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Kits you thought you messed up/completely ruined -- but turned out great


Sparzanza

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Experimenting with new modelling techniques, or perhaps a faulty paint? Maybe an accidental cut. Your initial reaction was "oh no". And, afterwards -- be it the day after, or maybe even a couple of years down the road - "hey, this is not bad" or even "wow this turned out great", and proudly display it for everyone to see.

 

Curious about your stories/pictures!

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Haha! That's pretty funny. :D

 

For me it was the 1/48th scale Spitfire by Tamiya. I had tried to apply some chipping on the wingroots with some aluminium paint.. and a brush. I was unhappy with it. Tried to mend it; first by carefully removing the "chips" with Q-tips and alcohol.. only to expose bare plastic. Oop. Masked off the panel; repainting it first with aluminium, then applying some hot water and salt for chipping. After shooting brown on top I thought it was hideous. There was even a slight color mismatch because of the aluminium primer. I then decided to go full yolo and do the same technique on the other wingroot, but backwards - a lot of hot water and salt on existing paint, but keep the majority of it, mask it off, and spray some aluminium. Might as well ruin it properly, right?

 

Brushed the salt off, thought "meh", put the kit down, and did not return to the table till the next day. I no longer hated it. In fact, I quite liked the results in daylight... and it did not look shabby on pictures, either. So that's a loss turned victory!

 

RVxp7hX.jpgBfM7MkJ.jpg

Edited by Sparzanza
adding pictures
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I dipped cheap round paint brushes in primer two times and shaped them into what I thought would be good 1/16 scale PAK 40 75mm ammo grenades.  I cast resin copies of the brush shapes and then chucked the parts in my drill to shape the final parts.  It was close but this does not work; not enough straight length. I shelved it for a week while I did figure out another method.  Much waisted time and effort.  The joy then burst in on me.  The brush shape was perfect for the high explosive grenade ammunition round. I had forgot about the third type.  

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I was contacted by Fred C a long time LSP member about building a friend of his a replica of his resto war bird. It was a restored P-51D with a jump seat, and of course his friend was a multi (MULTI) millionaire and apparently he wanted a replica of his newly restored Mustang.

Through Fred, I got a price out to (at the time) build a Has P-51, scribed and foiled as was requested, at the time I quoted a measly $400 - $500 I think. Fred relayed to the multi-millionaire friend of his, and my offer was flatly and soundly rejected for being "ridiculously high for what it is" or something to that effect. I guess thats why some rich people are rich, they are strange about money.

Anyway, right after that my friend Fred interjected and said since his friend had declined, he asked if I would still be interested in building it for him instead at the same price. I accepted and got to work building a replica of "Dixie Boy":

 

WIP_DB_DOC_4-XL.jpg

 

DixieBoy-1-L.jpg

 

 

 

 

She was a beautiful bird with a conspicuous jump seat. In progress:

 

DSC00790-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

The model was going swimmingly, including paint.........

 

WIP_DB_22-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

I had stupidly left a floor heater on in the room with the model to speed up drying, but my "rig" to hold it up way away from the heater collapsed and it dumped the model out tail first right in front of the heater for a couple hours:

 

 

WIP_DB_32-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

I panicked a bit then purchased a 2nd has P-51 from a local friend and had to do the unthinkable after paint:

 

 

WIP_DB_33-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_29-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

I wasnt really sure if the model would ever turn out like I wanted after but I pushed on:

 

WIP_DB_40-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_62-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_63-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_60-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

Didnt end up fitting too bad at all:

 

WIP_DB_58-L.jpg

 

WIP_DB_79-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

Finally re-started the foiling process:

 

WIP_DB_101-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_144-XL.jpg

 

 

 

 

The foiling turned out better than I could have hoped for after cutting off and replacing the entire empennage:

 

WIP_DB_206-XL.jpg

 

WIP_DB_180-XL.jpg

 

 

DB_RFI_25-XL.jpg

 

DB_RFI_17-XL.jpg

 

 

A lot of work but I ended up saving it and Fred was VERY happy with it. Ive attempted to contact Fred a few times over the years without any luck, so I'm not sure what ever happened to him or Dixie Boy honestly. 

 

 

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  • LSP_K2 changed the title to Kits you thought you messed up/completely ruined -- but turned out great

Way back in 2013 I was on a French WW2 theme and building an AZUR Bloch 152C.1, I had got it to the stage where it just required a semi gloss coat.

Saeaki.jpg

When clumsy Dennis dropped it on the study floor.

dS5p7A.jpg

jG8DJa.jpg

I walked away for a while and then set about repairing the damage.

eYijMH.jpg

And this was the end result, it is one of my favourite builds.

A0ueB1.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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I've also had more than my share of boo-boos that were not recoverable, at least as I saw it. One instance was a 1:48 Hasegawa Bf 109E-3 that I was building as a gift for a good friend. I had the color cup too full, tilted the airbrush the wrong direction, and dribbled a huge amount of paint all over the place. What followed was a temporary blackout, after which I discovered that somebody had stomped the model into the floor.

 

EuWXQb.jpg

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9 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Way back in 2013 I was on a French WW2 theme and building an AZUR Bloch 152C.1, I had got it to the stage where it just required a semi gloss coat.

Saeaki.jpg

When clumsy Dennis dropped it on the study floor.

dS5p7A.jpg

jG8DJa.jpg

I walked away for a while and then set about repairing the damage.

eYijMH.jpg

And this was the end result, it is one of my favourite builds.

A0ueB1.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Amazing save, Dennis! Well done! :D

 

14 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

I've also had more than my share of boo-boos that were not recoverable, at least as I saw it. One instance was a 1:48 Hasegawa Bf 109E-3 that I was building as a gift for a good friend. I had the color cup too full, tilted the airbrush the wrong direction, and dribbled a huge amount of paint all over the place. What followed was a temporary blackout, after which I discovered that somebody had stomped the model into the floor.

 

EuWXQb.jpg

 

Oh man that hurts to hear/see! :(

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27 minutes ago, Rick Griewski said:

Interesting that you chose to take a picture of it.  (I would hang the picture right next to my air brush painting station.). I have achieved similar results with thin super glue. 

 

The picture was taken so as to remind me of the stupid loss. I actually have a couple of photos like that.

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Another save, was this 1:72 Arado Ar 234. I had superglued a lead nose weight into the front area (I only use epoxy now because of this), and in handling the kit, I accidentally dropped it on the floor, breaking the lead weight loose. I discovered, after removing the canopy area masking, that the continued handling of the kit prior to paint, had jarred loose numerous bits of superglue, which all adhered (via static electricity, I assume) to the canopy interior. To resolve this, I cut out the pilot sliding window and accessed the 'pit interior with microbrushes and whatnot, to remove those bits. This model also netted me a first at our invitational that year. This is a scan of a 35mm print, which dates this photo (as well as the Bf 109) in excess of 22 years ago, as I've been purely digital for at least that long now. This also represents my "monkey see, monkey do" phase, wherein every single panel line and joint had to be highlighted.

 

y2Qp28.jpg

 

 

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Another save of sorts.  Years ago I was so excited about the Scratchbuilder’s J7W1 Shinden.  I planned and then read up on building resin kits. I survived all the expected sanding, reshaping and filling and produced a creditable model. I am glad that I did not jump in and fill all the deep panel lines. After setting it aside for a while after primer I noticed that the wings had warped.   I had no clue how that happened as I had clamped and jigged the assembly.  After years of surviving the builds of other resin kits, I went back to the model and I determined that the resin of the wing structure had too much air it it.  I pulled out the clamps again and injected the inside of the wings with epoxy.  This brought the kit back from the dead at least. It now is classified at a shelf of possibility model.  If may drop back into doomed state.  The ZM kit looks more interesting.  

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