Woops wont do that again!

I've done that myself. Never even thought it would be a problem.....

About 26 years or so ago, I was building the old Revell 1/32 Tornado IDS. It was a rather tail heavy model so I needed to add weight in the radome. I had plenty of lead birdshot and loose pennies to affix in there but no super glue on hand to glue the stuff in place. So I decided to use Squadron Green Putty. Not a wise move. Where enough of it contacted one area on the inner surface created a corresponding size soft sink area on the outer surface until the putty eventually dried out. I suppose that had something to do with the toluene ingredient... So once that did dry I had to fill the resulting external area with putty and sand it smooth. Lesson learned: Squadron putty in large amounts in a concentrated area may cause more work than you intend to correct.

I've already posted about this, but it's worth warning people about. I spilled some CA adhesive on my workbench, and tried to wipe it up with the first thing that came to hand, which happened to be a baby wipe. (I keep a box of those things handy to wash my hands.)

CA, as I understand it, works by polymerizing when it comes into contact with moisture. When one of those wipes hit it, it started to smoke. The wipe got so hot I almost burned my fingertips on it. I had to make a mad dash for the bathroom to run cold water on my fingers before I could get the wipe loose. I was about one step away from heading for the emergency room.

Don't do that.

Then there was the time, quite a few years ago....I used to work at an old drafting table for a workbench. It was tall enough that I had to sit on a bar stool, which made getting up and down a little bit of a nuisance. I felt something roll off the front of the table, and snapped my legs together in order to catch whatever it was in my lap. A portion of my left leg immediately went numb. I looked down and discovered that I'd imbedded the blade of an Xacto knife in my thigh.

Don't do that.

Hah! One of the guys at my IPMS chapter this past Friday  was telling me about his modeling on an ex drafting table that had the same sort of xacto knife mishap! You are not alone JT!

Yup, never try to catch a falling knife!  Also. don't put masking tape on top on decals, and be real careful about pitot tubes and antennas when mounting a model on a base.  it's the last few steps like that which always trip me up.

I'm liking this thread, not only is it showing my that even the pros are human it's also showing me what steps to take to avoid a serious SNAFU.

Well lets see, many a year ago when I was a wee little lass, I was working on a 1/32 F-4 from Revell, and I couldn't get the wing joint to glue so I had to put down a crap ton of putty on there, and got to sanding well dang if I didn't put a hole right in the wing box.  Well I thought I know what to do the second time around and guess what....

While working on a C-17 at work, I taped off the engines and had them lieing on a workbench all taped up, someone asked me what they were, I told them they were my engines for my model.  The next day I go to look for said engines, and lo-and behold, they were thrown out by my co-worker, there goes another 40 bucks.  The moral of this one is don't let engines out of your sight.

Working on a B-52 in 1/144th scale and I started using the model master scribing tool.  While the tool worked perfectly, I took to much out of the panels and it looks like the panels are just wrong.

Under the category of Fun With CA Glue-- when I first started working with the stuff years ago, I had no idea that the fumes could travel and essentially congeal wherever they happened to land. It was a wonder glue to me and I used it on everything! Then I noticed that my contact lenses were irritating my eyes and causing them to water a lot. Removing a lens, I noted that there was a small dot, about the size of the tip of a pin, of something on the surface of the lens. Cleaning didn't remove it-- because it was CA glue, wafted through the air and attracted to the moisture of my eye. Ruined a pair of contacts, but I guess I was lucky it was that surface and not my eyeball. Lesson learned. I use CA sparingly now and only in a very well ventilated space!

While talking about CA mishaps, this is not model related but my buddy's daughter once applied CA to her eye lids! They were quite popular at the ER!

I have to tell on myself ;

   J.T does knives in the thigh  .Me , I do drills through the hand ! Oh , and a broken X-Acto blade in the thumb ! Drills . Was drilling out portholes on the Titanic model ( ya know , the big one ) and thought everything was fine . Felt an excruciating pain and realized I had drilled right through my hand !

      Years before on the Steamer " Natchez " I was so proud to be trusted with my first X-Acto , by myself too ! Well , it took a doctor visit to get that broken blade out of where it imbedded in my thumb bone .

I always keep a bottle of CA de-bonder nearby in case I glue my fingers together, as I have done many times!

In architecture school, at the drafting/ model table lifted my arm off the surface a few times with the xacto hanging from my elbow. You quickly learn how to incorporate coffee rings, cigar ash burns and blood into architectural renderings. No photoshop in 1974.

My redundant mistake in modeling is taking the decal sheet out of the kit and away to the armchair, PC, bedroom etc. with a reference book to research. Never to be seen again. I'm particularly distressed about a great set on 1950's polar helicopters that I can't replace.

Mishaps? Pffffffffffftttttttt .Never had any happen to me. HA! Who am I kidding? Too many to list from my younger years

HAH you haven't lived until you've super glued your lips together *  don't ask

LOL! Can't say I've glued my lips together, but I have glued myself to my Xacto knife. Then almost glued my other hand to the whole thing trying to get unstuck.

I like the story of the guy who had a 'stuck' bottle of super glue so he held it up to his ear to see if any air was coming out.

You can guess the rest.

One time I was working on a model and dropped a small part. Spent an hour on my hands and knees with a flash light scouring the carpet for the missing part. Nothing found so I just gave up on it.

The next day I was putting on my boots and "Huh there is something in there" walla there was the missing part!

Pant cuffs

One time I was rebuilding a rc model airplane engine and got it all put together but was missing one screw. I looked for hours to no avail.

So I decided to take it back apart again so I could get a match for one of the screws and there it was INSIDE the engine!!

Yikes! Had sort of the same experience with a 1:1 BMW 1600 cc engine.

Managed to flush it out of the oil drain hole.

All the above stories have that "Oh Sh*t" moment!

Does burying an exacto knife to the hilt above the knee count? Think of Young Frankenstein.

Was alcohol involved? LOL.... sorry

Knock on wood, it's been a while since I've had a major accident--at least, any that comes to mind.

The worst I've ever done, and I've done it a few times, is to pull the X-Acto towards me while shaving a part. I've put some pretty deep slices in fingertips. Only thing I can remember right now.

Chris

I underestimated how sharp the new Z series X-Acto blades were. Once.......

Yeah, they are super sharp.

I fractured a bone in my arm once, trying to raise a stuck window in my workshop before spraying paint.  Made a heck of a loud snap,  (Oops!) and my wife had to drive me to the hospital!

This is a fun thread but it's getting scary….!

1.  Years ago I built a model of Babylon 5 space station for my daughter who was a fan.  She wanted it hung from her ceiling, so I used fish line to attach it to  the ceiling light fixture.  Then I figured I needed to fix the knots in the line with superglue, and got my fingers glued to it.  I was standing on a chair; hand glued to the line; the space station swinging around; yelling to my wife to bring the fingernail polish remover.

2.  Finished up a Hasegawa 1/72 B-17, when I noticed what I thought was a smudge inside the cockpit canopy.  I put a little toothpaste on a q-tip; stuck it into the cockpit through the hole for the top turret.  Thought I could polish off the smudge and wipe it down.  But the toothpaste spread around like too much rice expands in a cooking pot, and ended up with a cockpit full of foam.

Nowdays, a smudge on the windshield is "just weathering."

As much as I am embarrassed to admit this I had a slight mishap with my xacto knife not to long ago. See I love to listen to music while I build, a habit I got into when I was stationed in Greece. Anyways so as not to disturb my fiance and the neighbors with my wide eclectic range of music I would just plug in my Zune and put my headphones on. Well one day not to long ago I had the Zune going with my headphones on just rocking out and building away, as you can imagine I couldn't hear anything going on around me as I was off in my own world. My fiance came home from work early and came up behind me to surprise me with a kiss and a beer, well needless to say I had my knife in hand and was doing some detail work when she did this and scared the hell out of me and I ended up getting myself in the forearm. 15 minutes and two tubes of liquid skin later I was able to calm down the fiance who was insisting on calling Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. Lesson learned: just play my music thought the Zune program on the computer, it's safer for all those involved.

Oh yea headphones, that's another 'caution' sign.

I own two headphones here in the shop. One is a wireless Bluetooth, the other is good ole plug analog.

I was working on something the other night highlighting some wingtips with 'safety orange'  you know the stuff its fluorescent.

I had forgotten I had put the blue tooth set off to charge and had the plug/cord set on.

Well I filled the cup and closed the lid on the bottle, went to put it back in the rack, stood up took a step and jerked the airbrushes (both of them) out of their cradle. Fluorescent orange paint on my pants, on my shoes, everywhere.

I rushed to wash it off was only acrylic but it was Aztek opaque. This particular hue sticks like flypaper and dries very quickly. Well pretty much all I did was water it down and spread it out... LOL

Orange stain on the rug, pants, socks, boots, etc.

On the bright side I didn't pull the laptop into the middle of it.

One of my first kits was a Lockheed Constellation (don't remember the brand). After I put it together, it kept falling backward on its tricycle landing gear, so I took the nose off and filled it with glue for a counterbalance. It ended up looking like Squidward from Spongebob.