You have my condoleances, my friend, I know exactly how you feel. I lost my hole collection 5 years ago while moving [:(][BH]
I can share the pain and offer sympathy. My two year old daughter just demonstrated her new found ability to climb shelves. My entire collection took a hit. The only thing Ive been able to repair so far has been my Bradley and A-4 that I built recently. Anything that had propellers must have not looked right to her because she went to great lenghts to remove each and every one. Helos too. I still cant find my F-5E. I have to say that the urge to become a convicted child abuser was incredible even when the victim would have been my daughter who I love more than anything. I came in on this travesty while she was in the middle of removing the props to my AC-130 and she was even nice enough to show me the progress she was making.
LOL, some very colorful moving experiences here guys!! and thanks for all the styrene compassion and moving tips being shared.
i’m probably a couple of weeks out on getting a make shift bench set up, but i’ve already planned what i’ll do with the finished builds that i crank out. i have a storage unit i’m renting for now, and i have some vacant shelves, so when i get a build done, i’ll carefully transfer it to the storage, where it will be stationary until i get to a more permanent location. this way, i can focus all my attention on one build being transfered and a time, and be very careful with it from point A to B. later.
Makes me sad & a bit nervous![:(] I’ll be leaving Japan at the end of Feb. Fortunately, most of what I own now is still unbuilt. House fire about 7 years ago claimed my whole collection from beginning to after I left the Corps (that included 2 tours in Okinawa when the Yen rate was like 300 yen to the Dollar!!)
Hundreds of kits both built & unbuilt! [BH][BH] The modelling world mourns with you! [angel] - Calvin
Calvin, I can sympathise totally, because everybody here is sick to death of hearing about my fire which destroyed every model and related article I had collected over 15 years, and after going on five years, I still get this stabbing in my guts every time I think of yet another irreplacable book or AM set I lost because my roommate fell asleep smoking. I also lost every single photograph from my “I love me wall,” where you put the odd awards plaques, the photos of you strapped into this or that jet or old warbird. All gone. I lost everything else, but those are the only things I mourn.
This is just a prologue to my point: I’ll bet every one of us has felt that jab in the belly from losing one hard-won buildup, or an entire workshop and reference library. And I’ll be willing to bet all I’ve been able to replace that not one of us has been able to make a non-modeller, even our closest loved ones, understand what the big deal is. It is the most frustrating thing in the world to try and try to get understanding or any empathy from the woman you live with (or your best friend or your mother and father, etc., etc.), any sign of how much this stuff means to us. Damn it, when I lose a model, or knock a bottle of Tenax over on top of a 90 percent finished vac-form and PE biplane that took me four weeks to rig, I want someone to understand my pain. But by the time you are an adult modeler you are hopefully old enough and mature enough to understand you will not get bouquets of comfort and sympathy from anyone else. And, though I understand that, I don’t have to like it. Hence, God bless this site.
TOM
that was certainly a mouth full Tom!! well said.
Man I feel you, as your beauties will join my B-26K in model heaven. At least you know what became of your models. Now one will tell me what happened to my Counter Invader. It’s my bad if I goof and somehow mishandle a model
and break it. But to come home and go to the garage (where 90% of the completed planes are for the time being) and not seeing where it is supposed to be. Then finding it in pieces kind of hidden on the other side of the garage just plain got me po’d. Some people don’t get how much time we have invested in each of our models. And for me it is not value I place on these. It’s my time. Especially this one:
Though I was able to salvage most of the Paragon Resin pieces still I miss looking at it. Yeah it’s just a model. But I have a lot of sweat in it and it was my first major conversion. I was so satisfied that it came out just fine when completed. Yeah it was just a model…Tell Picasso or Rembrandt it’s just a painting!
Chuck
Fly Navy
A few last words…
I never knew these models, but looking at those photo’s I wish I had. Rest in Pieces little buddies! [BH]
I think we all have had a similar experience at some point or other in this hobby. Some have experienced more than others, but if you have been in this hobby for more than a few years, you have undoubtedly lost one of your precious babies. I guess it comes with the territory.
I have to admit this is one of the reasons I don’t have pets. We had cats when I grew up and experienced several occasions where their curiosity killed my models rather than the cats. A high shelf gives a cat a certain since of exploration I think, not to mention how much they love to rub up against any object that happens to be near them. [banghead]
My family has learned not to even attempt to move my models for me… in fact, my brother had me pack a model I gave to him a few years ago when we moved. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with packing or transporting my collection. No, the models come with me… never in a moving van.
Good luck with repopulating your collection Saltydog! [:)]
Oh boy…I’m on the verge of panic myself because of my moving plans around July. Only messed up three or four over the last 15 years from the traveling but the fear is still there. That is why I have a stack of 60 or so still in the boxes. Must have back up should we not? Anyway, got my bugle out for you.[4:-)] [:(]
Oh my God…it´s a nightmare…
When I finish my models I put it in my shelf with door glass…it´s a proof of childrens, mothers and house servants
Regards
That’s why I’ve become so self-contained over the years(and probably emotionally unhealthy too, but who gives a crap) because I’ve been through some stuff that you can’t really sympathize with until you’ve been through.
As for modeling, my tale of woe involves a 1/48 scale AC-130 that my modeling buddy said I would never finish. Well I almost proved him wrong. The only thing that remained unfinished was the flare rack on the rear ramp that for some reason wasn’t ready to put on yet. All painted decaled and pretty I set it on display on my dresser. Literally within minutes a poorly secured wall hanging dropped off the wall and sheared off th port wing of my 2 years in the making Spectre. [censored] Ironically the wall hanging was a mounted insignia decal from a P-3 squadron. I was so torqued off that I finished the demolition by hand on the spot, stuffed it in the box and haven’t lokked at it since.
Funny how these threads progress. I was admiring the photo of Chuck’s beautiful Invader, and it reminded me of yet more of my loss in theold fire. I had two beloved old back issues of the IPMS quarterly from the early 70s I’d obtained in a trade. Those issues of the Quarterly are from the time when it was a really meaty, useful publication, and the cover story was on the B-26K (aka “The On-Mark Invaders” because the contractor that did the upgrading on the old warhorses for Vietnam service was called On Mark. The magazine showed how to make the conversion from whatever A/B-26’s were kitted then (I’m sure it was something awful, like an old Frog kit or something like that). And the other one I lost was a Quarterly with a cover story on how to make the 6-3 conversion on any F-86 model, but using the Hasegawa 1/32 kit as an example. I had that old kit (when it was under the Hasegawa/Mincraft label and also burned), and it was a jewel for its day and not so bad now. It even had one stamped metal part in it – the bracket that holds up the orange-colored domed compass thing behind the pilot’s headrest. It was the first PE part I ever saw.
But I ramble…this has been a good thread. We need to put away our macho faces once in a while and let loose on what hurts. Losing your beloved models hurts. Period. And though I never cried, I came damned close. And I don’t feel like less of a man admitting it.
However, tell your girlfriend you almost shed tears over the loss of your models and she’s guaranteed to leave you. So let’s keep this among ourselves.[;)]
TOM
clearly there is a market for a carton designed to move models in!
My heart goes out to all who have suffered, yet another reason I’m never moving again. I’m planing to have me and my models burred it he back yard.
Well, I’d have to say that between Salty’s A-37 and Chuck’s A-26K, some very, very beautiful models have been lost. I don’t even like to think of those that were never photographed. Mine weren’t, but they weren’t in the same league, I think I can safely say.
TOM
hello fellow grievers i too have a styrene story to tell when i was 11 years old i learned a very valuable lesson about plastic models in three parts. part 1 build em strong enough to survive the unexpected (i.e. a rollover in a pickup truck!, this happened to me!) part 2 children below age 16 are the grim reaper to model air planes (keep a lot of die cast planes around as a decoy, trust me this works great!) part 3 if you can’t trust somebody with your wife, children, or your life don’t trust them around your airplanes!!! period!!! (this includes pets i.e. cats. been there, done that!) please take this to heart. styrene airplanes should only perish by the hands of their creators in order to create better styrene airplanes. my condolences to those who have lost their loved ones.
I must share in all of your pain and glory. I too have lost AC to the invisible grasp of death - most likely the baby sitter giving my V-22 to my daughter …ohh so many years ago. Finding a few scant pieces and a series of blank stares prompted me to trash a 40 kit collection (built).
Chris, I feel your pain and sympathize. Bright side of the equation: With your well developed experience, think about the kits you get to rebuild.
Speaking of cats, here’s one of mine that tangled with the PB4Y-1 while under construction.
If he had not been so swift he would have been dead, or at least severly injured.
I feel the pain I moved acroos the country and the packers I had mangled my prize 1/35 SAS Jeep, which took me 3 months to complete it had a lot of add-ons and part of it was scratchbuilt I have since repaired it but you know it is never going to be quite the same as it was the day I completed it.
Chuck, i must say, that is an excellent build you showed a couple a post up!! nice job, and a terrible loss as well. got anymore pics of her?
WOW, i feel a little sheepish talkin’ about my small modelling casualties, some of you have had some bad experiences…Tom…a burned house!! sorry to hear it, even if it did happen years ago.