feeding the carpet monster

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 7:04 AM

.....too numerous and too Censored [censored]

to mention...........think i've left a trail everywhere i've had a workbench.......ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............

???????????.......where does the other sock go from the pair you know you put in the dryer............ Banged Head [banghead]

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 6:49 AM

Most of the parts that I have lost are photoetch bits. My wife (God bless her) is an expert parts finder. If we can't find it after a brief search out comes the vacuum cleaner. We have a canister vac with a heppa filter. I empty it out and vacuum the entire area. Then I dump the contents on to a piece of white paper. This works about 90% of the time.

Darren

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Jim Barton

Member since
February 2003

Posted by Jim Barton on Thursday, July 1, 2004 2:20 PM

When I moved to Phoenix in January, I had the misfortune to inherit a carpet monster in my new apartment that is definitely hungrier than the one in my old apartment. I lost few parts in my old apartment, but I've already lost several small parts in my Phoenix apartment. Most notable was a 1/24 scale CB radio microphone I had just finished making and painting--you can imagine how tiny that is. Another thing I lost was some monofilament fishing line I had dipped into semigloss black to simulate small electrical cord. (At least that was easy to replace!) Then, just this past Sunday, the lost piece of painted fishing line turned up in the pages of that day's "Arizona Republic" newspaper!

"Whaddya mean 'Who's flying the plane?!' Nobody's flying the plane!"

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KJ200

Member since
July 2003
From: Bicester, England

Posted by KJ200 on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 3:07 AM

I don't even have a carpet.

You'd think it would be easy to find parts on a light coloured laminate floor?

Well you're wrong, it isn't!

So far I've lost the tail wheel doors to my He177, not exactly small, as well as numerous bits of PE.

The only saving grace being that having pinged the pitot probe from my Ar555 into orbit, I found it two weeks later in my spares box, which wasn't even on the table!!!!!!

There must be an inter demensional porat l some where.

Karl

Currently on the bench: AZ Models 1/72 Mig 17PF

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scottrc

Member since
December 2003
From: 37deg 40.13' N 95deg 29.10'W

Posted by scottrc on Monday, June 28, 2004 11:43 AM

One thing I have observed with this pheonomena, the chance of finding the lost part is directly proportional to the time after receiving an expensive replacement or spending many frustrating hours building a replacement.

I work on concrete also, and no matter how much I search, I will not find the part until after I don't need it.

Has anybody been known to take off all their clothes right where they were standing and search each article meticulously for the lost part?

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therriman

Member since
January 2003
From: Central MI

Posted by therriman on Monday, June 28, 2004 7:45 AM

Just yesterday I lost a piece of PE for my Fletcher class DD in the carpet monster. To go with everything else. Banged Head [banghead]

Tim H. "If your alone and you meet a Zero, run like hell. Your outnumbered" Capt Joe Foss, Guadalcanal 1942 Real Trucks have 18 wheels. Anything less is just a Toy! I am in shape. Hey, Round is a shape! Reality is a concept not yet proven.

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buff

Member since
December 2003
From: Montreal

Posted by buff on Sunday, June 27, 2004 3:21 PM

The floor of my workshop is grey concrete, and I am currently building a DML kit molded in......grey! Anything I drop autmomatically gets camouflaged. I have to get down on my hands and knees with a flashlight (which I now keep next to me). I think I am going to paint the area around my work bench bright red. Nobody molds armor in bright red. I have already lost one piece of PE, so I will no have to make a tarp or cam net to hide where it was supposed to go. I found one dropped part on the carpet on the stairs leading up from my basement. It must have fallen on my pants or socks and then dropped off as I walked up the stairs.

On the bench: 1/32 Spit IXc

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rebelreenactor

Member since
October 2003
From: Clovis, Calif

Posted by rebelreenactor on Sunday, June 27, 2004 12:45 AM

Lets see, idividual track links, ummm a whole bunch of little things that i cant think of right now. But I have lost a lot.

John

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Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 26, 2004 11:00 PM

Problem 1 The "hub cap" to the front drive sprocket of my revell germany 1:72 t-34 snapped off
Solution I fabricated one out of sheet styrene and I will paint it to make it look like the real deal.

Problem 2 The nose cone antenae to my 1/32 f-105g (I was building it for someone, so I was elevated into panic mode!) snapped off and flew into oblivioin.
SolutionThe kit came with the elongated bomb tips (you know how some bombs have long antenaes?) and I converted that into the nose cone antenae.

Problem 3 I was working on my DML t-34/85 when I glued the wheel in the swing arm, which was the right thing to do. But I decided I wanted to make the t-34 look like it was going over derbis and junk, so I tried to pull the swing arm out (which I glued with super glue) and snapped it off! The carpet monster ate it and I was left with a 3mm gap between boggie and wheel!
SolutionI took about 7-8 layers of bits of sheet styrene and built up a little "brick" and filled the gap with it.

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rjkplasticmod

Member since
February 2003
From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State

Posted by rjkplasticmod on Saturday, June 26, 2004 6:11 PM

Iv'e lost too many to remember, but not always to the carpet monster. The other night I was positioning a small cockpit PE placard which had a tiny drop of CA on the back. Sure enough the tweezers slipped & propelled it into the wild blue. I heard it bounce a couple of times but it was nowhere in sight. After a search I gave up and replaced the part with a similar one from my spares stash. A couple of days later my wife was getting ready to do some laundry and asked what this thing glued to the sleeve of my Sweatshirt was. Some careful X-Acto surgery saved the PE & the Sweatshirt survived.

RICK

At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...

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fightnjoe

Member since
September 2011

Posted by fightnjoe on Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:35 PM

lets see. dash plate to the hasegawa jeep, wheel to the p-40b, assorted parts from the 109 and the 38. think that soon i will lose my shoes or something.

joe

Veterans,

Thank You For Your Sacrifices,

Never To Be Forgotten

Where you can find me:

Workbench on FaceBook Google Plus YouTube

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M1abramsRules

Member since
June 2003

Posted by M1abramsRules on Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:20 PM

yep, I lost a roadwheel once and was in the middle of trying to cast another when I found it attached to a sock on the way to the clothes hamper

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Boatshop

Member since
November 2003
From: USA

Posted by Boatshop on Saturday, June 26, 2004 1:00 PM

This thread is very funny Laugh [(-D]

Jim Q What isn't tried, won't work

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chopperfan

Member since
November 2003
From: Oklahoma

Posted by chopperfan on Saturday, June 26, 2004 12:40 PM

I gave up a long time ago.
Now before I start a kit, I don my ceremonial head dress and throw a part, picked at random from the kit, to the pits of the "Great Carpet"!!!!! Bow [bow]

Randie

Randie [C):-)]Agape Models

Without them? The men on the ground would have to work a lot harder. You can help. Please keep 'em flying! http://www.airtanker.com/

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gar26

Member since
July 2003
From: Canada

Posted by gar26 on Saturday, June 26, 2004 11:48 AM

It's almost a tradition now that when I build a kit that I lose something to the carpet monster. I am begining to think that if I did'nt lose anything then the kit would not be good.

gpebernat

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leemitcheltree

Member since
January 2003
From: Washington State

Posted by leemitcheltree on Saturday, June 26, 2004 9:30 AM

Scott's right -
I've lost many (and I mean MANY) bits to the hungry carpet monster - only to find most of the bits AFTER a replacement has been scratchbuilt.
Sod's Law, I guess.

Cheers, LeeTree
Remember, Safety Fast!!!

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MusicCity

Member since
January 2004
From: USA

Posted by MusicCity on Saturday, June 26, 2004 6:30 AM

There was a great thread similar to this a month or so back. I still laugh from it.

My opinion is that parts that get lost in the abyss (I build in my basement so there are plenty of places for them to hide) simply sit in an alternate universe and wait. You hunt and hunt for them, finally give up and scratchbuild something loosely resembling the part that got lost, and then they move back out into the real world where they can be found. They can NOT be found until a part is scratchbuilt, but once the part is fabricated and permanently glued in place and painted, the original part will always be found.

Scott Craig -- Nashville, TN -- My Website -- My Models Page

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paulnchamp

Member since
January 2003
From: Warwick, RI

feeding the carpet monster

Posted by paulnchamp on Friday, June 25, 2004 10:41 PM

I've finally finished up the air group of my Trumpeter Hornet. 36 aircraft in all. Of those 36, 3 of the microscopic tailwheels and one canopy were inadvertantly tweezer-pulted into mid-air and sacrificed to the carpet monster. Disapprove [V]

The canopy I was able to easily reproduce using Kristal-Klear. No sweat there. Smile [:)]

But the tailwheels are another story. [:0]

I know what you're all thinking: the vacuum cleaner! With a piece of the wife's panty hose over the nozzle to retrieve them from that yawning dimensional gateway! Alas, no dice. Each of these tailwheels is slightly larger than a hydrogen atom, and is still lost forever.

A few tiny bits of strip styrene were the only answer. I fabricated something VERY loosely resembling a tailwheel assembly. Blush [:I]

So where are these three tailwheel-less aircraft, you ask? Down on the opened-up hangar deck, of course, with their tailwheel areas carefully out of view! Big Smile [:D]

So what kind of critical components have YOU fed to the carpet monster?
And how did you deal with it? Question [?]

Paul

Paul "A man's GOT to know his limitations."

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