cotton candy. I got strands of paint all over the body! Never have I come across that effect! I’m leaving it now to see if anyone else has run into that problem. Also, I was looking at the chassis, and the AC pump is missing. No idea where it went! I’ve checked everywhere. Oh well, I feel your pain buddy! Happy days and model on! 😎
Sounds like you are using the wrong thinner for your paint, or your airbrush is contaminated. Unless your paint stock went off and the binder has gone bad?
@@HarryHoudiniModels no thinner in the paints. The interior paint is Vallejo and the exterior is Paint Scratch car paint. It looked thin enough, maybe next coat I will use a .5 needle in the airbrush!
That might be the issue. Vallejo is a water based acrylic. Any contamination from alcohol, spirit thinners or even lacquer can sometimes really upset it. Never ever spray Tamiya, butanol based, paint and Vallejo in the same airbrush without a very deep clean first. The result is snot! Windex clean your airbrush and try again.
Did you mean Mister Surfacer 1000? It is lacquer based and must not have fully gassed out before you added the water based Vallejo. And yes Mister surfacer needs a 0.5mm needle unless you thin it right down.
Thanks for sharing the video. It is difficult to believe that there is a worse car kit than the AMT 1967 Pontiac GTO 1:25 scale. But the real bad thing with this Italeri is the price you pay for the kit. AMT is also bad with its 1:16 scale Pontiac Firebird, it is almost impossible not to get saggy doors and the wheels attachment is of very poor quality.
Yes Seri you can forgive a cheap kit for a few fit issues but pay $200 for what looks like a well engineered kit, only to find it’s a pile of rubbish is very upsetting. Glad it wasn’t my money, only my time that was wasted.
Great video, I've had kits that caused me grief like this, I pretty much try to avoid them now. I just found your channel and subbed. Looking forward to checking out more of your content. Have a great day. -David
No no, the worst kit is the Revel 1/48 P-61 Black Widow . I've tried 3 separate times to build that damn thing and it always beats me 😂 . I have one in the stash and one day I will take it on LOL 😂
If that is the kit I'm thinking of, it's an antique. A real dinosaur. IIRC it was first a Hawk or Aurora, then Monogram had their hand at it. HUGE raised rivets and panel lines, transparencies that were blobby and did not fit well, and you needed to forgoe the "detailed" nose radar to fill the nose with lead to get it to sit square, or use the clear "kickstand".
Never built cars, but I have had kits were the designers had no clue about actually building the model. I try to predict the issues and drill out axles and pin with brass rod before assembly. I routinely do it with MiniArt, Bronco and Gecko armoured cars and trucks.
My Fiat ended up with so much brass holding it together you might as well call it a die cast metal model.. but each time I had strengthen one area, the next one failed.
My first car was a real one of these. I was fashionable before everyone else! All the little bits do look to scale and in the full size were just about strong enough, so make them out of plastic and scale them smaller and one is asking for disapoinment. Anyway Harry, I hope that now you have finished the therapy and unburdened yourself you are happier and can get some uninterrupted sleep. No more night-terrors.
Built the 1/9 BMW R75. Lots of detail and working parts, but very fragile. Loads of running repairs and super glue. Had to go heavier on the weathering than I wanted in the end to cover some of the repairs. Some of the joints just started springing open later in the build. Almost gave up. Then someone gave me the Kettenkrad as a present!
I've always found their truck models to be of good quality moulded parts that go together quite well. The early model trucks are actually better moulded than the newer versions. I recently bought the new IVECO Hi-way (low roof) and discovered the cab instructions are really for the high roof line so a little bit of careful dissection is required here and there to enable the exterior parts to fit around the interior parts. Prior to the IVECO I bought the MAN TGX XXL and to my absolute disappointment found the kit did not include an engine build. 🥴 I don't actually see the point of constructing one of these trucks if it isn't complete with engine. It's the engine I find to be the most satisfying stage of the entire build. 🙂
I haven't built that kit but I'll definitely stay away from that one. My nightmare is Revell's 25th anniversary Apollo 11 Saturn V in 1/95 scale. I started it three years ago. I have spent twice the cost of the kit on after market stuff. The kit is so bad that the decals were wrong, the painting guide lines were incorrect. It came wwith a block I command module where Apollo 11 had a block II. The 1st stage engine cowling was completely different than the actual ones. There are so many errors and poorly designed pieces that a person could do several videos on just what is wrong with the kit.
Just started their Leopard 2A6, was curious to see how a newer tool would compare to what I built as a kid. The plastic itself is honestly not bad, but it feels like someone deliberately went through and put every sprue join in the worst possible place.
I did an italieri lancia Intregrale kit once, lots of broken parts in the end. It looks nice from 2 meters away. Never touch it though....some of the parts are just to brittle. I mean suspension and door hinges. Lovely story though mate...!
I mainly build armor.. I'm currently working on an amt 57 Chevy, tons of flash, warped parts... Ide rather be assembling 500 piece tank tracks for days on end then cleaning up the mess I got into trying to build this Christmas present that is now 2 month late.
I feel your pain! My worst kit was also Italscary, the tiny 1/72 Hughes Cayuse. That little barsteward fought me all the way, even when it came to closing it up the canopy only "fitted where it touched", needing some very careful sanding and filling along a frameless edge. Then the painting! Decided to go with Xtracolour as it was glossy to save the gloss coat stage for the decals. It took weeks to dry, being still tacky after a couple of weeks in the airing cupboard! Then the decals. They went on well, but Italeri didn't provide enough of them to complete the version I wanted to build which necessitated buying another kit as I couldn't find any aftermarket decals. Anyway I still finished the little b***er. Unfortunately something heavy landed on it shortly after that and smashed it to bits! May it Rest In Pieces.
Just got done building it myself, was looking to see if anyone had managed to get it to work as advertized. While I couldn't make the front suspension move, or the wheels roll, I feel like calling it the worst kit ever is a bit harsh. I found the build very pleasent, if a little tricky at times, I was able to make the doors open/close and I managed to botch a solution to make the steering moveable . I do think it overpromised, but it's deffinately not the worst kit I've built (even if we don't include the Airfix Lancaster that came with completely incompatable fuselage halfs from different varients)
and yet I have built many old classic and newly tooled Airfix kits which are a joy to put together. There are some bad reboxings and worn out moulds from the 90’s which let Airfix down, but they have never been as bad as Italscary!
@@HarryHoudiniModels Hoi! Nice to hear from you. I've some Hawks from Bäfix wich are not buildable caus of their missalignment. An even in 2020 they produce kits with grand canyons in soft plastic an forget things like on the F-4 though an lasered-in original. But ok, they got some nice features but if you ask for replacement, their customer support is a respectless shame. Revell is in this case perfect. I've lived 4 years in italy and spent bevore & after a lot time there. All the stories ...are... the caotic reality 😉...😇
I’ve never had any problems with Airfix support, and I’m on the other side of the world… they have replaced sprues at no charge when there were issues of short shot or mould misalignment. They even found me a replacement canopy for an old 70’s 1/24 Stuka kit. Panel lines are deliberately wider than others because they market their kits to a young English audience who paint by hand with the supplied thick acrylics.
@@HarryHoudiniModels I had the worst experiences with Bäfix and Hasegawa (never got a answer on enquiries, the worst decal). It took nearly 2 years to get frustrating results in case of replacement parts, for me they have high price kits with issues, no respect for their customer 》experienced《 no custome service. Though sent in photos of 2 kits with the same issue they took no responsibility for that sh... in nearly 50 years of modelling i've had such problems only with bäfix. Hence the "new" name
@@HarryHoudiniModels : I can attest to that too.... a year or so ago, I found a part missing on the new Airfix 1/48 Meteor I'd just bought; sent them an email with kit number/part number, etc, and about 4 days later a jiffy-bag arrives in the post with the replacement piece and a courtesy note.. 👍🏻. Lovely kit too! Modern Airfix are generally excellent in my opinion - and I have memories of 60s/70s Airfix too; the kits are very good, instructions are great, and some of the best transfer/decal sheets in the business with Cartograph.. 😏. Great customer service too! 😁
This is what happens when you try molding the new "soft plastic" they now use for most kits to exact scale to substitute for what should be metal parts. I first ran into this with the Revell 1/48 scale B-25 saggy landing gear struts. My first official "shelf queen" was when I ran into the problem in general when I bought the old original 1/48 Monogram P-61. I tried building it after finishing their excellent 1/48 B-17G with the detailed interior. Having previously built the old Aurora P-61, which goes together like a dream and DOES NOT need A/M metal landing gear, with Monogram's very thin interior floors and panels and the flimsy fuselage halves, alignment became a nightmare, so I made it a "spares kit" for a better future release of something like the current GTW kits. With that in mind, after building the Accurate Miniatures Avenger, (the one that takes YEARS of sanding and fitting to get the interior that no one can see to work) I could not believe that Academy went out and bought their molds. Also there seems to be a trend of silly plastic kits with a zillion parts that nobody has of yet to display a finished model of to justify a new hefty price tag. Some of the worst are the "new tooling" issues that mostly add sprues of "optional" feature parts that nobody is going to use. And how many times do I read about having to re-scribe their panel lines, having to buy the special little rivet wheel tools, etc., even though they are supposed to represent the "next generation", "constant scale", etc.? And why do they need correcting even though they are supposed to represent a "more accurate" replica then the old "box scale" releases? Notice that now if you missed out on buying one before your supplier ran out, that instead of being built with their accuracy issues and confusing assortment of "extra accessory parts", these can be easily found as "New, open box" kits on eBay. There is a reason that companies like Round 2 and Atlantis are doing well, re-issuing the old simple to build kits without the headaches.
@@HarryHoudiniModels Yes, their "foibles" people bellyached about are NOTHING compared to doing one of the newer kits with resin and PE parts and no locating pins. Even with a British classic like the Supermarine Walrus, the new Airfix kit is bonkers compared to the older easier to assemble SMER release, with self-aligning interplane struts like the one I built as a kid.
I'm not a car modeler, but I understand the frustration. In a way, this kit is way worse than the old AMT kits, because at least with those the kit kinda looks like crap out of the box so you know you'll need to give it some TLC to get it to look good and be built. But with a kit as beautiful as this one looks out of the box, you wouldn't really think "I'd better watch out or else this one will bite me" and by the time you get to the point where you realize it's crap it's 90% done and dusted and you have already fought the battle, so it feels like the kit is kicking you when you're down. It's a crap wolf in sheep's clothing, man.
Worst case scenario you mount it to a base with wood or metal posts underneath the car in unobtrusive places to take ALL of the weight of the model. And like you said, no playing around with it.
Oh noo, I have in my stash not one but two Italeri Fiats. The 500L and the 695SS. Now I see why some people call them "SHITALERI". After your frustration I don't want to battle with the. I bought them because I am a fan of the Fiat 500. Will try to sell them. 😢
Sorry to hear that Ricardo.. you could always ask someone to build it for you, preferably someone you don’t like so won’t miss losing them as a friend.
I have just subscribed & watched a few videos. All good stuff. I haven't done this kit as my main interest is 1/72 aircraft & a bit of armour. I quite like Italeri kits for the same reason that you like Airfix - a great basis but a bit rough around the edges & needing some (but not too much) refinement.
@@HarryHoudiniModels When I was in the US Navy, my carrier's "second home-port" was Naples. As an 18 year-old freshly minted Sailor, seeing some of the world for the first time, I got so tickled seeing those tiny "wind-up cars", cruising the streets of Naples, with four or five robust Italians somehow crammed inside, and the damn-near REQUIRED sunroof wide-open, so the driver could stand-up and give generous gesticulations in accompaniment to the running traffic reports yelled to all and sundry in the immediate vicinity. It was fun to watch.
My nightmare was the Revell Flower Class corvette in 1/72. But this was basically my fault as I was absolutely not ready for this kind of level. Everything went wrong; the paint I used somehow reacted with one another (I probably combined the wrong types; I don‘t remember), several hull and deck joints broke and forgot to place several parts. Catastrophic; I literally had nightmares. But: I learned. Now, 20 years later, I can laugh about it…
Zvezda KV2, drive wheel assembly was too weak. The track tension would break the driver off. I just put a threaded rod through the body and mounted the drivers on it, you can't see the steel rod. You might try scanning and printing replacement suspension parts if you're crazy enough.
I did make once an older set of the SR71. It wasn't really a nightmare, but not quite easy too. Biggest problem was the top and the bottom which not really fitted nice to say the least. Unfortunately it fell at a point. I still have 2 trucks (Western Star Constellation and American Superliner 1/24), an AC-130U Spectre gunship 1/48, 2 steam engines 1/87 (BR 41 and BR 50) and 3 cars (Rolls Royce Phantom II, Bugatti Royal coupé Napoléon and Mercedes Benz 540K 1/24).
there is a reason behind ppl calling them "Shitalieri". i also built one. it was the 1/48 F-22 Raptor. Not a single part had good fit, details were worse than on toys and so it went to the trash can. it was so far the first and last time i trashed a model.
The kit does suck, and when you get to the final fittings, the wheels naturally sag in real time from the weight of the windows. I helped a friend make it (he got so frustrated with it that he had a hammer next to him and he would occasionally say "get in you bastard or I'll smash you into little pieces"). We looked on the net to see if we could get better aftermarket suspension parts, but nothing. In the end, it "fell" off a shelf, and broke, and he was happy about it. Terrible kit.
The worse I had were AFV Club kits. Poor directions, molding issues, and wrong parts. I have a US Army M60 and it came with German panzer tracks. I will never buy another AFV kit.
That sounds like a much better price than the $200+ my friend paid for the kit here. If you are aware, and prepared to replace the flimsy suspension and door hinges with metal parts, then the kit can build up without falling apart overnight.
Since the finished model is intended to rest on a shelf finally, I would probably mount the whole thing on three tiny sturdy pins fixed straight to the floor plate. You would hardly see them but they can take the whole weight of the model. And the suspension can remain „workable“.
That would solve the leave on shelf to break problem due to the weight…. but from experience I know the suspension is so fragile that I fear the mass of the wheels would break it on movement even if supported just due to the mechanics involved with parts having no tensile strength
What a crying shame! Looked great in your pictures. I built an Italeri Audi Ur Quattro. It was a basic kit but had its share of issues..... ..mainly suspension and wheels! Also did the Ford RS 1800 Escourt and a Police Ford Transit. These were better but again care was needed with the Escourt. These were nicely detailed though. So I have a love hate relationship with this brand!!
Hi Harry, I was lucky enough to never have big problems with Italeri kits (I guess that I picked the good ones)and every time I hear people hating it, I feel injustice or people just repeating what they heard without trying (also Italeri did a lot of ESCI re-boxing...🤮), but in that case, it's justified, wrong design and wrong material, I totally understand your frustration about that kit because it's a new kit and it shouldn't be that way. It reminds me of the Citroen Traction 15/6 by Heller at 1/8, where the body doesn't join and linkage and suspension breaking under the weight of this beast. So, this kit is really bad, but the worst kit in the world? There is a lot of competition in that category, to me, the winner, all categories was ESCI, poor detail, skinny parts with thick flash, broken parts on the tree, wrong to the original, and in some cases not exactly the one pictured on the box... I'm building the Ferrari 250gt swb from Italeri, and it's a great kit, very detailed, it's old and everything doesn't fall in place easily (like a lot of kits of that era), it takes a long time to build just because I'm detailing it and that's the mojo killer to me, but it's my fault.
I’ll admit not all Ital-scary kits can be this bad… I have their big motorboats and they have a good reputation, along with some aircraft kits that are well liked. But the Fiat is a drongo!
I watched another one of your videos where you talked about how much you disliked Tamiya kits because you thought they were too easy and everything fit together too well. You went so far as to say there was no challenge. Evidently this Italeri kit was more of a "challenge" than you were looking for. lol
I did not mind the fettling, but to have to repair this piece of rubbish every time I tried to work on it, when the sheer weight of paint on the body resulted in the fragile, not up to task, plastic suspension crumbling into broken fragments was just too much. It might be scale accurate, but styrene ain’t up to the task here. So yes, far too much of a frustrating challenge, with no moving forward after a repair, just another repair the next day.
I too like their selection of subjects, especially for their 1/72 helicopter models. However, they have made simple mistakes on some kits like the CH-53E model having the main rotors turning in the wrong direction! Same thing with their MH-53J kit which just -looked-wierd!
Italieri, the name alone is a brand to give you the screaming ab dabs. I've started 3 kit builds that were their 1/48th A-10, 1/35? RH-53 Sea Dragon and I don't recall the third it must have mentally scared me that badly. All I can remember are badly warped wings and fusalage with the A-10 and the Sea Dragon was a nightmare of badly fitting pieces and gaps all over the places. Eventually, they ended up in the bin as I got fed up of the kits. As the buyer i like the challenge of building it and adoing small amounts of work to get it right, but those kits should not have left the factory. Hence why I keep that brand at arms length and avoid at all cost now!
I watched the video Harry, and I have to say I quite enjoyed it, have been wondering for a while what happened to that kit. You mentioned it in a bad light months ago and we never saw it again so this has been a cool update and we all finally know what it's story is. Italeri is a bit hit 'n' miss i've had some really nice kits that just fell together, but then i've had some real shitboxes too, luckily that's quite rare though. I will buy Italeri kits now and then because they have a quite diverse range of kits. Harry ya salty old seadog, if you haven't already tried you should try 1/24 scale italeri trucks, that is what italeri excells in, I have quite a few of those and every single one was a dream to build.
Nooooo I was just getting hyped up to buy this. glad i saw this video. i wanna get into making these kits, but have no idea where to start or what brands are good.
If you are into Cars then try Aoshima or Tamiya for quality or even Revell or Airfix for quick easy builds that won’t send you insane. Don’t pay a fortune for any kit, as those will be too complex or difficult for a newbie.
(Sarcasm Alert) If you enjoyed this kit so much, try the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Piranha, Super Spy Car. (End Sarcasm Alert) NOTHING fit. I spent more time searching my Spares Bins, Making, or Modifying the Kit's parts, and cursing like a drunk, truck driving sailor. The Turbos, and Engine Block were too big, the Rear Bonnet was too small, the rear Exhaust Doors didn't fit, I had to make one Panel for the Dashboard, the Wheels were too small for the Tyres, and the list goes on, and on. It took me a year to complete, but when it was done... All four Wheel rolled straight, true, and level. The Paint was the Correct Corvair Colour, the Gullwing Doors, the Bonnet opened, and closed, and fit like they were made for it. I built for a friend of mine. The best part of the Build, was the day his girlfriend picked it up. There are pictures of it on Pinterest.
Pfft. Let me introduce you to AMT.... the 68 Shelby GT-350 damn near made me loose my will to live. All the ejector marks and sinks of your Italeri, and nothing fits, absolutely nothing. The front and rear clips are about 2mm wider than the body ON EACH SIDE and look like they came from a completely different car. There's more putty than plastic trying to get these parts to line up. If you manage to build it rather than chuck it at a wall or set it on fire, the front end sits so high it looks like it must have come out of a 4X4 pickup. I have refused to buy an AMT kit since.
Hi Harry! I got this kit last Christmas and started working on it in my free time. Didn’t take me long to realize materials are brittle and instructions are bad. So since then I’ve been looking through the internet and RU-vid for build videos hoping to come across someone who had mastered it lol Now, steering didn’t work for me and I have the same issues with the suspension as you had, BUT all that I can sort out. The bit I can’t get right and I hope you have and can help me with, are the doors. Any chance you can give me some tips on how I can make the bloody things open and shut tight?
I mounted the doors to the body first, before doing any other work on the model. This made it easier to paint. They worked fine at first, but as the build progressed and the interior was added, the weight of the interior and eventual warp of the body, broke the hinges. Even after I used metal pins and CA glue to join them all back together the kit kit would just suicide and spit the doors off while sitting on the shelf. It was so frustrating.
I built a lot of Italeris in now almost 50 years of modeling…won’t say I didn’t have any issues, but as I am also used to building old vacus, I don’t think any Italeri can even come close to problems one faces there.
