Damned Daimler! (or... you get what you pay for)

Beware ebay bargains...  The run up to Christmas saw me  tussling with a very difficult kit of a Daimler scout car, bought as a bargain off ebay.  It arrived unboxed but with instructions, and looked simple enough.  Instead it proved to be possibly the most frustrating kit I've built; the instructions appeared to have been badly translated, possibly through several different languages, and the diagrams were poorly drawn, badly laid out and, in places, downright wrong (like showing parts for the front being attached to the rear)!  The fact that a lot of the parts were poorly fitting just made things worse.  The irony is that a bit of research suggests that this kit, from 'Science Treasury' is a poor copy of the  Hasegawa kit of the same vehicle (from the 1970's no less!), which I've heard described as a great kit and really simple to build.

Nonetheless, I managed to get it pretty much together, after much trimming of parts and several occasions of having to take bits apart again for a rebuild.  You'll note the sheer amount of glue spread everywhere, looking very amateurish!

Detail isn't great either, the Daimler should be covered in rivets, but it seems to be the right shape.  The question is, will painting it save it enough to be worthwhile?

Hmm...  Well, it's not as bad as I feared after a quick and simple paintjob (Fow British Armour spray, with a quick drybrush for highlights and some allied stars).  It'll pass muster on the tabletop but I'm not ecstatic.  I have a feeling I'll be picking up another Brit scout car at some point as a replacement.  The Humber that Hasegawa made looks like a nice kit...

By contrast, I've also just put together the airfix sdkfz222 and Kubelwagen from their Reconnaissance Set, which was a dream to build, but more on that another time ;-)