This is directed to all of those that have crawled around looking for the needle part in the carpet haystack.
You can get a model of you searching in vain. This is a figurine / diorama that all can relate to.
13 Likes
Mine is La Brea Carpets.
4 Likes
Interlocking foam pads in a dull dark gray no sprues are ever cast in. No fibers to hide down in, no color to blend into. Also a bit easier to clean various fluids off of as opposed to carpet. You can even lay them over…
…carpet.
3 Likes
Does it come in 1/16 scale? I’d be less likely to lose a part that way 
3 Likes
I have a hard floor but there are other places for parts to hide in.
I lost the front seat for one of Tamiyas Sd.Kfz. 7 after I had painted it.
I searched for a few hours but no luck so I had to scratch build a replacement.
When I had painted the seat I decided to airbrush some other parts but the intake
filter on the compressor was clogged by dust. I had to move the compressor
to reach the filter and that is when I found the friggin seat hiding under the
bottom plate of the compressor …
6 Likes
A few parts lost for me also on wooden floor. Most of them were recovered.
But it would be worse in exterior. Imagine if you lost parts in the grass ! Plus wind or rain !
Modelling is not an exterior activity.
2 Likes
I lost a small PE buckle part the other day on a dark laminate floor. Where did it go? It is really disappointing because the buckle is quite an important piece to show the strapping undone!
1 Like
I have beige carpet in my model room. The acoustics with the hardwood floor were horrendous and echo laden. Playing the stereo during build sessions is essential so this had to change. I custom built the model room from an empty bedroom (got the last of 4 daughters married off) and had the opportunity to finish the room any way I wanted.
I went with carpet for the acoustic reasons. I’ve been modeling for 58 years so I’m well aquatinted with the carpet monster; I also know a small part can bounce feet on a hard surface floor.
If I drop a small piece, I carefully roll back (making sure the piece isn’t under the chair rollers) and do a cursory search of the carpet under the bench. If I can’t find it, I go get my parts finder. This is the vacuum hose with an old nylon stocking (thrown out by SWMBO) rubber banded over the end. I sweep the whole area, and 100% of the time the part immediately turns up, stuck to the surface of the nylon. Works quick and like a dream.
@Terminator I once took a pair of Friul tracks with me camping to do some auxiliary modeling. What could be better than passing the time building tracks? It was a complete disaster - looking for single track links in a bed of pine needles proved impossible. I lost enough links that I had to buy a new set. Never did that again! Modeling inside only!
10 Likes
All you need to add is a nice thick (imitation) carpet! 
2 Likes
Carpets are always hungry for parts, so are hard wood floors. Ive spent an hour + looking for for an ho scale brass screw link coupler, only to find it months later just laying in the open. Frustrating. Cats are part thieves too, so watch them closely.
2 Likes
I suspect small parts “go on vacation” in some parallell universe and then pop right back when I have given up and moved on …
5 Likes
You’re all wasting your time. The part, depending on its mass, pops in and out of existence in this universe. It’s quantum mechanics at work. Just because they disappear from our existence doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. I had parts fall directly below me onto the bench, disappear and then reappear in exactly the same spot the next day. And that’s after looking for the darn thing for a half hour. Literally directly in front of me on the bench. Quantum mechanics doesn’t rule out the existence of the multiverse and us hobbyists can attest to its existence.
12 Likes
4 Likes
While looking for a part on the floor you find one you “lost” three month ago instead. Cracks me up everytime.
5 Likes
Or…you just spent hours scratch-building a duplicate part then you find the “lost” original. 
4 Likes
Being a detail oriented, data driven, analytical type, my wonderful wife says anal, I keep a log of each build. So, on May 24, 2020 I started a new kit on the deck. The front spring of the Trumpeter M1117 leapt out of my tweezers and vanished. The remaining parts went back into the box. On May 5, 2025, my wonderful wife and I were weeding the yard when she says “Is this a model part?” Yep, five years later she found it in the flower bed next to the deck…
Rick
8 Likes
Carpet Monster!!
Had my hobby room floor finished in a light laminate following leak-damage repair.
Nothing gets lost on this floor nowadays
5 Likes
Enter… the Ricochet Monster.
5 Likes