What's your worst model "uh-oh"?

I would have to say that my worst screwup came when I fumbled my hobby knife. I felt it hit my foot, and looked to see where it had rolled. It was protruding from the top of my foot. The most embarrasing part of it all was explaining the injury to my wife.

I keep making the mistake of opening up the box.

It usually goes downhill from there.

LOL, too funny! I've had many of these common occurrences, and most of them can be attributed to patience, or lack thereof. Anyway, my biggest screw-up still hasn't been resolved. I've been building a 1/48 ProModeler F-117A for about four years now and have been through three kit canopies. Just can't get the mask right no matter what I do. Sigh.

It was more than few years ago (let say about 25 !) - I was building my 1/72 Airfix Hawker Hurricane I in Polish 303 Sqn markings. The model was just about to finish and I was painting the canopy frames - unfortunately the canopy fell down on my carpet and became dirty, so I went to my bathroom for cleaning it under tap water - in that moment the water took it out and my canopy disappeared in black whole of my bath. I solved the problem writing to Matchbox Company for replacement - fortunately Matchbox canopy fitted good after a little trimming. But I remember this lesson well and from that moment I never clean my models under running water ! Regards ! Aleksander

This didn't actually happen to the model itself but my toolbox. I was setting up to do some modeling and I opened the toolbox, propping the lid vertical on a piece of wood. A few minutes later, I ever-so-gently bumped the workbench--but that was enough. The toolbox did a complete back-flip off the workbench! Knives, files, glue, sanding sticks, everything went cascading merrily to the floor! And of course the cat just HAD to see what all the commotion was about; she thought I was giving her a whole host of cat toys to play with! After shooing her away, it took about twenty minutes to get everything back behind the lines, and then I attached a second piece of wood to the lid prop so the toolbox lid wouldn't be so vertical. And I now use two pieces of scrap wood in a back compartment so the lid (hopefully!) won't fall down and smash my fingers! It took me an hour before I could finally start modeling! This happened only yesterday.

I'm not totally left or right handed, but a little of both. As I was painting an F4 Phantom I noticed that it just wasn't looking right and felt awkward. I went on and finished the second color of the SEA camoflage. While cleaning my airbrush I then realized I had painted it with my left hand instead of my right: I brush paint with my left and airbush with my right. I went ahead and put the gear and canopys on, but no ordnance and set it in an out-ofthe-way place.

At 7 I built my first P-38 unsupervised.In an effort to stay one step ahead of any advice I pinched some small washers out of my fathers toolshed to bluetac into the nose to sit properly.
assembly was good,undercoat on,great.
Next morning to apply silver,pick it up.
Nose had completely melted due to the fact that those washers had been sitting in thinners for the past 2 years---- OOPs!

32 years later,things don't change.
Struggling to finish an AMT StarWars Federation Tank before Xmas for my Nephew.Going well --- Ur that is at weathering stage with Pastel chalks 3.00AM xmas morning.
Finally done! get to bed at 4:30am.
Next morning,wife gently remarks "I see you finished the model last night but you need more practice with the chalks".
Good God ! woman what do you know. (We think this don't we guys!!! NEVER say it).
As I extract myself from under the blankets I focus on black exhaust smudges all through the ensuite up the hall into the kicthen ,around the fridge & into the model room.
For my birthday this year I receive a carton of liquid soap!!!!!
Still haven't heard the end of this.!!!!!!

I was airbrushing an old plastic kit of a Civil War balloon, manufacturer unknown, and I was in a big hurry: hot date, ya know. I sprayed, sprayed a bit more, then decided to just go for broke and hit the kit with one last heavy coat to cover the spots I'd missed. Headed out the door without checking the results. When I got a good look the next morning,well.......................ever see a kit with paint stalagmites before? My folks laughed so hard I thought I'd have to move out before I finished high school, just from the humiliation. Kept the kit for years as a painful reminder to "take my time". Not the only bad goof,but the one that everyone in my family remembers . :) - Ed

About five years ago, I built a Hasegawa P-38 - and got a gorgeous dark green finish. I sat down one evening to start my favourite task: decalling. Since there are a lot of compound curves on the fuselage, I got out my Testors decal-set (nice round stable bottle), brushed some around the nose, wet the decal, transferred the decal to the plane... but... what??? The paint was lifting, and the decal was dissolving!!! What's that smell?? (My nose never did work too well - all those allergies!!!) Oh no!!! I brushed liquid cement on the plane!!! The Testors cement was in an identical bottle to the decal set, and I made the fatal error of not reading the label. Anyway - I got discouraged and put the plane away. Later, I picked up an after-market decal sheet, sanded, filled, and rescribed a badly corroded fuselage, and salvaged the model. Ever since then I have used Tamiya liquid cement (square bottle), and Micro Sol products (tall round bottles). And I never did it again.

I've had enough uh-oh's it would be hard to list them all. Currently working on a B-17G that is giving me fits. I'm considering putting it back in the box and returning to it sometime before I leave this world.

I'm currently working on a six vehicle Canadian UN convoy, and one of the M113s is an ambulance. so im painting the red crosses on one side. I flip the model over to paint the other side, unknowingly placing my thumb in the fresh red paint. So i'm painting away, and thumbprinting the other side in flat red, all over a carefully applied flat white coat. Being sixteen, i punched a hole in the wall. And now my hand hurts.

I had a nice big shiny 8th scale Harley Davidson Electra Glide (tm?) go through its side stand, fall about half a foot and have it desintegrate, because the glue I used doesn´t stick chromed parts together all that well. Have learned since then..

Of course, when I was 6 I melted the tail of an A-10 into a squishy pulp. That was the day I learned that less can be more..

Brush painting canopy braces was also always very interesting.. Especially at 2am..

Not to mention an ERTL Slave 1 kit topple from my window ledge behind, between and under a chest of drawers and a radiator. Which reminds me of a Revell 32nd scale Huey also falling of the ledge, but this time to end up in the roof gutter about 4 foot below. Oddley enough the ol Revell bird was a prime example of solid German engineering. It finally took a barrage of 5mm pellets, darts and an evening of boredom to subdue it. It went out fighting..

First airbrushing experiances ended up in forarms, hands and basically anything on my body with hairs on it exposed to air covered with a fine layer of the flavour of the day. It wasn't so bad if it was a darker greyish colour, but the yellow was embarressing. I won´t even start on the amount of models that filed through the ranks before I actually hit the paint-thinner ratio on the head.

What else.. Oh yes.. My younger teenage years were by far the most productive years of modelling. My dad referred to it as a production line instead of a hobby. Anyway, being of single parentage at the time, my dad employed a cleaning lady, who we aptly named 'Miss Destruction'. Not a plane was safe. Snapped props, destroyed undercarriage, cowling hoods up the vacuum cleaner.. The tail of my RC aircraft was obliterated. I was least happy about that one I can tell you. My brother actually found one of his mustangs with the fuselage cracked along its WIDTH!! How by Zark she managed that is beyond me.. Needless to say she was banned from our rooms since then.. Funnily enough, a good 8 years later, she has also been banned from any room containing anything remotely fragile.

Ho-hum.. you live, you learn, you use CA..

I was adding bb's to the engine nacelles on Star Trek's USS Reliant after forgetting to do so after gluing them together,
so I drilled a hole and inserted lots of bb's and lots and lots of
Testor's model cement and then sealed the hole with putty.
The next day when I check, the entire sides of both engines had
softened and distorted and was still soft. I had already spent countless hours on the hand painted Azteca saucer pattern,
so a fix was definately in order. After the plastic began to harden
after about a month it took a lot of putty, I got close to almost perfect and now it has just been sitting for more than a year.
The worst part is realizing (after watching the Khan flick several times) that I should have left well enough alone as it would have
been an absolutely perfect effect for battle damage.
The next bigger uh oh is a recent recreation of a decal on my ink jet printer. I had spent hours perfecting a 'Champion' frame decal for my newly powdercoated vintage bicycle, I mean the thing was perfect after reprinting it about 3 times it was flawless and the spray coat job for creating a waterslide decal was just right. I put high quality clear tape over the fully dried decal (still perfect at this point) carefully cut it out, soaked it and applied it to the bike frame. To make it more or less permanently attached, I thought I was trick using Mop and Glo
as a gluing agent. Went to bed very satisfied and woke up to find out the Mop and Glo had seeped through the back of the decal paper and blurred the sharp printed logo. Due to the clear tape layer on the front, it inhibited natural drying and the logo became more fuzzy each day. The final touch on an investment over 1,000 bucks! I am afraid to remove it and try again.

I was adding bb's to the engine nacelles on Star Trek's USS Reliant after forgetting to do so after gluing them together,
so I drilled a hole and inserted lots of bb's and lots and lots of
Testor's model cement and then sealed the hole with putty.
The next day when I check, the entire sides of both engines had
softened and distorted and was still soft. I had already spent countless hours on the hand painted Azteca saucer pattern,
so a fix was definately in order. After the plastic began to harden
after about a month it took a lot of putty, I got close to almost perfect and now it has just been sitting for more than a year.
The worst part is realizing (after watching the Khan flick several times) that I should have left well enough alone as it would have
been an absolutely perfect effect for battle damage.
The next bigger uh oh is a recent recreation of a decal on my ink jet printer. I had spent hours perfecting a 'Champion' frame decal for my newly powdercoated vintage bicycle, I mean the thing was perfect after reprinting it about 3 times it was flawless and the spray coat job for creating a waterslide decal was just right. I put high quality clear tape over the fully dried decal (still perfect at this point) carefully cut it out, soaked it and applied it to the bike frame. To make it more or less permanently attached, I thought I was trick using Mop and Glo
as a gluing agent. Went to bed very satisfied and woke up to find out the Mop and Glo had seeped through the back of the decal paper and blurred the sharp printed logo. Due to the clear tape layer on the front, it inhibited natural drying and the logo became more fuzzy each day. The final touch on an investment over 1,000 bucks! I am afraid to remove it and try again.

Hasegawa 1/72 Tomcat (the original one). All-grey scheme, Gunze Sangyo acrylic gloss finish. Lovely. Decalled beautifully. Wash the Micro Sol / Set off. Dry. Tamiya gloss clear... well it's acrylic too, isn't it? F--- the paint's going everywhere. A A A R G G G H happily I had spares for the few decals that were common to that issue of the kit's two schemes. Never, EVER mix your acrylics. Never acrylic over enamels, I'd already found that out; but never, ever use aqueous colours from two different sources together? I (obviously) didn't guess that one.

Alternatively, the Pup and his friend think the Dragon "Maus" looks just like it should roll along.... oh no it doesn't. And they persuade half the running gear to shear off as well, they don't just fragment the tracks. It's taken me years to replace that model at a price I can justify. The Pup is no longer allowed to even think of touching....

I was super gluing some parts together and the tip kept clogging up. I slapped the bottle base on the table to try to dislodge the clog and some glue shot out onto the side of my head. Thinking that a fly had landed on me, I tried to brush it away with my fingers. 45 minutes later, after carefully cutting the hair away at the scalp to free my fingers from the side of my head, then shaving to get rid of the patchy look, I was bald as a billiard ball. I was very lucky that nothing got in my eyes.

oh, and how could I forget my first big bad RED mistake... WHen I was a kid, I saw the PT-109 movie and had to have the powered model. You know the one, it came with a little motor that was battery powered. I planned on using it at the bay, or the neighbors pool.
Anyways, it was an early saturday morning, and this was my first real model kit that wasn't snap-together. I was so engroseed in the cartoons on that I didn't even notice that I had cut myself rather severly by drawing the knife towards me instead of away. When I looked down, my little boats deck was awash in crimson! Needless to say, mom wasn't happy about that little hospital trip, which included several stiches to my thumb (which I very luckily didn't lose!) Dads response: I hope you learned a valuable lesson here!

Funny thing is, 12 years later, while studying architecture in collage, I caut myself pretty ofetn while building models. Everyone in my studio could be poster children for tetanous shots! Too little sleep, too much pressure, add too much coffee, and pressto! Instant accidents waiting to happen!

When I was but a wee little modeler, I visited my cousin in Japan. There, I saw one of those really great robot models for Gundam. When I was buying it I asked the guy at the counter for some modelling glue. After much sign language a teeth sucking, I finally got thru what I wanted, and left the store contentedly, and immediatly set to building as soon as I walked thru the door. Unfortunatly, though very sticky, it wasn't model glue that e sold me. Even though it bonded the plastic together, it also melted the daylights out of it! I ended up with and 'elephantman' looking robot! At least my family got a good laugh out of it...

I hadn't quite gotten three quarters through building a KC-135 Tanker. My nephews were coming over to visit so I figured I had better put it up in a safe place away from them, which happened to be in the basement. When i went to bring it upstairs again I was carrying too much and dropped everything and the plane fell off the top step down onto the cement. what wasn't smashed was splattered with paint and thinner,etc. That's when I learned to take smaller loads.

I was working on a P-40 and my wife was talking to me about something that obviously wasn't as important as working on my model because I was doing the standard, "Uh huh, yep, uh huh" husband response.

I had just cut the rear wings from the sprue to attatch to the tail.

I turned to say something for just a moment, and returned to glue the wings in.

Needless to say I glued them in upside down and backwards because I wasn't paying attention.

I did something similar with the engine of a NASCAR kit. I glued the exhaust pipes to the wrong end of the engine...

Just recently I did copious body work to an AMT 1960 Ford Starliner to reproduce a base level two door Ford,in an attempt to build a vintage police car. The prototype is white, simple right, primer that puppy then have a go with the gloss white. Not quite the way I intended , I used FLAT white, colledge education doncha know. Came back to the paint booth and that sucker dried DEAD FLAT.
Thank God for clear gloss. Boy I did get a shock when I turned on the light though. Happy Modeling

Many, many moons ago, while in the Air Force, I was "preping" a Monogram F-10? As I was dry fitting the fuse, I found one side was terribly warped. Well, not even considering the strange possibility of straightening the parts as I glued them, I proceeded to soften the plastic with heat. I don't remember what I used, but it wasn't anything so mundane as a light bulb. Nope, not me. I used the Tim Taylor method of "More Power!!!". The vertical stabilizer shrank and twisted! It wound up a good 3/8 of an inch shorter than the other side. Needless to say, it's been in a box somewhere for the past 25 years. Someday...maybe I'll find a way to replace that tail!

Have a great one!!

Bill

Most of mine involve paint but the one that really stands out was the time I knocked a nearly full bottle of Ambroid Proweld on the model I was building. let's just say I lost a little surface detail on that one. But darnit I let it dry, sanded out the ripples and finished the model.

I've been working on a Meteor III for a while and bought a new pack of blue tac to weight the nose....... making sure no tail sitter here.........separatly building the wing assy i had a great idea (?), why not use more blu tac ( plenty left ) to weight the engines and give it some scale kgs..........yep you guessed it - tail sits a treat - DOOU !

The worst modeling mistake I made, without actually glueing anything together, was to purchase ICM's 1/72 MiG-31 Foxhound. The dry fitting revealed she was going to be more trouble than she was worth. I persevered for a few weeks and then thought about checking myself in to a mental institute for a well deserved rest. Never did get her done.

I've probably had more uh-ohs than I can remember. Overdone nose weights glued wings to my fingers....

Worst for me, I was building a small resin aircraft (Spanish made kit if I recall). I had it all together, painted and on the shelf and it didn't look half bad for my first go at a full resin kit. I was dusting it a few months later and a huge air buble in the wing gave way and I had a meteor crater on the upper side of that wing. She wasn't cleared for take off but that didn't stop a cross room commuter flight (one way, of course).

That pretty much put me totally off of full resin kits.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701A from Star Trek VI. Worked on that bitch for 3 years and never got it right and finally threw it away and bought a replacement to someday work on.

just today i had a modeling accident. i put the scratchbuilt cockpit of an a6m5 on the floor then dropped the xacto.. the rest is history... well not it was in brass

So, the solution to most of these tales of woe would be; model by remote control, using an idiot proof computer programme, using prepainted kit parts. And if Tamiya would forget the motor in model idea and simply invent a small enough anti-grav unit, none of the above could happen again. But of course, we all know it will, the question is...WHEN?

When I was about ten I built a Lindberg 1/48th FJ-3 Fury ( their F-86 molded in blue plastic ! ) using tube glue. After gluing on the windshield and canopy I sat it upside-down in the box to glue on the landing gear. I left it to dry, and when I came back hours later to check it, the glue had run down inside of the canopy ! Never did THAT again ! I know I have had many more serious flubs in the last 45 years, but that one just seems to stick in my mind.

A more recent one is leaving a fingerprint in the paint of a 1/32nd Hasegawa Spitfire 5, and having it pointed out to me by one of the fellows who worked in the hobby shop where I took it to be displayed.

Jim