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Just curious... I'm a clumsy SOB and when modeling and converting models I sometimes cut myself or glue fingers together. Well, Friday night was working on a kitbash to make a Tau Heavy Walker (developing rules for it with help of others in the 40k rules forum). Anyway, as I was finishing up one of the Railguns, the xacto knife slipped and took a good sized piece of my left index finger with it. LOL, just wandering if i'm the only one to seriously injure myself for the hobby. I love modeling ang wargames and this will only deter me long enough to heal up, probably a couple months. Anyone else out there with "war" wounds?

Mods: Wasn't sure where to post this so please move as necessary...

Just the other day I was adding a space marine helmet to the base of one of my scourges and wanted a small cut through the visor, it slipped and sliced in to my thumb haha

I can't use the superglue without something being stuck together. Ever. Always happens, and usually in odd spots (like my finger to my biscep).

When I had Nids I was using a glue-gun for the acid blood - and ended up with a nice scald on my right ring finger.

That was a few years ago though.

Sliced off a small piece of my thumb with an x-acto blade. Brand new blade went clean through! Didn't even feel until I looked down at my thumb. My thumb is still now completely round anymore.

When I was building a model T-34, I stabbed myself in the thumb with my Exacto knife. I didn't even notice I had stabbed myself until I looked down at the turret and realized it was covered in blood.

Yeah, with this one I saw the chunk fly through the air before I felt anything. A squirt of blood shot out the artery in the finger and hit my closet door. My wife looked over and said "Oh my God!" to which I replied "Well, I think I need to go to the hospital...". Geez...

My left index finger looks like it's lost a lot of knife fights.

I've super glued my t-shirt to my chest before and ripped it off never been in so much pain.

Seems we all learn by our knives!

I stabbed my hobby knife in to my thumb.. Went in deep and hurt like hell. Still, I should of been more careful and I certainly learned from it!

I've also had super glue in my eye. I always wondered why it warned people that having super glue in your eye is a bad idea. Seriously, who would put glue in their eye?! I didn't know the fumes were just as bad as putting glue in your eye. I blinked and my eye nearly glued shut, then a strong burning sensation in my eye and what felt like plastic on my eye ball. Yes, it hurt, yes, it was annoying, yes it was a S.O.B to get out. Thankfully no damage! Again, I learned from that mistake.

I'll give you a story that gets passed around my shop fairly often...

There was this guy that would use way too much glue, all the time... well, one time he was in the shop and doing some assembly. As usual, he had put a ton of glue on, to the point where it was dripping off onto his shorts. He hit the model with some zip kick and immediately began to scream in pain. Apparently, the glue had soaked through to his nuts and then the glue had been set off by the zip kick...

So... always be careful with zip kick........

I dropped and exacto knife while cleaning a model. It went blade first about half an inch into my thigh. I was both shocked and horrified. I pulled it out and did the only thing I could think of... super glued the cut closed. Continued to build the model.

Wife sat there and just said "you got some stuff going on." To which I smiled and took a sip of my coffee. Which of course, was the wrong cup and drank some of that paint brush cleaning water. 2 in 1 go. But I keep explaining countless numbers of gamers drink from the paint cup all the time by accident its why the paints have to be non toxic.

I regularly drill into my thumb when pinning.

I've done soldering throughout much of undergrad and I've been fine. So I try setting up a really simple LED-lighting system for my Trygon. I accidentally touch the plastic with the solder and subsequently react by grabbing the tip with my finger.

It hurt. A lot.

I use a powerdrill for drilling barrels, which is highly dangerous.

I put that bad boy through my finger all the way through the nail.

Ahh another thread of self induced pain. The horror stories of slicing and dicing and poking and prodding into body parts with a perverted sense of glee.

Well my tale does not involved blood loss or any stitches. So this is my casualty and my tale of woe.

I dropped my Asdrubael Vect model with raider/retinue. It exploded when it hit the ground, scattering dozens of pieces through out the living room. I cursed the demon of Fumble Fingers then prayed to the Angel of Gathering for you know what happens when bits and pieces of model bits scatter out in a cluttered room. You may never see all of the pieces again.

And so every day after work, I go on the great pilgrimage of finding. With tweezers and a flash light in hand I search and go into the darkest corners of reason.

Where the dust bunnies lies

I've accidently cut fingers a few times.

I sliced one of my fingers so bad it severed the primary nerve to the last 1/3 of the finger. The finger was saved but it now has no feeling at the end.

Although its now rather handy for flipping/rolling ribs, dogs, brats, and other BBQ meats without having to mess with tongs. LOL.

Worst i've done is managed to glue fingertips together when the metal model you've been holding together for minutes on end after thorough washing, scrubbing etc. decides to fall apart and slather your fingers with glue.

I dunno whether it's just because my hobby knives are blunt from the get go or whether I just have a really good scaly skin save, but I can drop my knife onto me or slip and have it slice across me and it won't do anything.

I was custom making a stock for a "model" 47 rifle; and got three fingers caught in my wood router :S. I lost the tendon in my middle finger; so now I can't lift the last knuckle perfectly straight no more ((but the ladies love it, flip hand over and its perfect for reach... oh ya there's kids on here...)). The fun part was the month and bit that I had to wear a stupid metal brace that kept my middle finger out ALL the time. Few people inadvertently got the bird that month and bit .


Actually aside from the VERY odd nick and small cut never had any run ins while building any scale models. It's only in the woodshop or on the construction site I tend to get hurt.

I once was using a krazy glue paint on brush and I looked at my watch while the open tube emptied on my chest. i happend to be wearing my 9th grade football jersey so it seeped through the air holes. It was fused with my stomach skin which really fing sucked.

This all puts me off modelling
I thought i was quite clumsy (best example i have, grating my finger while grating cheese.....), but in nearly 3 years of 40k building and modelling, i've never managed to injure myself. Had my fingers stuck together, but not seriously as i normally notice fairly quickly and they just pull apart without any pain.

Next time i use my hobby drill or knife, i'm probably going to cut something off now

I was assembling my stompa and cut myself with my exacto, lost a good deal of blood and passed out, slamming into the ground.

If just assembling the model does that, imagine the effectiveness on the field!

rodgers37 wrote:This all puts me off modelling
I thought i was quite clumsy (best example i have, grating my finger while grating cheese.....),

For some reason that's the only story here that makes me cringe and curl my fingers in. Thanks mate.

cadbren wrote:

rodgers37 wrote:This all puts me off modelling
I thought i was quite clumsy (best example i have, grating my finger while grating cheese.....),

For some reason that's the only story here that makes me cringe and curl my fingers in. Thanks mate.

Me too. There's just something about grating skin that makes me cringe.
It's also how i imagine necron weapons do damage

Most recent one is my drill bit slipping and jabbing into my thumb, bled a little but i got that SOB avatar together

juraigamer wrote:I was assembling my stompa and cut myself with my exacto, lost a good deal of blood and passed out, slamming into the ground.

If just assembling the model does that, imagine the effectiveness on the field!

Oh, it wasn't loss of blood. A unit of Kommandos simply infiltrated your house and attempted to loot your Stompa.

Building myself a copy of the Flare Gun from TF2, cutting the barrel to shape, my arm twitches because of the akward way I'm holding the gun and I end up with the scalpel exacto blade wedged from tip to base in to my left index finger.

Nicked a nerve and now have little to no feeling across half of my finger tip. Had to have a teteness and a set of x-rays to check I hadn't nicked the bone or left any material in the wound.


Just a couple of days ago I sliced my left middle finger from next to the nail, under the nail tip from side to side.

Years ago I glued my fingers together. Also got a splinter from some shavings off one of my old metal models.

I've cut my fingers so many times I've lost count. I wear a leather glove ANYTIME I scrape flashing off a metal model from now on. Those require more pressure to clean. More pressure = more opportunity for a deeper stab/cut.

I also suggest anyone that uses a lot of super glue should invest in de-bonder. You can get it at the hobby lobby stores.

When I was 6 I slipped cutting an army man with my dads Stanley knife (no I wasn't allowed to use it). The knife went into the middle finger on my left hand from the side, cut right down to the bone, then all the way along the finger and out through the middle of my nail, length ways... I didn't feel a thing.

That is probably the worst cut I've ever had. The bleeding was bad enough that it was actually very difficult to control. I remember my grandmother panicking and trying to wrap kitchen paper around my hand to stop the bleeding, but the paper was just becoming saturated with blood faster than she could wrap it around. I must have ended up with half the roll around my hand, and it was still pouring out. In the end I had to go to hospital, and I had to wear this goofy looking finger dressing for ages... Also got busted by my dad for using his tools. :/

Nowadays I'm a little wiser. I only ever apply force to the blade with my fingers, never with my arm. This is usually enough to prevent slips from having enough momentum to slice you. I also tend to connect my hands a lot, so that if one slips then they both slip together, rather than across each other. I think I have a very safe technique, I haven't even come close to cutting myself for quite a lot of years now, and I use the knife a lot, and do a lot of awkward cuts with it.

I had a palm reader give me my money back once. I've done so much damage to my hands between stage pyrotechnics, live steel swordplay, a couple of nasty burns from hot metal and a slew of hobby knife related injuries.

I use a very VERY sharp set of scalpels for my army conversions, and i have put my own blood on as primer on a fair few models