Today I had the 1st disaster after I come back to Armor modelling. My half finished StuG III fell on the floor, individual track links, PEs flew everywhere. God,why can't I be contented to playing with G.I. Joes!!! Why?

Anyway, just want to see what's the wot ever happen to you armor modellers. I think for me it's therapy to listen to other's mishaps. Help somehow knowing that I am not the only one need to pick up PEs and reattach them.....

Dave,
Don't feel alone. A couple years ago I had just finished the Italeri Panther D, carried it over to a window to get a good close look in the sunlight. Just at that time one of my cats decided to walk under foot. Tripped over the cat, kept my balance but dropped the Panther(poetic justice maybe?) Wheels, turret and bits all over the place. And I had just gotten those stiff Italeri tracks glued down too. This model now resides in my "strip down for parts" box.......LOL
I feel sure everyone on this site has similar stories.

Couple of my figures fell to the ground. Limbs and heads everywhere... My small cousins just love to play with them when I'm not looking. Bungieeeee...

Mario M.

Had a 1/16 Leopard MBT (RC) once. Was driving it outdoors and let it get too far away from the transmitter. I lost control over the tank......

It ran .....and ran.... and ran....and....................ran under a car. No tank, no turret, no chassis no nothing........that's when I gave up the RC part of our hobby......

Lost about 300 $ in in single blow........

Wow! That hurt so much! I shall remember this after I got my 1/16 Tiger I...."NEVER TOO FAR AWAY!!!"

Thank you guys, I think I feel slightly better now....

I had just finished my M-12 SP Howitzer adn a sherman and put them on a metal set of shelves. The day before I had rearranged in my then workshop. I walked out and two shovels fell over, starting an avalanche, which hit the flimsy metal shelves... you guessed it. Crash... Bang, tinkle... I never did find all the part for those two models.

Every kit I had in progress were carefully placed in a large box labeled "Fragile: Do Not Pack". Next to it was a slightly smaller but much heavier box of paints that could not be transported by the movers labeled "Flammables: Do Not Pack". These two boxes were set aside so I could transport them myself when I moved.

Of course the movers then put the heavy box of paints inside the big box of half-built models, pushed it down real good so it would fit, and sealed up the box and placed it on the truck. Only salvageable kit was the Trumpeter M60A3 that was crap to begin with.

Ouch Sabot, that hurts....

For the reason you mentioned, I used to have transparent boxes.

In my Army-days I was forced tho move a lot. I just rescued my kits in one of the first transports, so I had t think of something else. Transparent boxes did the trick. It only cost me a lot of extra time.....showing the models to the movers.

A couple months ago I had built an SDKFZ 251/22 halftrack w/pak 40 at gun Now I drive tractor trailer for a living After building it adding model kasten links I had it sitting on my bunk bed I sat down on it D'OH!!!!!!! Pretty much flattened it
Chad

I had a 1/700th water scale model of the USS Massachusetts that took me many hours to build and paint, sitting on a painted plaster ocean that took even longer. Done a week, and my mom comes in and knocks it off the table when she was vacuming. Nice going, mom.

Ouch. My weird way of reacting in dropping items (by trying to stop it with my foot) led to a disaster once. As I turned around in my chair my elbow started wiping down a box with all my paints in it. In an effort to "stop" it from falling with my foot, I actually gave it a volley kick, hitting the bottom of the open box. Time really slowed down when I watched helplessly all my paint cans flying through the air...and landing on the modeling table on a 1/48 Phantom, which was just painted. It took me several minutes to find all the wings, let alone all detail parts.
One of the times when I really felt myself smart.
Toni

Well, I've dropped a few models in my day... My in-progress Alien Warrior had been dropped no fewer than 4 times! That's why construction is taking so long, by the way.
I've had a number of problems with an Ertl A-wing kit that I won off of eBay. It was a partially assembled model, and I wanted to disassemble it. I tried taking the guns off... careful... careful...*SNAP*.... that only happened a few times. Now, I am trying to strip off the paintjob that I applied to the model before I got my airbrush... I was using turpentine, bu it just didn't seem to be strong enough. So, I soak the parts for about 2 hours. I come back and the paint is off, sucess! Then I look closely at the model and see that the turpentine is eating through the plastic, leaving a textured pattern...DOH!
I've had other mishaps too. While trying to rotate the propeller on my P-51 mustang, I sanpped it off. With car models, I wreck the suspension by trying to turn the wheels. With my X-wing, I about ripped the model apart to get it into it's acrylic 'flight display'...

YodaMan

i had a Mercedes-Benz L3000 truck all built with a cook stove and supplies in back, all beatifully painted. i was getting ready ready to put it on a board for a diorama and while picking it up, it disintigrated on me. all that work(a gold medal winner mind you) up in smoke, but i was able to save the bed and stove. i am going to re-build the same vehicle and hopefully will not go to pot this time

I'd just picked up a couple of He111 kits (hard to find, and got them at a great price), as well as my monthly fix from GreatModels. Set the lot down on the lower shelf of a bookcase in my basement. Wife and I went out to dinner...rainstorm...power went out, and so did my sump pump...no decals, no instructions, no justice... I'm still trying to figure out what I did to tick off the "Big guy"...

Mike

Thank you guys, you've had me laughing so much ! Sorry, I know that there's nothing funny about it
when it happens...
I' m like yoda, at some times I suffer from the "drop the model" syndrome...

Maybe one of these tool makers should come out with a net thing for the extension of the working bench to save the fall of our models at least during the working process.... :-)

www.micromark.com Parts Catching Apron, item #82580, $7.95.

Rob, you are the man of all answers, I salute you! :-)

We'd better glue our stuff to the workbench and keep those women with their vacs away then....

ive had a few knocked off the shelf by the cat

Me and my wife own four of them cats............ Disaster 's in the air......

My cats a fiend for plastic too... She loves to chew on the stuff.

I've been modelling for better than 30 years...you want just one?! I have had so many that I have developed selective amnesia so I don't wake up screaming at night! Wings glued on (really well, thank you) crooked. Dropped tanks, lost pieces, crushed boxes, stolen (yes stolen) models...the list goes on and on. If I can dredge up a good one, I'll post it, but it will probably give me flashbacks....

All seriousness aside, I have reached a sort of Zen level with the whole disaster thing. Poop happens. It is part of the hobby, and if you would pursue the hobby you must learn to deal with the disasters. How you react shows your wisdom and character. I will admit that it is a passing difficult thing to remember that "it is only a model, and I can build a new, better one...". Especially when you lose months of work in scant moments!

The worst I can remember is in Highschool I had a persentation on the cold war. I took an finished 1/72 scale F117 & a 1/35 M1A1 abrams (not quite finished) They were left in the office for safe keeping (or so I thought) Some idiot set a HEAVY box of ???? onthe F117 And I had a pancake left. Needless to say I almost got suspended for irate use of language...........

Matt

Wow... Who would be that dumb?