Escaping model parts.

Well, Will, the Gun Fuse has probably gone into orbit with the energy in that spring clamp. Its always amazing how far little parts can go when they slip out of your fingers and go on the floor/desk/wastebasket/drawer etc. My latest loss is a 1/700 forklift for an LHA. Oh well, the ship will be able to get along with the other 5 provided. When I remember to put it on, I believe its Micro-Mark that has an apron with double-stick Velcro on the bottom edge to stick to the edge of the desk and catch flipped and falling parts in your lap. I think jewelers use something like it.

Good Luck,

T2

willshak wrote the following:

Thank you Tamiya! After sending an email to Tamiya on the above after I posted the message, I received the following email at 5:56 PM EDT.

Dear Tamiya Customer,

Please forward your U.S. mailing address and we'll send you replacement parts A31 and A32 at no charge.

Thank you,

Tamiya America Customer Service

Tom wrote the following:

I have a black apron that covers my lap for those parts that may drop into my lap, rather than falling on the floor or into a fold in my pants, that will fly out like an ejection seat when I stand up to look on the floor. I'll have to use that some time. Maybe next time. Anyway, Tamiya was kind enough to say they will replace the parts I lost.

For real fun try installing Kadee coupler springs in their couplers. It takes me two hands with tools and a wearable magnifier, guaranteeing that when one escapes, it's gone forever. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

And of course the day after the replacement parts arrive, you'll find the lost original.

At least with springs you have a chance of finding them with a magnet-on-a-stick.

There is a wonderful expression that covers episodes like this, and I can't remember where I got it from.

Pingf*ckit

GordonD wrote the following:

Then I'll have one to set aside in case someone else loses theirs. :-)

Mad Modeller wrote the following:

Don't you have one of these from MicroMark?

No, but it's now on my want list! How DID I manage without that tool?

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Mad Modeller wrote the following:

I bought something from them a year or so ago. I get a few emails a week on their sales, and a mailed catalog once a month. They have some great small tools and finishing products. They are a little pricey, tho. If I wasn't watching my budget, I would be tempted to spend a few hundred bucks a month for stuff I would probably only use once, or seldom at most. :-)

It happened to me many years ago when I was building the Revell Shuttle Launch Pad - one of the halves of the lightning rod at the top of the tower was missing. So I sent off for a replacement, but didn't hear anything for weeks. So I decided to make my own - even for my limited scratch-building skills it wasn't difficult: a tube of roughly the right diameter, with a strip of plasticard wrapped round and round one end to form the wider part at the base. I was really pleased with it - and a little disappointed when the replacement part arrived a few days later!

Might try a #11 xacto knife/blade. Put the blade edge into the spring about half way and install the spring. Haven't messed with trains much for 50 years, but that used to work pretty well with HO couplers and bolster springs.

T2

That's what I have been using all these years - along with a broken tweezer and a magnifier.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

willshak wrote the following:

Update:

August 13, 2011. I received a manila colored, bubble lined envelope in the USPS mailbox today from Tamiya America in Irvine, CA. Sent August 9. Inside was a small clear stapled plastic bag with parts A32 and A32 still attached to a piece of sprue. Postage they paid was 88 cents.

when i was given the airfix d day set as a gift, it was missing the paints and a me 109. through some bad english to french translation program, i eneded up with 3 sets of paints ans 2 me 109's. i almost got 1 more of each untilm a hurried no, no! got to them. it was kinda cool and very funny. they were doing the big apology to the customer of value, sir.

I've started building on the kitchen counter, no rug. Or when my wife is away for a long trip, in her office (nice long poseable neon light she never uses...). Painting, upstairs a room where the cats are banned, has my model stash. Also a Pace paint booth. Greatest investment ever. Put one of those window fans to air out the room, priceless.

anyway, watch has a tendency to catch on things. Those springy things sprung out when trying to fix it. So, need to find a watch repair place. Will throw away the Chinese made leather band.

Fun was stealing shelf and drawer space in the kitchen .... if its empty, its not claimed by the other spousal unit....

I was just assembling my He 100D tonight when the inner gear doors both took off, one at a time. I build over the bare concrete floor which seems to give them plenty of bounce when they hit but I found both of them. Then the tailwheel took flight. I found that after a searchlight sweep (flashlight). I think I may need to open the hole a little bit before I try that again. Usually I'm not as lucky as I was tonight.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

My greatest triumph in finding an escaped part was when I was building the Revell 1/48 Mercury capsule. One of the capsule separation rockets sprang free as I cut it from the sprue. It was the size of a pencil point. Painted red. On a red carpet. But I found it!

frank wrote the following:

You have empty drawers in the kitchen??? Half of the 12 drawers in my kitchen are specific to certain items, the rest are junk drawers. :-)