Over the years of building these models, I’ve noticed that there are generally two camps when it comes to reactions to things not going well with a build: rage quitters and the doggedly stubborn. Of course, there are also those that cross over, depending on the scenario. I, myself, fall into the doggedly stubborn group, but I can certainly understand the rage quitters. And so, that is the question of the day.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll summarize real quick. Rage quitters deal with models misbehaving (in the extreme) by smashing the model, crumpling it up, or destroying it in some fashion or another. I personally know of a few that have actually hurt themselves in the process (sharp metal is sharp). On the other end are the doggedly stubborn, a group I am much more familiar with. The kind that double-down, try to make it work, try to repair it, pull out the glue, the tape, whatever it takes to make it work.
I am not here to pass judgement on either group. Each camp has it’s merit and it’s flaws. I can imagine the emotional release associated with rage quitting, I truly can. I will admit to cursing at models when they misbehave, or when I slip my grip and mangle something. Of course, when the kiddos are around, I have to get creative with my pseudo-curses, but that’s another topic entirely. Though I do like avoiding the rage-quit-related injuries by being one of the doggedly stubborn.
The down-side to being doggedly stubborn is that it doesn’t always work out in the end. And when it doesn’t you end up just that much more disappointed. You’ve sunk so much extra time and effort into something, and it doesn’t work? It’s emotionally exhausting and frustrating. I have been there. I have had a few models go so south that I had to give up (Sydney Opera House being the first). And I’ve had some models that I’ve completed, but knew that I would have to re-do them (I’m looking at you, classic TIE Fighter).
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been able to do something with most of these “failures,” usually by turning them into crashed or wrecked or otherwise modified display models. I’ve turned the disappointment into an opportunity to find some creative outlets and stretch my crafting skills. Of course, that means that I’ve got some wrecked models sitting around for a while until I think of something to do with them.
However, there is a third alternative. One that Fascinations / Metal Earth provides, at least. And I am taking advantage of it this time. You see, the model in the photo at the top of this post is a Universal Parks Exclusive. In particular, the photo shows the dragon part of the ICONX Gringott’s & Dragon. I had finished most of the bank, and was working my way through the body of the dragon. And I was getting sloppy, and overconfident, and messing up a lot. Seriously, I should have stopped to take a break, but I was thinking it would be great to finish the dragon in one sitting.
I should have known better. I had already attached one foot onto one leg backwards, with twisted tabs. I untwisted 1 of the 2 tabs in the correct direction, and one in the wrong. But I was still able to get it off, fix the tab, and re-attach the foot facing the right direction. Small miracle that.
But you know what I did after that? I attached the other foot to the other leg backwards too! Not only that, I actually attached the leg, with the foot backwards, onto the wrong side of the body segment that the legs get attached to. Now I had to untwist those tabs to get the leg free, untwist the tabs to get the foot free, and reverse it all. 6 tabs to untwist. I looked close, I looked carefully, and I still ‘”untwisted” one of them the wrong way. I was still able to get it apart. And, unbelievably, I was able to re-secure the foot in place without breaking any tabs!
I proceeded to attach both legs to the body segment, again without breaking any of the tabs that had been weakened, and then began the process of attaching the body segment to the rest of the assembly. I got all of the tabs aligned, got 4 of the 5 tabs secured, but the last tab was way loose, leaving a big gap that was just not acceptable. I tried rolling the tab to pull it tight, but it didn’t work to my satisfaction, so I unfolded the tab, and then attempted to pull it tight by hand. And I pulled the tab clean off.
Normally, I would probably try to repair something like this with a strip of the spare metal frame bridging the break. But it’s just not feasible here. The connection was going to be tight, and there’s no way I could get a strip in there and glued while it was pulling apart that hard. And furthermore, the entire dragon is held on top of the bank through the legs, and it’s leaning out forward off the bank. This was too structurally important.
So I decided to take Fascinations up on their amazing customer support offering of getting me a replacement part. I went to their website, scrolled down to click on the Help link at the bottom, and sent them an email, telling them what had gone wrong. They replied, gave me a few more instructions on how to help them identify the specific parts. I gave them the details, and now am waiting on the replacements so I can complete the model without having to stubborn my way through it or rage quit. And that is just another reason why Fascinations has my loyalty as a builder, and why I always buy the real thing, rather than a knock off.
Anyways, I want to know what camp you usually fall into. Do you rage? Do you double-down? Do you light up the bat-signal and patiently await a replacement part? Or Do you do something completely different? Let me know in the poll / survey question below.
As we have discussed prior, the ship hulls and plane noses tend to raise my ire a bit but I get them done. I am on build 220 something and I don’t have any models that I have trashed or not completed yet. I am sure that day is coming. One thing that bugs me is the way my Drogon feet are attached. It was my third build. I am sure they are not right but I cant seem to figure out how they attach. They work so I am not going to break it fixing it. I have broken a few tabs but thanks to you I have the 5 sec fix on hand. I can see where that isn’t going to work pulling that dragons’ back together. The Opera house was a bit of a challenge but it ended up coming together nice. Thanks so much for your page.
I’ve heard from many sources that Drogon is a… temperament-testing build. I’ve got it in my backlog and plan to build it at some point. I just have so many models to build! But I completely hear you on not wanting to “fix” things sometimes, as long as they are close enough. Sometimes the risk is just not worth it. I may have tried to fix the Opera House had I built it later on, when I had more experience with fixing things, but it was one of my earlier models. It will be redeemed someday!
First of all, thanks for having this site. My friends have been teasing me about being addicted after having built 50+ models. I gave them your URL to prove I’m not as crazy as they think. đŸ˜‰
Thanks for the tip on Metal Earth’s replacement parts. I knew I should’ve checked, but I went ahead and ordered a new Sydney Opera House kit. It was just too messed up. Did you ever manage to complete yours? Or did you try the Piececool one? I’m gonna check out metalearth.com for help on that thing. I’m doggedly determined to do that one!
Hahaha. I completely understand. My wife still thinks I’m a little crazy, but she’s gotten used to that. Of course, that’s been since well before I started building the models. Oh, and if it helps, there are people on Reddit who have reportedly built over 600, so that’s another argument on your side.
Sadly, I didn’t know about the replacement part options at the time I failed the Sydney Opera House, so it’s still sitting on my shelf, broken and waiting for me to come back and turn it into some sort of weird mod or something. My biggest issue on that one was that I folded all of the zig-zag walls backwards, and when I tried to invert them and reattached, the stress was too much and it broke apart in the middle. Someday I will revisit it. And I will crush it (metaphorically, not literally).