UGEARS Rescue Hovercraft

Easy to assemble, 90% of the parts fit together great—a lot of fun.

The long rainy days, which typically punctuate the end of winter in this state, which straddles the Pacific, kept us indoors, and I finally found myself with enough time to put this wooden DIY scale boat kit.It's my first time assembling a scale model kit made in Ukraine. Most of them are from Japan or China and, of course, are made in the US.For a wooden toy scale-model kit made from what was once part of the Soviet Union, it's well-crafted and packaged.I could imagine the factory where these sets came from being modern and utilizing the latest machinery to produce them in quantities immediately after they're CAD-ed (computer-aided design) and approved for production.As other reviewers had experienced, some of the smaller pieces are difficult to remove from the wooden sheets without breaking them, but my X-actos are up to the task.The instructions are well-written but not exceptionally detailed—I have to re-read many steps so as not to encounter what kit assemblers disdain: dismantling a previously assembled group that would fit only in a particular orientation—only to find out that one tiny piece had been overlooked!It took me an entire week to finally display it atop one of my bookshelf speakers inside our entertainment cum computer room, but I enjoyed the time I had with the kit. I also plan to find out if I had put up the kit very well -- its mechanical features/moving parts should work well ---when we fill up with water the outdoor hot tub on the patio this summer!Despite its $$ tag, I would find out more about this Ukrainian toy company and would be more than willing to repurchase their well-designed wooden kits in the future.

This is a fun build that managed to also get me more familiar with a ‘hovercraft’. Having never seen a hovercraft before, this build wasn’t as obvious as a car would have been. The wood is very well-cut, and I didn’t have any pieces break on me. There are no wasted pieces. It is a very flat build, so it took up more room on my desk than any other build before - I would have been better off using the kitchen table/a larger surface to work on. It is a nice addition to my collection!

Another fun build. The only tricky part was installing the coil spring. Just follow the instructions and it will become apparent as to how it should end up. This kit consisted of 383 pieces on five sheets of 3mm plywood, the spring, rubber bands, sandpaper and wax. There were another two dozen or so spare parts. I did end up needing a couple of them because some of the plywood chipped off when I was removing them from the sheets. The box says that the assembly time is 6 hours, but it took me about 16 hours to complete. To me the pleasure is in the build and not necessarily the finished model. I take my time and cut the sprues with a razor knife and sand down any of the left-over nub. A couple of assembly tips. To help remove the small parts, I inserted a piece of the plywood in the center hole and rocked it around to break the part free. See the first picture. Also, you can see in the second picture that I used a tiny hammer to seat some of the parts into the holes. Even though I thoroughly waxed every moving part, I still had some sticking points. I brushed on a little bit Vaseline and worked it in, and that helped.

As with any of the wooden puzzles take your time and don't force pieces if need be sand a little to get to fit or you will find yourself snapping pieces and they don't come with replacement pieces. I only found one or two pieces that I needed to modify to complete this kit. It can be a relaxing project if you go into it not rushed. The end result will give your a feeling of achievement.

Another great UGEARS product. I love getting to build models and these are always great because they have more moving parts than some others out there. This one caught my eye because it's a speedy boat and who doesn't love a boat? All of the pieces, per usual, are well cut and the instructions are very well assembled. As of writing this, I haven't finished putting it together (look I like taking my time on these) but everything is fitting together nicely