You ever just do something so dumb you can't help but laugh and/or cry? Until ten minutes ago this boxcar was meticulously weathered and almost ready to go back on the layout. It just needed one last brush-down with mineral spirits to blend the final dust layer. Except the dust layer came off, along with all the rest of the weathering. And half the decals. And some of the paint. Just like that the car was less finished than it was when I bought it. As soon as the initial horror wore off, I spotted what had happened: On the left is my bottle of mineral spirits. On the right is the bottle of lacquer thinner I use for cleaning my airbrush. Whoops. Anyway, who else has a good model mess-up to confess to?
You mean like starting to build a load for a car before measuring to make sure it will fit? Me never............
Most of mine involve a Tsunami of solvent cement from a knocked over bottle gushing over a project on my work station.
> "Experience is a harsh teachers: She test first and teaches after." Most recent: I painted 'monster mountain' just the right color. I was soooo proud of myself. Um, er, the wife asked, Why is it 'bright Fuchsia'? Whooops Argh! Now I have my wife help mix colors. I left a carefully molded paper towle drying on the diner table. The maids arrived. Wife and i went to the store. The maids thought it was trash. Whoops. My Bad. Paint brush in the coffee cup. Does that count? Serendipity I life my Christmas present with a little direction to a famaily member who knew nothing about my tastes. For Christmas I asked my 'secret santa' family member to get me a 40' flat car. She couldn't find any so she got me a 40' boxcar ...... with a Northern Pacific' Yin Yang logo! She appetized profusely for it. What she didn't know: I have wanted *that* exact box car for two decades, (when I molded N Scale). That car is now in every train I run.
Lately mine was the neighbor lady crying to the cops about the noise. I love living in an apartment in the city.
Only a couple hours worth of weathering were lost, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take it all the way back to an undecorated shell now. On the bright side, I always thought the shade of red Athearn used was a little too vibrant, so now I get to fix it whether I wanted to or not I can't tell if I have tolerant neighbors, or a very soundproof floor. Either way they seem to put up with my air compressor so far.
20 years ago, I was stripping a Kato SD90MAC shell, and when isopropyl alcohol wouldn't touch it, tried Chameleon, but it still didn't come clean, so I brushed on lacquer thinner, with the expected results.... The paint did come off, along with all the molded on detail...
I was rushing to finish wiring a yard ladder on an NTRAK module with a show a couple of days away. I was using liquid flux and neglected to replace the cap. Guess where I knocked it over? Several Tortoises were ruined. I had power on for test purposes. I've used paste flux ever since.
> "Murphy was an optimist." Attrib: Everyone. How many of us have melted a favorite model when we left it under a lamp to dry. Who knew the melting point of plastic was so low? Don't ask me how i know. Argh!
Never while drying, but I've melted a couple from the inside out. Turns out an incandescent headlight bulb gets HOT on DCC voltage!
I had a similar lacquer thinner disaster as a teen when I melted the body shells of my Arnold Rapido 0-6-0 and tender. I was so sad; I loved that little engine. Salvation came some 45 years later when a friend sent me his model as a gift. His is immaculate and runs beautifully.
80% of my modeling screw-ups are related to DCC installations. The other 20% are drilling holes a few nanometers off.
RJ - I wanted to say "never" LOL. However it is more likely a weekly thing, but heck what do we expect out of an 83.5 year old ? Here is an image to show my latest, almost made me cry but I decided the two units were painted in different shops. As a preface - in all my years of cars, hot rods, all the fun things I certainly understood the value of the color of a base coat. Here is an image, same bottle of yellow paint air brushed, same # of coats and all that jazz. But the trailer base was black and the tractor base was bright silver. It never dawned on me till I put her together as one set : That has nothing to do with light or exposure it is simply a dufus not paying attention. But did I say "I still love it " ! Be well !
That's my basic exit strategy too. Like the GP38-2 (conventional cab) I painted for CN, black and red with no stripes. It ended up with a black nose with just the prow in red, instead of a red nose with the top black. The rest was OK. Blamed the 1:87 paint shop guys.
