'nuther blunder

[Greg Kimsey]

The purpose of this post is to get "work flow" suggestions to help stupid-proof myself. I made an infuriating blunder yesterday while I was putting the top and bottom wing halves together. I test fit first, everything looked great. I lay the bottom half of the port wing down and put glue on the upper half while holding it upsidedown. I reached for the lower half and must have forgotten where I put it because I picked up the bottom half of the starboard wing, flipped it to match and put it in place. "Hey, why is this not fitting? The test fit was perfect. OMG! I put the wrong part on upside down!!" After LOTS of self depricating curse words such as dumbass, and you f$%&ing IDIOT, I took off the part before much damage was done. The cement HAD made its marks on the surface. I lay it aside knowing I would make it worse if I tried to fix it now while the plastic was soft. After it hardened I sanded the marred surface smooth. Fortunately it wasn't too deep. I rescribed some lines and redid some rivets. I still don't know how I grabbed the wrong part. I have been making such an effort to take my time and not be stupid. This was not an epic fail, but a real nuisance! I don't know if my mind wanders, or if I simply can't concentrate with focus. I do have a serious (actually diagnosed) "retention" issue. I forget VERY quickly. It is something I live with. Gail will tell me stories of things I did, and, as I like to say, "I remember that as if it never happened", with absolutely no memory of it. Important life events, such as being in the delivery room when my son was born and remembering absolutely nothing about it. Can't even remember being there, but I know I was. Anyway, I wish I could come up with a foolproof way if not letting modeling blunders happen again, or basically stupid-proofing myself. Do any of you have suggestions of a work flow trick? I was hoping this new method of sorting parts into bags before beginning the build would help, and I admit that it has helped a lot; but I need to take it another step further it seems. I have an idea of a notebook by my side to "write it down so I remember it". Any others? Tanks! ...and airplanes

 

[jknaus]

If you find an answer let me know as I keep doing "dumb" stuff even though I know better. Its really frustrating when you go over your plan in your head and then when you go to do somoething all plans evaporaqte and you do it wrong. Sigh. Case in point, I knew I should paint the wings first as it would be easier to mask the PT-17, and what did I paint first? The fuselage.
James

 

[Greg Kimsey]

If you find an answer let me know as I keep doing "dumb" stuff even though I know better. Its really frustrating when you go over your plan in your head and then when you go to do somoething all plans evaporaqte and you do it wrong. Sigh. Case in point, I knew I should paint the wings first as it would be easier to mask the PT-17, and what did I paint first? The fuselage.
James

I have a feeling the notebook will help me, as long as I actually use it. It seems I need to have at least one major snafu at minimum per model.

 

[Impisi]

Well, we all make mistakes each and every day, not? So if you don't just want to follw the instructions - real men don't need instructions, right - then why not write your own instructions? I'm doing it not for modeling but for my restauration work going on. 5 years ago we bought an quite old house - made in 1900 and 1930. We live in that thing but also do massive restaurations in parts we don't use. This will go on for at least the next upcoming 5 years. For this stuff I use an application which I can use with all of my tools, notebook, mobile phone or tablet - in my case OneNote but there are others like Evernote and much more. For each room we are about to restaurate I put down all steps which have to be done, many drawings and alike. Without this I would get lost in this. It helps a lot also for knowing which materials I will need and so on, but in the end I always do have some mistakes or my instructions weren't not complete or what ever. There is almost always at least one thing which does go wrong - that's just the way it is.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

That is helpful!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

What I "try" to do is keep my work area as clean and neat as possible. I always start with EVERYTHING put up in it's place. I do this at work (watchmaker) During the day or build tools get pulled out and slowly the work area shrinks. I try and keep that from happening by putting stuff I am not using away.
As for building, I try and keep everything but what I am actually working on put up. Only have the parts out for the step I am working on. If there are several small assemblies in a step, keep the separate assemblies in little plastic trays I have a number of plastic boxes that new watches came in (watch coffins) that are pretty stout one piece clear plastic and when closed won't leak any parts at all. These work well for me and I wish I could get a bunch more.
First off though do your best to keep only the parts you are actually working with out. Keep all the others put up. When I was working on the 1/200 Arizona kit it had tons of sub assemblies. Most of them needed modding to get them looking correct. (Lots of research yeaaah) Five inch gun assemblies all done and in a coffin. Parts and items for modding the cranes, all in their own coffin. Thinking about this I am considering going to the "Container Store" (Yes there is one here in Memphis) to see what they might have for holding larger assemblies.
My Hobby Shop is slowly getting put into organization. I really need to figure something out for all my main paints. Have some paint racks made out of clear acrylic from Lowe's/Home Depot that I have made in the past. Need to make some more for my Vallejo paints so I can look and grab. Getting there.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

What I "try" to do is keep my work area as clean and neat as possible. I always start with EVERYTHING put up in it's place. I do this at work (watchmaker) During the day or build tools get pulled out and slowly the work area shrinks. I try and keep that from happening by putting stuff I am not using away.
As for building, I try and keep everything but what I am actually working on put up. Only have the parts out for the step I am working on. If there are several small assemblies in a step, keep the separate assemblies in little plastic trays I have a number of plastic boxes that new watches came in (watch coffins) that are pretty stout one piece clear plastic and when closed won't leak any parts at all. These work well for me and I wish I could get a bunch more.
First off though do your best to keep only the parts you are actually working with out. Keep all the others put up. When I was working on the 1/200 Arizona kit it had tons of sub assemblies. Most of them needed modding to get them looking correct. (Lots of research yeaaah) Five inch gun assemblies all done and in a coffin. Parts and items for modding the cranes, all in their own coffin. Thinking about this I am considering going to the "Container Store" (Yes there is one here in Memphis) to see what they might have for holding larger assemblies.
My Hobby Shop is slowly getting put into organization. I really need to figure something out for all my main paints. Have some paint racks made out of clear acrylic from Lowe's/Home Depot that I have made in the past. Need to make some more for my Vallejo paints so I can look and grab. Getting there.

That really follows the "bagged parts for each step" idea I am using. It IS working. I do the start with everything put up at the beginning trick and slowly get things out as I go, so my workspace shrinks as I go as well. I like the container suggestion a lot. We have lots of container gadgets for artists in our art supply offerings. I will look there. Thank you!

 

[Brokeneagle]

I just did one myself on my Brummbar - obvious mistake (stuck and upgrade resin part to the actual part it replaced), just in too much of a hurry.
We all do it, doesn't seem to matter how many years of model making you've 'clocked-up'.