what's the sillyiest or funnyiest mistake you have made regarding model makeing

[stillp]

Spending half and hour crawling on the floor trying to find a part that had pinged off before finding it had bounced down my chest into my pocket.

I spent two days looking for a part that I remembered removing from the sprue and cleaning up. Asked the wife to help me, after a couple more hours with bothe of us looking I picked up the sprue, and the was the part I was looking for, still attached!
Pete

[boatman]

I spent two days looking for a part that I remembered removing from the sprue and cleaning up. Asked the wife to help me, after a couple more hours with bothe of us looking I picked up the sprue, and the was the part I was looking for, still attached!
Pete

You was lucky there then pete as ive lost parts from the tweeser ends pingin off into the unknow an the carpet monster still got them
chris

[Guest]

UHHHH, I forgot to put my finger over the tip of the syringe while shaking. A mess was made all over the kitchen………………………...

That reminds me of another mistake of mine: not removing the little shaker ball from the bottles of airbrush-ready enamel paints that Revell used to sell twenty years or so ago. You would hear it rattling around inside the bottle while shaking it before painting, and I found the paint was good for brush-painting as well as airbrushing, so I also used it in my hobby room (I used to spray my models in the shed). Until one of the bottles just broke in my hand as I was shaking it — the steel ball inside the bottle must have hit the glass in just the right/wrong way and caused it to come apart. Paint everywhere, luckily much of it on my hand but also some on the sprues of the model I was building, plus of course the floor and various other places around my hobby room. I was not amused. And then came the realisation that I was holding a handful of broken glass at that point.

However, it’s the sort of thing that you can easily think is a fluke occurrence, so I didn’t really think much of it. Until sometime later, it happened again. From then on, whenever I opened a new bottle of this paint that I hadn’t used before, I used some cocktail sticks to fish out the little ball before doing anything else.

[Fernando N]

Apart from the glue issues and loosing parts like the rest, the dumbest thing I did was a couple of weeks ago…

Over the years I’ve developed a habit of cleaning shaping tools covered in filler with the back of my left hand, I do the same with my trusty Stanley fat-max after scraping any plastic clean but always with the sides.

That time I was cleaning up a little bit with a no.11, it was covered in dust and without thought I gave it a couple of swipes on the hand, the last one was with the business end of the 11….:face-with-head-bandage:

Good to have a first aid kit always near the bench, nothing major was hit and I never do that with a knife again, lesson learned.:rolling:

[Fernando N]

That reminds me of another mistake of mine: not removing the little shaker ball from the bottles of airbrush-ready enamel paints that Revell used to sell twenty years or so ago. You would hear it rattling around inside the bottle while shaking it before painting, and I found the paint was good for brush-painting as well as airbrushing, so I also used it in my hobby room (I used to spray my models in the shed). Until one of the bottles just broke in my hand as I was shaking it — the steel ball inside the bottle must have hit the glass in just the right/wrong way and caused it to come apart. Paint everywhere, luckily much of it on my hand but also some on the sprues of the model I was building, plus of course the floor and various other places around my hobby room. I was not amused. And then came the realisation that I was holding a handful of broken glass at that point.

However, it’s the sort of thing that you can easily think is a fluke occurrence, so I didn’t really think much of it. Until sometime later, it happened again. From then on, whenever I opened a new bottle of this paint that I hadn’t used before, I used some cocktail sticks to fish out the little ball before doing anything else.

Had the same too Jakko with their bottles of primer.
The steel ball was pretty big and a damaged or imperfect jar would shatter leaving paint and glass on ones hand and floor, with half a jar remaining….

[boatman]

Had the same too Jakko with their bottles of primer.
The steel ball was pretty big and a damaged or imperfect jar would shatter leaving paint and glass on ones hand and floor, with half a jar remaining….

Sounds like a painfull happening Ferando ive never seen these glass paint s are they presserised like a spray can ?
chris

[Fernando N]

Sounds like a painfull happening Ferando ive never seen these glass paint s are they presserised like a spray can ?
chris

Oh not really, the ball just exits the jar during shaking leaving a mess in it’s wake…
Luckily not pressurised at all, think of a Tamiya jar only more round and having the same amount of paint inside:

[Guest]

As a kid a lot of my "mistakes" were due to naivety, poor equipment and just trying to put the thing together together as quickly as I could so I could play with it. I would leave pieces off regularly! I would also struggle with pieces like weapons pylons that would take ages to dry if you used normal model glue so I would sometimes just glue the missiles and bombs straight to the wing. Once I even cut the decals off and glued them dry to the plane because I had a habit of tearing them if I used them properly. I didn't have anyone guiding me for any of this stuff and learned things the hard and long way!

These days the biggest mistake I make is trying to get a build too perfect rather than just leaving it alone. This results in making it worse and sometimes even stuffing it right up. In general though I am pretty calm about my builds.

[Bigfoot57]

My 1st model was an F4 Phantom from the USS Forresteral when I had finished it I actually cut out the transfers and glued them onto the model needless to say I was only 10 and had never heard of waterslide before
And just recently I was using some pins for a simulation of buttons by cutting the heads off anyway one of the pins landed on the floor I said to myself I wonder where that went as I couldn’t find it but I did several mintues later as it sliced into my bare rh big toe anyway I found the culprit or so I though as it had blood on it that was 2 weeks ago but this weekend my toe on the bottom had devloped a lump and was painful to the touch so after soaking in the bath I squeezed the swelling between finger and thumb and out slid another headless pin about 3/4 of an inch long ouch

[Guest]

The steel ball was pretty big

I just went and found one among my stuff. It’s a steel sphere 7.5 mm in diameter, with two flats on opposite sides that make it 7 mm across there. The steel is high enough quality that it hasn’t rusted at all in circa twenty years it’s been lying around in my hobby room.

[boatman]

As a kid a lot of my "mistakes" were due to naivety, poor equipment and just trying to put the thing together together as quickly as I could so I could play with it. I would leave pieces off regularly! I would also struggle with pieces like weapons pylons that would take ages to dry if you used normal model glue so I would sometimes just glue the missiles and bombs straight to the wing. Once I even cut the decals off and glued them dry to the plane because I had a habit of tearing them if I used them properly. I didn't have anyone guiding me for any of this stuff and learned things the hard and long way!

These days the biggest mistake I make is trying to get a build too perfect rather than just leaving it alone. This results in making it worse and sometimes even stuffing it right up. In general though I am pretty calm about my builds.

HI Michael yes I think we all went through the naïve bit an just building models how we wanted them to play with an not how they should be in reality. But that how a childhood should be as it get your imagination goin an helps you to build better in the future an I agree about the biggest mistake is tryin to hard like tryin to build an wheather said model like

some of the exspert modelers on this forum. I think that's why in my mind I hav'nt started my big plane kits yet as in my mind I can see total disaster an messin up some v- exspensive kits so I have put them on the back burner for now an I will get back into modelling when I start my ship an build up my confidence as I hav'nt built a model for months
chris

[Mr Bowcat]

Well as of last night I can add another stupid mistake to my list. :anguished:

I was getting ready to put a matt coat on my Spitfire Vb, had it over to the side of my bench. I keep my airbrush soaking in a plastic container of IPA when not in use, as I opened the lid a drop of IPA flew into the air and landed on the wing of the Spit. Stupidly I immediately wiped it away, leaving a nice round patch where the paint used to be. :angry:

After some swearing I masked up the area and painted it back in. Luckily I got away with it and you can't tell, but still bloody annoyed with myself.

[boatman]

An Bigfoot57 sounds like you need danger money when you model leavin sharp pins about to stick in your feet cor blimey :face-with-head-bandage::nerd::smiling: lol
chris

AN Jakko the ball is just to mix up the paint aninit ? when you give it a good shakein as my m8 puts ball bearings in his humbroll tinlets as I find when I borrow some from him


AN Bob that's summit id probely do as its easily done an did you think of all the places it could land on but it landed right on your spitty .As I had the same thing happen to me but far more serious an that's when I was building my uss Nimitz aircraft carrier I was usein loctik superglue to stick a bendy bit of plasticard on said ship. An like I said of all the places the superglue could have gone it went right into my eye but thankfilly I was quick on the uptake an ran to the kitchen sink an splashed water into my eyes still hurt like hell but after a trip to hospital an waitin some hrs to be seen the nurse said I was v-lucky I was not blinded as another 3mm over onto the clear bit of my eye an I would have been. So the moto is when handeling any sort of glue now wear safety glasses
chris

[Guest]

AN Jakko the ball is just to mix up the paint aninit ? when you give it a good shakein

Yes, it’s just an agitator.

as my m8 puts ball bearings in his humbroll tinlets as I find when I borrow some from him

No problem in a metal tin (or a plastic bottle — I found out the other day that Mig paints have them too), but I would strongly recommend to never add steel balls to a glass jar for this purpose. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

[Guest]

Glued an assembly, thought I had put it together wrong. Pried apart congratulating myself on a great save only to realize it was all proper.