Murphy was a modeler

Well, that's interesting, DanCooper!  To be honest, I never thought there was a real "Murphy."  I figured it was just a slang term for something we needed a name for.

I was a radio repairman in the Marines (2841, for you insiders) and thus dealt with equipment that was a bit more delicate than the average e-tool or kelly helmet, and more forgiving than the average frag.  We had a saying about some of our operators:  "What they can't eat, they break, and what they can't break, they... ummm...  make head calls on."

And now the truth about Murphy :

 Some people might think Murphy is (or was) a phychologist or even mathematician, this however not true.

 Some people think that "Murphy's Law" says :"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong", that is equally not true (although te result is the same).

Murphy never "made" a law, nor was he studying the above kind of things.

So : Who's Murphy ?   Well, allbeit unintentionally, the title of this tread is not that far off, Murphy was a chiefengineer for a major aircraft company.

So, why "Murphy's Law" ? Being chief engineer makes you work with people who, well are not always the right person for the right job.  Murphy must have been a very conscious and dedicated coworker for the company and having to work with people that constantly make mistakes isn't that easy.

So, one day, our good old friend mr Murphy was walking into the hangar where a new plane was being constructed, when he saw a piece of equipement having been installed upside down.  Having a bad day or something he went berserck and started shouting as who had installed that equipement.  A little later he walked into he's office, saying to he's co-workers :" argh, ingeneers, whatever they can install wrong, they will do so"

So, the real law of Murphy, translated into modelling actually says :

"Whatever you will do wrong, you will do wrong" 

Post Based on an article in "Kijk" a popular scientific magazine in Holland. 

There have been several posts here about dropped parts.  Here's a true story.  Last night, I dropped a hand-made part on the floor. It was about 5/8" across, but .020 thick, painted white on both sides.  It fell on a clean, bare concrete floor, and dropped right between my knees.  I looked for that little turkey for 20 minutes before I found it.  Using the old technique of getting a few feet from impact zone and getting my eye as close to the floor as possible, I spotted it.

It had landed on its edge - that .020" edge! - and was leaning against the cord for my compressor - the only white object within 10 feet.  After I spotted it, I went back and looked down on it, and even knowing where it was, I couldn't see it from two feet up.

I thought, "Murphy, you sucker!  You nearly got me!"

I had just finished air brushing a number of parts for a large model I was making and I had them outside on the balcony of a friend apartment, when the wind got up well as you can imagine all hell broke loose.

One part went over the balcony and landed in the grass below.

So I thought no problem.

All I had to do was go down stairs and pick it up.

Not so, I looked for nearly an hour before I eventually asked a guy who was working around the building if he by any chance had seen the piece, keeping in mind it was about half an inch square in size.

His reply was yes, it is in front of you.

There really is no answer to that.

Regards,

Beau.

Murphy, and his assistant Captain Chaos bit my rear this weekend at an r/c scale ship regatta. 

On an r/c model, the problem will always be the most in-accessible moving part; which requires a strong light, small tools, and a very narrow work area.

The setup: The subject is a 51" long model of a 205' ATF/WMEC, which has been running nicely for about 8 years.  The model is about 25 feet out in the lake, I advance the throttle a little more and the motor revs up, but the ship doesn't move.  Fortunately, the wind is blowing towards my position on shore, and I retreive the model in about 10 minutes.  During the wait, the 3 other captains running boats ask me what's wrong.  How the heck do I know, I ain't in the engine room on the model.  Past experience tells me: 1 - the drive nubs on the nylon dog bone broke off; 2 - the set screw for the u-joint loosened up (not hardly with all of the Locktite); or 3 -the stainless steel prop shaft broke (not likely). 

The cause:  The drive nubs on one end of the dog bone broke.

The repair:  I have a spare dog bone to install.  I have to remove the u-joint from the prop shaft to install the dog bone.  Removing the u-joint requires snaking a 1/16" allen wrench thru a 1/4" space to hit the u-joint 2" under the deck at the stern of the model.  What is normally a 10 minute repair job takes me about an hour because of the idiots who keep stopping by to ask what's wrong.  The last person who asked almost got the model shoved up their stern tube, and I was asked to take a stress time out.

When applying kicker to a CA-glued part to instantly set it, your hand holding the part in place will invariably jerk just as the kicker hits the CA glue, drying it in the wrong place/position. This will cause you to have to cut it off and repair the damage done upon removal.

Corrollary to this Law: The damage done to the surrounding area upon removal of an improperly glued part will grow exponentially to the amount of detail/number of other small parts in the same area as the one removed. 

Instant set glue won't.

No matter what color the part, when it's dropped on the floor it instantly is transformed into the finest camoflage scheme that will render it totally invisible.

Parts dropped will always roll into the most inaccessible point in the area.

Two sqare feet?  How the devil do you manage that?  I don't think I've ever had half that.  But here's another one of Murphy's jewels:

No matter how much crap you have on your bench, the tool, paint, or part you need is never there before the glue dries.

Regardless of the size of the workbench, there will always be exactly two (2) square feet of clear work area.

That mysteriously missing (but *essential*) part you've been searching for (for HOURS)..... WILL magically re-appear......about 5 minutes AFTER you finish scratchbuilding a new one........

I hate Murphy......

jazzy_jeff wrote:

no part is too large to lose

How true that can be : I misplaced a 3 foot long hull for an rc hovercraft once on the attick, and after 7 years, it's still missing

styrenegyrene wrote:

Yup.  I finished a B-17 a while back, and afterward, someone asked me for provenance on something I'd done on the kit.  I'll be dipped if I can find any of the dozen or so photos of it!

LoL!  Used to have a great huge threatening to bury a person stack of After the Battle.  Never could find the photos in them that I remembered seeing.  Cured that problem by selling'em off <g>.

I just now remember another Murphy.  If you have to drill holes to mount things for specific versions/items/whatever--you will forget to do that only after having achieved the most flawless seam & joints possible.  Then, when you temp fate and sand the finish off jsut bit past bare plastic to get the holes to barely show through as halos--you'll drill out the wrong ones <sigh>.  (What do you mean, there's no such thing as a transitional A-7D/E?)

rokket wrote:

These are all gems and this needs to be a sticky! This isn't as clever a the others, but I have found it too true: Any irreplaceable part (scratchbuilt or expensive PE) will spring from tweezers and break new ground in Physics, finding a doorway into another dimension.

 Hahahaha! This is what I was going to add as well!

Let a black part fall on a snow white carpet and you'll play hell finding it. But let a needle fall and you'll be hopping on one foot in no time. 

quoth CapnMac82:

While researching, you will find reference after reference on steam power plants for ships' boats (even Imperial Nepalese Navy Admiral's Barges) in endless, repetitive supply.  This will appear to be to the exclusion of what you are seeking information about.

Until you try to find that info on Imperial Russian Steam Launches for someone under time pressure . . . ('could'a sworn there was 15 dozen monographs las' time I looked . . . )

Yup.  I finished a B-17 a while back, and afterward, someone asked me for provenance on something I'd done on the kit.  I'll be dipped if I can find any of the dozen or so photos of it!

scottrc wrote:

styrenegyrene wrote: The day after you finish a model you've based on that super-accurate and authentic [need I add expensive?] reference work, someone will post irrefutable proof that it's baloney. Same will be said if you scratchbuilt every part and detail on this model, only to have a complete kit come out in the same month you have finished your scratchbuilt one.

Like in the article in the latest FSM, used parts from a A and C Mustang to make a B and then Tamiya came out with one.

You go to the store to pick up paint, look at the glue and say, I don't need this, I got a full tube at home.

You go home, you use the glue for 5 minutes, and a hole pops in it!!!!!!!!!!

David

While researching, you will find reference after reference on steam power plants for ships' boats (even Imperial Nepalese Navy Admiral's Barges) in endless, repetitive supply.  This will appear to be to the exclusion of what you are seeking information about.

Until you try to find that info on Imperial Russian Steam Launches for someone under time pressure . . . ('could'a sworn there was 15 dozen monographs las' time I looked . . . )

Aftermarket items, even short-run cottage items will not appear until you have clumsily decided to show off your "well, that's going to have to good enough for now" hack scratch builds.

(To that, let me appologize, it's probably my fault that there is not aftermarket 1/32 or 1/32 bar armor for VN Riverine craft--I just can't pull the trigger to lead with my embarassment first  <g>) 

These are all gems and this needs to be a sticky!

This isn't as clever a the others, but I have found it too true:

Any irreplaceable part (scratchbuilt or expensive PE) will spring from tweezers and break new ground in Physics, finding a doorway into another dimension.

styrenegyrene wrote:

The day after you finish a model you've based on that super-accurate and authentic [need I add expensive?] reference work, someone will post irrefutable proof that it's baloney.

Same will be said if you scratchbuilt every part and detail on this model, only to have a complete kit come out in the same month you have finished your scratchbuilt one.

A part will be attached to the sprue at a point carefully designed to do the maximum damage to delicate details.

If part "A" must, absolutely, without question - really, REALLY MUST - be attached BEFORE part "B," the reverse is also true.

A Southwestern US law:  The more tightly you seal your display case, the more dust will get in.

Corrollary to that:  If dust settles at some rate, "R", on the diecast piece of junk your brother-in-law gave you on Groundhog Day, it will settle at "R-squared" on the finest piece of work you've ever done.

The day after you finish a model you've based on that super-accurate and authentic [need I add expensive?] reference work, someone will post irrefutable proof that it's baloney.