General Gripe about obliterated builds

[modelperry]

So, when we bought our house almost 8 years ago, there was a room we affectionately called the Gallery. It was to be where I displayed my work.

It quickly became a place where everybody else put their junk and I was left gallery-less for 6 years until I finally got some display shelves. I put many of my builds on the shelf, both Paper and Plastic for display. I was happy. Then the grandkids started playing in that area, more junk found its way in there and a @#$% cat appeared in our household. Stuff started to get broken.

So now I have several of my favorite builds and/or most challenging builds in many different states of disrepair or destruction.

Among my Casualties are:

A Raumer S Split in two
A Miles Magister with damaged landing gear (second time for that one)
An obliterated Cromwell Tank
and the worst one is my Scud Missile Launcher (yeah that one that took me forever to get built)

In theory, the Scud "could" be fixed, I just don't have the willpower for it anymore.

The cat also completely destroyed my USS Iowa that was sitting on a high shelf in my work area minding its own business.

Couple this with the stuff damaged by the movers 8 years ago and I have a pile of carnage.

I do have replacement kits for some of these, and I may build said replacements eventually, but I was wondering if any of you have such similar stories.

I do not recommend Four grandsons, aged ten and under, with or without the presence of cats, to be mixed with model displays. It is not a good combination, at least not in my house.

The cat has been relocated as it started doing other subversive things that were not pleasant in response to the rough handling it experienced from the sneaky 5 year old AKA the Destroyer. The separation was better for all involved.

greg

[airdave]

Just getting rid of the cat sounds like a win win?!!

Not sure what you are complaining about?
...something about paper and plastic trash?

I save all mine in these big green storage receptacles made by Glad.
One day, we'll have a bonfire.

...
okay okay...

Since I have no pointless fur bags, I don't have those kinds of monster problems.

So the only thing I have to worry about is dust and accidents.
10 years ago I tried to to clean the big Spectre Gunship hanging from my rec room ceiling.
Without thinking I pushed on the ceiling tile, freeing the hook holding the model,
and it dropped 8 feet to the floor.

Wings were completely destroyed...I managed to salvage most of the fuselage.
Still haven't fixed it to this day.

But it stopped my dust problem. I stopped dusting. No more problem.

Other than that, I've had some minor paper accidents...nothing that couldn't be fixed.

[whulsey]

There we go. Just felt like Air Dave would throw the cat under the bus, same old.

[airdave]

Theres a bus? that would make it easier.

[sander1942]

Greg,

I can't say I have personally been involved with such a story but a number of years ago, a woman asked me if I restored wooden ship models. At that time, I was indeed... so I answered in the affirmative and she showed up at my house with the model of a period sailing ship, fully rigged.
She commented that the model had been stored in her attic and her cat had gotten up there...evidently more than once... it definitely was a disaster. Cat claw marks on the hull, spars bent and the rigging in tatters. I almost cried.
I did the best I could attempting to restore the model to some of its former self but it definitely wasn't a great rework...having no plans and guessing at some of the line work.
When she came to get it, she breezed in and breezed out, holding the model precariously and I just refused to look.
Cats have no appreciation for the model work! But I am sorry for your trial.

[Dave Pete]

the cycle ( my cycle anyway) runs like this... get excited about a model.... buy it... build it .... then stuff happens and then we have room for another model. It would really be best to start with a enclosed display case.

Most of my past models are remembered in digital pictures... I shutter to think of the hours of spent building where only the memory remains. But they are pleasant memories.

[murphyaa]

Most of my models are already destroyed when I finish building them. Saves the worry of whether they'll survive.

[willygoat]

I once had a 80% finished model of the Beechcraft/Rutan Starship by Marion. I was going down the stairs with the model and my tools on the cutting mat for support. I tripped. Dropped the model down the stairs, then stomped on it as I nearly fell myself. That suuuuuucked.

Then, my son (2 years old at the time- now 12), got a hold of the Allegiant Air MD-80 model I had just finished hours before. We had just flown on one, and he recognized it. It was quickly crushed and then scrapped. Literally. He was happy about it though. Me, not so much.

[jaffro]

I've been pretty lucky, my models have survived multiple kids and cats, although my current build came within a whiskers length of a puppy who chews up anything she can get her mouth around the other day, that was scary.

My biggest enemy is dust, and the place I used to live before here was a one room basement type thing where I cooked in the same room as the models and a few of them picked up an oily residue that had a habit of collecting dust, making it almost impossible to get it off. It's still there to this day, a very light coat, but not enough to totally ruin them.

Other than that, I've just had minor parts break off over time and most of the time I have no motivation to fix them so the broken off bits go in the bucket of the front end loader in my avatar, to be dealt with another day.

[Amccombs3]

One of my earliest models had a dictionary fall on it. Wilhelmshaven Cessna 310, IIRC. That’s about 50 years ago!