One of my definitions of good modeling

[Erik W]

Well, I did it again.  When I stripped the paint off the SD40-2 I'm working on, I thought I'd speed the process while using 91% isopropyl alcohol, by also using a Dremel tool on low speed with a nylon brush attachment.  The problem being if you put too much pressure on a particular spot for more than a fraction of a second, you melt the plastic!  I was too embarrassed to admit this when I posted the in progress shot for the weekend up date, let alone show photos of that side of the cab.  Well, as I was correcting my monument to poor judgment I got to thinking that one of my definitions of good modeling is not that we don't make mistakes, but how well we wind up fixing/recovering from our mistakes.  So, what are some of your "oh sh!t" moments while modeling, and how did you fix them?

This is the fix on the Kato cab.  The nylon brush on the Dremel melted a horizontal channel in the cab.  I fixed it with a piece of .005" styrene and gap filling CA.  We'll see how it looks after I prime it.  May need some more sanding.


My "favorite" amateur oh-sh!t moment occurred with this Trainworx brass kit for the Atlas caboose.  After a particularly finicky build I had just glued on the last part before I'd be painting and realized I fully glued my thumb to the side with CA!  Being N scale, the glued thumb print was huge.  It took much patient sanding before I fixed it.  Hadn't done the glue/finger print thing since I was a kid.

This is after the fix.


Your stories?

Erik

[Kisatchie]

I was gluing the roof on an Intermountain Oscar Meyer steel reefer with Testor's liquid cement when I noticed my thumb felt wet. It was wet with glue. Of course, it smeared the huge Oscar Meyer logo on one side of the car beyond salvation.

I keep telling myself that a little heavy weathering will fix the problem. Maybe in the next year or so, I'll get an airbrush and try to salvage the car side. And don't exaggerate, Dee!


Hmm... Kiz pounded the
car into particles so small,
they ceased to exist...

[up1950s]

Good modeling , everything I touch is worse off than when I started .

[jimmo]

My "favorite" amateur oh-sh!t moment occurred with this Trainworx brass kit for the Atlas caboose.  After a particularly finicky build I had just glued on the last part before I'd be painting and realized I fully glued my thumb to the side with CA!  Being N scale, the glued thumb print was huge.  It took much patient sanding before I fixed it.  Hadn't done the glue/finger print thing since I was a kid.

This is after the fix.


Your stories?

Erik

I never thought I would ever say this about a guy but, nice caboose Eric.

[Erik W]

I never thought I would ever say this about a guy but, nice caboose Eric.

Ha ha!  Thanks.

I started out with this:


and this:
 

and got this:


Erik

[unittrain]

Sometimes or quite often I tend to over engineer things Recently I've been scratchbuilding a truss bridge and had built all 38 web members which consist of super glued brass flat bar and GMM lacing bars (2 per member) and a 1/16" spacer bar between the flat bars (2 per member on each end). I built all these only to find I had made the plates too long for the new design of the upper and lower chords I had originally planned on etching those but found it easier to double up flat bar to make the side plates for the main chords. Which led to a couple evenings soaking all those 38 inner members in Nail polish remover to brake the bond and cut the plates shorter 

[mcjaco]

I've done the liquid cement thing so many times......you'd think I'd learn. 

[NCDaveD]

OK, I'll bite and admit ONE of my "oops!" moments....   It was during the build of an Alan Curtis Depressed Heavy Flatcar kit. It was my first metal kit and I wasn't sure how to bond the metal pieces together. So I got out my little pencil torch and some solder. The instant I put the torch gingerly to one of the flat car sections, all of the metal details, including the side beam protrusions, vaporized. It took several hours of painstakingly rebuilding all of the missing details with solder (and an appropriate soldering iron), filing and sanding before this oops was fixed.

There are really too many to mention, but if I'm not messing up, I'm not trying new methods

NCDaveD

[sizemore]

Working on a Intermountain boxcar kit (yes the old school ones). Using thin CA, even when applied with a microscopic glue tip, managed to run EVERYWHERE. I quickly sprayed the model down with CA Accelerator, then using a sharp knife peeled the set CA off like peeling a sticker off a window. Danger averted and reclaimed victory on the project.

The S.

[wazzou]

Working on a Intermountain boxcar kit (yes the old school ones). Using thin CA, even when applied with a microscopic glue tip, managed to run EVERYWHERE. I quickly sprayed the model down with CA Accelerator, then using a sharp knife peeled the set CA off like peeling a sticker off a window. Danger averted and reclaimed victory on the project.

The S.

You must be the one assembling the ready to run models overseas...

[mark dance]

I think this one may take the cake although it is from military figure modeling not MRR'ing.  I just have to share the story though...

I was working late on a model to finish it for a competition.  I took it outside in the dark at about 2:00 AM to hit it with a coat of Dullcote as the final step.  I wondered why it didn't look quite right.  When I brought it back inside I realized I had sprayed it with a can of Grey Primer!  This was a week before the competition!  I ended up stripping it and repainting it and, because I had the experience of painting it already, the second try went faster and better...it ended up winning Best in Class and probably wouldn’t have without that painful lesson.  Live and Lean.  Now I never, ever Dullcote without triple checking!

Hopefully that brings a few weekend laughs!

md

[GimpLizard]

Hmm... Kiz pounded the
car into particles so small,
they ceased to exist...

Is that what lead to the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson?

[Kisatchie]

Is that what lead to the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson?

Hmm... no, by studying
Kiz's enormous mass,
they figured there HAD
to be a Higgs Boson...

[sizemore]

You must be the one assembling the ready to run models overseas...

No my OCD perfectionism would drive me to take disability. It's amazing what we thought was a benchmark then, is so passe now. Those IM boxcars are a menagerie of misfitting parts, and poor moulding by todays standards. The car in question was a "craftsman" project to make a more "scale" car...when the thin stuff ran all over the place I was distraught but acted quickly. Then I found out the detail parts I was using looked great on the sprue, but do not measure upto my expectations for the project. Now its just an exercise in keeping up the kitbash/detail skills.

The S.

[wazzou]

Those IM boxcars are a menagerie of misfitting parts, and poor moulding by today's standards.

The S.

True, but like the MT PS-1, they have there place as a nice gap filler until something better inevitably comes along.
They have also served to provide a number of crucial parts in the marketplace for bashes and other builds like below.