Losing model parts

[slusher]

I reorganized my model room because I was not finding parts. I have organizers, I bag parts, and still have parts that I know I have. I know I have a 1/24 motor cycle but cat find it. Does this happen too many builders?

Edited February 18, 2020 by slusher

[espo]

14 minutes ago, slusher said:

I reorganized my model room because I was not finding parts. I have organizers, I bag parts, and still have parts that I know I have. I know I have a 1/24 motor cycle but cat find it. Does this happen too many builders?

Sorry I've been under my desk looking for a part to the build I'm working on. I have taken all of the unused parts from a build and put them in marked boxes by category. The very small chrome or special engine parts I have been using small plastic baggies and slipping a piece of paper inside giving information about where it came from.  

[larry ray]

I see it one day and put it where I know where it is then days later i can not find it'

[TarheelRick]

I could build a kit on a sterile table in the middle of a large, empty, warehouse and still lose at least one part.  Unbeknownst to most modelers, or at least those that refuse to acknowledge it, there is a supernatural parts gremlin that hovers over every model table.  When a modeler lays a part off to the side to "get to it later" the gremlin gobbles it up, belches, than lays back and laughs.  You may think I am kidding, but I have heard him belch and the incessant giggles too many times in the past 60 years I have been building.

[stavanzer]

Amen, Rick!  I've seen him out of the corner of my eye, if I turn fast enough.

[Tom Geiger]

I can drop a part off the bench and here it bounce on the floor.  Then when I go looking it's nowhere to be found.  But then I find a part I lost previously!  

I've had entire boxes go missing for years.  Once I had a shoebox full of 1960-61 Falcon and Rancheros.  It was a running joke at my club,  my "Elusive Falcon Box".  Then one time I pulled all the shoe boxes out of my closet and felt that one that was marked "Matchbox Cars"  was way too light.  I flipped it around and the other end was labeled "Falcons".  Ha!  

I also have a Renault Dauphene  body that's been missing for some 20 years!  And occasionally while hunting through the hoard, I find things I swear I've never seen before!

[Richard Bartrop]

Been there, done that.  buying a replacement, or building it from scratch is the traditional ritual for summoning it back from the void.

[Pete J.]

Yup, that shadow you saw out of the corner of you eye?  That was the gremlin! Strange sense of humor too.  Not only steals parts and hides parts and gives them back long after you have finished the model but does the same thing with kits!  I have hunted for a kit I know I have in my stash 'cause I want to build it.  It is gone! No sign of it!  I go buy a new one and Presto!  It is sitting on the shelf over my desk, plain as day!  Little bugger is evil I say! Evil!

[Pete J.]

1 minute ago, Pete J. said:

Yup, that shadow you saw out of the corner of you eye?  That was the gremlin! Strange sense of humor too.  Not only steals parts and hides parts and gives them back long after you have finished the model but does the same thing with kits!  I have hunted for a kit I know I have in my stash 'cause I want to build it.  It is gone! No sign of it!  I go buy a new one and Presto!  It is sitting on the shelf over my desk, plain as day!  Little bugger is evil I say! Evil!

By the way, his evil cousin haunts my garage and does the same thing with tools and car parts!  Both have become more active since I retired too! 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Pete J.

[cobraman]

Oh ya. More times than I care to admit to.

[PHPaul]

17 minutes ago, Pete J. said:

By the way, his evil cousin haunts my garage and does the same thing with tools and car parts!  Both have become more active since I retired too! 

For years, I thought 9/16ths and 10mm wrenches had microscopic little legs and walked off on their own. 

Back when I was young and limber enough to crawl under cars, I had a dog that loved to "help" me.  He had two favorite tricks.  One was to catch me when I was wedged in a position I wasn't at all sure I could get out of and then give me an exceedingly thorough tongue bath.  The other was much the same, except that he'd lug off a tool on his way out.  Exceptionally smart dog, he knew precisely which tool I'd need next...

Edited February 18, 2020 by PHPaul

[Bucky]

24 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

Been there, done that.  buying a replacement, or building it from scratch is the traditional ritual for summoning it back from the void.

I have an evil carpet monster in my hobby room. Last year, I was fiddling with a tiny part, and it launched out of my hand, and the carpet monster got it. I had to scramble and scratch a new piece. Before I started the next project, I did a minor clean up, and found the part I lost two days prior!! OH, WELL!!!

[Mike999]

5 minutes ago, Bucky said:

I have an evil carpet monster in my hobby room...

Don't make the mistake of thinking it will help if you have no carpet.  I work in a basement with a concrete floor.  The No-Carpet Monster makes sure that parts bounce into another dimension and never come back.

Another ironclad rule about losing parts;. the lost part will always be totally unique, irreplaceable and not easily fabricated from Evergreen plastic.  Or anything else.

[Tom Geiger]

This is why I like to have at least two of the kit I am building.  First, I can pick the best parts from the two kits,  and second, if I lose or break a part I can grab one from the second kit. Especially important in the 24 Hour Build!

Right now I'm trying to finish up my Trabant van project.  I was missing some parts, some of which I found in a small basket I keep unknown parts I find on my bench in.  Still I needed a few bits that I grabbed from a second kit.  And when the original bits show up again, I'll put them in the new kit.

[Ben Brown]

I recently managed to lose both painted and decaled stabilators for a 1/48 F-4 Phantom model. After hours of searching I had to order resin replacements because I never did find them. I did find a missing part from another build that I’d lost, scratch built a replacement for it, and finished the model about six months ago. Never fails.

Ben

[Tom Geiger]

2 minutes ago, Mike999 said:

Don't make the mistake of thinking it will help if you have no carpet.  I work in a basement with a concrete floor.  The No-Carpet Monster makes sure that parts bounce into another dimension and never come back.

My model room is a bedroom with a hard wood floor.  Same result!  Often I will sweep the area under the bench with the edge of a piece of cardboard.  All kinds of bits of plastic scrap and stuff wind up in that pile.  And I've found photo etch parts, doll house nails and other things I've lost.  Some of which I haven't missed yet!   But seldom the part I'm actually looking for.  That will show up another day.

[stavanzer]

That never works, Tom. The 'one' part you need to finish the second kit, will not re-appear until after you have given up the project.

This even works with scratchbuilt parts. When I make anything now, I'll make at least two of them, because one is sure to vanish.

[Jantrix]

I'm my own worst enemy. I'll come up with an idea, throw spare parts in a kit, and then plans change, parts are misplaced and never seen again. 

I need to just store the spares properly and not put them ANYWHERE until the model is on the bench.

[BigTallDad]

Parts? There are times when I can't even find my car in a parking lot!

[Roadrunner]

Oh yes, I do it all the time, and it's ultra frustrating. To counter that, I now tend to not clip a part off until I'm absolutely ready to glue it on. I'll also Ziploc a bag with any loose parts and put it in the box. I'll soon be grabbing a large Rubbermaid container just for loose parts that are accumulating all over the place, and dump them all in there.

[Bucky]

3 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Don't make the mistake of thinking it will help if you have no carpet.  I work in a basement with a concrete floor.  The No-Carpet Monster makes sure that parts bounce into another dimension and never come back.

Another ironclad rule about losing parts;. the lost part will always be totally unique, irreplaceable and not easily fabricated from Evergreen plastic.  Or anything else.

Maybe lining the floor with fly paper would help corral those runaway parts! LOL

[cobraman]

I have gotten into the habit of cutting off small parts by placing the "tree" in a plastic baggie. No place for the part to go !

[Bucky]

6 minutes ago, cobraman said:

I have gotten into the habit of cutting off small parts by placing the "tree" in a plastic baggie. No place for the part to go !

I like that idea!

[Classicgas]

4 hours ago, BigTallDad said:

Parts? There are times when I can't even find my car in a parking lot!

X2!! Yeah I lose parts and I lose entire kits.

[NOBLNG]

I have Short Berber carpet where I build. It’s amazing how far bits can bounce! I have found what often works to find them quickly is to lay my powerful little flashlight flat on the floor and scan the area with it. Anything above the carpet level stands out.