What's your worst modeling disaster?

My worst disaster was a flying model of a Hellcat a friend and I built several years ago. The engine started okay and it took off okay. It hadn't completed a full circuit of the field we were in when it crashed landed. It was a great landing. The landing gear broke on the first hit, then it bounced again and made a belly landing. The prop splintered and it nosed over, almost standing on end. It was just like you see in the old World War II movies.

Back in the 80's while an avionics tech at Seymour Johnson AFB I built an F-4E model.  At that time the only model paint I could find was the little bottle testors. Needless to say, they didn't have the colors I needed. After a couple of botched attempts at trying to mix the colors it hit me as I was walking out to a jet one day, "Hey,all these F-4s have the right colors on them". So I took a walk over to the paint shop and they were nice enough to give me all the paint I wanted. Thinking I had this project by the tail I got home and started painting. This is where the trouble started, no one mentioned to me that "real" airplane paint is just a tad bit less corrosive than battery acid and its not too well suited for an itty bitty plastic model. When I woke up the next morning and went to look at the kit, it went from an F-4E to an F-4 Droopy.

fiffel wrote:

ridleusmc; I'm sorry about your accident, but I can't help to say that the picture of the tank that got melt just made me laugh. Here's one of my disasters:  Had just been at the Hobby store and bought a Humbrol tinlet of Desert Yellow color. Opened it, and stirred it,stirred it well. And I turned around to get a brush and touch up a german tank. And I hit the tinlet with my elbow and all the color flowed down on my bench, down on my my shirt and pants. Dripping from the table down on the chair, on the floor. Have you ever thought of how much paint there actually is in one of those small tinlets? There was color a little everywhere in the house after that, on door handles etc.   My Mama wasn't too happy about it.

 

I remember modeling as a kid and spilling those little bottles of paint. It's amazing when those tiny bottles gush out a full gallon of paint!

TheLastPriest wrote:

ridleusmc wrote: I don't know if this really qualifies as a disaster, but there was carnage involved.  I built this collection while on deployment to Djibouti (pronounced Ja-Booty), Africa.  They were very helpful in killing time for 7 months.  It was a tough decision to leave them there, but I thought my friends (who were relieving me) would enjoy having them around.  They did.  The story I heard was...  One night around Christmas my buddies got a hold of some beer and liquor.  Then they got a Christmas tree from the neighboring Air Force unit, but I don't think they asked.  There was a great battle for the Chrismas Tree.  The Corsair fought the Zero which fought the Spitfire, and the Sherman fought the Tiger which fought the T-34.  It was the epic battle for the Christmas tree.  There were no survivors.  One M3 Lee was hit hard and caught fire while attacking the Ordinance tent.

That's horrible, but the story of it is hilarious...That M3 Lee looks kind of like the time I got mad at a Revell P-40N, and I put that crappy Testors filler putty all over it and lit it.

I few years back a young Marine I had in my squadron used to come into my office and admire models I have of USMC A/C.I was the Flight Line Division Chief at the time.He went to the PX and purchased a 1/48 AH-1W Super Cobra.We are an HMLA Squadron we had 12 UH-1Ns and 16 AH-1Ws.I would do barracks inspections every 4 th day when my duty section was "on".I was the duty section chief.I got to see the work this young man was doing.I was nice work for his first model.He would ask me for advice from time to time.The kit came with HMLA -169 decals.(our squadron).We had just changed our camo paint to the two tone blue grey .This young man could not find the proper paint at the PX hobby section.

So guess what he did,He went to your corrision control shop and a buddy hooked him uo with two cans of Mil-Spec paint.He went to the barracks that night and painted the Cobra.Next morning he made a point to tell me to take a look at the model.I had barracks inspection that day.I was looking foward to seeing the A/C.It was a sight to see. The NAVAIR Mil-Spec spray cans are POLYUREATHANE the kit plastic is also poly plastic.The model was a blob of sticky two tone plastic.The kid was crushed.I gave him another kit and some Testors paint.He did a good job on the 2nd kit.

Reading these stories reminded me of the old song "Murphy & the Bricks":

Dear sir I write this note to you
To tell you of my plight
For at the time of writing it
I'm not a pretty sight
My body is all black and blue
My face a deathly grey
And I write this note to tell you
Why I am not at work today

Whilst working on the fourteenth floor
Some bricks I had to clear
But to toss them down from such a height
Was not a good idea
The foreman wasn't very pleased
He is an awkward sod
And he said i had to cart them
Down the ladder in my hod

Well moving all these bricks by hand
It was so very slow
SoI hoisted up a barrell
And secured the rope below
But in my haste to do the job
I was to blind to see
That a barrell full of building bricks
Was heavier than me

And so when I untied the rope
The barrell fell like lead
But clinging tightly to the rope
I started up instead
I shot up like a rocket
'til to my dismay I found
That half way up I met
The bloody barrell coming down

The barrell broke my shoulder
As to the ground it sped
And when I reached the top
I banged the pulley with my head
Still clinging tightly to the rope
From this almighty blow
Whilst the barrell spilled out half it's bricks
Some fourteen floors below Now when these bricks had fallen
From the barrell to the floor
I then outweighed the barrell
And so started down once more
Still clinging tightly to the rope
My body racked with pain
And halfway down I met
The bloody barrell once again

The force of this collision
Halfway down the office block
Caused multiple abrasions
And a nasty case of shock
Still clinging tightly to the rope
I fell towards the ground
And landed on the broken bricks
The barrell had scattered round

I lay there bleeding on the ground
I thought I'd passed the worst
But the barrell hit the pulley wheel
And then the bottom burst
A shower of bricks rained down on me
I didn't have a hope
As I lay there bleeding on the ground
I let go of the bloody rope

The barrell now being heavier
It started down once more
And landed right across me
As I lay there on the floor
It broke three ribs and my left arm
And I can only say
I hope you'll understand
Why I am not at work today !!!

After 50 + years of building models of one type or another, I don't think there many modeling disasters that I haven't participated in.  Over the years I've managed poke, slash, rip, slash and even bore holes in my body.  I've spilled more than one bottle of paint/thinner/liquid glue over an open model box, desk top, rug, floor and even myself.  Over the years, I've lost enough styrene to the Rug Monster or the Fifth Dimension to build a couple of dozen models. I've glued parts together and then discovered they're in the wrong place well after they've dried.  Put parts together backwards or upside down (it happens when you follow one of the aircraft mechanics  basic rules - "When all else fails, read the instructions").  I've had shelves full of models collapse, even sat on a just completed model.  My wife, my kids and their friends and our assorted pets over the years have all participated in the mayhem in one form or another.

Over the years, the disasters have become less violent and much farther apart (See, I can learn from my mistakes - unfortunately I sometimes have to be hit between the eyes with a 2 by 4 to get my attention).  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find some debonder so I can get the super glue that is holding three fingers on my left hand together removed. 

OK so not a disater but a real bone hea dmove.  Went to AB the canopy frame on my P-47 and I press the button... air but tha's all.  Press again, and again, harder and pulling back further.  Well the cussing that ensued...  I had picked up the empty color cup and the one with the paint was sitting right where I put it.

i was about 3/4 finished with my 1/32 hasegawa a-4 skyhawk [blue angels] well anyway the paint job went down flawlesly. i used the kit decals and after appying them i had noticed that the yellow markings wre too transparent. i went to my lhs and got some easy off paint and decal remover. i applied it and it not only took the dam decals off but the paint itself. needless to say i eas pretty disgusted with it all by then. i thought to myself just scrap it. so i kept a few pieces that were worth keeping and trashed everything else. it still bothers me too this day

About 20 some years ago, I was working on a Revell Bismark, and had to prop it against something to get a part todry straight, so i set it on our wood stove, it being the only    place I could find. Same day,  I had to leave for the weekend to go on a Boy Scout trip, so I left it there, since it was in mid-late october, i didn't think it would get cold enough to need a fire started. Sooo.......guess what happened?  I came back, my ship looked like it had hit a mine and broke it's back. My Mom got cold while me and my dad were gone, s tarted a fire in the stove, and before she saw my ship, it had melted!