ladies and gentlemen of the FSM forum, a terrible travesty has beset us here tonight. listed below are the victims of a heartless, indifferent wife and daughter. unknowingly, they “helped” daddy pack away his models for the long journey to south alabama. fortunetly, i walked in on the “helping” session just in time to salvage what was left of my once quaint, but flourishing model shelf. Nooky Booky was crushed to death by “accident”, one which i’ll never know the truth of, BBD and the Whirlwind tasted death at the hands of a ruthless 4 year old, they were finally within reach of those tiny but unforgiving hands and… we won’t go there.[:(] she thought there were…toys…[V] the loss of BBD cut me deep, cut me real deep!! and the Dragonfly took a maiden flight from angels 6…feet that is and…she’d never be the same.
the family was survived by 3 bold but shaken assemblies. Botchkay’s D stang took a blow to the windscreen, knocking it loose, she’s patched and doing fine. the 109 came away with a broken antenae wire, and the strong, and sturdy 123 came through without a sctratch. i was in mourning over my plastic brood for a few days, but they wouldn’t want it that way. i finally relented to the fact that hey…they make em’ everyday at some far away factory!![:)] i want to tackle that Westland Whirlwind with a little more experience anyway, and give that cockpit the attention it needs. it’ll be a pleasure to build BBD, and Nooky Booky again. every cloud has a silver lining they say!! later.
The horrible realities of moving. I lost several models in the same manner when I moved to Illinois from Guam. The problem was that the movers/packers were all adults who should know better, especially after I told them of the delicate nature of the items with which they were dealing. They just put the models in the bottom of a box and stuffed clothes and such on top then squeezed, HARD!!! My heart aches for you.[alien]
Hiya Chris,
Indeed its a sad day…[BH][BH][BH][BH]. I had a few occasions like that with my niece and nephew when they were younger!!! They now know better[;)].
As long as you could repair the ones that reamined, all should be well. Are you going to save the parts of the other builds that were not so lucky and make a memorial base for em??
How does your lil one feel as well as your wife?? I think they have a clinic for people that experience such tragedies…
Goood luck in the rebuilding process and may the modelling Gods be with you…
Take care Chris, I’ll have one for you tonight…!!
Flaps up, Mike
I had spent 2 years building an airfix 1:35 scale p-51, and was incredibly happy with the results. That summer I had to move for a job…
the murder started when my niece dropped it down 2 flights of stairs. It came through repairable, but was later put out of its missery by being crushed behind the seat of the truck. I never did find all the parts.
I feel for you, luckily I hardly ever face that problem as I am a builder and not a collector.
Said that a few winning competition entries survived well till the trip home and got broken there, not a hassle unless a photographer wants to take pics before you can fix them.
thanks for the compassion fellows!!LOL Pix, that looks like one of those aircraft grave yards my friend!! really and truely though, i get most of the enjoyment out of assembling the kits from start to finish, then photographing them, and sharing them with people like yourselves that appreciate what kind of effort it takes. honestly, i had thought about trashing some of them long before the move, but just didn’t have it in me at the time. as long as i have the photos, i’m cool with it. later.
Saltydog,
I have that awkward feeling…like trying to find the right words when a friend loses someone very important in their lives.Sure I could say things like “At least they went on to a better place” or “At least they knew you loved them”…which,don’t get me wrong,we ALL wish that for whomever…but it sounds so…well…cliche’. I will certainly lower my flag to half staff for the coming days.And will blow my un-loaded airbrush for 30 seconds in silence.Although I can’t say ‘I know how you feel’ …your pain is real,and at a moments notice I am ready to talk if you need too.
i think Scott is right. words cant console a broken model, doubly so for such fine ones. just remember that the damage was done with good intentions, and we are a collective shoulder to cry on [;)]
Ouch! I think we’ve all felt your pain and can comiserate with you on what happened, but the important thing for you to do is get right back on that workbench and start building again. Oh, and be sure to use all the guilt you can lay on the wife to get as many kits as you need to make the pain go away. If it were me, that would be a LOT of kits.
I was lucky enought to pack my own kits before the movers came in Okinawa, most came through with minor damage, but the parts were still in the same box. I did have to re-attach a folded wing to my Corsair.
Sorry to hear of your losses Chris. Those were some great models for sure. Moving can be very devastating to a model collection. I shudder every time my wife starts talking about moving to a warmer climate.
Big boxes and lots of styrene peanuts - only way to go for mass moves. I shipped about 200 completed kits from upstate New York to central Ohio and suffered about five broken antenna, three broken landing struts and one dislodged canopy.
After everything had been repaired and moved onto new shelving I came home from work one day to find my wife’s sister had come to visit with her two demonic offspring who had decided to play with the pretty airplanes while the women were deeply involved in conversation in the kitchen. That was twelve years ago, I still don’t like those little mutants.
I have had the demonic nieces and nephews experience, and my “better” half at the time smiled and with the mother of these dreadful houseapes standing there, said, “Look Tom, Brian likes airplanes, too.” This, as the little jackanapes was dashing the seventh or eighth plane to the floor. And when I expressed my dismay, I was accused of being an evil child-hater. Well, I wasn’t before…
However, only last month or so, I had my apartment painted here in Brooklyn. This is traumatic and disruptive to the life of anyone who goes through it regardless of where you live. So we get the typical crew of non-English-speaking painters (this is not a xenophobic statement. It is merely a fact. They were from Pakistan and had not learned the local patois yet).
After eveything had been moved to the center of the rooms, and the models covered, I told the foreman, the only one who spoke any of my language at all, that they must be especially careful not to go near or to drip paint on any of the models. He practically fell to his knees swearing he would treat my models like his own children. And to emphasize his words, he slammed a fat, meaty hand down with a mighty crash…right on top of my beloved F-84G with all it’s expensive AM trappings. He pancaked it so hard it turned the canopy to Chicklets and actually put cracks throughout the fuselage and wings. I just turned and walked away, too stunned to speak. Irony, thy name be Sharkskin.
TOM
Chris, I completely understand and empathize and doff my respirator and airbrush in memory of you recently departed builds. I moved from Fayetteville NC to Georgia and found that my entire collection, very carefully packed by me, had been relegated to the bottom of a stack of books and furniture in the moving van and the fellows had just tossed the “lightweight boxes” to the back to make room. I had taken care to heavily insure the three large boxes, and the moving company was most unhappy at my insistence on activating the insurance clause. When I showed them the photos of my packing the boxes and the condition of what had once been a decent collection of 1/72 a/c, they hemmed and hawed a bit. I then presented them with one of the boxes in question in person. The collection of new spare parts in that box convinced them to cough up the cash. It wasn’t enough to compensate for all the hours and attention that went into each build, but it helped buy some replacements. Swanny is right about foam peanuts and large boxes. I’ve moved once since that time and have only had one broken landing gear assembly and a few broken antenna lines.
observing a momnet of silence* * * * *
I have moved several times and the lose doesn’t get easier to bear.
That said I have just gotten out of surgery with my SH60B. The beautiful 2002 first place trophy I received for it came off it’s base and landed right you know where.
At least you have plenty of stuff for wrecked / shot down planes dioramas…lol
Oh these lovely qute little kids…my precious birds have received their interest a few times…the result nothing that a good spanking wont ment…lol…or is that statement a guaranteed stay in the slammer…?
I too feel you pain!!Through several moves, various children both mine and others, and the odd general good intention mishap,I too have had to rebuild and replace several prized builds over the years.I can say that some good has come from this.I now have a vast box of extra pieces should they ever be needed for whatever reason.In my case,I have been lucky in that on my last move my wife would not let anyone near my hobby room without me there.On several ov the many trips from old house to new,my Darling wife sat in the vehicle holding some of the more delicate ones for the hour plus trip and that was her choice.
Just when you think that they’re totally against your building of what my wife calls"dust collectors",they totally surprise us.I tend to put up far less of a fight now when she tells me she doesn’t like where I put one now.
