The dreaded lost part

I lose very little, due to spring action. Lost a 109 windscreen a few weeks back. I was squeezing with my fingers (sat wide on fuse)....I'll be damned, that thing just vanished, never heard it hit the floor, or anything else for that matter. Found it, just after finishing the model (with vac-form replacement) with my foot, right where I walk at least ten times a day. How did I miss that for two weeks???

 The only part that I never found (even after 3 yrs) is the pod that hangs on the pylon near the cockpit on an A-10(1/32). I set it in a spot that I wouldn't forget (part was done early). Over the course of the month that I built the thing.....I forgot. I know it was within arms reach of my chair.....have torn the place apart a few times....still missing.

Lucky for you, control columns are a pretty simple scratch project. I'd go with carved sprue or thinck sheet styrene for the main column and wire for the yoke....build up paint or CA for the handles on the yoke.

I lost the elevator to a finished 1/72 Phantom a couple of months ago. I was vacuuming the carpet and hit the plane with the extension cord. Only knocked off the elevator and after 3-4 searches, I still haven't found it.

Glenn

Lost the stick for my 48 scale corsair. One of the guys on here sent me a replacment. Finished the kit. 6 months after finishing it. and about a month after it being destroyed in an earthquake. We rearanged the living room. Guess what, it was under the desk the whole time.

Hey, if it won't be seen..... only you'll know it's missing.

Yes i have lost parts . I remember losing a small part and searching under my workbench for 45 minutes and not finding it . So i figured i'd wait till the next day and look again , you know , with a fresh outlook . After another half hr. , no luck. The third night i looked a little more , still no luck . The fourth night i decided to fabricate a replacement part . It came out so so and i glued it in place . The fifth night i looked down at the floor where i had looked numerouse times already and , yes , there was the part . I dont know where the heck it had been hidding . Moral of the story , i should of given up on the first night , that way the part would have appeared on the second night , right ?

I might hold the record for finding a lost part. Funny thing was, it wasn't exactly small. I found a part for the landing gear of my Monogram Helldiver, 32 years after i lost it! I built it on my workbench in the basement workshop. It was hiding behind a bunch of lumber. I have no idea how i couldn't find it when i was looking for it, but i was really peeved I couldn't locate it. By accident, looking around in there one day and viola! The Helldiver has been gone for years.

I have got a pretty important lost part.  I am building the 1/350 Yamato by Tamiya and finished the rudder early so i set it away so as not to lose it.  I went an hour later and couldnt find it.  I had to make a new one from a spare in the kit.  Then 3 hours later i look at a dio and there it is gray part on black carrier deck.  How in the world could i misss it.

Thanks for all the stories of lost part woe....

UPDATE:

I found the part!

I hadn't considered when it was lost that it was covered in wet paint. So when I took everything off my work table, and shook it out i just naturally assumed it would fall out. But it stuck to a piece of paper I had on my desk and when I went to get that piece of paper, it was stuck right there, over a dark area where it wasn't easily noticeable.

On my latest build: I-16tip 10, lost a little landing gear door, had to scratchbuild one....

How wondrously supernatural,
And how miraculous this.
Guess which has occurred!

soul68

Thanks for all the stories of lost part woe....

 

UPDATE:

I found the part!

I hadn't considered when it was lost that it was covered in wet paint. So when I took everything off my work table, and shook it out i just naturally assumed it would fall out. But it stuck to a piece of paper I had on my desk and when I went to get that piece of paper, it was stuck right there, over a dark area where it wasn't easily noticeable.

 

Good that you found it

Parts have 3 distinct physical states- on the sprue, on the model, or on the floor.

Parts are happiest (that's a scientific term) when they are either on the sprue in their natural environment, or relocated to the model.

Parts that escape to the floor are the black-shirt anarchists of the modeling world as they want nothing more than to be "free" of the Man and his imposed rules of construction.

Geez, you aircraft guys lose a lot of parts! .........

Well guys, the front leaf spring of the Beverly Hillbilles truck has now joined the legion of missing parts out there in the ether.

 I removed it with sprue cutters, saw a brief flicker of motion, heard a couple of bounces and then "POOF".

the doog

Geez, you aircraft guys lose a lot of parts! .........

We're just man enough to admit it!!!  

the doog

Geez, you aircraft guys lose a lot of parts! .........

I lose parts on all genre of models, but I believe I lose more ship parts than any other genre.  Might be because there are more PE parts on ships, but I do believe, even without the PE, there are a greater number of small parts on a ship, especially an older vintage prototype, with more masts and rigging, more guns above deck level, etc.

fermis

the doog:

Geez, you aircraft guys lose a lot of parts! .........

 

 

We're just man enough to admit it!!!  

Fortunately, in the armor world, real life parts are lost to trees, buildings, artillery, mines, fender benders, midnight requisitions and any number of other reasons. Very rarely is a vital part lost, and minor parts can be scratched or something added to represent battle damage.

Rob Gronovius

fermis:

the doog:

Geez, you aircraft guys lose a lot of parts! .........

 

 

We're just man enough to admit it!!!  

 

Fortunately, in the armor world, real life parts are lost to trees, buildings, artillery, mines, fender benders, midnight requisitions and any number of other reasons. Very rarely is a vital part lost, and minor parts can be scratched or something added to represent battle damage.

You guys have an easy "out" for missing parts.....tanks roll on without grab handles....planes don't fly without a control stick!

I will give you better than even odds that somewhere within 1/4 of an hour after you fabricate, paint and install your missing control column, the original part will reappear on your desk, immediately in front of you.

qmiester

I will give you better than even odds that somewhere within 1/4 of an hour after you fabricate, paint and install your missing control column, the original part will reappear on your desk, immediately in front of you.

Oh yeah.. Can I get a witness!?

I lost the two parts that make up the turret hatch for my Tamiya T-72 a couple of years ago,I never did find the part,but I posted an appeal on Armorama and a fine chap from England sent me the part right away,not even charging for poatage.Not much time and cost,but I consider that action above and beyond.

I'm sure the members here would do the same

qmiester

I will give you better than even odds that somewhere within 1/4 of an hour after you fabricate, paint and install your missing control column, the original part will reappear on your desk, immediately in front of you.

I had given up after 3 days and was preparing to make a new part out of sprue, when I found it stuck to a piece of paper that had been on my desk at the time. I had moved the paper around several times and shook it out while looking but it didnt fall off due to the wet paint effectively gluing it onto the paper.

Tojo72

I lost the two parts that make up the turret hatch for my Tamiya T-72 a couple of years ago,I never did find the part,but I posted an appeal on Armorama and a fine chap from England sent me the part right away,not even charging for poatage.Not much time and cost,but I consider that action above and beyond.

I'm sure the members here would do the same

Got a similar deal for my Tamiya StuG IV kit.. I'd managed to lose an entire sprue though, if y'all can dig that, lol.. Dunno where it went, haven't found it even after moving twice..

Anyways, a guy from England (same guy perhaps?) sent me, via airmail, the entire missing sprue after I'd posted it in Armorama that I just needed the skirt armor and suspension rails... No charge!! He just asked me to "pay it forward".. So ever since then I've tried to help out any fellow modeler with parts or figures, free of charge....

Oh, and when my apartment got burglarized a few years ago and all my models were smashed, trashed, or stolen, many of the members here stood up and sent me, free of charge, a number of Monogram and other kits  to keep me from going into vapor-lock!   It was "Above and beyond" the call of Modeling, man...  FSM Forum members are a great bunch... 

So like the man said, "Pay it Forward"...

I remembered!  Yesterday I sat down to do a little modeling, and uncharacteristically, I draped the apron hanging from my bench back over my lap.  The first thing I started working on, a little copper wire pipe on the Roden Hispano Suiza engine kit, dropped from the tweezers and the apron caught it!  Boy, the fates finally smiled at me.  Does this mean I am finally developing a good habit (draping the apron when I sit down at the bench), or was I just terribly lucky.  I had a thread awhile ago on my attempts to develop that habit.