Haunebu II by Sqadron
Expensive disappointment... Attempt salvage.

Jens Andrée
Kit arrived after finally breaking out $115 and ordering it! More money than I could afford but the kit seemed so cool...

Jens Andrée
Sadly things wend south as soon as I begun assembly of the lower hull. One of the pieces was really bent out of shape! Like 12 mm (1/2 inch) out of shape! On a thin plastic part this is easy-ish to bend back, but this is really thick plastic and there's a lot of spring force behind this!
I've tried to glue it 3 times, used extra material to strengthen it on the backside, and heaps of CA glue but when applying putty and trying to reshape the mating surfaces it snapped again and now I've had enough!

Jens Andrée
I contacted Squadron and super kindly told them about the ordeal, and that I was unable to continue this build.
I even asked if I could purchase new parts to replace my faulty ones - obviously hoping they'd admit some sort of manufacturer problem and send them for free, but the only reply I got was "this is a normal issue, nothing we can do".

That answer put me off all kind of modelling and I just put it back in the box and was angry for over a week.
Is this the expected quality when paying $115 for a kit? From a company that's just produced their first kit???
I sent them a reply to their response with another picture really explaining why I can't continue and that I was unhappy with their answer, but this is now five days ago and they haven't even bothered to reply...

I'm NOT happy how Squadron has handled this at all! I fully understand that thermoplastics can be tricky sometimes, especially when making this large pieces, but to say that there's nothing they can do and this is normal is bullshit! Dodgy/broken/faulty parts should be replaced if you ask me - not just ignored.

This is not a $10 cheap Chinese knockoff eBay kit, this is a premium kit by a company that lives on making/selling scale modelling equipment, and now their own kit.

A big fat thumbs down to Squadron for this! Right now my Haunebu II is probably just going to go in the bin because I'm to upset to even think about it. I haven't got the parts I need to finish it anyway...

Beware of this if you, like me, plan to buy this expensive kit because there's zero support if something's wrong or broken, just "this is normal, nothing we can do".

Project on hold.

Wim van der Luijt
have you tried running hot water over the parts and then bending into shape?

Jens Andrée
Wim van der Luijt - the plastic parts in this kit are very thick. I mean really thick! I contemplated using a hot air gun but by that time I'd had enough to be honest. It's too far off. If I'd known beforehand then perhaps I could've done something when it wasn't assembled, but with the centre piece in place it's not so easy to heat and bend. You shouldn't have to - especially when it's such an expensive kit!
We must be allowed to demand some sort of quality. That's my opinion anyway.

Jens Andrée
Big update in album! Long story short, still no reply from Squadron and I've given up, but instead of throwing the kit in the trash I decided to just bodge it and do what I could and I've been somewhat successful! Read the rest in the album😉

Jens Andrée
...and the weathering process has begun. Bought acrylic burnt umber by mistake instead of oil paint but it kinda worked out anyway... Took forever though.