Fascinations Metal Earth Batman Bat-Signal 3D Metal Model Kit

Alright, so I'm a former molecular biologist. I've extracted hippocampuses from mouse embryo brains using tiny tweezers and a microscope. On top of that, I have tiny fingers (ring size 3.5) and hard nails. So i thought putting something like this would be a piece of cake. NO IT ISN'T.You're going to need needle nose pliers for this. I honestly don't know how someone with large hands would handle it otherwise, especially for this piece. I even used my magnifying craft lamp several times too.A few tips:- Instead of using clippers to separate the metal pieces, bend them back and forth a few times.- Use your thumb nails to push the tabs in, not pull them outward. The tabs are tiny and if you try to pull them, chances are you'll get poked underneath your nail. Learn from my mistakes!- If you have a choice, bend the pieces so the perforations face inward. They bend a lot more evenly that way. I lost one of the tiny base pieces by breaking it while trying to straighten it. Luckily they give you extras of the really small pieces.- For this one, I'd also recommend having some kind of way to roll thin metal strips evenly, like fat pens or something. I didn't think of it, and the interior circles are little uneven. Doesn't matter much, since it's on the inside of the batsignal and mostly hidden, but if you're a real perfectionist, it'd be a good idea.Don't get me wrong, it's actually pretty straightforward. The directions are clear and color-coding the pieces in the diagram was an awesome idea. (Although, by the time I finished, I realized I had put the batsignal backwards on the base, and that part was such a pain, that I elected to leave it, haha.) It's straightforward, it just took me a while. A little more than an hour for this one, I think.

I'll open with a caveat: Every Metal Earth model has negative reviews from people who don't understand what they are buying. This is a small model kit in which you must bend very thin pieces of metal. If you twist a piece too many times, it will break. You need small cutters and needle nose pliers, and a pair of tweezers is recommended. If that does not sound like fun to you, don't buy Metal Earth models because you will not enjoy them.As for this particular model, it was harder than I anticipated. The little feet (6 each front and back) were a pain to get right, and they are close together making twisting the tabs difficult. The inside of the back piece has rings of ever expanding diameter which required finding different cylindrical objects to use as forms. The outer rings are the biggest of any Metal Earth model I've done to date. Mine did not turn out perfect, but they're so far back it's not that noticeable. The main body is one big piece, which was easier than I expected when I assumed there were several rings to bend.Once complete, this one looks fantastic, so I'm very happy with it.

This is a very cool model but on the downside it is really hard to build/put together and falls apart very easily

Lots of fun to build. Looks awesome when finished and Id say medium difficulty for the assembly. You’ll be better off investing in a magnifying visor and tools for this type of hobby.

This was my first metal earth kit. It took a few hours and the directions were pretty clear (there is also a lot of helpful info online and pictures of what to do, and a website with a rotatable picture of the completed model is given with the instructions). I used some tweezers to connect pieces and bend them and then pencils and pens of various thickness to create cylinders/bend pieces as needed because all of the pieces are flat in a metal sheet. The model once finished looks great and they included a couple extra pieces of smaller parts that were used a lot in case you mess up, which helped. This was my first earth metal kit and it had a bunch of very small pieces in it, I didn't find it very difficult but it definitely would not be good for a little kid, I would say 12 and up generally with this. But for something the is under $12 this was a great model and would make a perfect gift for a batman fan or fan of models.

You can't build the Batmobile without building the Batsignal. This was a fun and quick build.

Nice item and price. It was a little tough, but got it complete.

The circular parts were very challenging. I used a set of miniature screwdrivers, a mandrel, and coins to bend the pieces of varied radius around.I'm pleased with the result.