It was at the premiere of Godzilla, two days before my birthday that my friend Benedict Bartolome gave me my Metal Earth Kit. We had talked about it over Facebook a week before, and he was asking why I wasn’t blogging about toys even though I was a toy collector.
I told him about some past plans before, but I just can’t seem to find ( or at least the budget for) toys that would really stand out from your ordinary Toys R Us and Toy Kingdom variety, so when he asked if I was interested in model kits, I immediately said yes!
Now, I’m not into the Gundam Kit craze, but I do have a collection of those plastic and wooden model kits of cars, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, but I wasn’t too happy with the finished product, which was just to “plain” for me.
I was expecting a bigger kit that the one he gave me, which was about the size of a DVD case, and was very excited to build it the moment I got home— unfortunately work, and a couple of out of town trips pushed me back.
I finally found time last Friday night, and excitedly set up my table lamp to build my very first METAL EARTH Model.
I got the WRIGHT BROTHERS AIRPLANE model, Benedict told me he finished in just 20 minutes so I thought I could do mine in an hour or so after dinner time.
“On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.”
I opened the kit in 12 seconds, I finished building it two hours later. Its not that difficult I just mixed up a couple of steps.
The Metal Earth Wright Brothers Airplane Kit comes in a single package that includes 1 metal sheet with the laser 3D cut-outs along and instruction booklet.
Like I said, I’ve done wood, and paper model kits before, but the metal sheet looked too flimsy for me at first and I was trying to be very careful not to bend the pieces too much or to accidentally cut of the metal tabs.
The manual suggested I use a pair of needle nosed pliers but since I didn’t have one, I decided to use a nipper and tweezor— which gets the work done but a bit longer, I guess.
As the manual also suggested I went to the website to view the 3D model so I’d have an idea where each piece needed to go.
You start off by taking each individual piece out of the metal sheet casing. My model had about 20 parts in total, and there are really very small pieces. I had to wear my glasses and use an extra table lamp. I suggest you lay it out on the black side of an illustration board so you could see each piece better. Also be careful of cutting the tabs from the metal sheet. They are not sharp but you might dent the piece if you are not careful.
Connect each piece together and lock it by inserting the tabs and folding it to lock. This is where the pliers could have helped a lot. It’s hard to fold the tabs with the tweezer especially those ones that are closely connected.
Also be sure to check if you are using the right side of the piece (the one with some etched designs) as I kinda messed up a couple after attaching it to the wing and had to detach several pieces again.
Here is a video slideshow of how I put it together:
Check the manual–always.
For this model, the most difficult part was attaching the tail plate, and the upper wing to the frame.
Except for a few small dents, I think I did a fairly good job on this kit, although really need to get the right set of tools for my next kit.
Here is the original
Here is Metal Earth’s version pretty nice right?
For me, Metal Earth, is probably the best model kit I’ve assembled compared to the wood, plastic and paper ones. Its made of metal so its pretty light weight and the etched details are really quite impressive. The Wright Plane is one of the easiest but if it’s going to be your first ever attempt at building a toy kit, I suggest looking for other models with lesser “thin” pieces.
Since its also has some etched designs there really is no need for stickers or to paint this kit as it already looks great on its own. I also discovered its quite cheaper than other model kits in the market so I am definitely getting more sets in the future… maybe some simpler ones before I do STAR WARS!
Again thanks to Benedict for introducing me to Metal Earth Kits. If you’re interested in toys and model kits you can visit TOYNERD HOBBIES at their Facebook page. www.facebook.com/toynerd.hobbies
