Metal Earth Grand Piano 3D Metal Model Kit Fascinations

I've put together about a hundred of these kits. So I thought I'd share some of my insights with you about them as I think they would be helpful. First, I'll address what these kits are not. They're not made for kids to build on their own. They involve tiny and sharp metal pieces that can do some damage to fingers. They are not easy to assemble. The packaging is deceiving a bit in this way. As for the assembly process, don't expect the process to be as simple as cutting out the pieces, bending them and then putting them together via a pair of pliers. If you start off with these expectations, then odds are that you will be very disappointed and frustrated. So here's what these kits really are about and what's required to assemble them. They're made for people who really like to put things together and have the time and patience to do so. If you like putting together models of ships or airplanes or complicated Lego sets, then you're probably going to like these kits. You're going to need some special tools. Having these on hand will make all the difference in the world. As mentioned above, scissors and pliers won't do the job. The tools I use include the following: Small short needle nose pliers. Small long needle nose pliers. Small flat end pliers. Long nose tweezers. Sharp, small metal cutter. Small metal file. Two types of photo-etching bending tools. One for bending straight edges and the other for making curves or circles. A good light source. A strong magnifying glass that can stand by itself while you're doing your work. Instead of this, I have a special pair of glasses that my dentist uses. As mentioned above, you're going to need time and patience. It takes me a few hours to build their simplest of models. Once you have all of these, then my suggestion is to start with the simplest kits first. These are pretty easy to spot versus the more complicated ones; one sheet versus three, more straight edges versus curved, etc. My next suggestion is that for your first several models that you consider buying 2 or 3 kits of the same model. You can count on that you're going to make mistakes early on and you're going to wish you had a spare part or 2. The good news is that the kits are inexpensive. Assuming you have the expectations and the right tools, then these kits become a real joy. At least they have for me. They're a workable challenge and the finished result is very gratifying and fun to show off. Building these can become an obsession. Your skills will improve with the construction of each model. You'll also find yourself more discriminating of the results and want to do a better job on the next one. This is a fun and challenging hobby that is worthy of consideration assuming, again, that you have the right tools and expectations. Hope this helps.

Love my Metal Earth models, they are very fairly priced and take anywhere from 30 minutes to multiple hours to build. I highly recommend them to those who are looking for an affordable hobby. I bought the Metal Earth Tool Kit as well as another third party one from amazon and I mainly just use the Metal Earth Tool Kit.I have a stack of models to build and love spending the evening working on them, just practice some beginner level models as you will only get frustrated on anything above Moderate. I'm still working up to the "Challenging" difficulty level and often it's more fun to just build a bunch of easy-moderate level then to get stuck on a hard one and get frustrated. You will have broken and bent pieces when you first start but be patient and have fun!In regard to THIS Model:Loved building the piano as it was moderate level difficulty but the pieces are noticeably larger then most of the other models I have built so I was never frustrated putting it all together, just a really fun and nice looking model that looks great in my house!

A, beautiful small model piano. My wife has recently returned to her passion for the piano and this model is my small gift in support of her fun. It is gorgeous and was fun to build.

This model was a nice, easy build. If you have experience constructing the harder models, you could have this done in under an hour. The grand piano model has lots of opportunities to effectively use the bend joint (as opposed to the twist) which keeps a lot of the edges looking clean. My only gripe is that it's difficult to keep the fingerprints off of this one.

These models are really fun and engaging as long as you make very sure what you're doing before you do it. I have had about an 80% success rate with Metal Earth puzzles because I sometimes get about halfway through and make a mistake. Once those tabs are twisted... Good luck getting it back apart without doing irreversible damage, or at least losing the tab.This piano is one model I made this type of mistake on. The directions are not very clear that the back leg is not mirror symmetrical. It only goes on ONE way. Don't make my mistake. Maybe I'll get a new one and try again some day.

I've built 5 of these now and this was on the medium to hard side of difficulty. If you've built others, you shouldn't have a problem with this one, but I wouldn't recommend it as a first metal works build...the lighthouse, wright brothers airplane, or arc de triumph are better for first timers.That said, this is a very cool looking piece when it's completed and I had a lot of fun building it.

So so cool! Definitely recommend

This one is my 3rd Metal Earth. I am having a lot of fun with these models. Since my first one was Himeji Castle, which is apparently one of the hardest, this model was very easy for me. You just need to pay very close attention as to which side goes outside.