Blackburn Buccaneer S Mk 2 RB Aircraft

After 42 years of assembling scale models, I finally came across one that was so poorly made that I could not build it. If I still had my receipt, I would insist on a full refund. Granted, this is the Blackburn Buccaneer S2 kit whereas I had the H.S. Buccaneer S2B kit. But rest assured that the Blackburn S2 came from the same mold as the S2B. The only real difference between the two would be (perhaps) the armament choice, the decals, and the paint scheme. Otherwise the pieces from both kits will be identical. And if they are, there's a good chance the Blackburn Buccaneer will have the same defective parts as the S2B. Essentially this is the problem: the fuselage comes in two pieces - bottom and top (rather than left and right like a lot of models). The kit I bought was so cheaply made that the bottom and top pieces would not fit together despite my best efforts. It was so bad that it actually felt like the two pieces were actively resisting me. It could not have been any worse if the top and bottom halves came from entirely different kits of two different scales from two different manufactuerers. I suppose it was bound to happen, but after 42 years of doing this, I finally ran across a kit so badly tooled that I could not finish it. Usually I can do a bit of sanding, a little puddy here and there, and if needs be, some superglue and a lot of rubber bands. But the pieces in this kit were so badly warped that it seemed as if one half was too small - as if it came from a slightly smaller scale than the other. Even if you could get one side of the fuselage to fit together, the other side was horribly aligned, literally none of the little pegs went into their respective holes, the engine intakes and wings had a gap between top and bottom half so large that I could put the handle of my paint brush through the gap and not touch either piece. That isn't something you can puddy away. It goes without saying that no matter what side you're able to place together, the opposite side is an irreparable shambles. The nose and tail were just as bad. If you line up the upper and lower halves of the nose, only one intake will line up with it's opposite number. The other one you have to force into place - but in so doing, you inevitably knock the behaving intake out of alignment. Thus only one intake can be assembled, the other one being too misaligned to bother with. Also, if you press the two halves of the nose together, the tail has a gap between upper and lower pieces that it's easily half an inch big. Thus if you try to pinch together the upper and lower tail pieces while still pinching together the nose, the middle of the plane - the wing roots, the intakes, and back of the cockpit - are so warped and out of alignment that there's no way to align the pieces while still keeping both the tail and nose together. Not even superglue will hold it. Now the entire kit is gracing the bottom of my garbage. I honestly cannot believe this kit is going for $38 dollars when it's not even that nice of a kit to begin with. Even for a 1/72 scale, there wasn't much detail - especially in the cockpit. I've seen two engine bombers going for $38 that were better quality and had pieces that actually fit together. I know Airfix is a well-known brand for models, but I doubt I will be buying another Airfix kit again. You know how first impressions are, and this was the first kit I bought from Airfix. A more appropriate name would be Airbroken. Now, maybe they make better quality kits somewhere, but if their trash kits at 1/72 scale are going for $40, I think I'll pass on their overpriced good kits then. There are plenty of other manufacturers who make better kits for a cheaper price. My recommendation is to just be careful. Unfortunately, most models you don't get to see how well manufacturerd they are until you've already paid your money and are opening the box. Apparently in this day and age of artificial mark-ups and the age-old exploitation of events like Covid to over-price everything, models are no exception.