Battle Wounds from modeling?

Once upon a time I was decaling a model.. Revell F-15E I believe. I dropped something on the floor, put my knife down, bent down to get it.. and planted my lip right against the knife blade. I have the scar to this day.

I have been doing a good job of training myself to not catch anything that falls. However, a while back I dropped an Xacto with a brand new blade straight down.. Right in to my foot. The blade buried most of the way in my foot. The dining room and kitchen still looked like a murder scene when my significant other got home.. If she had given me an extra 30 minutes she would have never known it happened.

Note: I know never to pull out anything inside a puncture wound. However, I was not explaining that one to the medics so I handled it myself.

I found I stopped injuring my fingers when I started changing blades more often. The sharp ones don't slip.

I also managed to splatter Model Master Insignia Yellow all over my dining room when I was opening a stuck bottle. It took every drop of mineral spirits I had but I managed to hide all the evidence except the smell before she got home.

I know this is an older thread but I couldn't resist.  Besides the normal minor cuts and glued fingers I was about 12 or 13 building an aircraft carrier. Trying to paint all of those tiny little gloss blue jets. Well I tipped the bottle over into my lap. I was wearing shorts. Mom had to almost bathe me in paint thinner to clean me up.  Also had an incident last year. Was building some shelves for my display area. Was using screw gun to put them together. Bit slipped off screw head and drove deep into my right thumb. Lost part of my cuticle and my nail is growing back funny. Oh well

I was talking about this threat today and was told about a friend's father who got an exact knife stuck in the bone of a finger, and it was stuck in wouldn't come out. A nice trip to the emergency room followed by an operation. It wasn't from modeling rather it was wallpaper. I thought I would mention it, and make everyone cringe.

Most of my self-inflicted, model-related "wounds" are... stress-based & emotional.

I blasted my eyes once with canned airbrushed propellent once. I've slice fingers and thumbs. I seem infamous for squeezing the Exacto knife back towards my thumb as I clean up attachment points, sometimes I pull too hard. And then there was the time I superglued a piece of balsa to my el;bow and didn't notice for several hours later. That was more of an "injured pride" thing though.

VanceCrozier

Most of my self-inflicted, model-related "wounds" are... stress-based & emotional.

No cats harmed during the making of models is something to be proud of ........ 

Years back I was working on a German half track and was going to cut out some panels using my trusty xacto knife when it slipped and I buried it to the hilt in my right leg just above the knee. Think 'Young Frankenstein' and you get the picture. And like Gene Wilder I opened my hand, observed the buried knife and yanked the blasted thing out. ...That was 3 stitches.

 

Scott

Sprue-ce Goose

VanceCrozier

Most of my self-inflicted, model-related "wounds" are... stress-based & emotional.

No cats harmed during the making of models is something to be proud of ........ 

MEOUWWWW!!!!!

Timely subject. This happened just a few days ago.

I'm cleaning up a part with an x-acto knife.

The part is in my left hand. The knife in my right hand.

I've gotten to where I remove my glasses while doing close up work.

With my right hand I go to rub my eye forgetting the knife is in my hand.

Fortunately the tip of the knife only hits the bridge of my nose.

It was definitely a wakeup call!

For me, I've only experienced the infrequent X-Acto blade cuts on the fingers in my 30-odd years of modeling. Now, using power tools, on the other hand................

Back to our hobby, though... About 10 years ago, I had a friend in Indianapolis who was building a rather nice modeling bench for himself - alone (he wasn't married, either, so no wife to help him when things got rough). With a really nice Craftsman drill in his right hand and a long Phillips bit in it, he had a piece of the bench in between his knees, attempting to get a screw started in the wood. The drill bit decided it didn't want to put the screw in the wood, and takes out his right knee cap instead. I lived about 7 miles away at the time, and this was about 9:30pm, but he calls me anyway, in severe pain and anguish. I drove over, expecting to see him over-reacting to the wound, but he was definitely not acting. Blood everywhere, and he is  belly-crawling to the door to let me in. I had to carry him to my little Dodge Dakota truck, get him somewhat-situated in the front seat (which was extremely painful for him, as he couldn't bend his right leg, and my truck was a standard-cab, which meant that the seat wouldn't go very far back at all), and got him to the emergency room. He couldn't walk for almost a month after that little episode. He still finished the bench......eventually.

Funny but I almost forgot about this post until seeing it today. Good timing too as I suffered a new injury (after doing so well too dangit). I was trimming some sprue detritus off a nozzle for my F15K and I had just put on a new blade for the xacto. Being used to working with a blade near the end of its life, I used a bit more force than necessary for a new blade. Needless to say the blade slice through the sprue remains and continued to slice into my thumb. I now have a very nice deep cut on the side of my thumb that goes all the way to the side of the fingernail. Serves me right I guess for throwing caution into the wind. I almost forgot this wound too. It happened about five years ago but I recieved it when I was using a plastic scorer to trim up some 1/4 inch thick pieces of acrylic for a display. As I was coming down on the down stroke, the scorer slipped out of the grove I was making for the break and went straight into my palm. Anyone who has used one before knows you have to apply decent force or your going to be scoring all night till it gets to a point where you can snap the acrylic. Anyway it went into my palm and all the way to the bone. I said f$$k it and threw on like 4 bandaids and went back to work. Funny thing about it is I can touch that spot and press hard on it with no pain or feeling but when I just lightly touch it with the scorer, I get a weird almost uncomfortable sensation in that spot.

Cool, Reaper! You're the first to post a picture in this thread. Plus, we learned a new word, too. Never heard of detritus before. Might have to add that one to the FSM Glossary!

Devil Dawg

Cool, Reaper! You're the first to post a picture in this thread. Plus, we learned a new word, too. Never heard of detritus before. Might have to add that one to the FSM Glossary!

Man, isn't modeling educational?!?  

Gary

Speaking for myself only if I posted a pic of old battle wounds you couldn't tell the scars from the wrinkles!

I have a pair of matching 3/8" scars on my left hand from when I was 10, one on the palm side of my thumb web and one on the back. I had just found a box of my grandfathers tools and inside was one of those auto screwdrivers that you push the handle in to turn. I was trying to screw in a firewall engine mount for an RC cub I was building, holding the firewall in my left hand and pushing with my right. I remember the screwdriver slipping and dropping the part, then seeing the screwdriver dangle limp out of my hand. I yanked it out, ran downstairs dripping blood and got my dad who bandaged me up. By the time I got there my heart was pumping hard and I remember almost fainting. Later on I used them as battle scars to impress girls in high school.  

mitsdude

Timely subject. This happened just a few days ago.

I'm cleaning up a part with an x-acto knife.

The part is in my left hand. The knife in my right hand.

I've gotten to where I remove my glasses while doing close up work.

With my right hand I go to rub my eye forgetting the knife is in my hand.

Fortunately the tip of the knife only hits the bridge of my nose.

It was definitely a wakeup call!

i have tried to do that too and now i weart safety glasses when i am using blades. i wear a surgical mask when sanding body filler or doing large sanding and a respirator when using cya since i have gained some lung sensitivty to it. always but googles and respirator on when airbrushing because, w/o my glasses, i am almost closer than the airbrush. my ship club guys call me squint.