Fascinations Metal Earth Apollo Saturn V with Gantry 3D Metal Model Kit

My 1st one, and I love it. I have been a model builder since 1964, and I can already tell that this is my new “medium”. The don’ts probably will let you know what you are getting into.1. Don’t be a “ perfectionist”, no glue or fasteners other than the tabs that fold in little inserts, ALL the pieces will not be perfectly butted up to each other like in a plastic model, it WILL be loosey-goosey!2. Don’t be impatient! Don’t be impatient!Extreme patience is mandatory!

I love these models! Quality is fantastic, provided you have the tools and skill to assemble them. I highly recommend buying a mandrel and bending jig kit, also a good assortment of high quality tweezers and flush cut nippers are essential! I wound up 3d printing mandrels and jigs as needed but some kits are available. The models are all small! As in tiny! But the detail is AMAZING! One of my favorite kits was old man and the sea. The waves had legible text from the novel printed on them! You need magnification to read it but it is all there. Really incredible! I should also mention they have painted models now. I just got the Constitution (the boat) model it's one of their pained models can't wait to build it. Will leave a review when it's done.

I only gave this 4 stars because in theory it's a great build, but in reality it is nearly impossible to get a perfect build, and given that I'm a perfectionist, it's a little frustrating. Particularly the curved smaller (relatively, because they are all small) parts like the engines are very difficult to get right. For the ramps that come out from the Launch Umbilical Tower, I would twist the tabs, then fold them to get a tight fit. For the body of the rocket, I would roll them around a properly-sized writing instrument to get a good look. From afar it looks really good. Just don't take too close a look at it. It would be interesting to build this model at 2-3 times the size. Here it is pictured next to my LEGO Saturn V and my foam 3D puzzle Saturn V.

Very small and tedious. Take your time and you will be rewarded!

I've put together a few of these now. They're great to get the creative juices flowing. Just challenging enough for me. I would say the models tend to tear up fingernails. I use a mini needle nose pliers to help with the bend. I've done enough of them and want more to consider investing in the tool help with the bits that turn into tubes or need to be rounded. A quick caution, don't bend tabs back and forth too much because it will tear. Overall, I very much enjoy putting these together.

I didn't realize i needed reader glasses until i started building these kits.

Easy to assemble and good value for hobby collection. Model was painted in different parts for visual enchancement.

I have done several of these and I just finished the piececool Notre dame which took me months and was significantly harder to assemble. I didn't make one mistake during that entire model.This one is very quick and easy if you are familiar with these, except for the poor instructions which caused me to make a mistake. I ended up throwing this model away because it was too difficult to repair and parts broke while trying to do so.The problem is the instructions use NE to indicate the non engraved side. That is fine, but on the small pieces there is almost no engraving and some of the laser marking is visible from both sides of the piece so it can be difficult to determine which side is engraved once you snip it out of the sheet.The instructions are very confusing because they show you the outline with an arrow showing you how to fold it. However, the outline is flipped to show you the orientation in the sheet before snipping, NOT necessarily the orientation you should hold the part before making the indicated fold. This is completely counterintuitive, and caused me to ruin the model when combined with the difficulty of identifying the engraved side.For this particular instruction step the perspective view of the 3D model was such that you cannot determine the correct or incorrect orientation until much later, otherwise I would have caught the mistake when I still had the chance to correct it.I think a cursory review/edit of the instructions should have caught this point of confusion. For me it is inexcusable, I will go with piececool or one of the other brands. Luckily this was an easy one, not a model that I had already sunk many hours into.