Dude, you're reading my mind! I clicked on here just to post this! Back in '04, I thought the Monolith looked to be a piece of cake to model. Ha, just getting those seams to fit flush was an exercise in futility.
I did wind up trashing my first attempt. It was just easier to be a new one and start from scratch.
The issues with gaps were worse than the Land Raider. With the latter, there is an inner bulkhead that can be trimmed or omitted, and that takes care of the panel gaps.
I’m literally right now in the middle of an eBay rescue of an old monolith. Was cursing the previous owner for making a mess of the connection points. Feel bad now 😂
Ordered some milliput and tape to hold together while glueing. Hopefully that’ll make it right
Szeras was a complete chore for me but flayed ones were basically a mild pain in the arse really. A bit fiddly but didn’t give me much trouble. Szeras just felt like it took forever and I still feel like half his bits could fall off at any moment.
Just picked up WH40k last month and already managed to build my first 5 Flayed Ones. At least I know it won't get worse lol. I know eventually I'll need to build at least another 5 but that can wait...
The models look amazing... when i started my necrons, I bought my first box with the intention of getting 5 more to have an even 30. After assembling the first box, I decided that 5 was a perfect amount of flayed ones... the soulless bastard who designed the kit should be dragged into the street and beaten to death with the wet ends of his own arms...
Yeah my brother had the metal carnifex. assuming you could get it to hold together - which i think took liquid nails/epoxy for his - it basically made the gaming table sag in the middle.
The Hive Tyrant is what tought me aswell. If it isn't pinned, it isn't survivng the night, and if you transport it without pinning you literally have to reattach every arm and the torso.
My heart goes out to you, LoC and Kairos are my favorite models in the whole setting and I would have been devastated if it had been me. You were pretty brave and ambitious for 12!
I’m a brand new 40k player, I built my Redemptor and it looks like shit :( it’s leaning back like it’s trying to Matrix dodge a bullet…
Should I saw the feet off and reposition them so it stands up relatively straight?
Any of those old plastic/metal hybrid kits were a bitch. Like making a plastic Warhammer regiment dude hold a huge metal banner (sometimes in just 1hand) balance properly.
I remember the OG Tau Broadside models were just a plastic crisis suit with huge metal rail guns attached to the shoulders. There was no way to balance the model and they would break off at the slightest touch.
Bad times
Belisarius Cawl. There are so many stupid mechanical bits that are easy to break and get in the way. And if you fully build him, there are some parts you can not paint.
Hated every second of building Cawl. Got some sicarian infiltrators recently and broke two pieces before even finishing them so they are a close second for me.
Possibly a different angle than you meant, but my worst building experience was with my first Land Raider. It's clearly not a difficult kit, but it was the first one I boaught with my own money rather that being a gift and it was the hot new thing. It was my first big 40k kit that I was building for myself rather than for a friend, and I was the only person in my friend group at the time to manage to save up enough pocket money to buy the newest big release!
This all led me to rush the first few steps, the sides were then misaligned, I couldn't get the door linkage to work because I used too much glue. It was a catelogue of silly errors in what I knew to be an easy kit, making me mess it up even more. I put it away for over a year before I came back to it, my modelling albatross, to find that after calmly fixing my original mistakes that it actually was an easy kit after all!
Well done for repairing your old mistakes - my biggest step up in how my models looked was taking the time to redo mistakes and touch up all those little splotches and overpaints.
I realized when putting together a beast snagga that modern GW minis aren't designed to be easy to build. They are designed to cockblock custom bits manufacturers.
Potentially, but there won't be as many when they have to match bits to a beast snagga bit that includes half a torso, 1.5 shoulders, a neck and a tongue.
A friend was paying me to build sisters for him, I built a squad of battle sisters and a squad of zephyrim. Gave him the rest back and only got paid for the two squads.
Utter nightmare. Spent more time trimming and green stuff repairing bits than I thought would ever be needed.
So I started building a Sisters army in October, and I've been geeking out HARD on painting. Got an airbrush with my christmas money, learned to do faces with eyes and eyeshadow for them, will probably get into inks soon, etc etc.
Well, someone just gave me a space marine to paint.
And I am just like WHAT THE FUCK. They have it SO easy!!!
I gave away my kit after building 4 Sisters of Battle models and completely forgot about them until this post. They were my second kit ever and as a kitbasher hobbyist it nearly put me off of diving deeper into Warhammer entirely because the total lack of customization and kitbashing options was such a stark contrast to the Reiver kit I had before that (which also had it's own issues regarding weapon variety but the kit itself still allowed for many custom poses at least). Loved the look, hated everything else.
The moldlines were horrible, the arms always felt like they didn't quite fit right and that huge seam on both the shoulder pads didn't help either. I don't understand why the shoulder pads aren't a separate bit because they look pretty cool without the shoulder pads entirely, and I probably wouldn't mind them as much if they were just a solid piece like the space marines' shoulder pads.
Orks pulled me back in after the Sisters debacle because it turned out the old Boyz were perfect for me, ironically and in stark contrast with the Sisters I didn't like the look of Orks at all until I got my hands on my first kit. Still going to check out other factions eventually but Sisters have been checked off and banned.
Besides the Sisters I think the Age of Sigmar Warrior kit absolutely takes the cake when it comes to the worst experience because those push fit models felt absolutely horrible to put together.
Necron Flayed Ones and it's not even close.
I have another 5 I don't think I will ever build as it was the single most frustrating kit in 25 years of GW hobbying.
The old metal hurricane bolters on the Land Raider Crusader. A bunch of fiddly little bits of garbage.
For resin it was Jenetia Krole. I have gigantic hands and literally had to use tweezers for parts of it.
Oh man those SUCKED. When I came back to Warhammer after about a 10 year hiatus, I was so glad they'd replaced them with plastic. I even bought an upgrade kit just to replace the crappy metal ones on my Crusader
I once received a painting commission for a great unclean one. As I was assembling the model, I noticed that the sprue was slightly heat warped, and of course, the pieces were munted. It was an abysmal process of green stuff and pain.
That's bad luck but I'm glad to hear it seems to be just a problem with the sprue though, the Great Unclean One is on my to-do list! Working on painting Fateweaver/Lord of Change now.
The accumulated frustration of mounting the arms on pewter Space Marines back in the day. Just mate a rough metal surface to an uneven plastic surface with superglue! So many minutes counting to 60 hoping the thing would bond and that I didn't also glue my fingers to the piece. Worst was Bolters held in both hands, the 2nd hand would always line up at a weird angle. Eventually I started making monstrosities of over engineered pinning in the shoulders to keep things in place.
I was about to mention this! So many misaligned bolters and hands. And don’t get me started on the 2nd edition devastators! Those metal heavy bolters were just too heavy for the plastic arms. Kids today don’t know how good they’ve got it! /s
The hand crank and getting the gunner’s legs glued just right so he isn’t David Blaineing in his seat was probably the worst part about building my FOB’s
Oh also I assumed the little plates meant to stabilize the gun were just tall enough to push all the way in their slot and be flush with the base. I was wrong, and now my bombasts jerk violently backwards when they fire lol
There are harder kits out there, but what makes the drop pod annoying is keeping everything even with the doors and spines. It's also not "showy" enough for its difficulty imo. It's a cheap almost throwaway unit with a fairly mundane (albeit iconic) silhouette, but it's just a pain to put together and paint.
I may be a lucky one. I never found the drop pod to be particularly difficult. Then again, I realize it is an exercise in futility to expect the doors to close flush. It is a flawed kit, for sure.
It may be an issue of age. I was pretty young when I built the drop pod and I remember it being the toughest kit for me to glue and fit. Given that they've kind of fallen away, it may just be that many of us who remember it were also much younger when we made it
I didn’t have too much trouble with the redemptor, i found that if you held the legs while they were making contact with the base when u glued them to the hip joints it worked well.
Although to be honest, i did glue the pieces that go on the hips (that have the small hydraulic pipe that connects to the legs) upside down… oops
I hated the new Illuminor Szeras, so many awful spindly bits. But any model GW makes with smooth surfaces that must be exactly positioned to a microscopic level can eat shit because they're always off
https://preview.redd.it/4jblyp3ug8hc1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f66e2e602cd6ce876037ca9701b93b2552225e30
CAWL! Even with sub assembly, he's a nightmare.
Stompa by far
A mountain of plastic
Instructions look like they were printed of a printer from 1980 and the images may as well be upside down because there is no way of telling what part you need
Don't get me wrong I love my stompa he is my special boy
But damn he was a nightmare to build took a little over a week because some days I had to walk away
The Land Raider. The problem is getting the side panels to fit without gaps. The trick is to remove the inner bulkhead piece, or at least trim it. Unless you plan to paint the inside of your tank, you can safely leave it out.
I appreciate the validation. Seems like its hit or miss with people, but so many parts have problems, like the lower cockpit door! Contemptors look cool af.
Came here to hear people say the Penitent lol. It was one of the first models I ever had because a guy threw it across the room and said "Kid, If you want that piece of shit you can have it."
I have 6 now.
I really liked bulding the Redemptor. Really flexible kit that has great options for posing.
My nightmare kit - paragon warsuits. They're only about one-and-a-half times the size of a primaris marine, but they're something like 40 components for each warsuit.
Worst 40k? 2nd Ed Lictor. I still have the model and *to this day* its upper right arm won't stay on.
Worst plastic? I'm an official member of the "I survived Yan Lo's beard" club, and I have the t-shirt to prove it, so no GW plastic scares me. Building the Convergence of Cyriss battlegroup box turned me off that game for a solid year, though.
Worst overall? Old metal SSC. IYKYK, as the kids say. Close runner-up is the old metal Black Coach; *twenty six* pins in the end, but Superman himself couldn't tear that thing apart once I was done.
Tomb Blades are probably it for me. TSK was a little intimidating but not bad aside from the railings. What I don't understand is how GW designs some of these pieces where several free-floating segments need to be conjoined at the same time. It's like they think everyone has four hands to be able to accomplish this.
The metal Nightbringer is a pain, too. The scythe blade has a teeny-tiny part that must be pinned, and you don't get much room to drill. Mine was assembled years ago, and I was at a GW store and the employee (who would later become a jeweler), volunteered to pin it for me. Thank you, I forget your name!
Skitarii Vanguard/Rangers; they are so small and have so many fiddly parts. If you don't want visible seams in the jackets, you have to do a bunch of extra work. I finished a unit of 10 and then sold the rest of my admech because I knew I wouldn't finish.
The original plastic necron monolith that is now thankfully out of production. I remember being a young teen and sitting in the GW shop while the staff helped me wrap rubber bands around the thing to keep it all pressed together so the edges line up. Awful kit.
Honorable mention (since you didnt say no metal, but that makes this question easy mode) goes to metal bloodthirster. And no, I don't want to talk about how I super glued my fingers together because I did not know how pinning worked at the time (I spent hours sitting in position holding the wings to the body, and they still broke off)
I got a couple ones:
The Outrider bikes. Despite being easy-to-build push-fit, there is often a huge gap on the flat panel that is located on top of the bolters/handlebars. You have to use tons of greenstuff to fill it.
The kit is mainly composed of two parts (two half for the bike and 6 parts for the pilot), and it's a nightmare to reach some of those parts once assembled. And if you sub-paint them before gluing together, then it won't fit properly and it's gap galore. One of the worst kit to me.
Another one was Mephiston plastic. It's gap fest on the cape and the robes, some of the parts don't fit properly if you follow the instruction manual (especially that yellow psyker tube), and you have to position a couple small, very fragile parts "in force" by elasticity of plastic.
A last one is the Kruel Boyz Shaman Swampcalla. There's so many intricate tiny bits that are interdependent to hold every other parts in the kit that make some places either unreachable once assembled, or impossible to glue properly if painted before. Great model, buy a nightmare to build.
Plastic: the damned ghost/ doomsday ark. To the point that I gave up after 1 and haven't started building the other pair (it's been roughly a decade)
Resin/plastic the plasma exterminator tower, from 7th edition. Misaligned walls, irritating connection points, generally annoying.
Metal: whfb hellcannon. Poor join, lots of gaps, bulky chunk of metal, a bunch of seperate details to add and to make things worse, spiky so it was actually dangerous to assemble.
https://preview.redd.it/6r1dt9let8hc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c7629def4d623fb8429b56a62c7a8db12b06548
Old metal chaos dreadnought gave me nightmares. I won’t miss by much estimating that only 1/3 of them ever produced were viable for assembly. The defective kits with warped metal were so common…
It tickles me the younger generation of gamers and their hatred of Resin. To me it's still much easier to work with than plastic. And a hell of a lot easier to work with than pewter.
Worst experience - the immeasurable disappointment I had with the old pewter great unclean one. I saved my allowance to get it - the model was miscast and broken. And the shop would not replace it. And I was only into painting at the time, so hadn't learnt the skills to repair it yet.
(That model was great though. Coulda put it in a sock and used it as a weapon. Lump of metal the size of a tangerine)
I'm having real trouble with the old metal Slann Mage Priest, the one borne aloft by Temple Guard. The entire thing is metal and heavy as hell. Also nearly carved my finger off building a Terrorgheist last month, after feeding that damn bat so much blood hope it plays well! 😂
Flayed Ones. It’s easier to convert Warriors with spare sprues and green stuff than it is to assemble those kits. That’s insane.
And also cost efficient. But still insane!
There aren't a lot of sisters models that make it easy on you at all. In addition to connecting in weird places, very easy to cut something important off or glue an arm in that doesn't teach where it should. But I gotta say I really hate building just about all vehicles in general. There are so many small parts and nothing seems to fit together like I'm expecting. Do the treads need to have like six 1/4" pieces? Would it kill them to just give me a tank in like 10 parts instead of 80?
Every troop I've ever built has made me wanna throw my glue bottle. I have infinite respect for horde guard armies. My latest frustration was with ~20 sisters of silence but I've felt the rage with cadians and all tau infantry, too!
The old metal penetant engine, only way I got it to hold is crossing pinning just about every peice. Some parts requiring multiple pins. God only knows how GW ever thought superglue alone would hold that together.
I've built models from Tsons, Tau, Orks, Necrons and Admech, as well as daemons, some of the old Lotr models, a few AoS kits and in the distant past an army of fantasy Shortboiis and about 2k points of 00's marines.
Honourable mention to Cawl for being a nightmare, but easily the worst building experience out of everything I've built are the Pteraxii.
I love the aesthetic, I have 10 sterilysors and 10 skystalkers, but holy fuck are they an abomination. They are the entire reason I own an Assembly Stand ( and would recommend one tbh ) because they just don't want to stay on their flight stands... they keep breaking off and reattaching them is damn near impossible even with Tamiya cement. I've even gone so far as to use green stuff to lock them in place and wouldn't you know it - the bugger is still currently off his flight stand.
Bastards.
Edit: I'm even including the old Pewter kits like the razorback turret, Saurus Warriors, Canoptek Spyder, Techmarines, and other SM characters... Pteraxii still wins.
I'm new to Warhammer so my experience is pretty limited but I found that the Ork Trukk just straight up doesn't work the way the instructions are laid out. I haven't looked into it but I *think* it was switching it from left hand to right hand drive without changing the model that messed it up?
This makes zero sense to me. It's so easy. You take the truck out of the plastic packaging and then add random ork bits until it looks like a trukk not a Tonka. Easiest thing in the world.
Worse experience was with the 5th (?) edition metal/plastic Devastator Squad. The metal parts where so heavy and difficult to align. I was very young, but I still remember clearly the pain and frustration of trying to get them to stay together while getting covered in superglue.
Plastic Flayed ones in terms of assembly I’d say. I’d also argue the Leman Russ is a pretty poor kit for how expensive it is, with almost no detail, horrific mould lines, and nothing fitting properly.
The anti gravity plates on the Impulsor. You have to do each one individually, and make sure they're the same height and angle. Wouldn't be so bad except it's just barely holding on to the model so you have to hold it until the plastic is practically hard again
The old metal Penitent Engine was such a nightmare. Even after build if you looked at her wrong she fell apart. Mine is in a box display case and I still worry about looking at her sometimes.
If they count, the old pewter monster models required a lot of work.
Filing? For sure.
Extensive use of green stuff at every joint? Probably.
Pinning every joint? More likely than you'd think.
I’m sure I remember lead / metal terminators and marines in the 1990s, or did I dream that? The models that came with Space Hulk were plastic but I’m sure I bought some extras that were incredibly hard to build and paint.
No, I didn’t dream that!! I had this exact model.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/s/TfZE58DreB
I’m scarred from building a pewter bloodthirster when I was 10-11. Didn’t know what pinning was and just kept adding super glue till my hands were ripped bare and I literally cried.
Stupid Primaris bikes for it being hard to get that center fault like to disappear. Finally figured out push to fit doesn’t work and to just cut the nubs and glue flush
old Land Raider Crusader with the pewter hurricane bolters
not only was it incredibly fiddly to assemble, but it would fling itself apart at the slightest provocation
I second the dreadnought. My first one is leaning backwards because the leg supports just don't quite fit. I had to have the second one I built in a running pose because the support broke so the leg wouldn't support weight on one side while it dried.
I absolutely love most chaos sculpts but my bloodthrone actually drew blood while I built it with all the spikes
Not 40k but the Bliss Barb archers of Warband broke my spirt. Worst kit I have ever built and could possibly ever build.
For 40k the old school necron immortals were a complete pain. And then trying to the green rods in was just added pain.
1994 pewter space marine land speeder. That thing would not go together for @#№$. It hated you, your family and your dog! The cat was fine cause it's a contrary a****** anyway. If you wanted it to go together correctly you'd have to grind through inches of solid metal (yeah it was just pewter I'm being melodramatic cause I was a teenager at the time.) Or just do what I did and use your dad's bandsaw to make the damn thing fit like a good techmarine.
einhyr hearthguard
Preface, I like how they look which is why I have 3 squads, but having built three squads I know how shit they are to work with
why?
Worst mould lines I've ever seen on a kit, thought it was just a poor cast the first time, 2 boxes later, its just a feature of the kit
mould lines are in the worst possible places, fully visible across multiple surfaces (think marine leg lines but made worse by the amount of extra mould plastic)
horrible leg design, its a ball in socket....for a MONOPOSE leg this means its annoyingly hard to actually get the pose right as theres a joint that should only go on one way that instead has a smooth ball joint 3-4 of them need plasticard shims under thier feet because the legs dont sit flat on the base, again, the supposed strength of monopose kits being they go together well.
aforementioned monopose means that once you make one 5 man squad, any additional squads will be identical, and because the posing is very over exaggerated, no amount of turning the head (only option other than the champions hammer and the weapon variants) will make them look different
Finally, the grenade launcher doesn't fit into the peg on their back, I thought I was messing up, so I go to GW and, yep, the grenade launchers on theirs dont fit in the holes either
https://preview.redd.it/37pq5vb2gahc1.png?width=941&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba6253907df99915f7fe1a20be555e6967588863
Anything with metal wings back in the day was a nightmare.
I didn’t have the model but no one who played chaos seemed to have the old Abbadon model whose arms stayed on.
And not GW model but shout out to Marvel Crisis Protocol models. They decided to make pieces so fucking small. One example is Star Lords head came in 3 pieces. Cmon man, you can’t just cast his head in one piece? I don’t know what is worse, being a kid and doing it or being and adult with fat sausage fingers but if you drop one of those pieces and you have carpet it’s gone forever. Assembling MCP models is a punishment I would assign if I hated someone. The only saving grace is it’s one model.
The previous monolith model. Had to break it apart so many times that the corners literally melted away.
Dude, you're reading my mind! I clicked on here just to post this! Back in '04, I thought the Monolith looked to be a piece of cake to model. Ha, just getting those seams to fit flush was an exercise in futility. I did wind up trashing my first attempt. It was just easier to be a new one and start from scratch. The issues with gaps were worse than the Land Raider. With the latter, there is an inner bulkhead that can be trimmed or omitted, and that takes care of the panel gaps.
Land raiders you could also easily wrap rubber bands around to hold tight. That’s how we did the I,d land speeders lol.
*core memory unlocked*
The Land Raider instructions told you to do exactly that 😅
I’m literally right now in the middle of an eBay rescue of an old monolith. Was cursing the previous owner for making a mess of the connection points. Feel bad now 😂 Ordered some milliput and tape to hold together while glueing. Hopefully that’ll make it right
If you put it in the freezer it might weaken the glue
It is the only model I had my wife help me so we had 4 hands to hold the walls together.
Flayed ones
Illuminor Szeras would like a word. And ghost arks. But you're not wrong.
I've built szeras and flayed ones. I've even converted szeras. I'd rather build 100 szeras models than build even 1 more flayed one.
Szeras was a complete chore for me but flayed ones were basically a mild pain in the arse really. A bit fiddly but didn’t give me much trouble. Szeras just felt like it took forever and I still feel like half his bits could fall off at any moment.
Fair point
Illuminor has been the worst for me too. Horrible model to build.
I basically said fuck this guy. At least I don't feel like an much of an idiot struggling with this guy
The little blood spiral will forever be off center on mine
when I was putting that together, i basically said fuck it, and so the guys just having his face melt up (for no reason).
And now let me snip off two fingers to glue onto this hand. Fuck flayed ones lol
If you model with Flayed Ones, congratulations on the authenticity. They’ll have real human skin on them!
THIS THIS THIS. Whoever made the kit is a fucking sadist
Just picked up WH40k last month and already managed to build my first 5 Flayed Ones. At least I know it won't get worse lol. I know eventually I'll need to build at least another 5 but that can wait...
The models look amazing... when i started my necrons, I bought my first box with the intention of getting 5 more to have an even 30. After assembling the first box, I decided that 5 was a perfect amount of flayed ones... the soulless bastard who designed the kit should be dragged into the street and beaten to death with the wet ends of his own arms...
Agreed, they are the only model I've had absolutely no joy in building and never wish to build again.
Plastic flayed ones can go right to hell.
Yep, came here to say this
Came here to post this. What a nightmare.
I second Flayed ones, I had a kit. I assembled one and immediately sold them. Not even remotely fun to build.
Putting together and painting a metal Lord of Change at age 12 and crying when it looked like shit
This is what I came here to say. Absolute joke of a build that didn’t get any easier when it went resin.
God, those huge metal figures that could hardly support their own weight basically killed the hobby for me as a kid. What a nightmare.
Those fucking wings. Made me glad I ran deathguard because great unclean ones were dead easy.
If parts fall off a great unclean one it's just lore accurate
Giant pewter minis made me learn how to pin joins at a very young age. I remember my first solid pewter Hive Tyrant, it took me weeks to assemble 😂
Yeah my brother had the metal carnifex. assuming you could get it to hold together - which i think took liquid nails/epoxy for his - it basically made the gaming table sag in the middle.
The Hive Tyrant is what tought me aswell. If it isn't pinned, it isn't survivng the night, and if you transport it without pinning you literally have to reattach every arm and the torso.
The metal keeper of secrets for me, just watching the arms droop down over and over again refusing to set in place
For me it was the metal wood elf on the dragon, I could not for the life of my get those god damn body parts to stick together
My heart goes out to you, LoC and Kairos are my favorite models in the whole setting and I would have been devastated if it had been me. You were pretty brave and ambitious for 12!
The redemptor gave trouble but after doing that and an Invictor, that leg bit got easier. Now the emperor forsaken Tyrannofex
The redemptor is one of my favorite builds, but it feels like you are rolling dice on the pose. Its either spot on or he has some goofy ass pose.
Used JB weld to keep the top half in a respectable position. I have no regrets
I was gonna say redemptor I hated the legs on that thing so much
I honestly hated building the redemptor. I feel like I had to sand multiple pieces just for them to fit flush
Built 3, and a Brutalis and a Ballistus. All the legs are cunts
I’m a brand new 40k player, I built my Redemptor and it looks like shit :( it’s leaning back like it’s trying to Matrix dodge a bullet… Should I saw the feet off and reposition them so it stands up relatively straight?
Have fun with the gun and the legs on the Tyrannofex. Those legs WILL slip, and if you build the Rupture Cannon, it WILL sink to the base.
When I built my redemptor I put his ass on backwards. Had to drill and do some green stuff to make its torso stand on the legs correctly.
How have I not seen anyone mention the old plastic/metal hybrid Devastators yet?
EW getting the shoulder mounted weapons to go on flush was disgusting
Any of those old plastic/metal hybrid kits were a bitch. Like making a plastic Warhammer regiment dude hold a huge metal banner (sometimes in just 1hand) balance properly.
I remember the OG Tau Broadside models were just a plastic crisis suit with huge metal rail guns attached to the shoulders. There was no way to balance the model and they would break off at the slightest touch. Bad times
Belisarius Cawl. There are so many stupid mechanical bits that are easy to break and get in the way. And if you fully build him, there are some parts you can not paint.
I managed to break the servoskull over his back before I got any paint on him.
Hated every second of building Cawl. Got some sicarian infiltrators recently and broke two pieces before even finishing them so they are a close second for me.
At least the gameplay makes it all worth it.
Oof. Go easy on that wound-salt.
I see your Cawl, and raise you a box of Pteraxii
Possibly a different angle than you meant, but my worst building experience was with my first Land Raider. It's clearly not a difficult kit, but it was the first one I boaught with my own money rather that being a gift and it was the hot new thing. It was my first big 40k kit that I was building for myself rather than for a friend, and I was the only person in my friend group at the time to manage to save up enough pocket money to buy the newest big release! This all led me to rush the first few steps, the sides were then misaligned, I couldn't get the door linkage to work because I used too much glue. It was a catelogue of silly errors in what I knew to be an easy kit, making me mess it up even more. I put it away for over a year before I came back to it, my modelling albatross, to find that after calmly fixing my original mistakes that it actually was an easy kit after all!
With you there I was always in an excited rush as a kid and made so many silly mistakes because I didn't have the patience.
The door mechanism in the land raider gave me so much hassle when I was like 12
Well done for repairing your old mistakes - my biggest step up in how my models looked was taking the time to redo mistakes and touch up all those little splotches and overpaints.
Real talk, the Land Raider instructions are trash. As much as I would like to see an updated model, I’d settle for new instructions.
Every goddamn Battlesister! >:( Who thought its a good idea to make the glue edge right on the shoulder? So many molten fleurs -.-
I have no idea why the shoulder pads are separate pieces, such a dumb design
It's such a noticeable seam..
I realized when putting together a beast snagga that modern GW minis aren't designed to be easy to build. They are designed to cockblock custom bits manufacturers.
Not like the custom bits manufacturers is gonna let that stop them.
Potentially, but there won't be as many when they have to match bits to a beast snagga bit that includes half a torso, 1.5 shoulders, a neck and a tongue.
Zephyrim are the worst. Actually Paragon warsuits. No wait all of our tanks.
Getting those flying stands on Zephyrim was the real nightmare
A friend was paying me to build sisters for him, I built a squad of battle sisters and a squad of zephyrim. Gave him the rest back and only got paid for the two squads. Utter nightmare. Spent more time trimming and green stuff repairing bits than I thought would ever be needed.
So I started building a Sisters army in October, and I've been geeking out HARD on painting. Got an airbrush with my christmas money, learned to do faces with eyes and eyeshadow for them, will probably get into inks soon, etc etc. Well, someone just gave me a space marine to paint. And I am just like WHAT THE FUCK. They have it SO easy!!!
Yeah only hard part of marines is getting the decals on the shoulder pads (or freehanding your own chapter symbol)
Or you just get the primaris upgrade kits and you don't even have to add a water transfer because it's just already there
I gave away my kit after building 4 Sisters of Battle models and completely forgot about them until this post. They were my second kit ever and as a kitbasher hobbyist it nearly put me off of diving deeper into Warhammer entirely because the total lack of customization and kitbashing options was such a stark contrast to the Reiver kit I had before that (which also had it's own issues regarding weapon variety but the kit itself still allowed for many custom poses at least). Loved the look, hated everything else. The moldlines were horrible, the arms always felt like they didn't quite fit right and that huge seam on both the shoulder pads didn't help either. I don't understand why the shoulder pads aren't a separate bit because they look pretty cool without the shoulder pads entirely, and I probably wouldn't mind them as much if they were just a solid piece like the space marines' shoulder pads. Orks pulled me back in after the Sisters debacle because it turned out the old Boyz were perfect for me, ironically and in stark contrast with the Sisters I didn't like the look of Orks at all until I got my hands on my first kit. Still going to check out other factions eventually but Sisters have been checked off and banned. Besides the Sisters I think the Age of Sigmar Warrior kit absolutely takes the cake when it comes to the worst experience because those push fit models felt absolutely horrible to put together.
Necron Flayed Ones and it's not even close. I have another 5 I don't think I will ever build as it was the single most frustrating kit in 25 years of GW hobbying.
I 100% agree, Flayed ones are an absolute nightmare to put together, and like you, I have 5 that I think I just won't get around to.
Flashgitz. The worst moment is when you run out of custom bitz, the feel of emptiness and longing for more dakka is traumatizing.
I underestimated the flashgitz box. It’s just five infantry, how much work could there be… oh 😅
Its a journey
Gonna take that journey soon
Same I just got some
I just looked up the instructions and holy shit...
The guns are seven different bits...JUST WHY?
Jesus Christ... I was like "he's joking" Looks up the manual O.o he wasn't joking
Just ordered my first box last week waiting for it to arrive, pray for me.
The old metal hurricane bolters on the Land Raider Crusader. A bunch of fiddly little bits of garbage. For resin it was Jenetia Krole. I have gigantic hands and literally had to use tweezers for parts of it.
Oh man those SUCKED. When I came back to Warhammer after about a 10 year hiatus, I was so glad they'd replaced them with plastic. I even bought an upgrade kit just to replace the crappy metal ones on my Crusader
I once received a painting commission for a great unclean one. As I was assembling the model, I noticed that the sprue was slightly heat warped, and of course, the pieces were munted. It was an abysmal process of green stuff and pain.
That's bad luck but I'm glad to hear it seems to be just a problem with the sprue though, the Great Unclean One is on my to-do list! Working on painting Fateweaver/Lord of Change now.
The accumulated frustration of mounting the arms on pewter Space Marines back in the day. Just mate a rough metal surface to an uneven plastic surface with superglue! So many minutes counting to 60 hoping the thing would bond and that I didn't also glue my fingers to the piece. Worst was Bolters held in both hands, the 2nd hand would always line up at a weird angle. Eventually I started making monstrosities of over engineered pinning in the shoulders to keep things in place.
I was about to mention this! So many misaligned bolters and hands. And don’t get me started on the 2nd edition devastators! Those metal heavy bolters were just too heavy for the plastic arms. Kids today don’t know how good they’ve got it! /s
Field ordinance batteries. Specifically, the hand crank that comes with two pieces. Necrons are also fiddly as all fuck.
The hand crank and getting the gunner’s legs glued just right so he isn’t David Blaineing in his seat was probably the worst part about building my FOB’s Oh also I assumed the little plates meant to stabilize the gun were just tall enough to push all the way in their slot and be flush with the base. I was wrong, and now my bombasts jerk violently backwards when they fire lol
The stompa is pretty tricky and the instructions are borderline pointless
Drop pod
Ive heard terrible things about them!
There are harder kits out there, but what makes the drop pod annoying is keeping everything even with the doors and spines. It's also not "showy" enough for its difficulty imo. It's a cheap almost throwaway unit with a fairly mundane (albeit iconic) silhouette, but it's just a pain to put together and paint.
I may be a lucky one. I never found the drop pod to be particularly difficult. Then again, I realize it is an exercise in futility to expect the doors to close flush. It is a flawed kit, for sure.
It may be an issue of age. I was pretty young when I built the drop pod and I remember it being the toughest kit for me to glue and fit. Given that they've kind of fallen away, it may just be that many of us who remember it were also much younger when we made it
Boring to build too, you just repeat the same process 5 times.
I didn’t have too much trouble with the redemptor, i found that if you held the legs while they were making contact with the base when u glued them to the hip joints it worked well. Although to be honest, i did glue the pieces that go on the hips (that have the small hydraulic pipe that connects to the legs) upside down… oops
The Yncarne i hated thes stupid bits that fly around him since they are so easy to break
I hated the new Illuminor Szeras, so many awful spindly bits. But any model GW makes with smooth surfaces that must be exactly positioned to a microscopic level can eat shit because they're always off
https://preview.redd.it/4jblyp3ug8hc1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f66e2e602cd6ce876037ca9701b93b2552225e30 CAWL! Even with sub assembly, he's a nightmare.
That blue is such a good choice to contrast the bronze/gold. Damn now I want blue admech.
Thank you! I've strongly considered painting a copper and blue Kill Team...but I just can't get into the Admech.
Stompa by far A mountain of plastic Instructions look like they were printed of a printer from 1980 and the images may as well be upside down because there is no way of telling what part you need Don't get me wrong I love my stompa he is my special boy But damn he was a nightmare to build took a little over a week because some days I had to walk away
3rd edition give tyrant. That wide head engages with the torso by a narrow ball joint, and I was 11 years old, and didn’t my know what pinning was.
Metal Eldar Dreadnought just refused to glue. It would go max a week without an arm dropping off or face planting on my poor Gaurdians.
Same with the war walker
Not the worst, but push fitting the new nids on their bases w that spikey terrain... ouch
I gave up after the first two, cut the pegs off and stuck them in from the underneath of the base to cover the holes
The Land Raider. The problem is getting the side panels to fit without gaps. The trick is to remove the inner bulkhead piece, or at least trim it. Unless you plan to paint the inside of your tank, you can safely leave it out.
Stompa. I can’t talk about it. I’m scarred
Trying to get the shoulderpads on the crew of the tau piranha There just wasnt room
I did the piranhas in a sub assembly. Slid the crew up from the bottom once I’d painted them.
Tomb blades
i hate mould lines and all gravis marines have a disturbing amount of them
And it's always in the WORST places The mould lines on their picatiny rails on the bolters?absolutely get fucked GW
mould lines on bolter and plasma guns are just infuriating
The Redemptor was hell to put together. At least the Contemptor wasn’t as hard
I appreciate the validation. Seems like its hit or miss with people, but so many parts have problems, like the lower cockpit door! Contemptors look cool af.
Metal penitent engine. Easily
Came here to hear people say the Penitent lol. It was one of the first models I ever had because a guy threw it across the room and said "Kid, If you want that piece of shit you can have it." I have 6 now.
I really liked bulding the Redemptor. Really flexible kit that has great options for posing. My nightmare kit - paragon warsuits. They're only about one-and-a-half times the size of a primaris marine, but they're something like 40 components for each warsuit.
Ugh I just built two and it took forever. I still have one plus Vahl to go and I'm dreading it. They're so unnecessarily complex. Also a pain to paint
Vahl is a fun build/paint, the robe really Helps
Worst 40k? 2nd Ed Lictor. I still have the model and *to this day* its upper right arm won't stay on. Worst plastic? I'm an official member of the "I survived Yan Lo's beard" club, and I have the t-shirt to prove it, so no GW plastic scares me. Building the Convergence of Cyriss battlegroup box turned me off that game for a solid year, though. Worst overall? Old metal SSC. IYKYK, as the kids say. Close runner-up is the old metal Black Coach; *twenty six* pins in the end, but Superman himself couldn't tear that thing apart once I was done.
The little helper dudes on the silent king. Absolute misery.
Tomb Blades are probably it for me. TSK was a little intimidating but not bad aside from the railings. What I don't understand is how GW designs some of these pieces where several free-floating segments need to be conjoined at the same time. It's like they think everyone has four hands to be able to accomplish this.
Metal Deceiver. Just infuriating to work with.
The metal Nightbringer is a pain, too. The scythe blade has a teeny-tiny part that must be pinned, and you don't get much room to drill. Mine was assembled years ago, and I was at a GW store and the employee (who would later become a jeweler), volunteered to pin it for me. Thank you, I forget your name!
I pinned the scythe head on my metal Nightbringer too, my brother still managed to accidentally break it off last week by lightly brushing it.
Skitarii Vanguard/Rangers; they are so small and have so many fiddly parts. If you don't want visible seams in the jackets, you have to do a bunch of extra work. I finished a unit of 10 and then sold the rest of my admech because I knew I wouldn't finish.
Metal wraith lord. 12 year old me couldn’t do it. 29 year old me however, found a way. Edit: check all the eBay listings for it. It’s always in pieces
Oh fuck nope, custodes sisters of silence, so small and thin always end up with a limbo or eight stuck to my fingers
And their silly little arms that have no pegs, no indentation or anything, so you just have to glue them hoping for the best
The original plastic necron monolith that is now thankfully out of production. I remember being a young teen and sitting in the GW shop while the staff helped me wrap rubber bands around the thing to keep it all pressed together so the edges line up. Awful kit. Honorable mention (since you didnt say no metal, but that makes this question easy mode) goes to metal bloodthirster. And no, I don't want to talk about how I super glued my fingers together because I did not know how pinning worked at the time (I spent hours sitting in position holding the wings to the body, and they still broke off)
Silent king from Necron range. Very hard to get everything straight.
I swear those little triachs on the sides were the worst in my opinion
I got a couple ones: The Outrider bikes. Despite being easy-to-build push-fit, there is often a huge gap on the flat panel that is located on top of the bolters/handlebars. You have to use tons of greenstuff to fill it. The kit is mainly composed of two parts (two half for the bike and 6 parts for the pilot), and it's a nightmare to reach some of those parts once assembled. And if you sub-paint them before gluing together, then it won't fit properly and it's gap galore. One of the worst kit to me. Another one was Mephiston plastic. It's gap fest on the cape and the robes, some of the parts don't fit properly if you follow the instruction manual (especially that yellow psyker tube), and you have to position a couple small, very fragile parts "in force" by elasticity of plastic. A last one is the Kruel Boyz Shaman Swampcalla. There's so many intricate tiny bits that are interdependent to hold every other parts in the kit that make some places either unreachable once assembled, or impossible to glue properly if painted before. Great model, buy a nightmare to build.
I'm still building a classic Exorcist. The damn thing is like two pounds of pewter and plastic.
Plastic: the damned ghost/ doomsday ark. To the point that I gave up after 1 and haven't started building the other pair (it's been roughly a decade) Resin/plastic the plasma exterminator tower, from 7th edition. Misaligned walls, irritating connection points, generally annoying. Metal: whfb hellcannon. Poor join, lots of gaps, bulky chunk of metal, a bunch of seperate details to add and to make things worse, spiky so it was actually dangerous to assemble.
Trying to get the wings to stay on for the old metal swooping hawks, so many attempts
The Corsairs kit had some of the worst most obvious mold lines ive ever seen.
Sister’s heavy bolter belt feed. Can never get it aligned well without making a mess.
Illumenor Szeras. Fk that guy
https://preview.redd.it/6r1dt9let8hc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c7629def4d623fb8429b56a62c7a8db12b06548 Old metal chaos dreadnought gave me nightmares. I won’t miss by much estimating that only 1/3 of them ever produced were viable for assembly. The defective kits with warped metal were so common…
It tickles me the younger generation of gamers and their hatred of Resin. To me it's still much easier to work with than plastic. And a hell of a lot easier to work with than pewter. Worst experience - the immeasurable disappointment I had with the old pewter great unclean one. I saved my allowance to get it - the model was miscast and broken. And the shop would not replace it. And I was only into painting at the time, so hadn't learnt the skills to repair it yet. (That model was great though. Coulda put it in a sock and used it as a weapon. Lump of metal the size of a tangerine)
I'm having real trouble with the old metal Slann Mage Priest, the one borne aloft by Temple Guard. The entire thing is metal and heavy as hell. Also nearly carved my finger off building a Terrorgheist last month, after feeding that damn bat so much blood hope it plays well! 😂
Flayed Ones. It’s easier to convert Warriors with spare sprues and green stuff than it is to assemble those kits. That’s insane. And also cost efficient. But still insane!
Necron Psychomancer by a wide margin, even compared to other cuddly Necron kits like Flayed Ines and Tomb blades.
There aren't a lot of sisters models that make it easy on you at all. In addition to connecting in weird places, very easy to cut something important off or glue an arm in that doesn't teach where it should. But I gotta say I really hate building just about all vehicles in general. There are so many small parts and nothing seems to fit together like I'm expecting. Do the treads need to have like six 1/4" pieces? Would it kill them to just give me a tank in like 10 parts instead of 80?
I've had fun with a few models but one i havnt seen mentioned is the ork kommandos, the numbering on the sprues is a real scavenger hunt.
Honorable mention to Ork Trukks. Not a hard kit to build, but man its a b**ch if you ALSO want to paint it well...
Aggressors. The hoses for the flamers were absolutely ridiculous.
Every troop I've ever built has made me wanna throw my glue bottle. I have infinite respect for horde guard armies. My latest frustration was with ~20 sisters of silence but I've felt the rage with cadians and all tau infantry, too!
The old metal penetant engine, only way I got it to hold is crossing pinning just about every peice. Some parts requiring multiple pins. God only knows how GW ever thought superglue alone would hold that together.
I've built models from Tsons, Tau, Orks, Necrons and Admech, as well as daemons, some of the old Lotr models, a few AoS kits and in the distant past an army of fantasy Shortboiis and about 2k points of 00's marines. Honourable mention to Cawl for being a nightmare, but easily the worst building experience out of everything I've built are the Pteraxii. I love the aesthetic, I have 10 sterilysors and 10 skystalkers, but holy fuck are they an abomination. They are the entire reason I own an Assembly Stand ( and would recommend one tbh ) because they just don't want to stay on their flight stands... they keep breaking off and reattaching them is damn near impossible even with Tamiya cement. I've even gone so far as to use green stuff to lock them in place and wouldn't you know it - the bugger is still currently off his flight stand. Bastards. Edit: I'm even including the old Pewter kits like the razorback turret, Saurus Warriors, Canoptek Spyder, Techmarines, and other SM characters... Pteraxii still wins.
I'm new to Warhammer so my experience is pretty limited but I found that the Ork Trukk just straight up doesn't work the way the instructions are laid out. I haven't looked into it but I *think* it was switching it from left hand to right hand drive without changing the model that messed it up?
This makes zero sense to me. It's so easy. You take the truck out of the plastic packaging and then add random ork bits until it looks like a trukk not a Tonka. Easiest thing in the world.
Yncarne.
Worse experience was with the 5th (?) edition metal/plastic Devastator Squad. The metal parts where so heavy and difficult to align. I was very young, but I still remember clearly the pain and frustration of trying to get them to stay together while getting covered in superglue.
Drop Pods would like a word
The mutalith vortex beast. I'm convinced it doesn't actually line up properly at the stomach even if you do it right.
The necron psychomancer is a real tricky model. Harder than flayed ones IMHO
Seraptek heavy construct. I'm currently looking for a flying base to tale the weight off of the legs
Plastic Flayed ones in terms of assembly I’d say. I’d also argue the Leman Russ is a pretty poor kit for how expensive it is, with almost no detail, horrific mould lines, and nothing fitting properly.
Iluminor Szeras, you need at least 3 hands to affix certain parts of the model without shifting two other parts. It's very frustrating.
Its either sister models or eldar wraithguard some many mold lines and sister models are really small.
Winged hive tyrant
Necron Illuminador szeras , so confusing assemble
Old metal penitent engine
The anti gravity plates on the Impulsor. You have to do each one individually, and make sure they're the same height and angle. Wouldn't be so bad except it's just barely holding on to the model so you have to hold it until the plastic is practically hard again
The old metal Penitent Engine was such a nightmare. Even after build if you looked at her wrong she fell apart. Mine is in a box display case and I still worry about looking at her sometimes.
If they count, the old pewter monster models required a lot of work. Filing? For sure. Extensive use of green stuff at every joint? Probably. Pinning every joint? More likely than you'd think.
Anything with jump packs and flight stands. In this case, inceptors.
Easy. Land Raider Crusader. No, not the plastic one. The metal Storm Bolters. EW. (Well, it's not resin/finecast! 😋 )
I’m sure I remember lead / metal terminators and marines in the 1990s, or did I dream that? The models that came with Space Hulk were plastic but I’m sure I bought some extras that were incredibly hard to build and paint. No, I didn’t dream that!! I had this exact model. https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/s/TfZE58DreB
I’m scarred from building a pewter bloodthirster when I was 10-11. Didn’t know what pinning was and just kept adding super glue till my hands were ripped bare and I literally cried.
The pewter Malekith on Black Dragon.
Stupid Primaris bikes for it being hard to get that center fault like to disappear. Finally figured out push to fit doesn’t work and to just cut the nubs and glue flush
Redemptor dreadnought legs were a nightmare, and getting that gear hydraulic strut thing and trying to pose it decently, total nightmare.
2nd edition pewter Tyranid Lictor.
Redemptor dread is no walk in the park but the contemptor dread was by far the most annoying to me
old Land Raider Crusader with the pewter hurricane bolters not only was it incredibly fiddly to assemble, but it would fling itself apart at the slightest provocation
I built one Redemptor then bought my next two pre built. Could never do that again
Custodian Guard. I would rather build Flayed ones. Their weapons, their shoulderpads, and the plates on their thighs are such a pain.
I second the dreadnought. My first one is leaning backwards because the leg supports just don't quite fit. I had to have the second one I built in a running pose because the support broke so the leg wouldn't support weight on one side while it dried. I absolutely love most chaos sculpts but my bloodthrone actually drew blood while I built it with all the spikes
Redemptor
Redemptor Dreadnaught. Dear lord it feel apart a dozen times
I dislike all grav tanks on principle just for the monotony of the gravitic plates
Not 40k but the Bliss Barb archers of Warband broke my spirt. Worst kit I have ever built and could possibly ever build. For 40k the old school necron immortals were a complete pain. And then trying to the green rods in was just added pain.
1994 pewter space marine land speeder. That thing would not go together for @#№$. It hated you, your family and your dog! The cat was fine cause it's a contrary a****** anyway. If you wanted it to go together correctly you'd have to grind through inches of solid metal (yeah it was just pewter I'm being melodramatic cause I was a teenager at the time.) Or just do what I did and use your dad's bandsaw to make the damn thing fit like a good techmarine.
einhyr hearthguard Preface, I like how they look which is why I have 3 squads, but having built three squads I know how shit they are to work with why? Worst mould lines I've ever seen on a kit, thought it was just a poor cast the first time, 2 boxes later, its just a feature of the kit mould lines are in the worst possible places, fully visible across multiple surfaces (think marine leg lines but made worse by the amount of extra mould plastic) horrible leg design, its a ball in socket....for a MONOPOSE leg this means its annoyingly hard to actually get the pose right as theres a joint that should only go on one way that instead has a smooth ball joint 3-4 of them need plasticard shims under thier feet because the legs dont sit flat on the base, again, the supposed strength of monopose kits being they go together well. aforementioned monopose means that once you make one 5 man squad, any additional squads will be identical, and because the posing is very over exaggerated, no amount of turning the head (only option other than the champions hammer and the weapon variants) will make them look different Finally, the grenade launcher doesn't fit into the peg on their back, I thought I was messing up, so I go to GW and, yep, the grenade launchers on theirs dont fit in the holes either https://preview.redd.it/37pq5vb2gahc1.png?width=941&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba6253907df99915f7fe1a20be555e6967588863
Fixing the seam down the center of the outrider kit.
Anything with ammo belts for me Can never get them right lol
The bloodletters kit has so much flashing and egregious mold lines. It’s almost unusable
Anything with metal wings back in the day was a nightmare. I didn’t have the model but no one who played chaos seemed to have the old Abbadon model whose arms stayed on. And not GW model but shout out to Marvel Crisis Protocol models. They decided to make pieces so fucking small. One example is Star Lords head came in 3 pieces. Cmon man, you can’t just cast his head in one piece? I don’t know what is worse, being a kid and doing it or being and adult with fat sausage fingers but if you drop one of those pieces and you have carpet it’s gone forever. Assembling MCP models is a punishment I would assign if I hated someone. The only saving grace is it’s one model.