"What's the stupidest thing you've done in our hobby?" Topic

I'll go first – after months of working on 80 French Cuirassiers by Perry Miniatures, I was on target to meet my own deadline of today, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. My plan was to get them all based so that I could post pics on my blog link and here on TMP.

On Friday I lined them all up to give them a final varnish before basing. I usually varnish by hand using a brush but, for such a large unit, I'd splashed out on a can of Army Painter spray matt varnish. I gave them all one coat facing one direction then turned the whole tray around so that I could do the other side.

One second into the second spray I realised, with utter horror, that rather than picking up the varnish can, I'd actually picked up a can of white undercoat. I cannot publish here the vocabulary that ensued.

Anyway, it's the kind of dumb error you'll only ever make once! I'm trying to look on the bright side – a senile moment, but at least I realised quickly and "only" 12-15 figs need renovating.

Anybody ever done anything similarly stupid/infuriating?

Well, there was the time I was painting 30mm French dismounted dragoons to pay for a rule book, somehow failed to flip them over at one point, and delivered them to a very senior wargamer with the left side of every face still IR primer gray. He used them that way for months--wouldn't let me fix them--to make sure I got the message.

But I'd have to say my most stupid wargaming things involve projects I ought to have known better than to have started.

Was trying to rush out a very large hill made from foam. Had the Elmer's glue out to cover it and protect it. Forgot to put the glue. Happily spray painted a hill that was 3ft x 2 ft and 6 inches high. That was a mess.

Had a blockage in a spray can of black primer. Cleared with a pin and tried it again, while looking straight down the hole. It worked unfortunately… .

I did the exact same thing Lord Hill. The best painted figures I ever did. Used white undercoat instead of clear varnish.

Uses a Hot knife Foam cutter inside in Janurary.

Timbo, sorry, but that did make me laugh! KevinV – that makes me feel better, thank you!

OK, wanted oxen because armies in the pre motorized age moved by animal power and the Napoleonic era was part of that. First shot was the worse buying oxen that were wrong scale by far. Have a few cut down as pigs but that's maybe 3 out of 50. It was a big expense, and writing them off should see if can find a home for them.
Probably 10mm scale.
Even my next attempt are small but usable, for information Viking Forge has very nice oxen in 15mm scale, but sadly probably don't need any more.

Timbo- not a gaming disaster but work one, guy was working for had a spray paint to open that was wrapped in plastic, took a knife to cut off plastic and punctured the can and it literally exploded in his face. Lucky he had regular glasses on that saved his eyes but was very stunned buy it he went in his house ( that's where I was working) immediately and didn't come out some minutes after.
Spray paint cans are dangerous

Glued my thumb and forefinger together with super glue a few times as well as cut myself with my x-acto knife…

Anyway, it's the kind of dumb error you'll only ever make once!

Speak for yourself. :)

Spray paint cans are dangerous

Spray paint cans are volatile. People are dangerous.

BT

I bought a load of minis from an ad that didn't explicitly list the scale. This is a popular line. I've seen the game advertised and talked about. It's on sale at my price point. It couldn't be some stupid non-standard scale, out of synch with all of the other games in the genre.

Buying figs prior to research.

I have 50 or so Eastern woodland Indians in my Old West / Plains Indians collection

Yeah, glad I had glasses on, they cleaned up nicely, my face took a bit of scrubbing to sort out but the shirt got relegated to painting duties. Not sure what spray paint does to eyeballs but glad I didn't find out!

Oh, so many….

When I was a more serious plastic modeller I used to glue stuff together with toluene solution with the windows shut, while also stretching sprue over an open flame right next to the toluene bottle. Surprised I'm still here frankly.

I sold some books I regretted and later 'had' to spend years tracking them down and buying them again.

I sold all my White Box D&D AND my Traveller/Striker stuff. For the love of God, why? It isn't like they took up much space.

I've done all the usual stupid modelling stuff – dunked brushes in my tea, slashed my fingers all over, glued my fingers together, spent hours looking for a tiny plastic part which pinged across the room, dropped a craft knife point down into my foot, sprayed paint instead of varnish etc

But most stupid thing of all, buying a few 15mm Colonial figures off a bring and buy 'because they were cheap', then ending up painting hordes of other figures to go with them. Could never find the enthusiasm to actually play with them, and sold the lot several years later.

Got into Napoleonics

(just kidding)

The embarrassment of the lead pile and plastic plateau – we all have that. I would say it's part of the hobby, should not count as "stupidest thing ever"

With my manual dexterity, I bought debonder at the same time as superglue. I've honestly been surprised that I haven't needed it yet

John

Lord Hill, I did something very similar when sealing my Varangian Guard. A whole cookie (biscuit?) tray full of figures, and most managed to get at least a little paint on them. It was winter at the time, I was living in Wyoming, where the winters are cold, windy, and there wasn't much daylight to work outside, so I was hurrying to take advantage of one good time slot, something I knew wouldn't happen again perhaps until spring. Yes, I now read the label carefully.

Grelber

Acetone dissolves CA glue, and is super cheap in industrial quantities. I use it to debond my fingers all the time.

I couldn't use it to get super glue out of my eye, though. I got to keep the eye, no permanent damage, but it felt like there was something in my eye for almost a week. Also, eye patches may look rakish, but living with one eye is quite a PITA.

No painting mishaps, but selling off or getting rid of figures or books that I now really regret doing.

Built a 15mm French Napleonic army with no one to fight it. Brilliant.

I am trying to think of just one!

Just say of me: 'Guilty as charged'!!!

I too have sprayed white primer on fully painted figures in lieu of varnish. Once.

I too have sold armies and fleets and later regretted it. More than once.

I also specialize in using an xacto knife trimming in a foolish manner thus insuring my bloodshed. Countless times.

Didn't look closely enough at the head of the spray can before pressing down. My hand showed signs of Matte Black for a couple of days.

Many might think 5,000+ Napoleonic figures and all allies could me a mistake

One advantage of using Testor's Dullcote as my final spray is that the can is smaller than any of the other colors I use so it's pretty hard to make the mistake of re-priming finished models. As far as dumb things I've done, I guess the worst was being 99% finished with a VERY detailed figure and then accidentally dropping it into an open paint bottle.

I sprayed metallic primer instead of varnish on a newly painted Confederate regiment many years ago – learned from that mistake!

What a terrific topic. Look at the number of responses in one day (the Day of Days too)

We have all done idiotic things but Lord Hill's white spray over painted figures takes some beating. Much sympathy.

Thought I would help my wife finish some figure she was painting for me, she wanted to enter a painting contest at Origins back in the 1980s, thought I would seal them after she went to bed. yep picked up the white primer instead. on side of the unit solid white. Still together but I don't touch her projects ever. Heard about it forever.

Buying too much, starting too many periods/armies many OF WHICH ARE NOW BEING SOLD ON THE MARKETPLACE.

"Had a blockage in a spray can of black primer. Cleared with a pin and tried it again, while looking straight down the hole. It worked unfortunately… ."

Similar for me. Except it was 'baby blue' spray paint. And no glasses, right in the eyes. It was a scary twenty or so minutes while my parents helped me clean them out, wondering if I'd been blinded for good… :-(

@14Bore

Many might think 5,000+ Napoleonic figures and all allies could me a mistake

This should in no way be considered a mistake

Infact I'm jealous. Probably not the only one either

John

It's so stupid I can't even go into it! Honestly. I deleted my original post.

More than I decade ago I was using some very sharp scissors to cut come fabric for terrain. Somehow, I sliced a finger open due to carelessness and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Being on a Sunday, my regular doctor's office wasn't open, so I was forced to go to a doc-in-the-box. They gave me painful nerve deadening shot before stitching up the wound. Now the biggest mistake. They talked me into getting a DPT shot. When I got up the next morning to go to work, I realized something was wrong. I was having a reaction to the shot and had to stay home. I was incredibly dehydrated so that when I visited my primary doctor the next day, he suspected pneumonia and did some chest x-rays. Nothing showed up and things got worse the next two days. I went back to see him on that Friday since I was close to checking myself into the hospital. He did another series of tests an lo and behold it was pneumonia! The DPT shot affected my system enough for me to be susceptible to it. After a LARGE antibiotic shot in the Gluts and a Z-pac, I was feeling almost normal the next day. I've been extremely careful when using scissors ever since.

Opening a tube of superglue and it somehow exploded over me, ruining a good pair of trousers.

I almost always do painting and modeling in expendable old clothes.

Almost always…

So many to choose from…. Spending years painting, researching and organising 1400 (mainly Barton) Napoleonics only to give them- and several books by certain authors- away because the Author Wars destroyed my interest in the period.

I should never have got involved with those idiots.

Got startled while casting figures in Prince August molds. Jerked the molten led pot and sloshed it all up my arm and over my hand. 3rd degree burns yup yup. 40 years later can still predict rain by the color of the scars.

Had a friend who deployed for a couple months around that time. His wife moved about 40 AH, Yaquinto, etc games into the water heater closet. Every single one ruined by humidity, covered with moss, etc. many of those games are worth a fortune nowadays.

Building French and Allied Napoleonics in 6mm. Then deciding I liked 15mm better and building French, Austrian, Russian and Bavarian armies. Then about 10 years ago starting all over again in 28's. This time it's French, Russian, Saxon, Italian, and Poles.

Having a subscription to MagWeb and not downloading any of the articles because of course the site would always be there. There was tons of interesting and useful information I could have had ready access to if I had just saved some of it rather than trusting the site would still be there in the morning. Then the guy's servers crashed.

It's ok gator Dave. Napoleonics: 1/72, 15mm, 6mm, back to 15s, and now 10mm- and I'm sticking with 10mm! However my eyesight has grown worse and contemplating 28s….oh dear, nm it's NOT okay!

Buying Napoleonic figures while still working to paint after I retired…
Retired 7 years ago and still have 20k Napoleonic figs to paint…

I should have taken pictures of all the figures I have painted. I have sold thousands and it would be interesting to know how many.

Superglue coming into contact with cotton generates heat…quite a lot of heat.
Stuck superglue lids being twisted off close to body (groin) can result in much spillage (sort of "explodes")
Jeans are made of cotton…

Killed Ney twice in the same wargame. We agreed to set aside the first kill. I've seen Davout killed as well. On all three occasions we took a drinks break.

I've used the wrong spray paint can more than once.

Glued my fingers together more than once, and glued a miniature to my fingers once.

Dropped a miniature on the floor while opening the blister pack -- too stupid to open it over the painting table -- but wait! it gets worse -- pushed my chair back to stand up and look for it, and stepped right on it, breaking off the sword.

Dipped my paint brush into my tea cup. It was a nice, traditional, bowl-shaped tea cup with a saucer. Since then, I always drink from a mug, which is cylindrical and doesn't get mistaken for the water bowl. (I suppose it would have been stupider not to notice until I was drinking, so I don't get all of the stupid points for that one.)

I did the paint instead of varnish thing years ago. Black paint on a red ork dreadnaught. I just used more black paint and told everyone it was hit by a plasma gun. I'm much more careful now.

As a child, my favorite toys were plastic soldiers & I often got a Marx playset for my main Christmas gift. When I was in senior high school, an employee of the Dallas militaria shop got the franchise for Minifigs & he eventually opened his own miniatures & wargame rules shop & I took the plunge into metal figures. For 55 years I've fed my lead addiction & tho I painted & played with many units & role playing minis, I've amassed many hundred bare lead or primed or partly painted figures along with vehicles & unbuilt building models. I had started selling some at the minicons in my area, but the epidemic forced a halt to meetings which is only now being lifted. I'm in my early '70's so my children will be burdened with this part of their inheritance.

SpuriousMilius, I have a somewhat similar situation. I have a ton of painted miniatures/armies and such. I also have 2 20somethings boys and have asked them is there specific miniatures/armies that you want when I pass on. Both replied with, "nah, might as well start getting rid of them now so we don't have to".

Deflated to say the least.

I told my son that when I failed my saving throw, he was responsible for troops and terrain actually in the house--2's 6's and 28's--which I estimated would go in a rental van, and left names, phone numbers and web sites/e-mail addresses with the funeral instructions. I promised that if he did that much, I wouldn't haunt him for anything done with troops in the garage.

But it's taken a bit over seven years of retirement to get to this point.

This is supremely stupid. In 1997 I had such a falling out with the main player of my Wargaming group that I essentially abandoned a thousand painted 15mm Heritage Austrians at his house rather than ever talk to him again. I stopped playing miniatures for over 20 years and have only gotten back into it since 2021. I really showed him, eh?

My inner zombie came out when basing 10mm naps. 8 inf on 25mmx20mm mag bases= 32 per battalion. Elites were 6 per base, meaning attention was needed which side would have 2 Fusiliers G and V were to flank on right & left sides… only have 3 bttns to go.

Oh Speculus!