In my last post I made a cryptic reference to "The Great Shelf Disaster" and since that got some interest, I thought I'd tell the story and then solicit your wargames disaster stories. Maybe it will prove thereapeutic for all of us.
So when we moved in November, Joy and I had downsized and gotten rid of a lot of our CDs. I had a nice wooden CD tower left over and thought of a great way to repurpose it as a shelf for my command stands, which, because of the flags, are a little fragile to go into boxes. The idea was that I could just take the command stands off the little shelves and plop them on the games table.
Unfortunately, or better, foolishly, the shelf wasn't anchored to the wall, it was just balanced, and for some reason one evening it decided to fall over. The stands on the top shelves shelves suffered the most, the ones lower down took less damage, and all the little shelves came out and fell onto everything, making matters worse. Gentle reader, I almost cried when I opened the door and saw the carnage.
Since February I've been going through these figures, gluing figures back onto bases, fixing flags, finding matches from my sprue collection for missing arms and hands and heads. It was a right old mess. Some of these figures are decades old, and quite fragile, so it hurt to see them so abused.
Besides repairing all these stands, I also took the time for a rough but effective bit of DIY to ensure that this never happens again.
February was also a rough month because I grabbed the wrong rattle can when I was spraying dullcote on these figures.
The good news is that this series of unfortunate events taught me to be patient and to be grateful for what I have. I have a dedicated gaming room, thirty years worth of figures, and a hobby that I love, so I reminded myself of those blessings regularly as I filed, glued, and repainted.
What wargaming disasters have you experienced, and what have they taught you?
Blessings, MP+
Twice I've dropped boxes of figures, the word gutted just doesn't cut it. The last boxes were of my 2mm WSS figures. That was 9 months ago and I still haven't found the heart to go back and fix all the breakages. One day, I'll pluck up the courage to open the boxes again.
ReplyDeleteHi Ray: Oh no! Maybe those boxes are like Schrodinger's Cat, the figures might just be intact, you'll never know until you open them. But just to be sure, pour yourself a stiff drink first!
DeleteI feel your pain. During last year's spaying season (I live in Montreal) I too grapped the wrong rattle. We hopefully learn from our mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAck! The spray can nightmare continues! I had a friend who did the same thing years ago, had a whole brigade of 20mm HAT figures, thought he was spraying dullcote, and sprayed them with white primer. They looked like they'd been marching in a blizzard. He was a big man, but he told me he cried like a baby when he saw what he'd done. Let the reader beware!
DeleteTragic, for sure. When dullcoting several battalions of 15mm Napoleonic French many years ago, I grabbed flat black rather than dullccote. Disaster! Took me quite a while to muster the courage to repaint those black Frenchmen. Never again! Always check TWICE before spraying.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan, and I'm sorry that happened to you but I'm pleased that it wasn't just me. I think that makes four spray can stories now. Always check THREE times before spraying is my new motto.
DeleteOn the whole, I've been lucky. Twice I've had stuff hurled to the floor during earthquakes, but fortunately, the chaps have survived the ordeal with few casualties. The one really annoying ... mishap... when Dog (a 'taco terrier', so-called) got in amongst some lead Napoleonic Frenchmen. The one with the severed legs got them reconstructed with copious quantities of glue, another with badly chewed lower limbs got some minor surgery and also found his way back into the ranks. I doubt I could find them among the rank and file now.
ReplyDeleteFriends have suffered worse. In those earthquakes I mentioned, 'Jacko' had boxes of soldiery land heavily on other boxes of soldiery, with quite a few KIA among them. The other I recall from back in my Auckland days - 50 years back. A friend was carting, on his motorbike up (or maybe it was down) a busy street in heavy rain, his collection of metal Napoleonics. Somehow or other, the Finger of Fate flipped his box/carton/whatever of soldiery into the street, scattering the figures all over the place. Pete found himself in the pouring rain and heavy traffic scrambling around trying to salvage what he could from the wreckage. I gather much of the collection ended up becoming part of the macadam.
Not sure what happened to the rest of it.
Cheers ... and commiserations,
Ion
Thanks Ion. Well, at least I've been spared the earthquakes (touches wood nervously). Your friend on the motorbike, I'm sure I've had that nightmare of having wargames figures spill out on the pavement. Years ago I took some 15mm figures on a plane, I was going to stay somewhere a while and wanted something to do. The suitcase was old and decrepit, and to my horror there were figures up and down the baggage carousel. At least they weren't nice figures, or painted. Jeepers, I hadn't thought of that in forty years!
DeleteSounds terrible, the fall and the shelves landing on them! I had a 40k army in a metal tool box fall 8' from on top of storage cupboards to the terrazzo flooring of my garage, duly patched up , just glad they werent Napoleonics!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Oh no! It must have taken some nerve to open that tool box and inspect the damage. I'm sorry that happened to you. I have learned to be careful with tall shelves.
DeleteThe Horror....The Horror! My thoughts are with you Padre!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I've done many military moves. A couple of the earlier ones (before I learned) were super destructive to my metal armies
Military moves are the worst. My worst string was four postings in nine years. It was hard on my figures and worse on my marriage. Did you learn any storage tricks in the process?
DeleteI recently moved house after nearly 25 years. A friend suggested packing them in plastic boxes then pouring polystyrene foam beads around them. So far very few casualties but the packing and unpacking has been hard work to avoid white beads all over the place!
ReplyDeleteThat is sound advice. I bought some figures from a chap in the UK and they arrived lovingly packed in about a zillion foam micro pellets. The figures were in fine shape, but I was finding the pellets all over the house for months.
DeleteWell that is distressing!
ReplyDeleteYour command stands have always been lovely.
Someone dropping then stomping on a stand of 15mm light javelinmen is a microproblem in comparison
Thanks mate, I do love me a good command stand. I hope your javelins weren't deliberately stomped on.
DeleteI remember there was someone in Ontario gaming named Vic, he had the nickname "Hammer Hands" and wasn't allowed to touch figures, he pointed to the unit he wanted to move and where he wanted them.
A couple of years ago I had two incidents in quick succession which had the potential to be disastrous. Due to lack of space, some of my A4 box files are stored on top of a couple of 6' cupboards in our garage. Our cat decided it would be fun to jump from one cupboard to the other and managed to dislodge a newly completed box of 20mm SCW figures. Down they crashed from six feet onto a concrete floor.....
ReplyDeleteMiraculously, there was virtually no damage, although that was not immediately apparent when I opened the box to find all the individually mounted figures in a pile at one end.
I tidied them up and put the box back and lo and behold, a week later, the cat did exactly the same thing again! I think there was a bit more damage, but I still got off remarkably lightly. I then found a couple of much larger and heavier (non wargaming related) boxes and put the from the top of the cupboard up to the ceiling blocking the space completely - so there could be no third episode!
A friend has had two much more devastating incidents - one was a house move when he had all his figure boxes put aside to take himself by car but they were accidentally taken by the moving guys - tossed around like any other box and piled up in the truck with some of them upside down etc - that took a few months to fix. In the second incident, he had multiple cupboards of figures lined up against the double garage door because he does not use the garage for car parking. Someone went to put on the light switch and accidentally started the doors opening, causing several thousand bases of figures to be tipped over and deposited on the floor, with two door formica type cupboards lying on top of them - ouch!
Good lord, the horror, the horror! Cats are rotten bastards, no respecters of figures or anything else, really.
DeleteWhen I moved house in November, I left my wife in charge the day the packers arrived, as I was working elsewhere. I had left some scebery items on a shelf with the instructions that I would pack it later, but I didn't make myself clear. A packer saw the scenery items, said to Joy that his son played warhammer and could he have them? She said absolutely. When she told me the story, I consoled myself that the items were being enjoyed by a much younger gamer.
That garage door story is the most horrific thing I've read in this thread!
I am sorry to read of this. I am aware of a few people that suffered similiar issues in the Christchurch earthquakes. Fortunately my collection survived the shaking. The securing of the units is very wise.
ReplyDeleteI knew a cleric who worked in the Christchurch cathedral at the time of the earthquake and she said it was awful. Fortunately my part of Ontario is seismically very sensible.
DeleteWhen my eldest son was a little over 1, I came home early from work to find the horrifying sight of he and our then 6 month old puppy happily sat on the floor of my then tiny hobby room (My ex had left the flippin door open...) surrounded by all sorts of parts and pieces of my Warhammer 40K collection I'd kept since I was a lad. He was gleefully pulling minis and models apart and handing them the puppy who was chewing them with aplomb. I almost cried. Then I yelled at my ex and I felt better and did my best to salvage what was left. (About 1/4 of the original collection.)
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I've since dropped the odd mini and had to apply repairs or repaint, but I've been lucky to not have a nasty accident en masse.
True story.
That's a sad story, but it has it's funny side. I mean, a 6 month old and a puppy, can you really blame either of them?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGreat post on Wall shelf ideas! A well-designed wall shelf not only helps organize your space but also enhances your home décor. I recently explored Vibecrafts, and their collection offers stylish, durable, and space-saving designs. Their modern wall shelves are perfect for displaying décor, books, and essentials while adding elegance to any room.