"How many dropped pieces?" Topic

During the assembly of plastic figures: Warlord, 40K, etc. How many times do you drop pieces? A head or arm now lost in the carpet or under the dark desk

Yes that is a problem. But, for me, not anymore. I refuse to buy plastic unassembled miniatures. Just a personal choice. I would rather have the heft and feel of metal anyway.

Too many drops to count. Fortunately my painting area has a wooden floor. Doesn't mean I don't often end up on my hands and knees with my phone's flashlight looking for the dropped piece.

And I too greatly dislike miniature assembly….

Dave

I have sworn to myself that the next time I sit down to assemble anything, I will put a drop cloth or apron on my lap to catch parts and to belly-up to the bench top (which means tidying the depth of the bench as well as the breadth).
Being a 1/72nd fan, I don't do much figure assembly here, and I hate doing it when I have to. And I always have the dropsies.

Every time I try!

Too many times as I get older.

Without anything to assemble, I can still drop the whole figure while painting. At least they are easier to find than just a small bit !

A carpet? The Sun King assembles his figures on a CARPET? Vinyl or wood flooring, your majesty--and really spectacular light. Unless you have real lackeys, and maybe even then.

Several times per sprue, at a guess. I have less trouble with 2mils.

every time. frequency is inversely proportional to the size of the piece: smaller pieces get dropped more often. I have scratch built pieces to replace dropped ones I could not find. And then, of course, I'll find the dropped piece a few weeks later.

How about dropping EVERYTHING! Getting old is heck.

15 times so far today

x42

Only plastic? I don't do plastic. Exclusively metal.
But I often have to pick up heads, shields, lancers, flagpoles…. drill bits.
Off a grey concrete floor.
I could wear an apron…

Occasionally. I do have a high intensity flashlight to find it on my carpet. I love plastic multipose so I realize that I'll drop a piece now & then. Only buy metal or resin for a specific figure.
Paul

Way too many. I have plastic figs, but really prefer metal.

Often, but primarily metal since I won't buy these new multi-part plastic figures.

Too often

I have a very personnel relationship with the rug under my painting and gluing table.
I think my wife suspects something or at least she shakes her head and says "dropped another one?". It's a love/hate relationship as some pieces are Never found!

Make the question easier, please, and ask how often I don't drop things?

Once in a while. I do make an effort to minimize pieces flying away when snipped. When I am disciplined I use blue masking tape to keep the piece when snipped: metal or plastic. When I am lazy or undisciplined, pieces can fly. And they tend to bounce away from the landing point….

I don't really do plastic figures, but I do assemble lots of plastic vehicles and aircraft.

You can guarantee in every single session that at least one piece will fly off a sprue, or I'll drop some tiny component from my big fat fingers. I recently managed to lose an entire propeller from a Ju 52 (which did turn up after a lot of scrabbling ng on the floor) and on one occasion, I had to scratch build a missing Sherman gearbox support. The missing part turned up two years later among various spares.

A few – but I mostly assemble them in a room with a tile floor where dropped arms/heads/weapons are easy to spot

More as a I get older, I guess.

Now that I think about it, I used to drop model bits a lot when was a boy and dropped them less and less as I grew up. I had a good 40-ish years of not dropping things very much, but since about age 60, I've been making sure that I'm working on a large clear surface if I have any fiddly bits to fiddle with.

Try using a non-slip car dashboard mat. Stops items skidding off and deadens bounce.

Less often than with 15mm metals.