I had to drive up to Memphis today and witnessed a horrible sight. I was in a parking lot and was shocked and horrified to see in the back window of a car a Williams Bros. 1/72 scale C-46 Commando!!! It was in the original box still in the shrink wrap! I tried to wait for the owner of the car to come back, but no luck. It had to be about 90 outside, I almost cried!!! Any body else have horror stories?
what’s the problem, it was probably no more than 120 in the car[swg] and they will blame the model company for warped parts too[sigh]
Years ago I lost a 1/72 b-52 to being stupid and taking it to work and leaving it in the car all day warped the wing bad never again I learned my lesson
Years ago I prepared for our Memphis club’s monthly meeting on the night before by loading 3 finished models into the back of my Nissan station wagon. They were Italeri F4U-5N, P-40K (can’t remember the kit manufacurer), and an eastern European kit of the IL-2. At midnight that night I was unexpectedly called out for a (FedEx) trip to the east coast and back. I forgot about the models in the car. Upon return I discoverd the models in the sweltering heat of the car. The P-40K wings had curled up so that the tips were pointed straight up!. The air trapped in the wings of the F4U had expanded causing the wings to become more cylindrical until a seam finally broke open to realease it. The stolid IL-2 model was untouched. To this day none of us in my club can explain why that one model had no damage.
My fellow club members were somewhat upset for me, but I thought it was really funny. I kept the P-40 for several years with the idea to enter it in the comedy catagory of the nats with “Too Many Gs” as the title.
Ha! When I was 12 (about 25 years ago) I left my 1/48 P-47 in the rear of my parents’ station wagon. Oddly enough, we were at the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH. By the time we got back to the car, I remember the tail of my P-47 suddenly looked like the tail of an F-4 Phantom. LOL! You only have to do it once to learn your lesson!
Eric
Eric, about the same time I left my 1/48 Spitfire on the back window platform, whatever they actually call that piece right under the back window of cars, on a trip to Dallas/Ft. Worth to go to Six Flags. This was summer time in Texas, but I had yet to experience what happens to styrene when left in a hot car. Interestingly, only one of the wings had warped to the point that the wing tip looked like a squiggly “S”.
And you’re right, I never did that again!
Steven
Steven (and anyone else who might have done this),
Were you like me when you were a kid (before all the car saftey issues realy came around) and stuff yourself up onto that back shelf area and ride around like that? Ha-ha-ha! Ohhh like Archie and Edith sang, those were the days.
Eric
What about sitting on the bed of a pick-up truck with the tailgate down? Or better yet, sitting on the tailgate while going down the road?
My worst accident happened on my way to a show. I had my P-51 NMF packed in a box with confetti all inside to keep it nice and safe, and put it in the trunk. But, how was I to know that I would be rear-ended at the first stoplight? Ha. Let’s just say I decided not to enter the contest. The model was not salvagable (is that a word?), unless you’re Pat Hawkey.
When I was a child, there was a lhs on the way to school. Someone had built a Revell U.S.S. Missouri and put it in a plastic display case. The hobby shop people put the entire thing on display in the store window. I spent the rest of the year watching as the midships 40 mm gun galleries slowly flowed toward the main deck, as the sun beat on it through the window. I don’t remember when it finally disappeared from the window, or what it looked like.
Well, the Strumovik was a pretty tough bird.
I left an airplane model, (I can’t even remember which one), on the package deck of my car in the central California Valley for a week while I was on vacation. Air temperatures were around 105 F and the model was literally a puddle when I got back. It was barely recognizable as a plane. This occurred in 1965, so I guess it constitutes an ancient history lesson.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]