Something stupid!

[Jim R]

Yesterday I did some airbrushing. After spraying my first colour I set to and cleaned the airbrush and prepared the second colour I intended to spray. So far all going well. I started to spray the second colour and initially it sprayed like a dream but then it started to spit and splutter. It was Vallejo Model Color which is prone to airbrushing problems. Tip dry thinks me. Clean the tip and try again. Still spattering, in fact it seemed worse. Strip down the airbrush. No obvious problem. Reassemble and try again. this time nothing, no paint, no air. Much bad language and another strip down. Check needle was tight and seated in the nozzle and that all the seals were present. Reassemble and try again, still dead as a dodo. Then at last the problem dawned on me. When flushing through the airbrush for the colour change and thinning the second paint I had turned off the compressor. Initially it had sprayed fine because of the air in the tank but that was soon used up. Switched the compressor back on and all good. I wasted over half an hour and felt like a fool!!
Now confession is good for the soul they say. What is your most "stupid" modelling faux pas?

[Mark1]

I spilled a load of ca on my desk and it ran under my cutting mat, i now have a part of my desk with a lovely chipboard finish and a cutting mat with a nice wood veneer :smiling3:

[Guest]

My biggest was yesterday, after spending several days spraying my helicopter camo (white/green) I pulled off the masking tape and.. it removed all the paint in many places, right down to the primer. Boy did I feel like a total moron when I found out you don't use 'normal' masking tape on models, it's too adhesive. Oops! - in my defence I'll say it was my first ever attempt at masking camo, lesson learned.

[Mr Bowcat]

I knocked my airbrush off my desk onto the floor last week, colour cup full of Tamiya's finest gold lacquer.

Thank God for wooden floors, I would have been in trouble if we had carpet.

Steve, normal masking tape will work, you just need to de-tack it before applying to the model.

[Airborne01]

My 'Faux pas' was buying ~£300 worth of models etc, the day before my pensions came in and I'd just paid for the holiday ...OOps! (Wife to the rescue as I'd forgotten to pay the servicing invoice on my car!) :dizzy:
Steve

[Waspie]

I spilled a load of ca on my desk and it ran under my cutting mat, i now have a part of my desk with a lovely chipboard finish and a cutting mat with a nice wood veneer :smiling3:

That would be me too!!!
I have one side of my useful cutting mat with few grid lines and even fewer angle prompts!!!!

[Dave Ward]

Too many to list!.....................
Dave

[Jim R]

I feel much better knowing I'm in such good company. Thanks guys for sharing your "moments".

[minitnkr]

Hung a whole room of wallpaper upside down by mistake. My wife was horrified when she saw it, but no one else noticed.

[Tim Marlow]

Mine was dropping a soldering iron……and then trying to catch it as it fell…..guess which end I caught hold of. Another of note is dropping a half painted figure into my wet palette. I’ve done this more than once, so now keep a beak of water on the bench to drop them into if I do. On another build I spent ages bending up a complex piece of etch (rear coal bunker on a locomotive) with curves in three directions, soldering it in place, filling and dressing the flared corners and sitting back satisfied. Only then did I realise the half etched part number was staring at me…..I’d put it on inside out.
I've also done the wallpaper trick, but in my defence I’m still not quite sure if it actually was upside down. I was the only one that wondered about it.

My favourite though wasn’t me and is from another site. The guy in question cleaned up and assembled a large number of plastic figures and put them on an old tray ready for priming. He lived in a high rise, and because he primed by spray can he did this on his balcony. He put them up on his balcony table ready to spray, shook the can to mix it, and then sprayed across the figures. Apparently it took a couple of milliseconds to realise that as he sprayed across them they disappeared over the edge of his balcony never to be seen again…..he’d forgotten to blue tack them to the tray….

[stillp]

I've done the same as Jim, trying to spray with the compressor turned off - twice. I've not (yet) tipped a bottle of CA, but I can say that Micro Set is very good at cleaning the yellow lines off my cutting mat.
Pete

[Jim R]

Reading through your posts has not only made me feel as if I'm in good company but has also put a smile on my face. I thank you all.

[Ian M]

Thinning Vallejo model color with airbrush cleaner is not a good idea.
Do not mop spills of CA with cotton wool.
Make sure you use the correct cup on a bottom feed air brush. They fall off dropping thinned paint onto you new jeans...

[Allen Dewire]

First day back at the table after the flu. Wanted to to apply the hex decals to the bottom wings on my current build of the Hansa-Brandenburg W.12. Set every thing up to have a go. Warmish water. paper towels, Micro Set & Sol and Q-tips. Dipped the decal, brushed the wing and wondered why the decal wouldn't slide into place on the first wing. Forced it into place and it tore. Did the second one and it was also tough to position correctly. With them both finally in place, I realized that I had slobbered Micro Sol all over the wings, instead of Micro Set, to apply them...Epic brain fart after being sick and not paying attention. I did get lucky though.......

Prost
Allen

[Mark1]

Think im guilty of all the above lol .
One bit of advice, if a vallejo paint bottle has got a blocked nozzle dont just squeeze the bottle harder as the whole nozzle can fly out the bottle and it gets very messy when your holding it upside down.......so im told :rolling: :smiling4: