10 Things I've learned.

HAha good list

How about...

11. Never lay your x-acto knive near the edge of your desk - WHEN it rolls off it will almost invariably land point first on a body part. (I caught mine before it hit my leg, the point went into my palm of course )

12. Never leave a bottle of paint open for a fraction of a second more than is necessary. That fraction of a second is all that is needed to knock it over.

13. NEVER leave your hobby room door unlocked if you have children.

Eric

14 Discoloured, inaccurate and out-of-register decals always apply perfectly.

LOL very true U-96...

15. Do not use molten solder to weight in the noses of your model aircraft...

15. NEVER,NEVER be with out round toothpicks1

15. If more than 10 people warn you about a kit and how badly it goes together, think twice about buying it... maybe even three times.

16. 8 Hours drying time means 8 consecutive hours.

17. Airbrushes do not balance on anything and cannot just "stay" in one spot.. they will shift and fall on the needle.

18. Super Glue comes out in globs the size of a quarter.. no matter what tip you are using.

19. Putty will fill, spread, rumple, flatten, shrivel, and mishape everything except the hole it was put in.

20. 10 minutes drying time means 45 minutes to 1 hour in a normal, non Mt Everest house.

21. 3 - 4 Day UPS really means 1 week to order, 3 weeks to come in from distribution center, 1 week to send it, plus 3-4 days in the UPS truck.

22. Acrylic paint dries upon contact when you use the wrong color.

23. Acrylic paint takes 72 hours to dry when you use the correct color.

24. Liquid Cement does not cement anything to anything, especially not plastic to plastic.

25. Airbrushes splatter when you are spraying a dark color on a light color and doing very fine lines.

26. At the exact moment you need precise steadiness in your airbrushing.. is the exact moment you get the caffeine jitters.

27. If you can find the missing/replace part form in the box of the kit, that means the company has gone out of business years before.

28. Only after you have superglued the parts in step 10, will you realize you missed steps 6-8.

29. You only discover you need a nose weight after the model is totally done and sits on its tail.

30. You only find out about a sale for a large purchase you want 3 days after its over.

31. The most complex and scant instructions are not in English.

32. The paint color key for a model is always found on the very first page.. the exact page you cannot get to because your model is sitting on the instructions drying.

33. Even very expensive mask tape will pull up paint if its impossible for you to repaint the place easily.

34. Airbrush holders do hold airbrushes.... all the way to the floor when they fall.

35. If you accidently spill the wrong kind of thinner on yourself or your work table... don't worry. It will eat through your clothes, your chair fabric, and your table.. but it still wont clean all the paint from a brush.

36. The $9 dollar brush you just bought, will be the exact one that you use accidently for super glue spreading.

37. When someone says "just use the artwork from the box as reference" do not believe them.

38. You can find reference photos for every piece of armor, truck, bicycle, wagon, and moped that has ever existed... except for the modern vehicle that is still in use that you are searching for.

39. Dremels can catch plastic on fire with a sanding drum.

40. Small replacement parts for airbrushes the size of a thumbnail are made of some rare metal because they are atleast $60 each.

41. When you place a very large model order they will ship every piece out to you instantly... except for the very first color of paint you need for the model that is half-built sitting on your table.

Ron's Exception: or the kit you have been trying to get for 3 months, but they do send the resin accessory kit for it... nice of them.

42. Toothpicks can be super glued in place if you need to answer the phone real quick.

43. If you try to prop something up so it can sit and dry... that means it will fall the second you leave the room and dry in the wrong shape.

44. DO NOT wear a nice shirt if you are doing a quick touch up job on a part.

45. At minimum label the tops of these two paints so you can see before you spray them: Clear Flat... .Flat White.

46. Instruction sheets will stick to anything if you super glue them, including your fingers, your table, your hair, the carpet, a cat's paw. The same goes for other things except for plastic.

47. Primer is never needed on the models you primer, but always needed on the models that you have just finished and now the paint comes off on your fingers.

48. Dust sticks to flat paint like super glue.

49. Sprue cutters work great, except on very small pieces and they will either split them in two or fly off in some direction to never be seen again.

50. eBay auctions end 10 minutes before you log on.

O.K. I'm game for this.

51. If you come into possesion of someone else's old built up models that they don't want anymore watch yourself. You never know what was going through their heads when they built them. (I found a small glass tube of mercury acting as a nose weight in something once).

52. Good reference materials abound, except for the subject you're building. You will only find an abundance of reference for it a week or so after you completed it straight from the box because you couldn't find the reference.

53. Even the best decal setting solutions are powerless against a decal that was meant to thwart decal setting solutions. (See AMT decals from the mid 1980s)

54. 5 minute epoxy can be a great tool, but only if you've got a lot of mating surface area between parts, for pin point applications its a lost cause.

55. Red paint: acrylic, enamel, flat, glossy... it doesn't really matter, if you don't clean your airbrush or brush out with heavy industrial cleaners for at least six hours straight, the red paint will taint every colour you use thats lighter than it is afterward.

56. "Experts": They're a dime a dozen, some are real, others imagine themselves to be experts. They're everywhere and if you show off your model they'll come running to tell you what you did wrong. Screw em'

57. Modeling outdoors: I love to do my airbrushing on the patio, but I have learned that bright paint colours tend to attract wasps and honets more than darker colours do. Also, Testors clear gloss and flat from the spray can seem to have a great appeal for them. (I'm terrified of wasps and hornets)

58. Superglue fumes do not affect your...your...thingy in your head.

59. Testors Metalizer tastes good to my dog

On a more posative note:
60. No matter how awful you think that model looks, there is always someone who thinks its awesome.

Addendum to #11: ALWAYS use the hobby knife well over the bench or it will be painfull. I leaned back in my chair to change a blade...as I was removing the knife from my leg (It went in to the handle) I remembered why I always clip the tip of #11 blades.

61. Water based paint stains don't wash out with water.

62. You always run out of paint in the middle of a big job.

63. Super glue isn't so super when your hands stick together.

64. ALWAYS remove your fingers/body parts from whatever you're cutting (the tip of my thumb got sliced off once, i didn't intend on a sherman with a red paint job!!!)

65. The more expensive it is, the more likely it'll be trodden/sat/jumped/landed on.

66. Ebay is a scam!!!!!!

67. The Best just isn't good enough.

68. You'll never know where that crucial part went until you here it rattle in the tube of the vacuum cleaner.

and a little adjustment to erush's #13: Don't have children.

69. If the paint color is wrong, it can't be removed with Sulfuric Acid. If the color is correctly painted on, it will remove with a brush of your finger or a light breeze caused by an air conditioner.

70. Even if you think the glue is dried, its NOT! (guess who just glued his unzimmerited Porsche King Tiger turret on)

This tread is getting good! I think Ron needs to go ahead and publish his book!

71. Just like auto mechanics, it's OK to have a few pieces left over when you're done.

72. The pieces left over will belong to the most visible, unreachable part of the model.

73. If you try to add them in afterward...scrap the model

Eric

74. The time to remember you forgot to mask the cockpit is when you just sprayed the base coat into it, after spending over four months of detailing it.

75. If you leave the cap off of the CA for just a few seconds, it will set up rock hard.

76. After spending hours of sanding and polishing, you are sure the surface is smooth, It isn't. You will see when you spray the NMF on it.

74. Don't airbrush at 80 P.S.I.!
75. Don't leave your hobbyroom door open so your cats can get into it.
76. Have an idea what your going to do(i.e. cammo paint jobs) before you do it.

Whoops, sorry I got out of sequence.

77. The cap on the flocking tube will fall off just as soon as you pass it over the top of a paint job that's still drying

78. When you are starting to do your hobby, there is always something urgent to fix or repair in your home

79. Cheap and "crap" models when finished, look much better than expensive and good ones (or at least I'm trying much more to do my best with them)

80. Canopy masks can be removed cleanly with no adhesive residue from canopies of the average quality model, its when you've got a real showpiece that the residue won't let go, even with a blow torch.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tigerman 74. Don't airbrush at 80 P.S.I.! 75. Don't leave your hobbyroom door open so your cats can get into it. 76. Have an idea what your going to do(i.e. cammo paint jobs) before you do it.

You beat me to it with #75, Tigerman. (I've mentioned cats destroying my models when I was a kid in other posts.)

81. An addendum to #57: You choose a beautiful, still day with no wind to take the model outside for spray painting. Everything remains nice and calm as you set up the newspapers, the platform to rest the model on, the model itself and when you shake the "rattle can." The instant you pop the top off and aim the spray can...hurricane force winds! Roofs are flying; cars are tumbling end-over-end down the street. And of course half the spray paint is wasted. Well, it's not exactly wasted; you'll see it all over your neighbor's new Cadillac.

82: Raised Panel Lines are easy to recess, but it's damn near impossible to re-create a recessed panel line that has been sanded off!
83: DO NOT fill up a nose cone with "Bond" brand "plastic safe" super glue.(I used it for ballast once, the glue never dried, and the fumes literally melted and warped the nose cone. There went THAT model!)
84:If you build it, it will break.
85: No one cares if your AIM-9 sidewinder you attached to your model took 4 months to superdetail. It's just a model, and contest judges can't tell the difference between kit-stock and superdetailed missiles. Just have fun, for pete's sake!
86: God doesn't care if your model took six months to build, If you stick it on a turned on oven burner, IT WILL MELT!!
87: From a distance, even horrible models look good!
88: References/research parephenalia are only useful for reading. No one cares if you're model is missing ONE RIVET. See rule 85!
89:Professional modelers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.
90: The hobby knife that is too dull to even PRETEND to cut plastic is not too dull to cut skin!
91: Hobby Knifes can only hurt IF YOU USE THEM. So, don't use them!(your teeth make good substitutes, LOL!)

92. If you scratchbuild it, a company will manufacture it just days before you complete the project.

93. Don't force dry glue 6 inches from a 100 watt light bulb, your model will melt!

#94. Instructions aren't always right. . .

95: Sometimes the model doesn't come with instructions AT ALL!!(that has happened more than once to me)
96: The no.11 hobby blade was designed to cut humans, not plastic.
97: Soldering irons work GREAT for drilling holes, just be careful not to drill a hole into YOURSELF!!(that happened to me once. Thank god it was unplugged or i'd be short one hand right now!)
98: If it comes down to personal hygiene or models, pick models.

92: some dogs like the taste of pastels , especially when they are ground into a powder that disolves on the tongue. Always put it up high or into some kind of container!

99: The better the paint, glue, and filler, the higher the toxicity.

100: If parts aren't broken or come up missing during a build, the kit is worthless.

101: Model gremlins do exist. The seams and ejector pin marks that weren't present the day before the show are suddenly in plain sight as the kit is placed on the table.

102: The overwhelming need to fart comes at the most inopportune moments (There are thousands of examples and personal stories; you all know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, you're not human!) :-)

103: The level of detail and length of build time (as well as show time proximity) is directly proportional to the extent of breakage when your kit hits the floor.

104: Getting into arguments about the use of depleted linoleum on Iraqi tanks is a waste of time, but does generate some interesting looks.

105: Prayer works.

Gip Winecoff

92. You discover that the aerosol can was really GLOSS black and not flat black.
93. That "pinging" noise you heard was the set of PE you THOUGT was secured launching itself somewhere into the nether regions under your bench.
94. Never trust a dog around the bowl of water you use for your decals-learned THAT one the hard way. :)
95. The paintbrush you had counted on for the superfine detail is nowhere to be found, and the one you substitute with has all its brushes chemically welded together. - Ed

96. The load bearing joints are always the ones where the glue bonds weakest.

97. If you're going to forget a cockpit part, nine times out of ten it will be with a model that has a large bubble canopy that will NEVER let you forget what you forgot.

98. A husky sheds heavily twice a year and can land a shed hair on wet model paint from two rooms away and floor up or down from your modeling bench with better accuracy than an F-15E can plant a laser bomb.

99. If you overdo or underdo the nose weight, it will ALWAYS be in a plane that will be nearly impossible to make adjustments to after its finished.

100. If you buy a plane kit with photoetch in it, make sure you've got a good selection of oleos and other hydraulic struts in your spares box. It amazing how many of them will include these cylindrical objects as flat representations on a PE fret. A flat oleo strut, yeah, that's convincing! }:-(

Uh, I seem to have missed the boat on this one.

But then so have others...

And as far as having long-haired cats... four of the six remaining in the house are longhairs. Actually, they're not true longhairs, but that's for another forum...


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