20 Best Wooden Model Kits (2022 Updated)

Got this kit last Friday(Dec 10th) and built it over course of two days(took breaks). Its a fun, challenging kit. The gear mechanism worked up to the mid point of the build, just at the end of the whole gear parts were finished.

Wax did not help it at all. Also I’m not sure I trust it not to break down the road with the tension of the rubber bands on the one part as its only held by a wood clip. I got it for being a dragon, as I collect dragons and like to build things, so this worked for my in that regard.

I just won’t be using the flapping much if at all.

Normally I build Lego kits but I wanted to try something different and a little more of a challenge! This was definitely it! This was my second wood model kit I’ve done and took me about 10 hours. Gears got a little stuck before putting in the rubber bands but after working the gears a little bit everything works perfectly! Sanded some of the parts down a little more to make sure they would fit in the holes, especially on the delicate wing parts.

TranslateShow in original languageDas bisher beste Produkt von Occre. Die Konstruktion ist sehr gut durchdacht und in den Bauteilen umgesetzt. Die Präzision der Bauteile ist auf einem sehr hohen Niveau.

Der Bau der Prinz Eugen ist eine echte Herausforderung. Bei der Lieferung der Einzelteile bitte etwas mehr Sorgfalt: Y 90: Geschützrohre: Nur 6 anstatt 8 geliefert (problemlos nachgebaut) Y 49: Lüfter?, Nur 2 anstatt 4 geliefert (problemlos nachgebaut) Habe bisher alle Tram, Eisenbahnwagen und Lokomotiven von Occre gebaut.

Hoffentlich gelingt Ihnen bald ein neuer, vergleichbar guter “Wurf” Hans Borner.

TranslateShow in original languagePrinz eugen Top chouettes produit et beaucoup de détails

This kit I really thought was going to be a pain in the ass but actually turned out to be fun as long as u pay attention when setting ur code make sure you take a little extra time and make sure its right before going on and sand all spots that need wax smooth before adding wax my trick is to used a drywall sponge sanding block or a finger nail file.

Cant wait for my Dad to tinker with this! He loves puzzles and I think this will be a good one for him!

It was easy to assemble and my cousin loved it.

This is a product made possible by Laser cutting ! It is a precision job , BUT beware ! You need to be some good at wood modelling. It’s not for the faint hearted. I’m struggling with some areas , but making a better fist of the Easier sections.

with the acquisition of excellent figures , I hope to make something to be proud of ? It’s a big hope.

Excellent quality, challenging but buildable. 5 Stars

Challenging and ideal for a long project.

This wooden model has well designed, laser cut pieces that are individually marked for easy sorting. Sand with an emery board before assembly. The model is very well designed and engineered. It assembled easily with just enough tension to keep pieces in place.

Pay close attention to the instructions – similar parts a few variations so pay attention to each parts list. I m enjoying this project immensely.

Guillow balsa model airplane kits have been around since 1926. They have always done the best to satisfy the model builder with traditional flying model airplane kits, most of them scale of full size famous aircraft, This version of the Wright brothers’ Flyer of 1903 is non flying model but it is a very precise and easy to build shelf model of this famous aircraft.

Excellent balsa, plans and instructions. If you want to know more about this airplane, get this kit and build it. You won’t regret it. Greetings from Colombia. EDUARDO.

Possibly the best museum quality kit of the wright flyer on the market. This kit took me two years to complete and requires some modeling experience and skill. The time and effort invested were well worth it.

The detail in the wing spars, struts and rigging makes it look just like it should be in a museum display case. It is an extremely delicate display only model and is not intended as a flying model. I’m delighted with the results I got from making my model.

This kit is for advanced model makers. After searching Internet we found the projected time for completion is 30-40 hours. The instructions are terrible and you must rely on common sense and the enclosed picture.

The balsa wood is very delicate, and there is no extra pieces when a piece cracks.

Excellent product however I would advise glue on the lower feet sides as they kept falling off. Other than that I am very impressed

TranslateShow in original languageEs ist wirklich erstaunlich wie viel Detail und liebe in dem Bausatz stecken. Noch dazu ist das Preisleistungs Verhältnis top. Ich habe den Hexapod meinen Freund geschenkt weil er gern bastelt! Er war sehr fasziniert davon genau so wie ich 🙂 Zusammen haben wir ihn aufgebaut und nun krabbelt er durch die Wohnung;) Sehr zu empfehlen.

TranslateShow in original languageTrès belle maquette 3D de robotique reposant uniquement sur la mécanique pure. Cadeau qui a eu son effet de surprise! Achat réalisé rapidement et heureusement au regard de la rupture de stock actuelle.

En plus, le prix est tout à fait correct / certains revendeurs sur d’autres sites.

This product was highly desired as it looked so sexy. The laser cut design had flaws in it unfortunately as modules that worked freely (due to ample waxing and sanding) jammed up when combined with other modules.

An extreme example of this that could be cured is the hood that goes over the moving engine heads. It is cut slightly too long in the design such that every piece of the aggregated hood — [look at the photo of the hood to comprehend how much work this created to assemble correctly] — had to be filed off on the end in order for the hood unit to close properly.

The flat center piece in the middle of the hood had to be BEVEL SANDED in order to make it fit properly with the many aforementioned pieces that make up the hood. After assembling everything, and getting more and more angry at the asinine design as the end was in sight, the controls associated with winding jammed so that the rubber band motor’s power is not translated to wheels properly.

The roadster cannot travel. With over EIGHTY of these 3-dimensional wooden puzzles to my credit, I am sad to report that this particular kit’s design was flawed because I know how to follow the instructions.

I can even make minor repairs to make units work. But I cannot overcome design mistakes that are laser burned into the wooden planks by the product’s creator.

I bought this as a ‘lockdown’ project, and it kept me occupied for about a week. This kit is really very cleverly designed and manages to pack in a lot of working features using wooden gears, cams and bearings.

It is great fun to build, but does require care and patience to get everything to work correctly. I do not agree with the reviews that claim it doesn’t work – it does, provided care is taken in the assembly.

Bear in mind that all the moving parts are plywood, so all rubbing and rolling surfaces need to be carefully smoothed with the sandpaper provided before lubrication with wax (also provided). Then each part of the mechanism needs to be checked for correct and smooth operation before moving on.

it takes time, but the result is worth it. My one gripe is the need to create different lengths of elastic bands from the set of standard length ones provided by tying knots in the elastic. This really is fiddly (and not very accurately done in my case).

Also, there is quite a lot of ‘mechanism’ packed into a smallish space, and the knots in the elastic can easily get in the way and stop things working – annoying !Apart from that, definitely 5 stars – now that mine is finished it will rush about 10m across a smooth floor.

Parts were cut well and fitted together but the cocktail sticks supplied for the kit were too small and did not enable the kit to be fixed together properly. I had to buy a separate lot of cocktail sticks to be able to assemble the kit.

This may sound trivial but the kit relies heavily on cocktail sticks in its construction and did not work with the sticks provided. In other kits I have had from Ugears the sticks have been 2mm diameter and the holes have matched perfectly these were just cheap nasty irregular shaped sticks not even round in section.

Shame as this has put me off buying any further kits.

Wanted a kit that looked good and provided something different to other plastic offerings. It over achieved this requirement easily. Parts are perfectly cut and presented with clear instruction booklet.

Quality is fantastic. The challenge of assembly keeps you focused and is rewarding as you build and test a fully functioning engine and gearbox (even before you tackle the rest of the car). Displaying the finished model is a natural progression from hanging your planes from the ceiling with fishing wire when you were a kid starting out.

Met all expectations and more from start to finish. No glue, no screws just lots of patience with a level of problem solving added for good measure. At the 36 I paid, it feels like an absolute bargain.

Buy, build, display and smile!.

Did not get it. Supplier credited my account. The picture looks great though

Perfect for the mantle! Looks gorgeous over our fireplace. Beautifully detailed and made with quality.

The detail. is Great, Packeged very well.

This one of the finest 3D models that I have put together. All the pieces fit like they should.

TranslateShow in original languageDas war eine ganz schöne Fummelei mit den Ventilen, aber alles geschafft. Bernd

TranslateShow in original languageIch war enttäuscht die Teile passten nicht zusammen und beim Motor passte es erst recht nicht

I have had great enjoyment building a number of UGear harder kits. They all had some sort of difficulty in the build and subsequent function. But everything does work out. Having numerous problems on present prone t,Mechanical Horse.

Can’t believe it will work. Great funanyway. If You walk away awhile and then return,it will fit,,.

Bought as a Christmas gift, looks good quality. Cannot say as yet how durable the finished model will be or how easy to build, as this hasn’t happened yet.

Possibly tied for the worst kit ever made. Totally out of scale parts, especially belaying pins that no human could get their hand around and sails that look like door mats. OcCre obviously never does proper research or worse, they do and then ignore what they have found.

There are FAR better kit makers out there for anyone that wants a model that looks like an actual ship.

Beagle Order Feedback I think you may have some problem with your order record keeping. I received the HMS Beagle model well over a year ago and have finished the project. It was my first model build and found it both challenging and very rewarding.

Since then I have also ordered the Esmeralda from your company and look forward to starting on it soon.

It’s really great to create with OcCre products I love it. I just finished HMS TERROR and my experience was amazing. I just started HMS BEAGLE and I’m sure it will be the same!

Absolutes Highlight

We’ve purchased several different wooden kits similar to this safe but from different manufacturers, and this one required more strength/brute force to put together than the others. A child or tween wouldn’t be able to do this on her/his own, and some pieces are difficult to push/snap/force together even for an adult.

Our safe is even marked with a few drops of my husband’s blood resulting from a minor knuckle scrape during one step. We enjoy putting puzzles and kits like this together, but this one was a bit more frustrating because of the strength required.

Some steps and drawings could also be clearer, although we were able to work out way through.

Bought as a present for my grandson. He’s very mechanically inclined and loves to figure out how things work. Also has a fascination with puzzle boxes and other types of containers, so a wooden safe seemed like a perfect match.

He had a great time assembling it, but some of the parts were a bit difficult to fit together. Overall it came out very nice, and is attractive. The kit is made of high quality natural wood materials.

Got this kit as a Christmas present. I’ve built dozens of ships from a variety of kit manufacturers, primarily older wooden ships with extensive rigging using plank-on-bulkhead models. This kit is, beyond question, the worst.

Instructions that are contradictory when not just indecipherable pale in comparison to the most incompetently cut parts. Most pre-cuts only go 3/4 of the way through the base woods thickness resulting in hours of manual cutting and repairing broken bulkheads that did not survive the manual cutting.

I’,m about halfway through putgh and have spent at least 40 hours of unnecessary completion of poorly cut parts. Perhaps I got a bad kit, but I would never imagine SUCH a bad kit. A beautiful boat when finished, my hope is my hands and sanity survive the aggravation and tediousness of fixing all the shortcomings of this model.

This kit arrived in great shape – well packaged and no shipping damage. The model looks great although I have not started to build it yet. Garrett Wade had the best price for this model, out of all the internet sources I found.

On top of that, it was on sale and had free shipping. I appreciate that this specific model has a companion book Mahogany in Scale (sold elsewhere) with detailed instructions on the build process, because it has been many years since I did a lot of modeling as a kid.

The RC electronics (radio and motor) for this model can be purchased from Dumas Models.

Shipped promptly, all parts present and accounted for. I have completed the frame and will start gluing the bottom today. Everything fit as shown in the instructions. Instructions are very detailed and complete.

I am looking forward to getting the mahogany mounted. I plan to order the motor and control kit, run her on the lake behind our house.

This is the first UGears model I have been disappointed with. It is far too complicated, some of the pieces are very difficult to remove without breaking them. The distribution of numbers is very difficult to follow particularly when they on on a piece which is the middle of another piece and therefore no longer on a numbered sheet.

The tabs are invariably bigger than the holes and need filing down almost every time. The built parts are very difficult to fit together. I have wide experience with 3D Wooden model building and I am not at all sure I will ever finish this one.

If I do I know it will not work and will only be “decorative”. I will be resorting to glue to hopefully stop it falling to pieces. Reading the reviews I know I am not alone in these comments. A waste of money and it wasn’t cheap.

I recently finished a Lego model of a Porsche 911 GT2 RS with 2700 parts. It was difficult and sometimes frustrating because I made mistakes and had to tear it down and rebuild it several times. My point is it can be done and I didn’t worry about parts breaking because they are made of ABS plastic.

The car has tons of gears and they all work! It’s expensive but worth it. Your Aviator kit looks just as good, less parts but less money and the engineering looks great. I broke 2 major pieces just getting them out of the frame! They were not the first pieces I removed successfully.

I am still waiting for replacement parts (it’s been 3 weeks). I put the helicopter together with much difficulty because every connection has to be sanded and waxed no matter what the instructions say because the fit is so tight.

The gears on the helicopter are so flimsy that I lost at least 6 teeth off the small cogs just trying to get the rotor to spin. If I have the same trouble with the airplane I will not purchase anything else from you.

I will try the forums to see if anyone else has these problems! Sincerely, Arlen Lapidus.

The pieces were very difficult to assemble, even using wax. I broke some pieces trying to make them fit and had to glue them together. Some of the illustrations were vague and I had to take apart an assembly to reverse a piece.

After it was finished, there was too much friction with the gears and it went slow and stopped often. I have had much better luck with other UGEAR kits. After this one, I will not be buying any more UGEAR kits.

Due to a very persistant numbness in my fingers I am, almost unable to thread the rigging cord through the necessary holes. It is so frustrating I have to give up doing it and do something else. None of this has anything t do with the model which is excellent as always.

I just would like to complete something I have started. Do you have a catalogue, I have never seen one but would very much like to have one for the 3D Models. Keith.

I had not made a model for over sixty years. it was a welcome distraction in these Covid times. the kit is excellent and all parts fitted very well. some of the photos could do with being more explicit.

I am still unsure of where one rope is meant to go from the top of the main. I am a sailor so have a good knowledge of rigging boats. so study the pictures carefully before running any of the string(rope) to be sure you know where and what it goes to or through.

all in all good fun.

I love this model, I got it as a birthday gift last year but told myself I could not put it together until my work desk was cleared off. The pandemic shifted everything to my home and I finally got it all sorted.

It took me a couple afternoons to complete and a couple moments of take that apart and put it together the correct way- but as this is my first mechanical model that’s totally fine. I enjoyed assembling it, figuring things out and solving the problems I created.

Only issue I had with the instructions was, at the end of construction the 90 degree horizontal gear was not quite high enough to consistently catch the vertical gear assembly that turned everything else.

After double checking and not finding anything I just added one of the extra locking circles found as “additional” on the board to raise the bottom gear. It works perfectly and will keep me entertained and sane during the next boring zoom meeting.

Thanks so much, you have made me very happy. – also, I LIKE the fact that it is not designed to “keep time” It is much more fun for me to spin it manually and watch everything move. If it had to keep to a schedule I couldn’t manipulate it on my own.

Since I still spend half my work life on asynchronous time, this clock keeps that perfectly.

Like the other Ugears products we already have, quality of manufacturing is exceptional, instructions are very detailed and the provision of wax for friction reduction shows the thought that goes in an exceptional product.

Further, if a piece is broken or somehow worn out, ANY piece can be requested and received free of charge worldwide.

Awesome entry-level puzzle! Your introduction to these 3D wooden puzzles. Very entertaining! Well built and designed with accurate instructions in English.

I want to start by stating how impressive Ugears normally are. Their range is amazing and some of the products I have obtained are wonderful, the V8 car, the mystery box, and the flower are just a few and I will certainly continue to get more of their products.

However this one is just pure disappointment. The design looks exciting and the idea of the two parts looked intriguing as to how they function. So when I came to assemble it I was surprised to find problems fairly soon.

The base of the weapon didnt run smoothly and no matter how I tried to configure it it wouldn’t come together and therefore the rest of the model couldnt work. This was incredibly frustrating for two reasons as the video of it fully formed (how?!) made it look really interesting.

Second was the slip of paper inside the instructions with the designers saying how they love this model more than most (other models are far better, you have a working transmission in a car?!) yet I can’t fathom how this is right when there are problems with the tower as well.

Two small items are required to hold an aspect of the tower in place but they fall out really easily. only to reveal they are useless anyway as the tower goes up and down just fine without them. Antother issue is the “staircase” idea for the central column; it is hard to push items that are meant to click onto a very fragile wooden column for one and another it is pointless again as when the tower rises the part just gets in the way of the rest of the design.

One last issue is Ugears use of elastic bands that require specific lengths to tie to get the right size loop. Why? Just provide the right size band please. Rival companies do this and it makes sense as the knot is only too likely to loosen and reduce the function of the model!In conclusion, Ugears had a great idea here but romance for their idea over proper function and enjoyment for everyone else went too far this time and it sorely needs an update.

Very hard to assemble. When designing this thing, they have taken the approach of using no glue, but it does not work out. You have to hammer most of the parts in place. And I had to stop a few times, because my fingers were hurting.

All the time, I kept thinking how great this would be, if it were made out of LEGO pieces. The worst part is that the archballista has one special piece that goes inside a cogwheel and is supposed to move in just one direction and jam when turned the other direction.

Well, this part is rather easy to break and no spare is provided. For some reason, there are spare parts for numerous other unimportant (and not so easily breakable) pieces, but just not this one. Poor design, I call that.

The tower is great, I admit it. This item would be totally worth if it was just the tower for half the price. The archballista is a total waste of time and effort. +1 star for the tower.

This one requires very small hands and fingers so one can tie knots in the small pieces of rubber bands and push the tiny parts in place that hold some of the rubber bands in place. I’ve been working on the Ballista for three days and so far have only completed the base.

I also noticed the tolerances are a lot tighter on this than the previous models I’ve built. Sometimes I’ve had to use a small vise or clamp to push the pins in because they were so tight. I don’t like to trim the pins when they are tight like that for fear they will end too loose.

Trying to loosen up the mechanism in the base of the Ballista to get it to move. So far, no luck, the gear just doesn’t want to move the toothed straight pieces. Maybe I didn’t sand them enough, although they fit pretty loosely after sanding.

Taking a break from the Ballista for now and working on the tower, then I’ll go back to the Ballista later.