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Why are railway modellers so clumsy?


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A few days ago, I bought an expensive 1:43 scale lorry for my growing layout.

The same evening I managed to decorate it with a blob of superglue. After posting a topic on how to remove said blob, I was glad to find that I am not alone in clumsiness!!

 

As I mentioned in my topic, I have been modelling for nearly 50 years, and always manage to drop, scratch, break or destroy my model no matter how careful I am. What is worse, I can always see it coming, but carry on regardless!

 

I'm sure even the most revered modellers amongst us drop the occasional clanger!

 

Come on, own up, just how clumsy are you!!!!

 

Rich

 

PS: forgot to mention... I have just got enamel paint on my keyboard........

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Just moved my theory of why we are so clumsy to here.

It's Because of the Evil Model Railway Hobgoblin, who sits by your side and says things like, I bet if you don't cover that table you will get Superglue on it. or if you dont move that bottle of Plastic Glue with the top off, I bet you will knock it over. or if you don't watch out, I  bet that Scalpel on the edge of the table will get knocked off and stick right in your foot. or I bet that bit of card with some paint on it will fall paint side down onto the rug. or I bet, the list goes on and on. Why o Why don't we listen to him, he knows he is right smug little git. :jester:

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I think I'm clumsy because my wife expects me to be clumsy. She knows I'll get thinners on the dining room table sooner or later, so why disappoint her? As I said on the Superglue thread, I walked into town a while back with a TrainTronics N Gauge 3 aspect colour light signal stuck to the sleeve of my fleece. It was down to the young lady in the newsagent to point out I had a signal hanging off my arm... I'm absolutely amazed she knew what it was! Closet railway modeller or perhaps the long suffering girlfriend of one? Pete.

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I reckon that Hobgoblin chappie was responsible for my high success rate when dropping and damaging valuable models on the landing on the very few occasions when the loft hatch wasn't in place.

 

Not sure whether that should be filed under "clumsiness" or "stupidity" or both.

 

I don't use the loft for modelling these days.

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Just moved my theory of why we are so clumsy to here.

It's Because of the Evil Model Railway Hobgoblin, who sits by your side and says things like, I bet if you don't cover that table you will get Superglue on it. or if you dont move that bottle of Plastic Glue with the top off, I bet you will knock it over. or if you don't watch out, I  bet that Scalpel on the edge of the table will get knocked off and stick right in your foot. or I bet that bit of card with some paint on it will fall paint side down onto the rug. or I bet, the list goes on and on. Why o Why don't we listen to him, he knows he is right smug little git. :jester:

Is that the Hobgoblin that comes in pint glasses?
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HI

 

TWEZERS!!!!.......

 

Why the hell do I use them, knowing that the part I am holding, normally a very small screw that I only have one of….shoots across the room and end up in another dimension!.

 

Spent three hour last week, with the help of the cat looking for a grub screw......Never found it!.

 

Darren

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On a serious note, I think it's because (1) we work with small items and (2) we need to concentrate hard. The latter is also, I think, why the workbench gets cluttered so easily: When you're focussing hard, the mind does not register the process of putting down tools etc after you've used them.

 

Glad my wife won't see this post. She would laugh hard and tell me this is the lamest excuse for sloppiness ever!

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My Wife instantly recognises the sound of the chair being moved and me getting down on all fours in vain hope of recovering the miniscule part/ screw/ rivet etc that has inevitably launched from my work board onto the kitchen floor. Her instant enquiry "what have you lost this time?" confirms her radar is in order.

Very ocasionally she almost betrays a grudging admiration with the words "You actually found that down there, I'd never have seen it"

Now that's an admission that almost calls for a Hobgoblin.

 

Regards,

 

                 John

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My wife insists that I handle all miniscule items in a polythene bag, so they won't launch in to the underworld of my workbench. I prefer to spend 3/4 of my modelling time on the floor with a magnifying glass.... The sense of achievement if the item is eventualy recovered is compensation enough for the 'I told you to use a polythene bag' sermon!!

 

My worst launch though, has to be a Slaters 20T brake van.

I had built, painted, lettered and weathered the brake van, including fitting the coupling hooks, minus the links. I pulled the coupling hook forward against it's spring to enable easier access to attach the links. Inevitably, the hook slipped from the pliers, launching the brake van off the work bench on to the floor. Needless to say, a partial rebuild followed :fool: 

 

I'm afraid, I have more clumsiness up my sleeve!! 

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On more than one occasion when pressing hard on a screwdriver I have thought to myself "that screwdriver is going to slip and bury itself in my hand" and inevitably I continue, the screwdriver slips and does indeed bury itself in my hand. I never learn!

 

Edward

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Clumsy? Who said I was clumsy!? Just because I glued a Langley forklift the roof of a repainted Hornby brakevan which was in turn stuck fast to my modelling desk...... Curse those damn hobgoblins............ :/

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Like others I am always dropping miniscule objects & having had a knee replacement find crawling about on my hands & knees a bit of a bind.

 

I bought a telescopic magnetic pick up tool from Messrs Maplin and have found all sorts of metallic objects I didn't know I'd lost (or even possessed in the first place!)

 

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/telescopic-magnetic-pick-up-tool-30608

 

 

Bob.

 

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I have seen a cartoon on A & E with a model aeroplane stuck to the nose.

 

Well mine is I converted 4 of my Airfix 2D TSOs to 2E.

 

The first 2 I did, I did them the wrong way round, I cut and moved the wrong toilet window.

 

Noticed just as I was going to paint.

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Having laughed my way through our experiences of clumsiness, I wonder how we ever end up with the excellent layouts we see at exibitions??

 

Last year I built 5 JLTRT presflows. Though I say so myself, they were looking great, not a huge amount of clumsiness occurred untill I lost one of the ladder grab rails. I searched high and low, and in the end soldered up a replacement from brass wire. Of course the clumsiness hobgoblin had not had all his (or HER??) fun, so I sprayed matt celulose on to the enamel paintwork and transfers of the wagons. Have you ever seen crazy paved presflos?? 

The ladder grab rail turned up grinning at me from the shelter roof on my fueling point. :sarcastichand:

Just to show I managed to pull them back from the brink.....

 

post-10855-0-99248500-1363870681.jpg

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Now that's a familiar experience! Funny how you only ever notice these things just as you're about to paint it- I've told this story before in another thread, but a few years back I was batch-building some Parkside van kits- including a couple of one of the kits where the sprue of underframe parts is common to more than one kit, and includes the solebars etc for each variant.

 

I'd built a couple of this particular van, and was painting the second one and thought 'That's odd- the underframe is different to the one on the van I've just painted'.

 

Then I looked at the other side of it- I think you can probably see where this is heading...

 

Thankfully I'd only managed to build one with different solebars etc on each side, and a bit of careful carving managed to remove the wrong one and replace it

 

 

I have seen a cartoon on A & E with a model aeroplane stuck to the nose.

Well mine is I converted 4 of my Airfix 2D TSOs to 2E.

The first 2 I did, I did them the wrong way round, I cut and moved the wrong toilet window.

Noticed just as I was going to paint.

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