When a shelf arm breaks on the shelf holding your entire carefully converted Pirate Empire army snaps, and all you can do is watch the shelf bend in the middle, and the entire army slides off the plexiglas shelf and tumbles to the hardwood floor 6 feet below.
Took me almost 4 years before I could bring myself to look at them again, and finally repair and repaint.
Wow, dadlamassu, that must have been a really creepy moment... :o
I think my best was dropping an x-acto knife while prepping a figure, automatically grabbing for it, gripping the blade, screaming, letting go and catching it point down in my knee.
The worst thing was I couldn't get down out of the loft without leaving blood splatters everywhere so not only was I bandaged like a mummy, I had a proper telling off from my wife.
Walked into my games room the other day to a scene of destruction....the glass door of a detolf cabinet had decided to shatter into a million pieces.
Bit of a mystery...was a cabinet I’d had for years, nothing had fallen against it, no big temperature changes etc
More of an inconvenience than anything...the upper shelves each had 100 figures on them, all of which had been dusted with tiny flakes of glass, and needed careful cleaning...still finding small pieces a good 6’ from the cabinet.
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/hh72/AKULADEEP/135565A9_2145_43D5_8E1B_137529474A3B.jpeg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
No miniatures were harmed in the taking of this photo.
Ouch! The glass damage was a real catastrophy! And the prole is little pieces that fell on uneven surfaces...
Anyway, I found this
BEST way to pick up broken glass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UCgZa5KaPA&feature=emb_logo
Unlike Unlucky General I don't get angry at my chums dropping my figures or accidentally knocking spears out of their hands and such. They are toys for playing with and a little wear and tear is to be expected. I see running repairs as simply part of the process. I care more about my clumsy careless friends than my little metal guys, and unless they are doing it maliciously and wilfully (which they never have) then all such sins are quickly and easily forgiven.
However if I ever drop somone else's figure I am mortified. I remember I was once admiring a giraffe painted by fellow LAFer Tellus and it suddenly somehow lept from my hand and hurtled toward the floor. But displaying the reactions of a young Jonty Rhodes I managed to snatch it from the air with my other hand. So glad I did, never would have forgiven myself otherwise.
I still sometimes shudder when I think about that giraffe, and what nearly happened to it.
You were there that day, H. Fairly sure you were in the room, or at least nearby. It was that time we went to Kiel.
My abiding memory of that trip was having strawberries for breakfast. Never done that before or since. Felt so decadent, like I was the emperor Nero or someone. Maybe that's no big deal in some places, but for a little country mouse like me, well, people around here just don't have strawberries for breakfast. We're happy if we can get a lump of stale bread with some lard spread on it.
Unlike Unlucky General I don't get angry at my chums dropping my figures or accidentally knocking spears out of their hands and such. They are toys for playing with and a little wear and tear is to be expected. I see running repairs as simply part of the process. I care more about my clumsy careless friends than my little metal guys, and unless they are doing it maliciously and wilfully (which they never have) then all such sins are quickly and easily forgiven.
However if I ever drop somone else's figure I am mortified. I remember I was once admiring a giraffe painted by fellow LAFer Tellus and it suddenly somehow lept from my hand and hurtled toward the floor. But displaying the reactions of a young Jonty Rhodes I managed to snatch it from the air with my other hand. So glad I did, never would have forgiven myself otherwise.
I still sometimes shudder when I think about that giraffe, and what nearly happened to it.
To prove I learn from experience, much later on, in a share house I was squeezing away at a blocked bottle of Vallejo paint and, instead of cleaning the nozzle of the bottle I just kept absent mindedly squeezing away until the nozzle bit was pushed off and Deck Tan was sprayed over the miniature, table and curtains next to the window where I was painting...
Oh. So...was the whole thing my fault? It wouldn't surprise me.
Wow, that must have been weird.
My favourite one is that time I accidentally emasculated a Masai warrior with my craft knife.
Worry not, the story has a happy ending: I made him a new, bigger John Thomas out of green stuff. :)
Also - leaking roof.. every single (100+) sabot MDF base on 500+ troops to be replaced. Still, it's been good for Warbases :(
What was worse: the following day I went back and I looked around and found a few hussars or whatever, who had spent the whole night alone waiting for my return. You feel guilty. lol
displaying the reactions of a young Jonty Rhodes I managed to snatch it from the air with my other hand.
Muzfish4 your tip comes too late for me. While reading this thread I can look down and see traces of vallejo game colour orange fire on my keyboard and monitor from when I did exactly the same thing. It was quite an explosion that ensued and inevitably I did not find every blob and splatter until after it had dried. I no longer attempt to paint at my work desk, and I keep a piece of wire handy for unlocking dropper bottles.
SNIP...
As an Australian and a resident (usually) of Canberra, we are threatened with bush-fires - big buggers. Actually the term bush-fire really doesn't convey the true nature of what Americans more accurately refer to as wild-fires. Anyway, if called upon to evacuate I admit that the only possessions I can think of to try and save are my wargaming figures/models - is that bad?
Just made another small sacrifice to the gaming gods, tip of my finger to a slip of a razor sharp scalpel....
....blood for the blood god