Over the past several years, I have collected some models from Metal Earth. I started buying them as they seemed like fun souvenirs from various places I’ve visited. In spite of having them for several years, I only tried putting one together for the first time today.
I am now completely frustrated and disillusioned.
The print quality and cutting seem to be pretty well done. The parts, however, are extremely small and the tabs and slots to hold the pieces together are EXTREMELY small. Even wearing my reading glasses, they are nearly impossible to see. Then, once a tab is in its slot, the slightest move causes it to fall back out. I am not able to hold still enough to get the tweezers and fold the tab down to lock the parts in place.
So, any Dopers out there familiar with these? Any tips on how to successfully assemble them? I have a pair of snips to cut the parts out and a pair of tweezers. I am not opposed to bringing other tools to bear on this project if it will help. I can see that a lighted magnifying glass on a stand could be useful. What else would be helpful?
Hey DG, yes they were really popular here in Japan over the last ten years. I agree with you completely that they are difficult to assemble, and are not stable. I only tried once, and failed. If you do not use a metal bonding agent (superglue etc.) I don’t think you will get a good stable result.
How about using a magnifying glass, tweezers and superbond?
Co-signed. I tried to make a couple back in 2014-15 and hated every minute of it. Fiddly, sensitive and if I recall correctly, sometimes painful to manipulate.
My stepdaughter gave me this dragon model for Christmas. Note that it’s difficulty is “expert”.
What I found is that you need a lot more tools than what they describe in the instructions. Luckily I already owned a jeweler’s visor, and I bought a set of jewelry tools as well, for the precision needle nose pliers and cutters. You absolutely need precision cutters to get the pieces out without ruining them.
Then I watched some youtube videos. This guy is excellent. That video is a list of tools and tricks, but he also has tons of videos for individual builds, luckily including that dragon, so I could look up the real fiddly bits. I also found out things like using a drill bit set as mandrels to curve pieces into nice circles, etc.
There was definitely a learning curve to it, and some techniques & tricks I figured out on my own along the way. I did wind up doing some things out of order from what the instructions said as well. I got pretty good at locking down the tabs also. I did use a bit of superglue on some parts on the neck, mostly because there’s enough play in all those neck pieces that it wants to lean to one side or the other, instead of staying straight. But the entire model did hold together without any glue.
So after 30+ hours of work, I did finish the dragon, to my stepdaughter’s delight. I’ve since bought another model - the imperial star destroyer, but I haven’t started it yet. I’m hoping it will go quicker since there’s no curved parts, which the dragon was absolutely full of.
I have a locomotive model that may well be from that company. As I recall, it was frustrating to build and took a long time, but it looks impressive. I don’t think i’ll be doing another one, though.
It should be noted that I ‘play’ with electric trains (N scale) and have a lot of small tools for doing fiddly work. You want some good small cutters. Look up Xuron rail nippers. Also more than one pair of small needle nosed pliers, and a magnifying desk lamp like one of these.
On tiny stuff, magnification is your friend. Get yourself an Optivisor or equivalent.
Also, though some of the tabs need to be folded down, on others you might get away with twisting the tab, which is much easier and faster. You’ll have to do a bit of thinking, though, to figure out which can be twisted with looking bad or interfering with later assembly.
On tiny stuff, magnification is your friend. Get yourself an Optivisor or equivalent.
Also, though some of the tabs need to be folded down, on others you might get away with twisting the tab, which is much easier and faster. You’ll have to do a bit of thinking, though, to figure out which can be twisted with looking bad or interfering with later assembly.
The instructions specifically tell you which tabs to bend, which to twist. I believe it was specifically geared towards whether you could get a tool into the space or not - I know I bent some that they told me to twist because I was able to bend them with a tiny screwdriver.
