Its one of those things that we all do in some dark alley, behind the house, in the garage, or any other place we can really get away with it.......
Priming our miniatures. So that is where this story takes place....
So I tend to prime my miniatures on my lower deck. Its one of those locations I can get the rattle can out with a ton of ventilation... (the forest), and I am one level up above the ground. Since most of my modelling is done at night, no one else has to breathe the fumes and by morning its all clear.
Luckily for me I was priming some miniatures just before the sun went down... or I would of been screwed.
So I was spraying 5 miniatures with primer when I got a little too close to the miniature and it flew off my priming tray and fell to the deck. Not usually a big deal, however.... the base snapped off the model and started rolling on its side like coin. You got it, it rolled straight off the deck and down into the forest..... First I checked the miniature... nothing had broken off or been damaged. (very light resin model, but since they were not GW mini's they had an usual lipped base. Just the kind I don't have extras sitting around for.
I looked over the edge to hopefully mark the position of where it fell and headed out around the house to find it.
Now this is where it gets funny. When I came around the corner of the house... this guy had been right where the base had just fallen darted (more like a rocket) straight down the path in the pic above along a fallen log and disappeared into the underbrush.
 |
| not actual pic... he was too fast and was gone |
I paused and looked where I thought the base should of been and then went into the forest to search for the squirrel to see if he possibly dropped it as he was running. I searched, but really its rather dense forest behind my house and I am looking for something a squirrel hopefully dropped as it was running.
See that fallen log back behind the bushes? I spent a good 20-30 minutes looking for that base along what I hoped was the squirrels path when he ran. (some background.... I do quite a bit of backpacking and have had ground squirrels take things before from the campsite).
To make a long story shorter.... I did not find the base along the squirrels trail. Defeated I headed back towards the deck and took a quick look around where the base had fallen..... low and behold.... it was right there.... in the center of a fern that was just outside of the area I had thought it would fall.
 |
| had to push frond aside to uncover the lost base. |
So it ends up the squirrel did not take it, but he for certain was checking it out. Perhaps he even moved it or it went flying when he ran. I will never know. Luckily though he did not run off with it.
It all ends good...... It would of been a pain to have to order a new base just so that the last model would be the same as his 14 buddies.
Stories of modelling are always hilarious.... from lost bases, accidentally clipped parts, to gluing eye lids shut. Ive heard and seen some pretty (and some a little more ugly) stories from putting together miniatures.
Got a good one?... send it in if you are willing to share.... natfka@live.com