OKAY You Really had to ask did'nt you ???!! LOL . SO there I am just finished my first B-17G and after I had thought that I had done SUCH a GREAT JOB of it. I was giving it one fiinal look over. i.e. Final inspection. When I noticed something Odd about the Landing Gear.
So I quickly pull out the B-17 in action book and the instruction sheet and discover to my Ultimate embarresement and dismay that I had palced the landing gear in facing inwards not outwards like they are suppossed to be. ANd no way to repair the mistake short of ripping the wings & the engines apart. So It still sits in my hobby room like that. Oh well, You learn as you go.

DAGGER-1

I am building the Faery Swordfish by Tamiya. I started the interior only to discover that my interior green had taken a powder, so I put it away. I had painted the radio, though, and assembled it. Of course, I had left it drying on the "drying" shelf when I pu tthe Sowrdfish away to await the proper paint. Now, do you think I could find that darn radio last night?? NO..... well, after an hour of opening boxes, going through my spares and stuff I finally found it an old kit box with a bunch of other miscellaneous parts... I really do have to get this stuff organizaed one of these days.

AMPS Fright from Hell!

OK bros, here is a very recent story for you. Some, may know this dirrectly as I almost broke the door to the Harve de Grace center this year. I'm sure that Cookie would've baned me for life if I had (BTW, I have torn doors off of the hinges before so this is not out of the norm for me).

Anyway, I have just finished three models that I thought my humble beginings would be good enough for a contest. So off to AMPS-02 I went.

The three kits (WC-55, Küblewagen, and a munitions Wespe - resin kit) were packed in a plastic container (see-through) with carefully stacked styrofoam and tissue paper. 'nuff packing to protect, but light enough to let the needed security folks have a peek inside. The flight was for two aircraft swapes from CA to MD.

X-rays, security guards, Military personnel (yes, they wanted to take a look and for them, I had no quarms) and the mad/fun Mustang ride from the Baltomore airfield to Aberdeen, all OK!

The next day (yes, I reseverd an extra day for photos that never were - base closed), I carefully took each kit out of the protective plastic tray. Carefully I mixed my weeken'd soution of white glue and water to affix each kit to the sepperately packed wooden bases. Hey, I wasn't going to let any judge handle these puppy's (especialy as this AMPS would be my first judging too, I knew my fears!).

Anyway, the day-of-entry came. Headed down to the Harve de Grace center and began meeting everyone. The organizing gang wanted to wait a bit for the models to come into the room. So I left all three kits in the 'stang while I helped set up and all. Some of the guys were complaining about the heat, but not familiar with MD humidity, I left my kits in the 'stang.

Some time later, I did go out and get the three kits to enter them into the contest. The WC-55 came out and was gently set down onto it's pre-printed entry form with no problem. I then pulled the Küblewagen out of it's box and et it on top of it's pre-printed entry form. Then, came the munitions Wespe.........

As the woooden base just cleared the cardboard tray that all three kits were brought from the 'stang, there was a slight twitch to the finger, a twist of the wrist, and wrinch of the forearm and.......

I tested the theory of gravity.

Hate to say this, but it works!

Yup, the Wespe did a small (only about six or seven inches) gravity experiment. The wooden base bounced and the Wespe twisted. The tracks split (they were ModelKasten) and and several wheels started to move. Then, that enevitable reactionary force of mass shocked through the kit. And in one fell swoop, right before the eyes (and in slow motion) the kit exploded!

Yes, most of the wheels went left, right, sidewise, up and over. The tracks broke into several pieces, none the same size. Idelers feel off, and the drive sproket was following suit. In my haist (feeble mind you) to catch the falling Wespe, the finger caught the top and the resin tarp bounced off.

I can go further into the pain and aguish of the next couple of seconds, but I am sure that these ramblin words will spike a memory cord with some of you guys. The vision of the Wespe doing the gravity experiment still haunts me. As for the door, being that I was a Highland Athlete for some ten years, the idea of lifting a Clavnauch (a poo-poo-ass stone some three hundred pounds) and taking it about, I had all the rage of a competition running through my viens. Luckily, the rage was only effected in my head and not on the door.....

I did recover (some two months later) the kit to a resonable level and is now sitting in the display case.

Damn, I think I bit my lip in the pain of memory

Dave

reposting I put up over on ML Constructive Comments where a guy had a panther under a 100W bulb in a swing arm lamp... weak springs...

My disaster isn't armor related but is
#1 my fault
#2 damaged many models
#3 I watched it happen on slo-mo from across the room..

I had just put up a narrow shelf on the bedroom wall up pretty high (hoping to aviod cat and kid problems later) and not near any other furniture above a hardwood floor.
I had spent the next 30 or so minutes standing up the 7-8 SD3D sci-fi powered armor suits along the length of the shelf, arranging them into 'action' poses. At that time the kits were out of production, and in those pre-internet days represented a sizeable collection for a starving new teacher.

I sat down across the room to admire my work when the first of several log trucks rolled past on the road outside.

=cut to super slow motion, add low rumbling sound effect, closeup on suit's feet=

As the suits kits begin to slowly vibrate (walk?) their way to the front of the shelf and begin to tumble off the edge

I stand and try to get there to catch them.

=insert "nooooooooooooooo......" sound effect here, closeup on reaching hand=

One at a time they take the tumble until all are on the floor.

I stop, swear and begin to assess the damage from halfway across the room..
"This doesn't look too bad."

=cue "Uh-Oh" music, cut to eyes looking off to the left, cue truck noise=

Then the next log truck rolls past and SHELF begins to vibrate off the brackets...

=fade to black with the sound of plastic crunching-=

Sadder but wiser..
Mike