War is a violent place, and there are a lot of casualties. Wargaming is a sharp, pointy place and has a lot of hilarious casualties. This article is based on comments from dakka's forums, specifically this thread

Learn from the mistakes of others and stay safe!

Blades

I was sawing a sprue with a hobby knife while the sprue was suspending in the air with hand.

I got away with a small cut that was so clean it wouldn't clot for days.

Hour 5 or 6 into cutting and cleaning my Citied of Death sprues, and I buried a new hobby blade into the side of my thumb joint. Didn't clot for two days, ruining any chance of painting for the entire weekend.

My worst was probably during an aggravating session of Planetside. I used to convert and assemble my models right on my computer desk for the distracting convenience factor. Well one day I had just finished assembling a box of boyz for a friend and decided to get my game on. At about hour 2 the frustration of dieing repeatedly to a cloaker made me angry enough to the numeral 9 key. What I didn't realize was that my old x-acto knife, the one with the big red handle and 45 degree blade had rolled right intot he path of my finger as I was slamming to and fro on that number 9 key. Sliced all the way through the pad on my middle finger. And I had to work the next day. In the Aquatics section at my local Petco, not fun!

I remember about ten years ago I was cutting foam with a good sized knife ( I did not yet realize there was such a thing as a foam cutter) and I lost my grip on it. Well, it fell at such an angle that the blade passed through the flesh on my left index finger, almost down to the bone. I found out that a knife passing through tissue makes its own unique sound that is hard to describe. Wasnt all and all a bad cut but it was deep, and I bled all over the carpet.

Okay... I bought a chimera on ebay and the sod had glued the turret down. I would have none of that, so after stripping the model, i grabbed my large retractable carpet knife and slid it out several clicks. I was slowly working the blade under the turret when suddenly it popped off (apparently he only glued the pivot point and a little behind it....).

I managed to literally fillet my left thumb on the inside. I still bear the scar with... what's the opposite of pride again?

My fingers bear many a scar from slipped knives. I even went to the on-campus health clinic once to see if I needed stitches (I didn't). Another time I was cutting something and my knife slipped, down to my leg and cut a neat little hole in my jeans. I didn't even realize it got my leg too until it started bleeding.

Back in highschool, at the height of the fair city mall GW Gorkamorka campaign, I decided I didn't like the upper half of my stock Kopta pilot. The model was originally 2piece, torso and legs. I was trying to x-acto my way back to having 2 pieces. After a few minutes of making zero progress, I got fed up and pressed far too hard. Blade ripped through my thumb, probably straight to bone (I never really stuck around to confirm that bit). Bled like a stuck pig, ran upstairs to the bathroom medicine cabinet and nearly passed out. I was young, stupid, and scared of parental wrath, so instead of fessing up and seeing a doctor for stitches, I cleaned it out with peroxide (that'll make you religious, trust me) and, yep, superglued my thumb closed. I wrapped a piece of clear packing tape around it to hold the mess together.

Let me reiterate, I was borderline brain dead for handling it that way, don't be dumb like me. To this day my gnarliest GW scar runs along the inside of my thumb, from the middle knuckle, through the pad, around, up to, and about 1/8" under the thumbnail. The silver lining was the permanent change to my fingerprint!

One of my worst mini injuries was with the clippers...they really do the job...i had 'em slip while i was workin', and in the split second before i squeezed i saw 'em against my finger tip, and tried to tell my brain not to do,it, but it was too late...half my fingertip was in the clippers...the sound of those clippers will haunt me for the rest of my life...

The pain in my finger didn't bother me too much...i just squeezed it, and walked into the bathrooom, and made some nice designs on the wall when i let go of my finger...wrapped it up, taped it, and went back to the couch...i sat down, and started thinkin' about the sound that the clippers made, and damn near passed out!!!

as an aside, i always end up bloodin' a new blade in my exacto...every damn time!!!

blood for the blood god...

To add to the scars discussion, I have a nice, neat little scar on my right index finger from a couple of years ago. I use a small leatherman multitool for most of my miniatures assembly stuff, and while removing pieces from a sprue to build a tactical squad I quickly picked it up to cut something without realising I had it upside down. The blade, of course, folded back into the handle without stopping to allow my finger to escape. It left me with a neat cut running parallel to my finger about a centimetre and a half long. It was pretty shocking at the time though, I had a big flap of flesh hanging loose and bleeding everywhere.

The worst one that ever happened to me was dropping a new craft knife into my big toe. I slipped while cutting, and it went straight down, point first, but twisted 90 degrees on the way so it ended up sticking right between the two bones of my toe in the joint, it stayed for about half a second, then slowly tipped over, came unstuck and fell out. It didn't clot for ages and walking was agony. The noise it made and the feeling when it stopped in my toe haunts me.

I was sitting at my card table in my room, using the rotary attachment for my Dremel tool, cleaning the parts for a few Sabre Gun Platforms. Phone rings, I jump as it's on vibrate in my pocket. Dremel falls, lands on lap. Dremel proceeds to sand my entire pelvic region.

That was NOT a fun day.

Models

I think the worst I did was while dipping my models in minwax. I was working on dipping my trygon (no easy feat since its huge) and while I was swinging the trygon to get the dip off I hit a box of carnifexes. The carnis were still wet and hit my deck. Being more worried about what crap the carnis would have stuck in them from the dirty deck I set down the trygon on the nearest surface and started picking up/cleaning off the carnis. When I'd finally finished the trygon had dripped minwax onto my mothers wooden gardening table. To this day (2 years later) there's still a snaky outine on the stained wood.

Note to everyone: epoxy putty can stick to tooth enamel.

Ok, I have just gotten a new box of Assault termies. I get out my pliers and start de-spruing them. A 6 yr old cousin asks "Can I help?"

Sure I think, (it is a pair of pliers with a little cutting section in the back near the hinge).

I watch David carefully separate an arm or two, and say "Good work Mate!" -and then go to watch a couple of highlights of the Australia vs India Cricket test match.

After 2 beers and about 40 minutes, my Aunty(who was supervising) calls out.. "Johnno, come and look at all the stuff David has done!"

I walk out, and to my horror, he has carefully cut every piece in half. Chests, Hammers, Legs, and arms are all over the table, with the sprue still attached to each 'piece'.

It was a Jigsaw puzzle that cost me $65.00 Aus.

Who was dumber though?

My husband sent me the link to this thread. "I don't think I've done anything bad enough to warrant mention, thankfully."

This is the man who left his entire army sitting on a table in our living room when he deployed 5 months ago. He'll be gone for another 7 months. We have 4 kids and a dog. Raise your hand if you think this wasn't the pinnacle of stupid.

When I first got into the hobby, I started an army of tyranids (when the 3rd ed hive tyrant just came out). I was living with my parents over the summer between classes and decided to use the pole barn floor (laid down cardboard) to prime my 'Nid horde. The mechanical door is wide enough to fit two vehicles abreast, and my father always parked his pickup on the north side. Naturally, I sprayed my models on the south side that was unused. For some unknown reason, he decided to park on the south side when he returned, and ran over all my minis.

My worst one was caused by goblins, i had just finished building a unit of night goblin spearmen and left them on the floor beside my bed and went too sleep, waking up rather late for college i jumped out of bed and landed straight on a load of speartips, suffice to say i was still late for college as i had to spend the next 30 minutes picking speartips out of myself, oddly the goblins werent damage they must of really hated me

One day I heard my girlfriend scream. She came into the room with an angry look on her face. "I think this is yours..." She handed me a beastman head that she had stepped on. The little horns had poked right into the soft part of her bare foot.

I was hanging out at an unused table at Adepticon '06, talking with some friends. At some point I heard a cry of alarm, and just as I look over a teenage guy had just tripped over an army transport, dumping dozens of plastic space marines all over the floor. They all pretty much fell into the path of his next steps as he tried to regain balance. I can still remember the sound - "crunch...crunch, crunch". It was awful to behold. The owner of the army looked like he was about to vomit.

Terrain

I have a friend who decided it would be a good idea to sculpt large pieces of polystyrene terrain with a belt sander.

In his bedroom.

Schoolboy error.

My worst ever calamity was about 7 years ago, I was building a polystyrene blood bowl arena and had sprayed it black ready for painting. I notice a lump of polystyrene i wasnt happy with and decided as I couldnt be bothered to go fetch a knife I would burn it off with a lighter( I think you can see where this is going). The still wet primer ignited and the whole thing went up in flames, I legged it across the house carrying what can only be described as a fireball and dumped the whole thing in the bath. I had burnt the carpet, my hands and was sans eyebrows for a while.

Paint

I bought a load of Eldar on ebay and left them for a few days in a glass jar of nitro mors.

No probs? I've done this loads of times, unfortunately I left the jar with the top on in direct sunlight and it exploded! The nitro mors which had turned orange from the stripped paint splattered over the upvc window frame and has now stained it bright orange.

My Missus is not impressed.

Spray priming my models too close to our house with the wind in the wrong direction meant that our white UPV door was covered in a fine mist of black spots.... d'oh!

The sadly predictable regular mixing up of my paint water and current beverage. I can say from experience that wine is great for washing your brushes but foundation paints taste like cack!

Another one was where I decided to prime my drop pods outside on the trash can. I set down a box top catch the blue primer, this however didn't help much because it was so windy. I ended up with the entire trash can lid being blue, apart from a few rings where the pods where sitting.

I once dropped a pot of black paint on a white carpet. I dabbed the paint up which just made it a thinner but bigger mess and then decided to try and soak it up with water and a towel. I started adding water to dilute it and had a pond of black ink. the funny thing was it started to sort of work so I figured I just need more water right, so I got a gallon jug and used it. now i have a pond on my moms carpet... low and behold i see the vacuum cleaner sitting there and figure its kind of like a shop vac, right? I proceed to vacuum up the pond and think, wow, thi is actually working... that is until water starts spewing out of the vacuum bag. it made a neat foam like substance and made yet more mess to clean.

the best part... it worked overall. the black paint came up and after things dried everything looked good.

Otherwise, priming models on the railing of the back deck, while I did use a box to hold them and catch paint, I left a black and white pattern on the rails. My wife never goes out doors, but somehow managed to spot that and scolds me about it every time she hears the rattle of spray cans.

About six years ago I’m trying out different stripping agents. I remembered my dad cleaning his fence painting brushes in a coffee can of gasoline. Now, I do consider myself of above average intelligence. I really do. Well, there on the shelf is a gallon of gas for the mower. On the next shelf up… the coffee can I keep there for just such an occasion. It’s December. I won’t be needing the gas for the mower. What the hell. I fill up the can and throw in the next bunch of metal figs. (Not plastic, I wasn’t being that retarded) No lid of course. That would not be very conducive to the idiocy at hand. I grab a bunch of minis, put them on the work bench and start priming, like 200 minis worth. Many, many cans of black primer are used. Okay, remember it’s December? It’s cold outside. My wife is gone so the barely fits one car garage is empty. The doors are closed. I’m wearing my cool little respirator mask so I don’t smell a thing. After finishing priming, an hour or two, I finally notice the haze of black mist in the air and think to myself, “I need to open the door and air this place out before the wife comes home and yells at me.” As if on cue my neighbor, Bill, opens the side door and has his hands cupped up to his mouth lighting a cigarette. WOOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It lasted about half a second. Thank God it was cold and I was wearing a hat and a coat otherwise I’d have gone up like all the oxygen in the garage. Bill stood there at the door… smouldering, staring at the lighter and cigarette held in each hand.

Nobody was hurt but I did have a nice sunburn around my eyes for a while. Like a reverse sunglasses tan. When my wife got home she didn’t ask but the look on her face was telling. She knew. Maybe not exactly what had happened but that if I was involved it had to be good… or dumb. Now when I head out to the garage in our new house, which is an oversized double with a little spray painting booth for minis complete with exhaust fan, she hides my lighter.

We had a power outage while I was painting and I just put down the Termie I was working on and left my worktable without putting the lid on the Shining Gold paint sitting right next to the mini. When the lights came on 1/2 an hour later the cat had knocked the paintpot over and I had a Terminator that looked like he'd spent an assault phase base-to-base with King Midas.

I was painting a scale model of some kind about 6 years ago, and as such was using enamel paint - one of the small, squarish glass Testors jobs. Anyway, it was an old pot and was firmly stuck closed with dried paint. Now, you can run one of those pots under a hot tap for 30 seconds and it will open easily... but who's got that kind of time? So I grabbed a monkey wrench and a slide-adjustable wrench I kept on hand for just such occasions, firmly clamping the monkey around the glass bottle and the other onto the cap. I then torqued the wrenches in the appropriate manner. The lid was stuck on SO tightly, that the glass bottle cracked all the way around into two perfect halves, one in each wrench hand, dumping red everywhere, including the cream carpet.

Glue

I somehow managed to superglue a chaos terminator arm to my face about 7 years ago.

Long time back was building marines or something, and my superglue had glued shut over night. Instead of clearing the barrel with a paperclip or pin like I do now, I instead grabbed the bottle with some pliers and started crushing the thing to try to pop the clog out and get things moving. The blockage popped alright, and since I was squishing the bottle maybe a foot from my face AND had the tip pointed towards me I suddenly had a big gob of glue headed towards me left eye!

Thank god I wear glasses, cause while Lens Crafters cleaned the stuff right off I don't think my poor eyeball would have liked a nice superglue coating!

I have a super-glue horror story, and this is a warning to all of you with contacts: do not wear them while working with super-glue. I was building my blood angels, I used to work in my basement, hunched over a little white desk. If i remember correctly, I started building at around 6 and by the time i was done it was 11pm or so. In five hours I cleaned and glued together an assault squad and two tactical squads, I work slow, I know. I was only 14 or so at the time, and I had just started wearing contacts. It was time for me to go to bed, and this was when I discovered my problem.

Later in life, when I was in college, I discovered what had happened. Apparently Super Glue fumes are an organic solvent, and something that apparently will dissolve plastics. When the fumes evaporate off of the melted plastic, the plastic hardens again. With plastic based contacts this means that your contacts will adhere to your eyes, although amazingly, without any noticeable depreciation of function, however to get them off you need to have them surgically removed. At the age of 14 all I knew is that my contacts were stuck to my eyes, and no matter what I did, I could not get them out. It took a painful surgery where I watched as they cut the contacts off of my eyes, not a pleasant experience.

Demonstrating to a friend how plastic glue "isn't really glue" I swiped some on my hand- which happened to have an open cut. It hurt. A lot. And I looked like an idiot.

The best I've seen was a friend getting a mouth full of super glue after trying to get it open using his teeth (he wasn't real smart if you couldn't already tell).

I was gluing together that extremely awesome SM 'Master of the Fleet' for use, and was a bit tied up at the time, trying to glue a base with one hand, and undo the top of a superglue with the other.

The phone rings - "**** this," I think, and get the phone in one hand, gluing base in the other, then try getting the lid off the glue wih my teeth: not a plan worth carrying out.

Yanking, yanking, I was. Then, the top kind of... explodes. Superglue all over my face and mouth, antique table, modelling equipment, phone, and some of the carpet and walls close to where I was working.

Obscene words rush through my mind, and a run to the kitchen, pulling fragments of the plastic glue casing off my cheeks, while with the other hand, washing myself off. I realise that after I'd washed myself, cleared up the still-wet things on the walls, and carpet, and pulled everything off my face, I have a huge chunk of plastic superglued to my hand.

Me being 12 at the time, I tried PULLING IT OFF. Not a plan to make your list of no.1 awesome plans. Oh, yeah.

Skin grafts later (trust me, not something you like), I learn my lesson.

NEVER TRY MULTI TASKING INVOLVING SUPERGLUE: CONSEQUENCES MAY BE PAINFUL and/or EMBARRASSING!

The most stupid thing I've ever seen was a kid at my local GW superglueing his head to a table. He'd done something else stupid, not exactly brain of britain this one, was being laughed at for it, made the "d'oh" action of banging his head on the table, straight into some spilt superglue. I've never laughed so hard.

I pass out occasionally for several minutes. (doctors haven't yet discerned why, I think its the fumes) and my forehead managed to land squarely on the unit of Night Goblin spearmen I had been assembling from the Battle for Skull pass set....

Needless to say those gobbos are solid little buggers....