Like most of you I've had my run ins with the carpet monster. I've sat there with the best of them and been able to work with the smallest, most arkward, fiddly little bit, and not dropped it once. Why haven't I dropped it? Because I had loads of them spare. BUT. As soon as I begin to work on a vital, absolutely essential part, that's a bit on the small side..........it makes its break for freedom. The great escape had nothing on tonight's little episode. There I was working happily away, when off it goes. Now I swore I saw where it went. So did Carol, who was sitting behnd me watching TV. We both swore blind we saw it fly off in two different directions. That was it. Off she went to watch TV in a different room. She knows what colour the air turns in these situations. Out comes the furniture. Where does all that dust and crap come from? I swear I only cleaned it 2 nights ago when I was looking for that other little essential part?
Anyway, a full 45 minutes later, after I had been forced to, yet AGAIN to contemplate the existence of another dimension, accessible only to small bits of flying plastic or PE and Dr.Who, it dawned on me that the small transom window at the top was open.
Naw! 8 inches tall? At the top of the window? It would have had to have had a rocket engine and a small plastic brain to find its way out through that.
It did. It's night time. It's dark. It's bloody cold. And I'm bloody well fed up. And you cannot tell me that there wasn't a bloody intelligence behind that sodding bit of plastic flying through the window!
I've got it back though. Oh yes. It can't outwit me. It might have had some kind of divine bloody guiding hand, but I've got a modeller's tenacity. I had a purpose. I also had a torch. Yehawwww!
I'm going to lie down now.........


Vinnie

Been there,done that, and by god almighty,will continue to do so until I go stone blind.Wife left the room,eh?Mine and the animals avoid me when the Scale Gods throw one in my face.Forward gunsight on rig below took 4 attempts in 12 hours to scratchbuild.I won!Yeah Baby! :-)
cheers

My deepest sympathies for your valuable loss, Vinnie. I know its of little consolation to know that such events happens to all of us. In my case its when my table gets messy (which is often), I'm tired, when I'm using my tweezers to grip it and I'm just several parts away from completion. Having 2 "left" hands and clubs for fingers for a right handed person like myself doesn't help either.

What beats me is how most how these little plastic bits always follow's Sherlock Holmes words, "When you have eliminated all that's is probable, whatever remains however impossible is the solution" when getting themselves hopelessly lost. 8 inch window you say, the bloody bit must have been an acrobat in its past plastic life not to mention having a built-in super sophisticated radar for navigation.

Good luck on the massive manhunt or plastichunt in this case.

At least it didnt fly right for your mouth!...

it taste...weird...something like dried orange skin

dont ask me how i know :-) :-) :-)

No, I found it. As I said it was outside, sitting on the patio. Obviously after leaving the building, it's instinct just wasn't up to deciding where to go next.

Vinnie

It goes far deeper than just the carpet: in my workshop I often fall victim to the "Bare-concrete-monotone-grey-floor Monster". You'd think that when a dark/black or shiny brass piece falls on such a dull floor it would be easy to find, but nooo....
I'm sure I can hear them laughing at me while I search in vain

the Only plus to the concrete monster....is you can hear the crunch When you finally find the missing part.......

And I thought Grey was a nice nutral color......

I hear allof you and I myself have had it happen too many times to count!!! Well one day I found a solution that works and works well!!

I do my modeling sitting at a U shaped bench arrangement and my wife didn't want my feet to get cold so in goes a throw rug. Instant camo for gravity enabled model parts. Well I finally decided to fight back!!... I got a shop apron from the hardware store, sat down at my table and measured from nect to table and gave the apron just enough play to form a gentle U shape, then I had the wife stitch 3 small velcro patches on it at the end and I attached the other half of the velcro to the edge of the table. Now!! I just sit down and attach the apron to the table and when the parts fly they at least have good chance of landing in the apron. (trust me it works!!) I use small velcro patches because somtimes I forget I am still attached to the table but with the small patches it just POPS off without Jerking the table.

I'm in the same boat right now. I've had an APB, a SAR team and the coast guard all out looking for my broken antenna from my M41. This thing was just DETERMINED to break, regardless of what I did. I have a couple of pieces that came broken with the kit, headlight brackets and one antenna was almost broken off. Thought I fixed it with glue and it was fine until I happened to snag it on something while working on the turret and wham-o, it's gone!

Been trying to find it the past week to no avail, about ready to call off the search but I'm being stubborn in the hopes I can find it before the AGE2 campaign is over. If not then I'll be forced to use some sprue or something which I'm trying to avoid as the build is OOB.

OK to save all you guys some time here , I`ll let you in on a little secret method of finding lil bits in the carpet
First you will need a vacuum cleaner andan womens sheer stocking (not fishnets tho you pervs) detach the hose and put the foot section into the hose and roll the leg section on the outside .Reattach the hosepipe and hoover away. Hopefully the part if its in the carpet will get sucked up and trapped in the stocking.

Cool trick Rob, thanks!

Btw, is that the story you give when you're at the shop buying womens stockings and they give you a funky look?

yup. and the story works too. I need a story tho for buying high heels .

mayhap the paint mfg could be persueded to have metallicized paint, so themetal detector will work, and just maybe the model mfg could do the same to plastic parts? odd i din't think it was a dream...

reb

I never fear losing atom size p.e. or plastic microbes. First I give it the required 10 min. search, then say screw it and move on to the next project because when I lose a part working on the new project and search for that piece I'm sure to find the first lost piece, works every time. The moral of the story is " If you want to find something start by looking for something else " Take that Murphys Law ! - Cheyenne

I managed to pop a sprocket wheel from my Firefly over my shoulder and over the back of the sofa last week. Prepared for a long hunt, I dragged the metal couch forward only to hear the crunch and grind of the missing part being mangled under the leg of the aforementioned furniture. Never occurred to me that the @£*$$ing thing would bounce and roll almost all the way under and out of the front of the settee. Tits
I usually blame missing parts on the crap comedy space aliens, the same ones who once hid my cash-point card until I had ordered a new one, only to replace it in the very same place I had left it and searched for it for two days (namely on an empty kitchen table).

I always tell them I can't find the corkscrew!

How frustrating is this? I popped a hinge off and saw it fly towards me, just over the tables edge. I closed my legs to catch it and it disappeared!
No problem. I'm working on a whitish cement floor. All previous plastic excess is clearly visible.
I searched for ten minutes. Walkied away to retrieve a broom, swept immediate area and picked through the dust heap. Nowhere in sight.
I sat back down at the table to contemplate an alternate peice and there it was sitting under the sprue I had just cut it from!
Those gremlins love me, they REALLY LOVE ME!

SWMBO moved my M8 the other day to tidy up missing one top drivers hatch, there i am on hands and knees worshipping the carpet god, then checking the contents of the vacaum cleaner then the rubbish bin Nufink alright I will try and scratch build one cant be that hard 2 weeks later i find a shop that sells sheet styrene I start to build the hatch later I finally come up with something that Homer Simpson would have put together now im sitting at my table one of those with drop down sides holding my head in my hands in despair what do I see sitting in the gap beteen the top and the side.Need I say more :-)isnt modelling a relaxing pastime.