What do you do when pieces go missing?

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hey guys, im curious what you guys do with a kit when a semi important part that cant be fabricated goes missing?

I have a ton of kits that this has happened to, either the carpet monster get it, or it breaks, or in the current case, fell from my panting surface into the trash and said trash was taken out before I noticed the piece fell…

What do you guys do in that case? Do you try and push on without it? do you put the kit aside? Try and find another piece?

I find that I just loose all urge to put the work into the kit that would be required to finish it if a semi important piece would be missing…

2

Pretty much anything CAN be fabbed. What did you loose???

3

You can post at thread requesting a part from a forum member who might have a spare one in his spare parts box.I had a man from England send me a spare T-72 hatch for no charge,not even postage.Of course,not everyone is so accomodating,but even if you have to pay a little postage it would be worth it.Or you can contact the manufacturer.

4

I asked a few days ago about kubelwagon parts bt got no responce.

The part that went missing this time is part of a Revell Batman Forever Batwing. A cirular part that fits inside the wing and shows up as some sort f turbine looking item with a multitude of pronounced ridges

5

As was said most parts can be fabbed.

You can post for parts here or ask the maker or HLJ for replacement ones.

Another option is how visible is the part and if the kit can live without it. Often a missing part can be hidden by doing some visible damage to the kit.

I work in a wood floored area so no carpet monster, many modelers put a vinyl sheet under the desk/chair to catch parts. Some also use a Jewellers apron.

Many of the kits I work with have small/fiddly parts, so parts are only removed when needed from sprue and go into a container(got a selection on my desk). If I can’t finish the assembly, lid goes on the container and it goes into the box.

large chewing gum containers, metal boxes(snuffbox like) etc are great and cheap.

HTH.

6

That turbine part is round with small grid pattern and spoke like ridges with a point in the center.

Grid pattern can be done with the mesh supplied in tamiya kits always left overs, ridges wires in right size. rest depends on the shape.

I found most parts can be made using from the spares box or left over pieces of kits.

When fabricating try think how they made the original master for the parts and what they could have used.

7

This just happened to me! Second time in two weeks! [:@] After I got mad at myself, I took a 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and bought another kit of the same aircraft. Then I am going to copy the part cause its a special piece that’s hard to fabbricate and put the copy on the first one.

8

I would post a pic but I dont have any batteries for my camera. The piece is very specific and is meant to fit perfectly in the kit, fabricating it would take a long time to get right. Also its very visible and now looking at it closly, I would never beable to fabricate this

9

Since most of my kits I build are made by Revell/Monogram, if I lose or break a piece, I just order them from Revells website free of charge.

Since your kit is made from Revell (and if its still in prodcution) just go on their website and order a new part

10

Issue is… you dont get a reciept when you buy at a fleamarket and they require one

11

I broke some light guards on my Italeri Sherman and stole some off my older Tamiya kit. They’re different, but oh well.

12

Scratch the part…if I believe I can resonably replicate the part or enhance the detail even if it’s not missing, then I definately would scratch the part.[Y]

But of course first a trip to the sprues box to see if I can modify a part before I start doing all the work to scratch.