Was working on the tail fin of my italeri f-16 and was ready to place the parachute**?** (can’t think of what else it is) inside the two halves of the prominent part of the fin that is housed at the bottom trailing end of the fin under the rudder. I detached it from the sprue, trimmed it and dry fitted it. I had forgotten to paint the rear part of inside of the two halves which will be very visible when completed. So I put the parachute down and did the first coat on them and when I went to find the parachute to paint the sides of it before installing as I wouldn’t be able to after, hmmm, where did it go? I said to myself. I looked all around the work bench, in my shelf-type tool box, on my bed right next to the table, the classic carpet monster ™, under my bed and ridiculous places as that is sometimes the case. No trace. I thought I was going crazy. I remembered putting the part down on the bench and not moving it again and that the bench was not very busy at all so it could not have been wiped or shot off.
A few hours later after giving up I strongly considered buying the same kit tommorow just for the one part until realizing that that was a blonde moment as I could just build the other version which consists of a shorter more contained piece under the rudder and does not house the missing part. I settled on that and got the instructions out to make sure I knew where I was going with it and low and behold, there she lay in harmony, the parachute. I remembered that I had the sheets on the bench at the time of handling the part and folded it up and layed it on my bed so I could paint. Must’ve forgotten about that.
The moral to this story: don’t think that ridiculos, farfetched places are impossible, even if it’s at the other end of the house. And remember, the carpet is just one monster.
Have you ever heard of a sock monster? Several years ago I had a PE part with glue on it ready to install when it dropped straight down. I looked for hours, gave up and got ready for bed. There it was, glued to my sock. I have lost parts on my work bench, only to find them days or weeks later.
I have a Revel 1/32 P-40E (still haven’t finished it) that I started about 7+ years ago at another house where I used to live. I lost one of the landing gear so I put the model away and in the back of my mind figured I’d make or buy something. I certainly never thought I’d ever see it again.
Earlier this year, I was cleaning out the tackle box that I use to hold my modeling tools. Way down in the bottom, under sanding sticks and bottles of dried paint was one 1/32 scale P-40 landing gear leg in perfect condition. What a fortuitous find! [:D]
Berny13, I had to laugh, I did the same thing with a PE part. I put a little Ca on it and the piece goes flying out of the tweezers. I looked all over. Took a flashlight and shined it across the floor looking for the shadow of the part. I gave up and went did something else. About three hours later I happened to look down and low and behold there the piece was glued to the thigh of my pants [D)]. My carpet monster rarely gives up his treasures, but he went hungry that day.
My favorite is that you loose the piece then decide to fabricate one yourself from scratch. After you finish the new part you step away from the work bench only to spy the original part OUT IN THE OPEN where you know you looked several times before!
I constantly cant find small tools like my tweezers because my bench is so cluttered and when i do find them they are usually right in front of me.[banghead]
[#ditto] I have done this more times than I care to remember. I…actually do this quite routinley. I’ll set something down for a minute or two, go to pick it back up and it’s gone!!! I’ll spend the next long while searching everywhere possible, be on my hands and knee’s with a flashlight searching every possible square inch that the part could be. When I finally give up the search and sit back down at the bench…there it is sitting right smack in the middle of my work area standing out like a sore thumb in a way that I feel so dumb that I could’nt find it. I swear, the carpet monster and all his cousins are bad enough, but when the gremlin’s come out to play, It get’s crazy. Because you know they pick up your part as soon you take your eyes off of it, and return it after you’ve wasted so much precious time trying to find it.
My carpet monster has been behaving rather nicely lately. My biggest problem is glueing small parts to the bottom of my arm. I have done this a couple of times. Of course we all go to the bench then the carpet. I now check the underside of my arms everytine I can not find a small piece. Mom always said to keep you elbows off the table for a reason!
I’ve noticed a couple of things in the last few years. The first is my short term memory is starting to go - my wife swears that if my butt wasn’t attached I’d loose it. I can lay something down and 2 minutes later can’t remember where I put it (I now have a small plastic basket on this desk that I put the things I’m going to need for work tommorrow (watch, wallet, keys, pens and pencils etc). And it doesn’t help that this desk and my modeling desk usually look like that aftermath of an artillery strike (which is one reason that they tend to get cleaned up more often than they used to - the other reason being SWMBO).
The other thing has to do with physics (or perhaps more correctly, the humor of the Modeling Gods). The floor in my modeling area is concrete except under and in front of my modeling desk where I’ve put one of those large plastic protective mats. I’ve noticed that if you drop an itty-bitty plastic or photo etch part straigt down from desk height, it bounces horizontaly for an amazing distance (and usually in the opposite direction of the one you thought it took). Now I usually start my search for dropped parts 3 or 4 feet from where I thought it hit (and yes, in the opposite direction of the one I thought it took)
I hate him so! I droped a piece of used masking tape. A piece fell onto it and got stuck. The masking tape then proceded to latch onto my pant leg, and take a trip round the washing machine…
I must have two or three almost built models back in the boxes until I find the missing pieces. It will happen, I have learned over the years to just wait. I even added part of a sock to the suction area of the vacuum so I can check it out after cleaning up my modeling area.