Murphy's Law As Applied To Modeling

[oldcarfan]

There are some Murphy's Laws when it comes to model building. The most obvious involves the mutual attraction between carpeting and tiny parts. A corollary to that is that the more important the part is, the more likely you are to drop it. My personal ones ?                                                                                                                            1.  No matter how good the body looks in primer, once I spray the color coat, I will find a mold line that I missed. 2. If the final color coat turns out, the clear coat will cause any speck of dust or loose hair in a 10 mile radius to materialize and stick. 3. If the paint and the clear coat turn out well, I will decide I don't like the color after all. 4. The model that was available a month ago I didn't know wanted. Now that I want it, it is out of production and only available on eBay for a whole lot.                        Any others?

[Snake45]

If you've wanted a particular make and model for some time, and go to some effort to scratchbuild or create one by elaborate, expensive conversion, a new kit of that subject will be announced within  60 days.

If you are building a detailed, exact replica of some famous car, and can't find some obscure but important color or construction detail, take your best guess and drive on. Within a week after you finish the model, someone will post photos showing you did it wrong.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Snake45

[restoman]

Two seconds after you apply the CA glue to that small part, the butter oozes out of your fingertips and you drop the part. The likelihood of this increases in direct proportion to either a): how small the part is, or b): how close to a painted surface/clear plastic you are...

[disabled modeler]

Do a ton of bodywork or mods and have the paint react badly with the filler and have to start all over again.

You finally find much needed old parts to a restoration and there shipped to the neighbors house even though they have the right address on the package...in the meantime their kids destroy the old parts.

[Roadrunner]

If you've wanted a particular make and model for some time, and go to some effort to scratchbuild or create one by elaborate, expensive conversion, a new kit of that subject will be announced within  60 days.

If you are building a detailed, exact replica of some famous car, and can't find some obscure but important color or construction detail, take your best guess and drive on. Within a week after you finish the model, someone will post photos showing you did it wrong.

Oh man, can I relate. I'll plead, beg and grovel for assistance, then when none is offered, will proceed with whatever information I do have. Then, after spending hours and hours doing the best I can, some genius will come along and tell me "nope, all wrong; you certainly blew it there, Williams, nice try anyway though".

[Richard Bartrop]

That one thing you need to finish off a project,  be  it putty, a certain shade of paint, or some bit of styrene or metal,  will vanish from the stores the day you actually decide to go and git it.

[Belugawrx]

The 3rd clear coat that finally brings the Orange to the surface...

                                          or

After 4 stripncoats You finish a beauty , and put it somewhere stupid,..like under a halogen lamp..(don't ask me how I know)

After getting some gauge decals to settle down into the dashboard,....the clear drop of Kristal Kleer,...doesn't dry clear

Stop Me

 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Try to superglue a part and it will stick to anyplace than where you want it. You spends hours scratchbuilding a part, and put it in a safe place to use it but when you look for it it hss disappeared.You make anothrr part and the first one mysteriouly reappers.

[dptydawg]

Parts that have been carefully dry fitted will alter their dimensions

 as soon as glue is applied.

 

Carl

[Sixties Sam]

Parts that have been carefully dry fitted will alter their dimensions

 

 as soon as glue is applied.

 

 

Carl

This happens to me all the time! Also, any part that falls on the floor is gone forever!

Sam

[StevenGuthmiller]

Try to superglue a part and it will stick to anyplace than where you want it. You spends hours scratchbuilding a part, and put it in a safe place to use it but when you look for it it hss disappeared.You make anothrr part and the first one mysteriouly reappers.

Happens all of the time, doesn't it?

It's inevitable that after spending hours searching for that "lost" part or whatever, it will turn up the instant it is no longer needed.

 

Steve

[62rebel]

super glue is neither super, nor glue, when it is needed to be both. what instantaneously bonds skin to part will take 3.7 million years to set while assembling parts

 

[bobthehobbyguy]

The part you are trying to glue keeps falling of. You finally get it glued and its crooked. Now dynamite and a crow bar won't move it. Its also very likely a part that isisn't easy to replace.

[slusher]

That one thing you need to finish off a project,  be  it putty, a certain shade of paint, or some bit of styrene or metal,  will vanish from the stores the day you actually decide to go and git it.

I can relate to this. Been there so many times.

[Howard Cohen]

You carefully detail paint some trim on a model, then as you put the cap on the bottle of paint, the cap breaks and the paint spills on your model Today...about an hour ago  However, I was wearing a giant horseshoe and was able to wash the paint off with Super Clean, a toothbrush and that horseshoe  Wow, I broke even  

 

As for scratch-building a model...way back in the late 60s my friend and I got together to build a model of the new Daytona, based on some prototype photos. We thought the slick nose and high wing were wild, so we got together and scratchbuilt the car. We brought it to a local hobby shop for a contest only to find a kit in the 'new' listing...dirty rats  

 

[oldcarfan]

After re-reading my initial post, I can now also add, "No matter how carefully you do your post, once you hit send, you'll find a misspelled word or a really weird formatting error that I didn't see before!"

[Belugawrx]

After re-reading my initial post, I can now also add, "No matter how carefully you do your post, once you hit send, you'll find a misspelled word or a really weird formatting error that I didn't see before!"

xzaklly...

 

[Tom Geiger]

You can own 1200 kits but your next great idea will involve kits that you don't have.

[Roadrunner]

After re-reading my initial post, I can now also add, "No matter how carefully you do your post, once you hit send, you'll find a misspelled word or a really weird formatting error that I didn't see before!"

Yep, that certainly happens to me,... and frequently.

[Nytrozilla]

You find and build your GRAIL project. You spent a full year and countless tears on your "Great American Model", only to find 2 just like it sitting on the table at the next contest. And they're better.

[DeeCee]

You chop or customize 1 part, and all of a sudden 15 other bits need to be modified to counteract the 1 you initially did..

[socal76]

You pull parts from multiple kits to resin cast, and when you are finally able to be able to afford all of the casting supplies needed, you cannot find those parts for the next year and a half (and counting!)

[Mike999]

You can own 1200 kits but your next great idea will involve kits that you don't have.

Yep. Or if I'm planning a 1/25-ish diorama, it will certainly involve figures I don't have and can't find. Which means I end up hacking apart little people. Usually ending with the ruination of some of the few figures I do have.

I grab in-scale figures whenever I can and have hoarded some for years. But as we've seen before in these forums, there ain't a lot of them.

Most resin 1/25 figures, IMO, are pretty bland. Except for female 1/25 figures, who look like a high-school boy's fantasy.  With their toothpick legs and massive breastworks, if scaled up to human size they would fall on their (bland) faces.

Of course, there are thousands of great figures available in 1/35 & 1/32 scale. I've wished for years that some company would do a set of 1/25 figures like the old Airfix 1/32 "Multi-Pose" kits.

IMO, the best figures come from the German company Preiser.  That's because Preiser models its figures on real live human beings. Their "Adam" and "Eve" sets are academy (nude) figures of men and women. Available in 1/24, 1/22.5 G scale, and 1/32.  You have to add your own clothes with epoxy putty or some kind of similar sorcery.

But in keeping with the theme of this thread...Preiser figures are expensive and can be hard to find in the USA.

[Junkman]

Parts that have been carefully dry fitted will alter their dimensions as soon as glue is applied.

Carl

This is so true.

Also, the likelihood a kit gets reissued is directly proportional to the amount you just shelled out for a vintage original.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

For me, it's usually that a build that I start with the intention of working straight-through with minimal re-engineering and modification will invariably snowball out of control requiring much research, additional parts-sourcing, and a plethora of necessary modifications I overlooked on the way in.