Disasters in Modeling

I had a cat wipe out a whole flight line back in the '80's...

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Mine is "indirectly" self-inflicted - Got divorced a few years ago, and before I could go retrieve my models from my now ex-wife, she decided to take out her frustrations on them. If I remember correctly, she took out about 10 models by throwing them against the walls, stomping them, etc. - whatever way she could think to inflict some pain on me, and make herself feel better at the time. In retrospect, I guess I would've done the same thing if I was her. I had a Hasegawa two-seater F-16, a couple of Tamiya F4Us, a Hasegawa Rufe, Tamiya F4D, and a few others I can't exactly recall anymore. On the bright side, I instantly had more display space available!!

I was working on the Hobbyboss F-105D that I sunk a lot of money into, resin cockpit, rare decals, complete Eduard PE set.  Things were progressing nicely when, unbeknownst to me, my cleaning pot for my airbrush was leaking and there was a pool of various solvents on my workbench.  I set both upper wings on the bench not realizing I just set them in said pool.  When I finally noticed, the upper surfaces of both wings were completely melted.  I attempted to sand down and re-scribe the wings but the plastic was now so soft that the tool I used to rescribe went straight through.

Wow, what an interesting thread!

My biggest modeling disaster just happened last year. I was building what is one of my absolute favorite cars, an AMT AMX Javelin SST. I don't know if you've ever priced one of these old rarities on eBay--there's one on there now as a "Buy It Now" for $150--this particular model cost me around $120 to snare. I couldn't wait to build it and put it on the shelf in that Cranberry Purple color that they had back then.

Anyway, I made two "rookie mistakes" of first priming it with Tamiya primer under a very "hot" lacquer paint from Model Car World, and then airbrushing one a hot summer afternoon. When the lacquer dried, it looked like one of those "sand" textured paints. It was actually like fine sandpaper. There was no way to save it, or strip that lacquer. And sanding it down would have removed half the detail.

It "met the boot" as I term that rare incidence when my fiancee asks me "How's your model going"?

In my younger days I had just finished the complete rigging with sails of the 1/96 Revell Museum Classics U.S.S. CONSTITUTION. My girl friend (who I really really REALLY liked) wanted to come over to my house to see me but had to bring her 6 year old brother whom she was baby sitting. He brought his new basket ball with him and within 5 minutes the Constitution landed upside down on the floor from a 5ft height after being hit by a bouncing ball.

I lost about ⅓ of my 1/700 (and 1/720) collection in a move. All of my JMSDF ships, and my modern USN took a beating. Lots of others I had to fix. My other ships suffered RMS Titanic, RMS Queen Mary, HMS Challenger, HMS Bounty, Cutty Sark, my ice breaker, NS Savanna. destroyed.  I rebuilt lots of stuff using photoetch in place of broken plastic mast, some some ships came out better.

Somebody decided to fix my F/A-18F Super Hornet by straightening out the ordinance I put in the wrong (right place).

A book case collapse in 1992 destroyed the aircraft of my 1/48 collection that I had decided to keep after disposing poorly built kits.  A different book case in the same location destroyed my model ships and  ½ my aircraft in 1980.

Similar to stiks experience, I had 3 wall-mounted shelves come crashing down, but not during an earthquake --- we were watching the movie "Gremlins".  Yeah, it was a bit freaky.

Several years ago, I had a modelling project turn into a woodworking project. Spilled an entire bottle of cement on the dining room table.

Back when I was using my siphon cup airbrush, I had the paint cup, full of paint, come loose and fall directly on the tank I was trying to paint.

Want to hear mine? Warning: this is painful to read. Years ago when I was 1 - 25 years old, I got the famous Budweiser wagon train complete with Clydesdale horses, Remember that? Anyways, I spent about 2 weeks putting this bad boy together. When finished, I had it displayed on a shelf in the living room.

Now my mom is known to do housework every single day. So one day she was dusting the furniture, shelving, etc.. She picks this Budweiser wagon train kit off the shelf, put it on the table, dust the shelf. When she went to put it back, it slipped out of her hands and it crashed to the hardwood floor, smashing it to pieces.

I can't remember whether I was home at the time it happened or at school but in however way I found out what had happened, I went pretty upset. I was angry with my mom and didn't speak to her for weeks. Hey I was a kid, whattya want from me? LOL!

Needless to say, I couldn't put the pieces back together because it was a mess - I mean everything was broken even the wagon wheels and spokes, etc.... I ended up tossing it out. I was really crushed. How I wish I can do another one like it.

I have moved twice in the last three years. The movers are not allowed to touch my model stuff.

Like most of us I've had my share of minor mishaps....probably too numerous to count...that resulted in temporary setbacks. The only major accident....knock on wood...I've had involved Revell's 1/96 Constitution. I don't remember exactly what stage of the build I was at. I just remember that the masts, probably the yard arms, and much of the rigging had already been attached. It was during the warm months of spring or summer and I had the windows open as I've always done during warm weather because I love the fresh air coming in through the windows. I had the model sitting on a table or something in the middle of my hobby room. I can't remember why I had it sitting there because it wasn't where I worked on it. Anyway, I was in the living room and I seem to remember a storm was coming in. The wind had started blowing when it hadn't been earlier. You can probably guess what happened next. Yes, I had the windows in my hobby room open as well with the ship sitting not far from one of them. I heard a crash and quickly ran to the hobby room to find Old Ironsides lying on her side on the floor. Talk about your heart skipping a beat. I expected the model of the famous warship I'd worked so hard on to be a lost cause. Fortunately, as I picked it up, I found very little damage. I think maybe one of the masts or yardarms was broken but it was nothing that was beyond repair. While it wasn't a disaster, so to speak, the experience of hearing it crashing to the floor and the raw fear of the destruction I thought I would find was something of a disaster to my nerves. Needless to say, the ship never got finished and it wasn't due to the near tragedy. I'd worked on it pretty intensely for about 2 years and got myself so burnt out on it that I decided to take a break and haven't touched it since. That was back in the late '90s and it still sits in a corner of my work bench collecting dust.

Most of my modeling disasters have been self-inflicted, mostly due to lack of skill or patience, but I also had a "moving mishap" a few years ago:

I had a Monogram 1:48 F-14A that I was particularly proud of, finished with V-111 decals from the out of business Fowler Decals.

I had carefully boxed it in a padded box for movers, marking "extremely fragile" on all sides of the box. So naturally the movers packed it in a larger box...along with my wife's table- top sewing machine thrown on top.

The model was flattened like a steam roller had run over it.    

Mark

More than I care to remember... Ones that stand out are an Army roommates duffle bag falling over off his desk onto mine damaging my M48s suspension. Or an earthquake collapsing my wall mounted display shelves, sending those kits crashing to the ground. Or a couple of kits that caught gusts of wind while being carried from my building are in my old hobby room to the paint area in the garage. There was no internal passage so I had to walk thru the side yard. In both cases, the planes "flew" out of the box and made hard landings onto the concrete breaking off landing gear, etc.