What's the ugliest thing you ever built?

[FJ and G]

I have done several.

A helix (it will be hidden but still is functional)

Wiring (it was hidden but functional mess)

Stubb switch (again, functional, I can build them much better now)

A mountain out of paper mache (my first). It looked like a pile of elephant dung


There are probably several others.

My how I envy neatness freaks. I won't name them but you know who they are. One fellow's dummy cardboard buildings look better than some you can buy.

[Anonymous]

Ha, ha,

Your elephant dung mountain reminds me of a hideous mountain I made once out of concrete. Man it was ugly, and heavy. Everytime a train derailed it was sure to be in the tunnel of that mountain. Stick your arm in and pull out something other than the car you thought had derailed. Sometimes it was like Christmas finding all that missing rolling stock. Wow it was fun daylighting that tunnel with a sledge hammer and a crow bar!

[vsmith]

Probably the first loco i ever kitbashed! it was a Minitrix N gauge 0-6-0 that I converted to HOn30 by building a new cab and added details (new stack, etc). The cab was fabricated out of .20 and .40 styrene and looked like every bit the amatuer job it was! an to top of that I removed the middle axle converting it to an 0-4-0. It ran! not well, but...

I still have it as a reminder to never give up and if it doesnt come out right, just hide it in the parts box!

[Javern]

I tried scratchbuilding a ho scale parking ramp once, sure looked good in my imagination but as it got near completion i just wanted to hit it with a hammer and put it out of it's misery. I will wait for a kit [:)]

[Anonymous]

My train table!

[BRAKIE]

That would be my first kit bash monster-er ,ah, locomotive hands down..

[Anonymous]

a gas station. I made it out of cardboard and paper and it looked like little more than an old warped box with windows on it. At least the gas pump looked good.

And then there was my first layout....

[Anonymous]

Some of my early attempts at kit-bashed locos were a site to see.
I don't have photos(thank god).
Some early attempts at scenery were just as bad.
I've gotten a little better with practice.

[Anonymous]

nothings ugly in this world.........except my attempt at a moutain range it's a bird its a plane nooo its a paper mache mountain aslong as i have a good lookin loco running most people's attention is diverted from my paper mountain yaaaa

[bluepuma]

Attempt to customize a 1:24 plastic model car as a kid, had to toss it out eventually. Model cars brush painted, wanted air brush way too long. Thus, no plans to kitbash N scale rr cars or locos, maybe paint some one day in Black Widow. More practice on 1:1 buildings, walls, cabinets, and motorcycle. Assembling real Suzuki motorcycles from the crate was MY IDEA of building a kit! They came out beautiful every time! My daugher's 10 speed racing style bike was the best kit, got it just like the pictures with wraps on the bars. Just took time and patience. Had to laugh, my ex's BF got the same bike for his daughter for xmas, his was the ugliest! Ha! Nothing right. I felt sorry for the kid, but also thought, hey, I did this one good! For all the projects and kits that turned out really sad. - tomcat

[Noah Hofrichter]

Probably my first attempt at, well I guess you could call it scratchbuilding. I took foam plates, you'll have to remeber I was 8, and tried glueing it with Testors model glue. It dissolved the foam, althought I still used it because I thought it was good at the time. Then I graduated to paper-yuck-and then cardboard, which I made some pretty good buildings out of it and masking tape, and I still have a few left on the old layout because I haven't got around to replacing them yet, there a sight to see. I built them two years-nope three now, always forget I'm 13, ago, when I didn't have much money and my mom was getting boxes galore.

Noah

[MudHen_462]

Probably the next thing I build.....

[Anonymous]

A Revell model of a DC7 airliner back in the early fifties. I did a reasonably okay job of not smearing tube glue all over it, except for the windows, but when I impatiently decided to apply the horrendous United Airlines decals (that were to fit around the windows), and the silver enamel paint I brushed on hadn't quite dried, I created a real mess. The decals that actually didn't disintegrate in the water bowl, stuck to the still tacky paint, and refused to slide into position on the fuselage. My finger prints were everywhere in the tacky paint as well, and then I broke off some of the landing gear trying to rub out the blotches - to no avail. I opened up the kitchen window of our fifth story NYC apartment and "flew" it out the window without ever looking down. I almost signed off on building models after that, and to this day I have hesitated building airliners, especially silver ones.

[philnrunt]

As I get older( and older) I find that the more bizarre a thing looks, the more I like it, so hopefully it is still in my future.
But the armored combine/command car I built by sawing (with a hacksaw!) a ConCor baggage car in three, discarding the center piece then ,using a hot pin ,machine gunned it for my 2nd N scale layout would be right there in the running. The 37mm anti -tank gun (1/72nd scale) sticking out of the door lodged it in the tunnel and had to be cut down. And the top turret MG mount ( RAF Lancaster) was visually pleasing, but a bit off center.It was the flat white and baby blue paint job splattered with bright red blood that made it all come together.
But I like it now!
Now if you want to talk non-RR models-I would'nt know where to start!

[Anonymous]

A resincast / brass model of a firetruck ! It was a "FALCON", an truck that was in use in Frankfurt / Main - Built by Rosenbauer / Austria. I think a maximum of 15 FALCONS (I think under 10) were built between 1987 and 1989. The time wasn´t right for this design!

The bigger firedepartments here in Germany use a very light daylightred. Such models must be paint first in white and then in this red. But the Firedepartment Frankfurt has a not so easy design with stripes !

I made a lot of work with the detailing and than I paint the model - OH MY GOD !!!!

I paint the model 9 times and logical remove the paint 8 btimes, until it looks well. I need more than a year for this model - I was so frustrated that i remove the paint - put all things in a box and wait a few weeks before restarting.

Today the FALCON is in use with the Youthfirefighters of Frankfurt.

http://www.jugendfeuerwehr-frankfurt.de/wamo.html

[FJ and G]

oh, one more. I wanted to install my own metal handrail around an old-time tank car so I tried to buff the plastic molded handrail with the dremel and ended up melting the tank car sides

[krump]

1) my first model r/r (age 10) was a basic 4x8 in a box, that was intended to hinge to the wall, and when raised the underside would serve as a student desk. Great idea, never went beyond the box stage - looked like a large sandbox, which is precisely what the cat though...

2) my mountain in #1 resembled FJ and G's dung hill

3) the first tree that I made was a pruned tree branch, Y shaped, 4 inches long, pinky - finger thickness, then smothered with white glue and plastic green turf squished onto it ... in a way, I'm proud of that tree and have kept it for the past 30 years, it will have a prominant spot on the new layout, being the only original piece from the "best of the worst"
- don't worry, I'm making much better trees now. experience counts

[Roadtrp]

The ugliest things I've ever built are forts I built when I was a kid. I grew up in a new neighborhood that was being developed so there were always houses under construction around where I lived. We would take scrap lumber from construction sites and use it to build forts in a vacant lot. Some of those structures were the ugliest things ever created.

[Anonymous]

My Mutt GP60, Railpower Shell, Atheran Frame, Proto Trucks, Kato Hand Rails, Details west Snow plow and Winterization Hatch, Some proto Cab top Details.