The Problem with kit Instructions

General Discussions
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Throughout the years when building a particular model I’ve encountered, on many occasions, a part to be added that I had no clue what that part actually was on the 1:1 subject or what it’s function is. I won’t say it’s necessary to the completion of the model per say but it would be helpful if kit manufacturers would include a little bit of trivia with their instruction sheet just to give the modeler a better understanding of the overall vehicle or plane. What brings this issue to light came about when I was prepping the ordnance for my latest project, an M548 cargo tractor. I have the kit supplied 203mm shells as well as the AM AFV club 155mm/203mm artillery ammunition. In the AM kit there are 6 turned brass shells that are just beautiful miniature renditions of an artillery projectile, the rest of the kit pieces are injection molded warheads that are equally represented but wait, the plastic shells are different, there’s a large donut ring around the bottom half that looks like a total blunder on the molding process. Well we’ll just fix that I decided and I chucked them all in a 3/8’s drill and swiftly turned those little beauts into the correct appearance. Later I was researching the colors used for artillery shells when I stumbled across an article explaining that the large ring on the projectile is a removable fiberglass collar in place to protect the soft copper ballistic compression ring on the warhead . . . . well shucks. Would’ve been nice to know that before I goofed up the shells, they’re still useable, in fact now easier since I won’t have to paint that copper ring. This reminds me of building AFV’s M113 ACAV, I recall griping about them including un-necessary parts just to raise the kit’s part count, specifically the road wheels come to mind, there are two types of hub caps on the parts tree, turns out after further online research (after the fact) that there were two types of hub caps used on the M113.
Just curious to know what information was excluded on one of your builds that could have made a significant difference during the build or the model’s presentation? :thinking:

Cajun :crocodile:

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Nothing that comes to mind right now.
The first 100 kits or so were built in the happy bliss of ignorance, later on I started researching to find the answers to any “riddles” that turned up

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Hello, on border tiger 1 early (kursk version), it would’ve been better if they indicated the interior colors for the hull and air ducts/ventilators, better indication on where to place the accessories would’v been good too, as well as a better hull build step who’d make it fit better.

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“The problem with kit instructions” now is that most of them are made simply using CAD images put together by the same virtual kit designers who have never ACCTUALLY ASSEMBLED the real kit BEFORE they made up the instructions from their CAD renderings.

The worst of these would have the modeler attempting to assemble parts in ways that are, quite literally, physically impossible.

Pro Tip for virtual kit designers: Just because the computer will allow you to pass one virtual part rendering THROUGH another virtual part rendering, the laws of nature will not allow such things to be done in the real physical world - not even in the scale real world.

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Knowing a little before building helps. I check thing out first(sometimes)but I know what interests me usually before the build.

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On the early Dragon M4 Composite Hull kit that has the option for a standard 75mm gun tank, or a Firefly 1C. For the Firefly, the directions have you mount one of those large stowage bins across the rear hull upper plate. I did so. Fortunately at the time, I was doing this as an online WIP Build Log over on Finescale. Roy Chow of AMPS used to be fairly active over there at the time and advised me that the bin was incorrect to be placed there on a radial engined Sherman, as those tanks had a small hole in that location for a manual engine starter crank handle (one of those stowage items that I previously never recognized). Anyways, it was an easy fix to remove the bin, sand off the glue points on the hull, and put the bin into my spares bin for another project that could use the item. In the long run, a major difference, no. But an accuracy issue, certainly, as only Commonwealth Sherman’s III’s and V’s carried such a bin in that location. Go Dragon :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Yes, research, research, research, it’s something I preach to anyone going into a build. As modelers we wrongly assume the maker has provided clear and concise directions for assembling the kit and this is far from reality, in most cases the directions simply show the placement of the parts and a novice builder may not realize this until it’s too late which causes them to become discouraged and abandon the hobby, so the maker actually does itself a dis-service by not being more accommodating to the potential model builder. But (and this is the irony of it) this is all part of the hobby of model building, from sprue to view “I did this!”, however, I still think the inclusion of little factoids placed through out the schematic would be an enhancement to the build experience and would more likely entice one to return to that brand in the future, much the way Tamiya has cemented it’s product lines’ reputation in the scale modeling world.

Cajun :crocodile:

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Too add to this problem as a US Army mechanic i some time need to take a step back and look at a part for a kit and go “thats not where that goes” or “what in the h#$@ is that and why is it there’” or “Why is that not there and who deigned this kit to be missing this part”. The most offensive kit to me so far is the Panda Models Husky.

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And this is precisely what I’m talking about, this is one of those little tidbits that the builder can share with anyone viewing the finished model, that’s an interesting bit of history.

Cajun :crocodile:

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Be careful about that stowage box thing. I once posted that an M4 a guy had built shouldn’t have that box there because of the engine starter crank opening. Someone promptly posted pictures of Polish M4’s with the M4A4 stowage box located guess where? Yeah, on the rear plate! I enjoyed a fine plate of crow that day and have been more careful ever since. The moral of the story: never say never about a Sherman! If you do have the salt and pepper ready just in case. It makes the crow go down easier!
Regards, Bob

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Reading those recipes makes me think about dinner …

and if @BootsDMS reads this he may comment something similar to
“I knew it, I Just Knew it!”

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As a kid, I really appreciated that Tamiya kit instructions include a brief history of the vehicle and often identify the function of individual parts. It helped foster interest in both engineering and history.

If model companies would create better instructions, design models to assemble more easily, make connections between parts stronger, and increase accuracy, model builders would spend less money on reference books, less money on after market correction parts, less time of research, less time making corrections, and instead purchase and build more models. Designers at model companies constantly leave money on the table or hand it to book writers.

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I really liked on the old Tamiya instruction sheets where they had the Table of Organization & Equipment for the kit subjects. Often they showed down to the platoon level, and up to the battalion or even regimental level where that subject fit in, along with other vehicles used alongside.

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I can see a Polish joke coming out of this…

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I would be happy if they just named the parts. Gas pedal, hand brake, breech block, muzzle brake or brake drum, front right suspension spring or air filter or carburator on an engine. Those are the easy ones, but some of the AFV club parts are so tiny and who knows what they are. Labels help and the next vehicle, we’d know what that part is and then have a better idea of where it should go or should it be painted first. We’d learn alot about how things are built, why they are where they are and it makes the next model or scratch building that much easier.

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The old Tamiya kit instructions did both. They named the parts, gave a TO&E, and had a decent history of the vehicle as well…

Tamiya Panzer IV Instructions

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image
image3024×4032 3.12 MB

Seriously, 3 alternatives w zero indication why one of 3 is more or less correct. Scribbled notes from a build log on Scalemates or possibly here a few years ago and there still a big air of mystery on many, many steps. For those that have built this manufacturer, you’ve seen and know of what I mean.

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I seem to recall the naming of parts was common in the days of “One Exploded View Only” instruction sheets. Mind you, back in those days construction of models was deemed to have some educational value.

Cheers,

M

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considering the amount of research I do while working on new models, I feel like they still have educationnal values to me

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I think that there are two issues at play, the model design process, and the translation effort.

Models are typically researched by one group, the model is designed by another group, and the instruction sheet is designed by a third group. Sometimes, those groups don’t play well together. Sometimes, those groups aren’t even located on the same continent. Information is lost, muddled, or deliberately ignored for good or bad reason when passed from one group to the next.

The second issue, the translation issue, is different. It seems that instruction sheets printed today are lacking in text generally. Perhaps companies try to make a cost-effective, single instruction sheet understandable in every possible modeler’s language simply by designing a set of sheets with only drawings and numbers. There is a deliberate effort to avoid using any text.

Many of our favorite model companies are based in countries whose populations don’t speak English and may not even use a Latin alphabet (China, Japan, Russia, etc.). The model was researched by a group whose members may not read or write in English, designed by another group of employees who are not fluent in English, and the instruction sheet was designed by a third group who also don’t read or write in English. And the model’s primary market is not in an English-speaking country (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Trumpeter, Zvezda, etc). So a 4th group, a group of costly linguists, who can translate the instruction sheet into other desirable languages is required. And the more languages desired, the larger that group has to be and the more it costs.

So to make an instruction book with very detailed and descriptive English text, and text in other major languages, too, a significant and costly translation effort must be made by multiple linguists. And with more text in multiple languages, the larger the instruction book becomes, further adding to the cost.

Compounding the problem, the translator group may not be familiar with the subject, not familiar with the technical names of an individual part in various languages, not familiar with the model’s design process, and not familiar with the features of the model itself, has never actually built a model, etc. So, wild translation errors are sure to occur. We all have seen some of that. Imagine “bore evacuator” being translated from Chinese into German by a linguist unfamiliar with tanks and how they work, and unfamiliar with what Germans call a bore evacuator in German. Or worse yet, smaller features of a vehicle are known by an acronym, not a name. How does one translate CINCGARS into Mandarin?

I think as long as model companies are trying to reach the widest possible markets populated by different peoples who speak many different languages without an easy, inexpensive way to translate highly technical text, we’re going to see instruction sheets without much text.

Perhaps in the future, downloadable instruction sheets will be made available with built-in aids for automatic translation by engines like Google Translate. The text throughout the instructions you get when you download them are instantly translated into your language without error. Might just happen.

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