What was your worst disaster?

[Dickie255]

I had just sprayed on my first coat of varnish on 140 afghan figures carefully placed on top of a cardboard box which was carefully placed on top of a bucket for that rotational spin to get an even coverage, when the set of draws behind me decided to fall on my back pushing me forward and scattering all the figures on to a grubby garage floor. I hunched there with a vital decision before me  - do I pick up the figures or do I get the set draws off my back? Of course I picked up the figures first with the set of draws balanced on my back

Anyway, my afghan figures have that extra bit of grubbiness, the varnishing has worked fine over the astonish wash and has a nice matt finish

[fred.]

Bloody Hell 

Good show for putting the figures first!

[Maenoferren]

400 15 mm celt infantry 16 chariots, a pile of cavalry and civilians all just been based into filler, girlfriend at the time, wondered what the board on top of the wardrobe was and tilted it to find out 400 infantry, 16 chariots, a whole hoard of cavalry and civilians were raining down arounde her ears and onto the floor, with the filler still damp, and unfortunately they went everywhere, needless to say it was my fault

[lentulus]

... girlfriend at the time...

That could go into a list of "how to recognize keepers (and otherwise)"

[Gandalf]

After spending a lot of time painting figures, I usually apply matt varnish spray to give a bit of protection from handling.  Once or twice the varnsh has gone grey and opaque at the final stage which has produced a bit of swearing on my part.
I found that it's advisable to have some nail varnish remover handy when spraying to slap onto the figures as quickly as possible if anything goes wrong and get the vanish off before it sets.  If you use acrylics, the paint will not be effected so you're figures won't get trashed.  My missus has some handy wipes that I "liberate" occasionaly for this purpose.  I've also noticed that the varnish is more likely to go off if the weather has been wet so I tend to only spray on dry days.

[FierceKitty]

Never varnish with anything but artist's aerosol fixative.

[fred.]

only spray on dry days

I thought you were in Middlesboro'  

[FierceKitty]

I once tried to undercoat an army of 6mm Aztecs (you know, the ones that nobody makes in 10mm). I sprayed 'em with what I thought was sand-covered aerosol. Alas, it was flock! I found myself the proud owner of an army of little Mexican teddy-bears.

[Gandalf]

only spray on dry days

I thought you were in Middlesboro'  

...not Manchester 

[Gandalf]

Never varnish with anything but artist's aerosol fixative.

Thanks. I'll give that a try

[nikharwood]

I found myself the proud owner of an army of little Mexican teddy-bears.

How much do I want to see pics of them??! 

[FierceKitty]

I'm araid a few days of hard work with a toothbrush ended the teddy-bears' picnic.

[Dickie255]

"whole hoard of cavalry and civilians were raining down arounde her ears and onto the floor"

You could say it was raining "celts & dogs" - 

[Eldamarelf]

Once after the other half at the time had finished painting some 28mm Modern ish Figures I was givent eh job of varnishing them using miniature paints varnish unfortunately I had just been using the matt one and picked up what I thought was the same pot turned out I had gone and picked up the Gloss Varnish they looked really poor after that luckilly one of the chaps in the club had a can of Testors dull coat which sorted out the problem.

Another memorable one was watching in horrow as my Cat decided to jump over the settee onto the work table, He missed and knocked over around 500 LOTR figures I was reattaching arms and weapons for weeks after that.

Tom H
aka Bilbo

[FierceKitty]

Once had a Siamese and Burmese game interrupted by a Siamese and a Burmese kitty on the table.