Ten years ago someone would be fishing pieces of styrene out of the drywall. I’ve been working on a Hase Spitfire for a group build. Flawless construction, but once I began painting everything has gone wrong. I had decals disintegrate. I’ve had them chip after a top coat of future and flat. One that completely went nuts was the fuse band. So I was just in process of painting it on when my freaking airbrush spits a gallon of water out. Remove my masking and paint has fun all down the model. Screw it. I came into model room and took blue painters tape to the decals…very effective I might ad…I want to trash this thing, but I did too good a job on construction. It is really hard for me to not walk away and just buy a PS3 game to occupy myself. I really dont want to strip this thing down and start over, but I refuse to write this one off.
Im sure some of you have had these near stroke inducing moments.Please share so I won’t feel all alone in the land of cursed models. [:@]
I once built a beautiful 1/48th Monogram Kingfisher and wanted it in the “water”… So I got some resin from the lcal auto-body shop (the kind used on fiberglass repair) and set about making the water… After I poured the catalyst in and set the model into it, I covered it with wrinkled-up foil and went away to let it set… Coming back a half-hour later, I couldn’t see anthing but a little glow from the lights… The entire room was filled with soot and smoke! Then I spotted the dying flame on the bench…
Turns out I used too much catalyst, and it generated so much heat that it set the model on fire, which set the resin on fire, which set part of my bench on fire…
The soot was so thick that it ruined the wall-paint, ceiling tiles, curtains, and everything else in the war room, even ruined the paint inthe hallways outside it… THAT was a “Meltdown”…
Forgot to add, I use Testor’s Decal Bonder if my kit’s decals are even slightly suspect to cracking… It beats anything else I’ve tried, is flexible, and won’t turn yellow… Just don’t spray any on the back of the sheet or the decal will be forever entombed…
Is that stuff good for decals printed on decal paper from an inkjet printer? I’ve been trying to use Krylon to seal the printed decals, but they end up cracking and then the ink runs.
I remember when I was a kid…my dad had just finished a beatuiful diorama of a Bf109 on the Russian Front…painted in whitewash obviously…heavy snow on the groud…etc…Well my brother was pestering my mom in the kitchen. The diorama was on the table opposite the counter…just finished mind you…well my mom was fed up by now…so while yelling something like “TJ IF YOU DONT STOP IM GONNA WHIP YOUR @$$” she slammed a bottle of ketchup down on the counter…which in turn exploded all over the kitchen…including the dio…was sad really
Built a 1/144 SU-37. Looked like I did a fair job. Taped it off for painting. Primer went on great and made the plane look good. I let it cure for a week or so before I could get back to it. Sprayed on a coat of MM Dark Sea Blue and left it to cure. Came back in about 1/2 hour just to take a look at it. Paint was not drying. It was running off the model in many places taking the primer with it. The parts were also coming “unglued” and falling off. Asked the guys on the forum what could have happened and the general opinion was that I had gotten a “hot” can of paint. Had to strip the whole thing down as it was a real mess. [:'(] It’s in the box waiting for me to finish sanding, rebuilding and repainting.
I’ve been cursed by the F-86. I spent countless hours on the Kinetic 1:32 offering some years back and it was my Murphy’s Law build. Nothing went right with it. Fit was poor, spilled glue, dropped it on floor, and the list goes on. I got so frustrated with it at one point that I just calmly looked at it, reached over for the hammer, and then went at it. It was very therapeutic.
I had similar issues with my monogram F-86…another Murphy’s Law kit…it was a painting disaster. I had beautiful aluminum base, but my Aeromaster decals all fell apart on applicaton, so I decided to paint some large yellow stripes…my reliable tamiya tape permitted much bleading…impossible to correct. Well, maybe not impossible, but I just gave up and moved on. Good thing I have a spare but I am foregoing any f-86 for a bit.
Wow! After reading all these horor stories I’m; 1) glad I just got back into this hobby and haven’t had such experience and 2) reminded of a song, “You Had a Bad Day” [:)]
Yupper, Owen called it… That’s the original purpose it and it’s what I use for inkjet decals… All the other tips about clear laquers and such, like using Krylon or Future (*HACK-PFFTTT!**) are gonna be 50-50 at best, especially in extra-thin decals, like Micro-Scale, and Scale-Master… The stuff isn’t flexible, it’s paints, and it’s designed to NOT bend…
Seriously, O+ is much darker than that ketchup, and the consistency??? Come on people!! [;)]
I’ve been fairly lucky in the meltdown zone - or maybe I just have constant little mini-meltdowns & none really stand out anymore. The worst that I had was about 8 years ago, a little 1/72 Ki-61 that I had decided to put a green-splotch-over-silver scheme on. Had the brilliant idea to paint the green first, use micro-mask for the splotches & over-paint the silver… As much luck as I’ve had with Micro-scale’s products over the years, THAT one ended up in pieces against the basement wall.