Your biggest blunder

[LL3 Model Worx]

5 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Here's one that just happened to me recently that about sent me through the roof!!

A few weeks ago, I was moving a few things around in one of my model cases, and had taken a couple of models and a trophy out, and they were sitting out in front of the case when I reached in to move something else.

My sleeve caught the trophy, knocking it over onto the back end of my beloved Johan 1965 Plymouth Fury, crushing the rear suspension!

It was one of those OMG moments because initially, I didn't know whether it had cracked the body, damaged the paint, etc.

 

Luckily, the only damage appears to be the suspension parts, which I can easily repair.....some time.

 

This just goes to show you that it's nice to bring home some hardware, but it sure can turn around to bite you in the backside!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

That's a gorgeous model Steve... it always hurts when one of the good ones takes a hit.

I built a 78 pro street Camaro when I was around 12 it was the best build I had done to that point and had a glass paint job (used automotive gun and paint in my Dad's body shop) well I sent the model off with a friend who was going to a somerset to enter it into a contest. I took second place with it and won a white ribbon and a kit.

Well, last year... my cat decided to explore the more elevated environments in my home and knocked it off about a 7ft high shelf...where it crash landed on my desk and then to the floor.

It broke the glass, brok the T-top post the driver side a-piller... both back wheels and the carbs and bug catcher.

It's been in a box... awaiting a body shop diorama scene... there's no fixing it.

[Bucky]

5 hours ago, stitchdup said:

My deodrant and tamiya rattle tins are the same size. I used to do all my spraying in the bathroom as it has a good extractor. I got out of the shower and sprayed my armpits suburu blue

This has to be the best one, so far! LoL 

[NOBLNG]

7 hours ago, stitchdup said:

My deodrant and tamiya rattle tins are the same size. I used to do all my spraying in the bathroom as it has a good extractor. I got out of the shower and sprayed my armpits suburu blue

At least you didn’t get deodorant all over your model.?

[LL3 Model Worx]

6 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

At least you didn’t get deodorant all over your model.?

A little ho bath with some lacquer thinner outta do the trick ?

[Paul Payne]

Betsy and I currently have 3 cats and 2 little pooches- the model room door is always closed! My biggest oh @#$% moment always involves paint!

[LL3 Model Worx]

10 minutes ago, Paul Payne said:

Betsy and I currently have 3 cats and 2 little pooches- the model room door is always closed! My biggest oh @#$% moment always involves paint!

Same Paul. I've had some involvement with 1:1 painting my entire life and am quite decent at it. But putting paint to these kits still gets my nerves going pretty good.

[Paul Payne]

Another one- learned the hard way you can't spray clear over Molotow..................................................

[Dpate]

This hasn't happened to me, but i a modeler i watch on youtube.  He uses 2 clear small plastic bottles one with water and another with mr hobby leveling thinner in it.  We know what the leveling thinner is used for, but he'll use the water to spray down the body to get out polish etc.  They do have labels, but he accidently grabbed the wrong one and sprayed leveling thinner all over a completed body that was 2Ked lol. Bottles where turned backwards, and leveling thinner looks like water, and had them both together so i can see how that mistake could happen.

[LL3 Model Worx]

9 minutes ago, Dpate said:

This hasn't happened to me, but i a modeler i watch on youtube.  He uses 2 clear small plastic bottles one with water and another with mr hobby leveling thinner in it.  We know what the leveling thinner is used for, but he'll use the water to spray down the body to get out polish etc.  They do have labels, but he accidently grabbed the wrong one and sprayed leveling thinner all over a completed body that was 2Ked lol. Bottles where turned backwards, and leveling thinner looks like water, and had them both together so i can see how that mistake could happen.

If it was 2k clear as in catalyzed... and had already kicked, then lacquer thinner shouldn't have hurt it at all...

Now If it was fresh different story, but then I'd be suspect of the water also.

My bet is he used a 1k clear.

Edited October 30, 2022 by LL3 Model Worx

[Jim B]

I've had plenty of disasters, missteps, and blunders along the way while building models.  Most involve the lack of connection between my imagination & my fingers; however, my most recent blunder involved the AMT Mercury Club Coupe & my painting ability (or lack thereof).

I am building the AMT Mercury Club Coupe as Sheriff from Cars, so black with white doors.  I get the body all painted & decaled, and I'm applying the clear coat when the body flips off the paint stand into the dust!  Since it's Tamiya paint, stripping turned out to be a nightmare, so I procured another body & started the process all over.  I masked off the body, and painted the interior, and here is where the blunder occurred: I left the masking tape on the body too long & the body was covered in sticky residue that wouldn't come off!  Maybe someone is trying to tell me something. ?

[stitchdup]

1 hour ago, Paul Payne said:

Another one- learned the hard way you can't spray clear over Molotow..................................................

you can if you coat it with sealer first. gauzy shine enhancer or s-02 both worked for me. I was using duplicolour clear

Edited October 30, 2022 by stitchdup

[Bruce Scully]

Some things you can only shake your head about . I took my Tamiya Le Mans Toyota from the glass cabinet , slid the glass door closed again , checked the model out and went to put it back . Smashed the model straight into the closed glass door , wrecking the whole back end . This is what happens when you get old .

[Bills72sj]

7 hours ago, Joe Nunes said:

My blunder was not packing my models up when I left home after graduating high school for further education. When I came home all the models were cleared out of my bedroom walk-in closet. Model cars, planes, aircraft carriers, ships and kits!  I wasn't happy...but my mom was!

Joe

I feel your pain. I had probably 10-15 cars built and around 8 full sized semi rigs. When I joined the Navy I left them at home as you travel REALLY light when you go to boot camp. While I was gone. My Dad and Step mom's Brady Bunch family got a divorce and moved out of the house I spent high school in. All those builds went in the trash. Big bummer. Slowly started over years later.

[Bills72sj]

5 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Here's one that just happened to me recently that about sent me through the roof!!

A few weeks ago, I was moving a few things around in one of my model cases, and had taken a couple of models and a trophy out, and they were sitting out in front of the case when I reached in to move something else.

My sleeve caught the trophy, knocking it over onto the back end of my beloved Johan 1965 Plymouth Fury, crushing the rear suspension!

It was one of those OMG moments because initially, I didn't know whether it had cracked the body, damaged the paint, etc.

Luckily, the only damage appears to be the suspension parts, which I can easily repair.....some time.

This just goes to show you that it's nice to bring home some hardware, but it sure can turn around to bite you in the backside!!

Steve

I am sorry for your loss. That is why I like wall plaques for trophies. The do not take up valuable shelf space and fill in gaps in the walls.

[Joe Nunes]

Sorry to see you lost your models that way, Bill.  It can be a bit of a shock to have all your work thrown out that way without someone at least asking you if you want to keep the models. 

Joe

[ChrisBcritter]

OK let's see. Mid-70s, bought brand-new unbuilt '62 Tempest convertible and '65 Fairlane kits at an Old Town Escorts show. Painted them both (no primer) with Dupli-Color auto lacquer, which introduced me to the term "crazing".

Later in the '70s, was building a '61 Olds F-85 wagon into a mid-engined drag racer (blunder #1) with central gull-wing doors (blunder #2) opened up with an Auto-Cutter (blunder #3). Then I attempted to trim a brake rotor with the same tool and absent-mindedly tried to steady the heating element - with my thumb, which introduced me to the term "second degree burn".

I lost enthusiasm for the project at that point.

Edited October 31, 2022 by ChrisBcritter

[Straightliner59]

I spent a ton of hours working on an AMT '70 Chevelle, before I decided that I'd be better off replacing the AMT body with the one from Revell's snapper. I had completed a lot of work on the front suspension--and, indeed the entire chassis, when Revell's '68, and AMT's '68 El Camino were released. At that point, I threw in the towel, deciding that I had no interest in converting an AMT '70 Chevelle into a Revell '70 Chevelle!

[Plowboy]

1 hour ago, Straightliner59 said:

I spent a ton of hours working on an AMT '70 Chevelle, before I decided that I'd be better off replacing the AMT body with the one from Revell's snapper. I had completed a lot of work on the front suspension--and, indeed the entire chassis, when Revell's '68, and AMT's '68 El Camino were released. At that point, I threw in the towel, deciding that I had no interest in converting an AMT '70 Chevelle into a Revell '70 Chevelle!

Eh, you're better off. The quarter panels and doors on the Revell '70 Chevelle snap kit look horrible. 

[Straightliner59]

6 hours ago, Plowboy said:

Eh, you're better off. The quarter panels and doors on the Revell '70 Chevelle snap kit look horrible. 

Really? Most of the consensus I've seen is that it's the best of the "bi-scale" '70 Chevelles. That's the main reason I ended up choosing that body. I have to depend on the kindness of others, where these things are concerned, because I rarely see discrepancies that others do--unless they're really bad. ?

[Dpate]

On 10/30/2022 at 4:42 PM, LL3 Model Worx said:

If it was 2k clear as in catalyzed... and had already kicked, then lacquer thinner shouldn't have hurt it at all...

Now If it was fresh different story, but then I'd be suspect of the water also.

My bet is he used a 1k clear.

It was 2K i don't remember if it hurt it or not, but it will freak you out if that happens lol.

[StevenGuthmiller]

3 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Really? Most of the consensus I've seen is that it's the best of the "bi-scale" '70 Chevelles. That's the main reason I ended up choosing that body. I have to depend on the kindness of others, where these things are concerned, because I rarely see discrepancies that others do--unless they're really bad. ?

If you don’t see them, they’re not worth worrying about, are they.

 

 

Steve

[Spottedlaurel]

I've had the usual paint disasters, especially in my early days of attempting spray jobs. Also I once ended up with a particularly orange hand when I painted a Monogram '37 Ford without wearing a glove. Certainly wouldn't have wanted to do it to my armpit!

More recently, back in 2013 this little incident eclipsed all previous blunders:

Same cause as mentioned above, leaving them inside a 1:1 car on a hot, sunny day. What an idiot!

Eventually found replacement kits and I built new versions, using whatever components I could salvage from my originals:

I know these shots have been seen elsewhere on MCM, but they seemed to fit the spirit of this thread....

[Straightliner59]

1 hour ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

If you don’t see them, they’re not worth worrying about, are they.

 

 

Steve

I reckon not!

[Bills72sj]

On 10/30/2022 at 12:28 PM, Paul Payne said:

Betsy and I currently have 3 cats and 2 little pooches- the model room door is always closed! My biggest oh @#$% moment always involves paint!

I have the opposite issue. My wife requires the cat be locked in my model room at night because it won't behave roaming free in the rest of the house. Parts disappear, cotton balls, q-tips find their way elsewhere and for some reason. Items on high shelves are not safe either. Closed drawers and doors are the only thing that keeps her at bay.

[keyser]

Crates are cheap and useful. Cats can use one that’s 2x3x2 so easy to corral. Water, food, and small box. We’ve used ones for the cats, dogs (obv bigger) and work great.