Multitasking to Ruin

The ability to multitask is often seen as a positive but the temptation to try and do a couple of different tasks at the same time is a sure fire way to make mistakes when it comes to model building. When dealing with small parts and delicate details, focus is your friend. Each step should be done on its own. If you are attempting a shortcut, e.g spraying multiple parts at the same time, consider the DIY mantra- Measure twice, cut once. Double check and then check again that you have exactly the right pieces and colours.

Make sure the lid is on… Really on

Model building has no shortage of paints, potions, sprays and finishes. When you are immersed in a build it can be easy to let your supplies build up around your work space. If you find it hard to keep things organized while you are working then be sure to screw lids on tightly! Plenty of models have been ruined by a pot of paint or varnish that gets knocked over and inadvertently wipes out all your hard work.  

Everything in its place 

If you are new to model building one thing you might start wondering about is the Carpet Monster that gets mentioned a lot in forums. Similar to whatever entity is responsible for the way a pair of socks can go into a washing machine but only a single one emerges, the Carpet Monster is what magically disappears any small piece of model or tool that happens to roll off your desk. Keeping your workspace tidy and organized is vital, but if you are worried about keeping track of everything consider a build where you receive the parts over time (like this Ford GT from ModelSpace). Monthly deliveries mean you are only working on one element at a time, significantly decreasing the chance of losing important parts.

Comparing yourself to others

Ah social media… It seems that in this day and age you can’t live with it or without it! If you are looking for inspiration of what to build next or another spin to put on a model then you will get no shortage of ideas from Instagram and other platforms. The downside of having all this just a few keystrokes or thumb swipes away is that you will inevitably start comparing your builds to what you see online. Ever finally finished a particularly tricky build only to see a post of someone who built the same thing in a fraction of the time? Perhaps you have spent hours trying to recreate a specific detail only to compare your efforts to someone elses and feel like yours is more awful than accurate. Before you start beating yourself up (or packing up your tools) remember that model building is about the process and the enjoyment you get out of it – it’s not a competition.  

If you find yourself with time on your hands, and let’s face it, a lot of us will in the current situation give model making a try and remember to be aware of these common missteps to keep things productive rather than painful.

This post is more of a funny one instead of being a disaster, but it is 100% worth sharing.

As people say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

When we did a bit more digging, we saw that image was taken by one of the boiler repair companies in Glasgow.

We would like to thank Boiler Repairs Glasgow for allowing us to share this image on our website, and are including a brief description of what the business does:

“At Boiler-Repairs-in-Glasgow we are committed to giving you the best central heating services around. From well-respected Gas Safe Registered Engineers a full range of services are available.”

Our house was a new build and had a small lounge with a very plain surround to an electric fire. I took it upon myself to design an ‘upgrade’. Out came the pencils, sketch pad and tape measure, and within a few hours I had designed a feature fireplace which would be painted to match the colour of the walls on the outside, have slate tiles on the recessed inside and a mosaic tiled top.

Pleased with my design I headed of to a trade shop for some timber for the frame, paint, tiles, grout etc.

From this point I practically moved into the garage, keen to complete my masterpiece. I erected the frame which was then covered in plywood, ready for painting. It was at this point that my girlfriend commented that it seemed quite large for the room (I think she was being tactful – it was huge). Undeterred I convinced her (or at least thought I had) that it was a feature and would look great.

The fireplace was painted and it came to the tiling part. I’m not very good at tiling (to say the least). I gave it my best but I had major problems cutting the slate tiles and when I had placed them they were a bit skew-whiff in some spots. Now I’m a bit of a perfectionist so when I stood back and looked at my dodgy tiling I started to go off that fireplace right away. However rather than admit that bitten off more than I could chew, I pretended I was busy elsewhere and just kind of left it. I think my girlfriend was relieved because she never pressured me to finish the job. She just mocked me about it when we had company.

About 3 years later when we decided to move house I had to clear our garage, including the monstrosity I had built. Thing was it took me quite some time with a big hammer to demolish it, so I must have done something right!

Submitted by James Clarke.

Step 2: Cost out the project by assembling a list of all the tools that you will need (you’re the expert, aren’t you?) Write down all the tools and supplies you need to buy. Convince your wife that this will be the total cost of the project (and you buffer a few dollars just in case). She reminds you of all the projects that you have done in the past. She begrudgingly allows you to take the credit card.

Step 3: Head to Home Depot. Explain to the department specialist what you are trying to do. The specialist shows you two extra tools that will help you do this job, but you didn’t see any of them in YouTube so you decline one, but decide you can stretch the budget for the other. Talk to the department specialist about getting the rest of the project done – he points out that you didn’t account for waste (add 10%). Thinking that you CAN’T be that stupid, you decide to JUST get what you absolutely need. Find out that one of the supplies you need is going to be very difficult to move, but you also find out that the store will deliver, just for an additional $85 that you don’t have. Not in the budget. You decide to make three trips and load up your personal car (you think about using your wife’s much larger car, but realize that she probably will want to know why and you decide it’s worth the cost of gas to avoid that conversation).

Step 4: Just as the YouTube expert described, you start the project. You realize during the destruction phase that there’s a whole extra step to demoing. What you figured was going to take one hour takes four. Your shoe prints are tracked across the living room carpet when you wife gets home from shopping, much to her display. Muttering, you put plastic bags over your dirty shoes so they don’t track anything onto the carpet again.

Step 5: Run to Home Depot to discuss the second tool that you declined.

Step 6: Run BACK to Home Depot to return the tool because it didn’t work as promised. Talk to a different department specialist. He suggests something totally different. You take a chance, break the budget and try again.

Step 7: Find the first aid kit for your bleeding knee. Can’t find one. Use duct tape to hold the wound closed.

Step 8: Decide that drinking a beer is going to be part of the job (why don’t they sell beer at Home Depot?)

Step 9: Take a break for another beer.

Step 10: Realize that you just cut your lumber 1 inch too short. Decide against cutting again, just going to be 1 inch short.

Step 11: Realize that you’re choice to leave everything 1 inch short means that everything else will have to be one inch shorter. Start cutting everything short. Take a break for another beer.

Step 12: Realize that the one inch short is now not going to work because the door won’t work to the room. Decide to glue a one inch piece onto the end and fix everything.

Step 13: Head back to Home Depot with glue between your fingers and toes for new uncut materials.

Step 14: Realize that you’re $500 over the budget projections at this time. Pay for it out of the utility bill fund rather than ask permission to the wife. Figure you can hide this expense easier that way.

Step 15: Find first aid kit for your bleeding arm.

Step 15b: Realize that they DO sell first aid kits at Home Depot – utility budget again!

Step 16: Wife finds your beer cans in the recycling and asks if everything is OK. Not convinced by your answer.

Step 17: Call your buddy who is a semi-professional contractor (or he thinks so) to come help. He shows up with another 6 pack of beer. You are responsible for the pizza costs. You don’t need electricity next month, right?

Step 18: Your buddy makes a recommendation that you start again – apparently, the tool that you opted out of was really that important.

Step 19: Wife is now yelling about two sets of boot prints in the carpet.

Step 20: You ask your buddy if he has someone who he knows who can finish the job – your buddy recommends his friend, a real contractor, who does work on the side. He calls his friend and describes the project – the “best-buds discount” doesn’t seem too “discount-y”.

Step 21: Realizing that you’re out of time, you slink back to your wife and describe the situation with a bouquet of flowers (Home Depot doesn’t sell either apparently)…

Step 22: Sit in the den and sulk as the professional knocks out the project in about 2 hours.

Step 23: Hand the credit card back to wife as she pays the contractor.

Step 24: Admire the contractors work, but secretly know that you could have done a better job!

Step 25: Start thinking of the next project to handle.

Submitted by Matt.

I went into a frenzy ripping out bathroom suites, pulling down plasterboard, black lime plaster, and dated interior decor. There were old kitchen tiles, decrepit paving slabs, cheap ceramic tiles and I cleared everything out. It was great fun and took just a few days. But little did I know that putting it all back wasn’t easy and certainly wasn’t cheap.

I spent literally weeks of my life just driving to and walking round the large sheds and builders merchants. It took a small fortune to resurrect that property and most of that was on hugely marked up building materials from the usual suspects. There had to be a better way…

In 2019, I teamed up with a large group of contractors to create a one-stop-shop online. Knowing what I knew about the plight of DIYers, I built a website called Handymanhunter.uk and signed up the leading UK building supplies brands. Since then we have tried to provide honest service, quality products, at good value and quickly.

Submitted by Kyle Davies.

This particular husband had also left explicit instructions to his heavily pregnant wife, not to meddle with the Victorian Fireplace on which she had designs to retile to match the new black and gold Harlequin wallpaper (darling). Of course everyone knows heavily pregnant (hotheaded and defiant) women do not take well to requests for obedience from their husbands, especially when they are off on their jollies.

With some very expensive (so expensive, this tale will not retell as it is too painful to mention) mosaic tiles ordered and picked up from Fire & Earth, the heavily pregnant woman got to work on retiling over the perfectly good Victorian tiles around the fireplace. After several hours preparing a disproportionately small surface area, the woman was getting tired (did I mention she was heavily pregnant?) and so slathered on the tile adhesive and began to fix the mosaic tiles to the surround. Except they slid off. Over and over and over again. Hmm.

A couple of hours later (and a bucket of tears and frustration) the woman managed to get the tiles to stay but had run out of time to grout before the return of the husband the following day. She called it a night but bounced (or rolled) out of bed bright and early the next day, full of anticipation for the beauty of the completed fireplace and how impressed her husband would be with her DIY prowess. But alas disaster had struck! Most of the tiles, except the odd one or two, had completed slidden off leaving a messy lumpy porridge residue that had hardened overnight. The heavily pregnant woman began chipping. And sobbing. But, after a number of hours and with her husband’s return looming, she gave it up as a bad job and jumped in the car to B&Q where she purchased some life saving spray paint. Half an hour later the tiles were completely transformed (truly no word of a lie, but maybe not for the better) and only the odd bit of lumpy grout was detectable. Sort of.

On return home, the husband came upstairs to find his wife proudly standing by the fireplace. Much to her surprise and quite frankly, confusion, the husband seemed pleased with the result, commenting that “the black of the fireplace looks really good after a repaint”. Oh…

The husband seemed to be under the misapprehension that the spray paint was in fact extra thick masking tape left on the fireplace after repainting the mantel. When he discovered the awful truth (and extent of his heavily pregnant wife’s insubordination) he sent his wife to Coventry. Not literally of course but they did not speak for several days, but as a legacy of the event the fireplace remains a lumpy, spray painted centre-piece in the bedroom.

Even now, many years (well 3) later, neither the husband or wife ever dare mention the fireplace to each other for fear of reprise. Or bloodshed.

The End

Submitted by Bryony Olney.

There are sliding glass doors to back garden, but there aren’t any stairs to get to the doors. None of the sliding doors match and it looks like one of them is supposed to be a window, but you can’t tell because there is so much “stuff” surrounding it. Oustside of the mystery “storage” in the solarium the scary part is that they have a room off of the basement that has a sliding glass door out to a room where the the ceiling is lower than the sliding glass door which also serves as the floor of the 2nd level of the solarium! More “storage” is outside of this area. The wiring hanging from the ceiling adds a “homey” touch as well. When we asked about that my brother-in-law said that was “next”.

The entire area has such potential, but where do you start? My brother-in-law says demo it and start over by adding a proper extension to the house, but my sister-in-law says it can be spared and can be a great space in their woodsy neighborhood. She is also cost conscienceous and believes that renovating would be more cost efficient than demolition and rebuilding. My brother-in-law is a self-proclaimed “do-it-yourselfer”. He takes pride in completing a project, but when you go turn on a ceiling fan for example, he will tell you not to because it is too hard to turn it off. While he does great work, some things aren’t as important to him as they are to my sister-in-law like baseboards or finishing trim.

The solarium is concerning because it is unsafe and they have had other projects come up that have taken priority. They have done so much to their house – new windows in in the main house, new siding, new bathroom, basement improvements and the list goes on. They have more to do, but this could be such an added asset to the house and such a great place to retreat I would like to see Bryan help them out. What can be done? Help!!!

Submitted by Lorrinda.

It was all going very well… Until i was left level with the light switch and woke up on the floor! I had not checked for cables I had never expected to find horizontal cables coming from switch although I knew it was permitted and I had a cable tracing machine but never bothered to use it.

Seems when extension was built the guy wiring had not gone up and around with strapers for two way light switch but had taken shortest route. Also no capping used so not felt anything with saw. It is now in mini trunking but same route. Also was surprised as getting such a belt I know it takes 40ms for the RCD to trip but never realised what a belt it could give you in that 40ms.

Next time I’ll be sure to use my tracker!

Submitted by Rhys Linderton.

A few years back me and my dad were putting a flat pack wardrobe together. The instructions looked easy so off we went at 100mph to get it done with our typical confident man attitude.

With most of it up quickly and looking good to finish in record time, we only had the back to put on. The rest of the wardrobe was screws and dowels, but the back needed to be fixed with nails although the hammer was nowhere to be seen. Rather than looking too hard for the hammer we decided to use the nearest thing to us, a nail gun.

So off we went fixing the back with the nail gun with no problems until we got to the bottom. Looking back we probably should have turned the wardrobe around to make it easier to get the nail in straight, but instead we carried on. Basically my dad was leaning down to put one of the last few nails in whilst holding his hand underneath the bottom panel to hold it steady, but for some reason he decided that this nail should go through the wardrobe AND the top of his finger! So after spending the rest of the day in A&E removing a nail from the end of his finger we decided to leave the rest of the wardrobe for another day, and now I understand why they never mention nail guns in flat pack instructions!

Submitted by Darren Wilkes.

As it was only a little bit off, and as I am a “professional” joiner, I got the jigsaw out and lent the tile on the edge of the kitchen worktop and started cutting without thinking too much about it.

It worked a treat, and off I went to finish the job, until the wife walked in 10 minutes later and pointed out I had also cut a strip a line in the wooden kitchen worktop!

I guess I’m lucky that I fitted it so I can replace it pretty cheaply when I get round to it, but it shows even professionals can have DIY disasters at home!

Submitted by Phil.