Are you a fast builder?

[Super ally]

I got a thundershot kit for christmas and have finshed building it and was wondering how long do you take to finish a kit.I know some kits are easier to build than others like 2wd and if they have pre cut and painted bodies.It took me a full day to finish the chassis and an hour to put decals on which is slow when i see this kit can be finished in 4 or 5 hours.So are any of you slow or fast at building your kits.

[Guest]

I can build anything pretty quickly, usually around 3-4 hours for something like a monster beetle/lunch box. I have a couple of M chassis cars and they took about 2-3 hours to build. I could probably knock up a TT02 in 1-2 hours as they are probably one of the easiest Tamiya kits to build IMO. 

[Super ally]

17 minutes ago, NUFCRc said:

I can build anything pretty quickly, usually around 3-4 hours for something like a monster beetle/lunch box. I have a couple of M chassis cars and they took about 2-3 hours to build. I could probably knock up a TT02 in 1-2 hours as they are probably one of the easiest Tamiya kits to build IMO. 

Thats fast compared to me,i always double check every step which slows things as well as i dont want to strip it down again.

[kevinb120]

Build in 2 days, sit on shelf for 2 years before painting 

[Twinfan]

I'm slow.  I like to make sure I cut the parts off the trees cleanly, take care screwing into plastic etc.  Plus I really enjoy the building process so I savour it!

I'm currently working on a Wild Willy 2.  The chassis was completed a month or so ago and I was waiting for the Christmas break to start on the body.  I'm still working on Willy himself, the first step, next step is the seat/steering wheel/gearknob etc.  Masking out for the seat is going to take me a while I think!  

[Hypoxic]

I just take my time and enjoy the build.

[Super ally]

9 minutes ago, Twinfan said:

I'm slow.  I like to make sure I cut the parts off the trees cleanly, take care screwing into plastic etc.  Plus I really enjoy the building process so I savour it!

I'm currently working on a Wild Willy 2.  The chassis was completed a month or so ago and I was waiting for the Christmas break to start on the body.  I'm still working on Willy himself, the first step, next step is the seat/steering wheel/gearknob etc.  Masking out foe the seat is going to take me a while I think!  

You build like me.

[futureworks]

16 hours ago, Twinfan said:

I'm slow.  I like to make sure I cut the parts off the trees cleanly, take care screwing into plastic etc.  Plus I really enjoy the building process so I savour it!

 

16 hours ago, Hypoxic said:

I just take my time and enjoy the build.

Yup, that just about sums up my approach, no rush, just enjoying the build process. Almost all of my projects are older or vintage NIB Tamiya which I’ve collected over the years and which are at the more complex/involved end of the scale, so like to give each one the time and attention they deserve. I’m currently almost 2 weeks into building a TGX-TRF chassis kit with a load of hop ups - build thread in the nitro section of the forum. That’s a 26 year old kit!

[BuggyDad]

I'm not really in it for the build process as such. I'm more in it for the design, for thinking about how I'll use it, and it's likely I'll change some stuff either at the outset or later. So right now I'm building a Top Force and it's probably taken me 2 days to assemble just gearboxes and suspension because along the way I've also CAD modelled the towers and chassis, messed about with and catered for my son, helped him a little with his own build etc. And I'll wander off on tangents quite a lot too, find something I want to research aftermarket parts to improve or strengthen, for example. Also, mostly I won't dedicate a whole day to the hobby. Half a day maybe or more often evenings. 

I like it this way. If what we're buying is the hours of enjoying the process, mine are quite cheap!

But even if I did try to knuckle down and concentrate on the build process as per the manual, and even if I had all the necessaries to hand and well organised (that's never going to happen), I don't think I'd ever be 4 hour kit guy. I also like to make clean cuts, sand the ball diff plates, shim this and that and tend to spend 2 hours scratching my head about where to put the wires etc etc. And to sticker a body in an hour is unrealistic for me. It takes me hours. 

So yeah, my kits are usually a project and that's usually a good couple of months. And if I was to estimate how long a project will take me in this hobby, I'll be out by a country mile. And that's from someone who in other aspects of life can estimate such things fairly well. I built four last year in probably my busiest RC year. They might even be getting slower too. My Stadium Blitzer was meant to be a quick build. It's 2.5 months in and unfinished. 

[Saito2]

At my old job I was the fastest builder with zero QA mistakes in the 5 years I worked there. I usually had some deep podcast about economics, literature,  comic books, engineering, or even RC jammed in my ear while my hands just "did their trick" on their own. When I came home, working fast was the last thing I wanted to do. I'm absolutely driven to build and fiddle with things (my safe space) so the concept of a desk job or computer work is lost on me.

I savor my builds and re-builds. Flush cut side cutters may make quick work of trimming off sprue  but I'd rather carefully trim parts with a knife, feeling the various grades of plastic yielding to the blade's sharpness in their own unique way: the crisp hardness of ABS/PC, the soft and buttery give of standard PA or the grainy grit of glass reinforced plastics. Its probably why I still prefer JIS fasteners to hex as I feel more connected to the process of tightening down fasteners, almost like the enjoyment of driving manual vs the dullness of automatic. The satisfaction of finally getting that pinion mesh "just right"...all of it a joy to the senses "in my hands". When everything is built up slowly and carefully with utmost attention, I feel better and can sleep at night. If something didn't quite go right, I'll be back at it, grinding away at the problem until I'm satisfied, so no, I am not a fast builder.

[joeling]

I usually build and watch anime at the same time. So, not a fast build but rather pass time while working on the kit. With age, my fingers have lost a bit of dexterity and I drop small bits too often. So, my floor has to be white for me to quickly id of the dropped parts most often bolts and screws.

[Tamiyastef]

I love building kits. I really really take my time for it. I'd like to be better (and faster) at finishing bodies and especially at applying stickers, that always takes me ages. Same for routing electric wires for electronics and LED lights. 

Doing speed builds is not my cup of tea.

[donfilippo]

When I built my DT-02 with Rough Rider body, all the chassis was done in a single feavery night shift...  But normally I am a slow builder. I enjoy the process, listening to music or a podcast in the background, preferably late in the evening. Putting on decals has became one of my faves, so that takes me ages! 

[Pizza Frog]

I've spent over a year building a Boomerang.

I have a note that says I still need to put on 6 stickers, and then it will be finished.  But I loathe putting on stickers so have been procrastinating.   

generally though, I usually build a car in a week and the paintjob takes a few weeks and the stickers take about a week.  

[mtbkym01]

Yeah I’m pretty slow with a project. Sometimes my builds will take months to complete, other times might be just a few days, and I cant really explain why. Bodies are usually the biggest hold up for me, I have a weird love/hate relationship with bodies, sometimes I just cant get motivated to get them done, other times I crack on and get 3 done in as many days (Between Xmas a new year has been one such moment).

Currently procrastinating about what project is next

[chris.alex]

Because I enjoy each step, I tend to be slow when it comes to assembling kits. It is meditative and calming. While I find it interesting to know the total number of parts, I can't say exactly how many hours it will take me to build a kit. Maybe 10 x 2 hours? I really don't know. 

[Mad Ax]

I tend to be a slow builder these days, as I like to enjoy the process and don't want it to end too quickly.  Although in some ways I'm getting a bit jaded and find more and more often I don't enjoy certain parts, like assembling shocks and turnbuckles.  Especially turnbuckles on race kits which tend to be super-tight and hurt my fingertips, even with good tools to help.  (I've yet to find a good turnbuckle spanner that fits all my turnbuckles and doesn't round off like a bad aluminium hex head.)

So, I can work faster and turn the bits I don't like into a production line, dependent on the build, just to get them done.

I also tend to break my builds up into small rations, so it's not over too fast.  An hour or so, here and there.

Sometimes I'll build on the sofa, which is less comfortable and enjoyable than building at my workbench, but I can do it while I'm spending time with my daughter, instead of using my limited solo time, so it's a trade-off.  I'll probably build much faster at my workbench because I'm more comfortable and everything's to hand.  If I build on the sofa I'm constantly back-and-forth to the workshop to grab the tools / parts / whatever that I forgot to get on the last round, or didn't realise I needed.

I've had a few builds that have been stalled for over a year because I haven't got the time, space or inclination to paint the bodies.  I don't really count that in "build speed."

I'd love to do one of the Buggython events where a team must build, paint and complete a car ready to race in a set timeframe.

Sometimes I'm forced to build faster, like when I need a specific car for an event, but I don't enjoy it that way.

I can build quick, if I had to, but I don't want to.  The best things in life are more enjoyable when they last longer.

[CMshooter]

The chassis normally go together fairly quickly, just a couple of hours.  Painting and decals take me much longer.  An entire day if I am off work.  I think my TT02 body took 2 weeks only working on it in the evenings to get 3 colors on the body, plus tint the windows and do box art decals.

[markbt73]

It depends on the build. Box-stock, by-the-book assembly goes pretty fast, but I almost never do that anymore. If I have an idea but need to find/obtain parts to do it, then I put that build on the back-burner until I have what I need, sometimes months later.

And sometimes, I get to 95% done, body painted but not detailed, for example, and just run it like that for a while. I never really did "finish" my Bruiser's stock body, and now it has something else on it.

Custom builds and restorations, I'm incredibly slow at. They can take years. But it means I always have something to do.

[Old_Corny]

Slow

But I do enjoy the build process, will shortly be back on the TC-01 now the festivities and family stuff is done

[dannymulder]

I am extra slow builder, I like to take my time and to not rush and check every step a few times, because I want to build it without mistakes.

The extra slow is because I am chaotic, when start to build sooner or later it become a big pile of parts and tools and other stuff, and then I can't find the part that I need or the tool, so 50% of my time I spent searching for tools or parts , sometimes it frustrates me, I think its a ADHD thing.

The wierd thing is that I do not like a messy or dirty house and I am organized, but if I am going to do something like odd jobs in the house or reparing my scooter or building kit or other stuff, I am just mister chaos and always lose something and them I have to spend time searching for stuff.

[Dan1891]

I'm very very slow...Can be years...But it's fun anyway!

[magnumb]

If i have to build for a race i;m planning on going to, then i'll build like my life depends on it!!

If it's a kit for running around the garden with then it could be years...even if someone threatens me  

[Wystan Withers]

On 1/1/2025 at 10:47 AM, kevinb120 said:

Build in 2 days, sit on shelf for 2 years before painting 

Closer to 10 years for my re-re Sand Scorcher.

[Elbowloh]

Depends on how many hop-ups I want and how long they take to arrive!