AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken

My Feedback: (180)

Sig Kwik build "Mustang" Profile fuse with plastic fuse shells. Ugghh.. Gave it away.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

The two worst kit building experiences I ever had would both be considered classics today ..... the Goldberg Falcon 56 and Goldberg Shoestring, both kits from the early 70's. Both had the worst die cutting I have ever seen .... not cut but smashed so bad the balsa would just fall away for 1/8" or so from the cut line. In some cases balsa was as hard as Mahogany but in other cases .... like for spar material when it should be hard, the balsa was soft and punky like the inside of a cornstalk. The Shoestring was just thrown away and the Falcon was completed using mostly scratch built materials. There have been many other bad kit experiences over the years but none as bad as the ones listed above. There have been some really fantastic kits along the way also and more have been good than bad. Some very bad kits built into very good airplanes and likewise, some extremely good kits turned into some real clunkers.

foodstick

Hey, Allthegoodnamesaretaken.... I have a friend that LOVED that kit.. mainly because it was so unstable to fly.. he said it kept him honest keeping it in one piece ! And the guy above my post knows him as well !

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

The SIG Kwik Build planes were not a great idea. Not quick to build and not very good airplanes in general. I had the Chipmunk and QM Minnow but they were far from the worst kits I ever had.

joebob

My Feedback: (14)

Seems to be a trend with the Sterling kits. My worst ones were the Sterling Stearman and Stanley Ercoupe. The Stearman was so bad and so old their phone # on the plans was only 5 digits. 1" thick ply firewall, supposed to be round, was just a square hunk of wood. No way to cut it to shape without a bandsaw, which I didn't have at the time. All the wood was so brittle it would snap if you looked at it wrong. The Ercoupe had a1/8" balsa sheeted round fuse but the sheeting was impossible to shape around the formers. No amount of water, ammonia, whatever would make it bend that sharply. Both kits were going to be built for a friend, but both ended up being thrown away.

Most Goldberg kits, even when a new model would come out where you would think the dies would still be sharp, still had horrible crushing of the parts. But at least the ones I built (and I built quite a few of them over the years) were able to be completed without much issue.

skyraider71

My worst kit is probably the Goldberg Falcon III. The ribs were cut innaccurately which made bullding the
wing a real hassle. The notches in the leading and trailing edges were way off. I bought the kit right when
GP took over Lanier/Goldberg. It was so bad that another builder gave me his partially built kit. I purchased
another Falcon III kit cheap in 2010 when they were being discontinued.That kit was better but they never fixed
the rib issue and the trailing edges were so warped that I had to ask Hobby Services for replacements. Out of
three kits I managed to frame up one plane. I stopped work on it when I scored an original Falcon 56 MkII kit.
The Sig 1/6 scale Cub is a nightmare. The instructions are sparse and should have been redone decades ago.
The GP PT40 was too complicated for a trainer kit, had lousy wood, and came out heavy. I gave it away unfinished.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

I've heard many Sterling horror stories but the kits I built were all positive experiences. Just luck I guess.

iFrinkso

Nope, they're bad. (Just kidding, sorry....I just had the worst time with these as well.). If you enjoyed flying and building planes and that's all you could afford or even find in the store you just kept coming back for more..it was addicting but many of us didn't know they were bad or even care. Sig 4 stars spoiled me. By far my favorite builds ever. Now I have 3.

live2fish

My Feedback: (5)

Worst kit ever was the Great Planes F-14. Finally gave it away to someone that just had to have it. Best has to be the 4 star 40 & 60 mentioned above. Very therapeutic, which is why I do this great hobby :-)

xxwolfyxx

My Feedback: (1)

I would have to go with Sterling as well I have a stearman on the board right now and lots of re-cutting of parts and figuring things out. I have a second unbuilt sterling stearman kit sitting in a box that looks a little better on the cutting (much less crushing and parts fell out when I need to use then as reference or the crappy kit).
Second was the Sig kwik build P-51. Wing was a PITA. Foam core wing it should be easy...wait way is 3/4 of this manual just building the wing??
I was young and less experienced, I have 2 of these now to see if the horror of my youth was in fact real.

I have a couple of Sig Yak18's that I want to build but I'm terrified of the quality as they are same generation as the Sterling Stearman. But from this thread seems the sig kits were of a better quality (with a few exceptions of course).

I haven't seen any mention of the old Royal kits is carving not consider building?

SunDevilPilot

Sounds like a shame the JHH Mirage was a bad kit. Ive seen this one fly at several events over the years here in Arizona. Pretty sure the plane is owned and flown by the son of owner of JHH. Flys nice. This one is electric power.

Couple photos I took from the events.

SunDevilPilot

GallopingGhostler

I dunno some of the build quality let alone design aren't that great either. GP Big Stick .60 had a poorly supported main landing gear, fuselage back had a design flaw with elevator notched in rear that created high stress points. End up repairing those correcting the flaws for a more robust aircraft. It's why I like kit builds.

buzzard bait

The Hobby Shack "Spirit of 76" glider was the worst RC model I ever had. It came out terribly tail heavy and when I added weight to the nose to balance it the foam fuse broke in half on every landing. This was just test glides. It was a complete wreck before I could try it on a high start. Got a good review in Flying Models. Those mag reviews were useless.

My earliest kit disaster was a Comet 5 cent Bonanza to be constructed from balsa sheet. Unbuildable, and had it been built it could not have flown.

Later a Berkeley Profile Powerhouse was almost as bad. Parts missing, terrible wood that was either too soft or hard enough for bridge construction, never finished it because it came out so heavy.

My Sterling Baby Ringmaster had such terrible parts fit it almost had me in tears, but I did build and fly that one and had fun with it.

I had lots of fun with model airplanes, but these were experiences I'd just have soon avoided. Funny seeing some of these getting snatched up on ebay. I would pay someone to throw them out.

Jim

F4u5

My Feedback: (81)

This made me laugh pretty hard..thanks for the moment. I am familiar having built the old Sterling Stearman.....heavy too.
JQ

GallopingGhostler

Love the Berkeley clean and accurate die cutting. Here is some of the die crushed balsa from my recent 1959 Berkeley Impulse kit build.


Fuselage formers were just a plain rectangle, so I did a little interior trimming to lose weight.


I had to trim as much as 3/8 inch from fuselage side pieces just to get them to fit. In this case I trimmed too much so I had to shim back to make it fit. Fuselage was cut accuracy was poor. Accuracy of nose former widths was slightly off, so when I was done found that I had insufficient space to mount either Enya .09-III TV (preferred) or A.C. Gilbert .11 Thunderhead sideport (2nd preferred. Gilbert is a side port engine like the Fox .09 Rocket shown in the plans.) Nose cowl cheek sides at the front were pinched too close. Finally, a friend sent me a 1966 OS Max .10R/C with muffler, which with the legacy aluminum T-mounts will fit.


Our modern laser cut balsa sheets has certainly spoiled us.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Precision cut kits , 1/5th Andersen TA 152. I am finishing it now, but most of the parts provided were replaced. Biggest waste of $450 I ever spent. Ended up cutting out a majority of the parts anyway. I would never recommend them to anyone as a current option for laser cutting. The parts were "deceptively" wrong.

Otherwise, the Sterling offerings were pretty bad.

JoeyCoates

I actually just finished a Dynaflight Butterfly and that kit is pretty bad... The balsa is all over the place, one piece hard and the next soft. The plans are to be used as a general guideline only, the wings have easily 1/4-3/8" more chord than is shown on the plans, the fuselage sides did not line up with the plans at all, and the instructions were convoluted to say the least. Not a kit to start with even though it is supposedly a trainer type of an aircraft.

Now on the other hand I found a PT-40 kit that someone was selling at the LHS about 5 months ago. I have a 7yr old son who wants to learn how to fly so I thought for $20 it could not be beat. This particular kit was a MkI from the late 80's to early 90's and the only issue was it had no instructions or plans. I was able to get the old instructions from another RCU member and that was all I needed, the kit just fell together. It was so easy to build it was ridiculous, that would be a GREAT first time kit!

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

I enjoy all of the kits i have built over 40 years even if some of the parts stunk .lol I will most times cut a new parts or repair the parts that are not to good. If building was made to easy ,everyone would be doing it ! lmao Great find on the kit for your son Joeycotes keeps the hobby alive . joe

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

Really can not recall the worse " kit " that I have ever built. But, I am not really pleased with the Balsa USA Eindecker 90 that I am presently working on, which really surprises me because I have only heard good things about their kits. Just some of the things that I do not like about this kit is the quality of wood, the poor stamping of parts, needing to make parts from scraps as per directions, instruction booklet does not agree with plans, etc, etc, etc. The kit will turn out decent, but only because of my years of building models, not because of the kit.

Years ago I purchased a profile Sig Phazer. The fuselage was so warped that no matter what I did, I could not straighten it. I sent a letter to SIG , stating that I have built many of their kits over the years and have been very pleased with them, but this Phazer is absolutely the worse kit that I have ever seen. I asked them if they could send me a new " straight " fuselage, of which they did not do . In turn they sent me a whole " new kit ". Not that is what I call customer service !!

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

joebahl, is the airplane the boy is holding a Pronto?

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

Not a kit but the GWS Pico Cub. Bad directions, bad parts, marginal design. I eventually gave up on it.

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Its a pronto surpreme but just a pronto with ail . I built it from plans cause the pronto was my first plane 30 years ago . Great flying plane! There are free plans and build threads plus the story here http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1401154

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

We had a Pronto event with traveling trophy in our club back in the 70's. Excellent, easy to build kit and it flew very well. It was fun for all skill levels. Oops, not sure I should mention a "good" kit in this thread though but your photo brought back some pleasant memories. Can't say I ever saw a Pronto Supreme though.

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Dave came out with the surpreme kit later and all of his kits were a pleasure to build . Another great desighner who went to young. joe I have a friend who bought the hobby king cheap cub laser cut kit and its built now but a whole lot of swearing before it was done. joe

FlyWheel

Hobby Lobby Eastbourne monoplane. Paper thin balsa with all the density of soap bubbles and brittle as a saltine cracker. Probably would have worked great for an indoor free flight, but as an electric park flier? Not so much. Plus they were, die cut so bad it was hard to believe all the parts were for the same plane. it took more glue to repair the parts than to put them together. I never even bothered to finish this thing.

Thank goodness it isn't made anymore.