Who collects stuff for scratch building?

Go Flight · Post by **Go Flight** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:54 pm

Ok, this question was asked in another thread and I thought it should be in its own. Who collects stuff for scratchbuilding? What are you hoarding? Or do you pick up stuff as the need arises? Lets hear.

I used to be one that gather parts as I needed them. Often a PITA as I could never find exactly what I needed. But now I have a small parts of parts and "stuff."

macfrank · Post by **macfrank** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:38 pm

I save old kit sprues and unused parts, and builtups that I'm tired of looking at (or will just never get finished) get recycled into the parts box. Interesting plastic shapes get saved, too. The clear plastic containers for Testors airbursh heads are favorites. I'll probably make resin copies.

One of the best source of kits that I bought was a series of Science Fiction kits put out by a Czech company called Andromeda. John Lester has a builtup of one of the kits. The kits were actually leftover sprues from a 1/150 scale kit of a Soviet Tarantul missile launching ship that had been cleverly kitted to make spaceships. I bought them just for the wealth of parts - I wish I'd bought more.

Frank

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:40 pm

I tend to buy small cheap tank and artillery kits when i'm in model stores specifically for scratching, although i have a lot of kits lying around waiting to be made, and they're all fodder for a good scratchbuild if the parts look right.
I even keep old sprue, in case it ever becomes the "right part" for something.
Bar.

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:36 am

I've developed the tendancy to look at almost everything I come across in terms of 'what might this be/become'. I covered a lot of the list on the other thread, but what I didn't cover was - Why.

I don't collect just odd junk. It has to have an interesting shape. Or be small. I'm working on one professional project where I need 1/12th scale water tanks of a certain shape. For the water surface, I will probably use clear blue fake credit cards one company keeps sending me. Free, easy to store, neat.

I have lots of fine wire in many colors, mainly 'cause I build microelectronical gadgets using 'wire wrap'. A friend keeps trying to give me chunks of odd telephone cable, which I don't really want. The difference? The wire on the spools is a known quantity, uniform, ready to go, with no surprises. The chunks of odd wire... aren't. Maybe if I need handfulls of odd wire just for 'stuffing' a volume with 'spaghetti' but otherwise no.

I just pickled up a bunch of watch gears at a 'scrapbooking' store. And some watch crystals. Why? The gears stack to make intersting shapes - like the gears in a 1/24 car transmission or bits inside a Nautilus. The watch crystals have beome some windows in another project - bevelled glass ones.

I don't really collect 'junk'. But I do look for interesting shapes. Like bits of old lamps from the town dump - 'lathed' shapes in CGI terms. Some will go into models. Some into the 1:1 lawn scupltures I sometimes make.

Criteria? Does it look cool? Does it fire my imagination? Is it storable, and not perishable? Is it clean, or cleanable? Can it be glued, cut, stapled, screwed, or pop riveted?

And, is it cool?

(And yes, I'm a batchelor.)

MODEL ON!

woozle · Post by **woozle** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:42 am

vacuformed plastic packaging from almost anything, and the caps off shaving lotion cans are my favorites.

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:18 am

I bought this two-piece ornament in an art store recently.
I didn't know why, i just did.
I had an idea yesterday for an entry in the star wars competition, and was looking for a cockpit. I started some roughing out with blu-tack to get an idea and Here it is.
Trust me, if i can get this thing looking as good in 3d as it looks on my sketch pad, Everone will love it. This is just the stepping-stone idea, not the final design. There will be an entire ship around this. Hopefully i'll get some done tonight.
It pays to keep your eyes open.
Bar.

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:49 am

Measuring cups.

No, really!

I found some sets of hemispherical ones at a discount store in nice sizes for $2, and some cylindrical ones for $1. Nice solid plastic, ABS or Styrene.

They'll go well with the batch of various plastic wine glasses and cups (think "Commando Cody" ship).

Woody · Post by **Woody** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:54 pm

I don't have a big box of parts but many boxes and several cabinets full. That's not including my scronged 1/8th inch styrene and plexiglass from work.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:42 pm

I collect huge piles of stuff! My latest craze is to buy cheap (ish) kits off ebay, just for the purpose of breaking them down into my parts box. Tanks, planes, ships you name it.

if I'm building something particular, then I will try to track down the correct parts/kit bits that I'm going to need - this is when it gets expensive...

CB2001 · Post by **CB2001** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:48 pm

I've collected a few soda bottle caps, some plastic centers from rolls of register tapes and I have a few parts (including the trees that hold them)from models that I didn't need the parts for.

Andrew C. · Post by **Andrew C.** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:51 am

I stock up and buy a few cheap kits every month for gutting.

seam-filler · Post by **seam-filler** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:54 am

Waste not want not.

I have parts in my 'treasure chest' older than my 25 year-old son. All unused parts always get dumped in there - no matter how useless they may appear to be.

woozle · Post by **woozle** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:00 am

seam-filler wrote:Waste not want not.

I have parts in my 'treasure chest' older than my 25 year-old son. All unused parts always get dumped in there - no matter how useless they may appear to be.

I had boxes and boxes of stuff, that the ex wife helped me think I had outgrown.. my 2nd wife understands not to touch the new boxes and kits.

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:39 pm

I have mountains of stuff for kitbashing.

And almost all of my model tools are in a mechanics toolcase.

This means i can take my hobby wherever i go(And i'm fortunate to have a job where i have the luxury of modelmaking while i'm there

).

The problem comes when sometimes, I have a project on the bench where i don't think i'm at the stage i need greeblies yet(And so I don't take my greeblie box).

I did this today and so i was left with an almost inexhaustable supply of styene(sheets and shapes), but no greeblies(And a real need for the greeblie detail to be done right away).
I'm afraid i had to improvise(i have very little patience when i'm "in the modelling zone"):
1. 2. 3.(Click images to enlarge)
How did i do?
I wonder if i shouldn't have waited.

Bar.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 5:15 pm

Woozle wrote:
seam-filler wrote:Waste not want not.

I have parts in my 'treasure chest' older than my 25 year-old son. All unused parts always get dumped in there - no matter how useless they may appear to be.
I had boxes and boxes of stuff, that the ex wife helped me think I had outgrown.. my 2nd wife understands not to touch the new boxes and kits.

The 2nd is usually so much better than the 1st... Maybe 'cause we look for someone WITHOUT whatever miffed us 'bout the 1st.

en'til Zog · Post by **en'til Zog** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:55 am

w33bar, that looks COOL! Greeblies are just ONE way to go. Your model is just fine the way it is.

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:12 am

I don't know...................
I'll see if there's room for some tank axles

Bar.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 9:11 pm

I myself divide my hoard in two "genres": "Big stuff" and "Small stuff".

Big stuff: things that may become "important" parts, like engine nozzles, tanks, hulls, main guns etc. Usually bottles, caps, parts of printers, christmas ornaments, PVC pipe fixtures...

Small stuff: (separated in baggies according to size, material and shape) greeblies. The divisions I keep are: size â€“ from itty bitty (~1-3mm) to largish (several cm); material â€“ plastic, steel, aluminum, brass etc.; shape â€“Â long cylindrical, short cylindrical, disc-shaped (really short cylindrical), squarish, weird...

All in all, I must have thousands of parts (of course, most are the "Small" variety, specially "itty bitty" ones.

Some samples of "Small stuff" here and here

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:36 pm

Now that looks like the contents of my greeblie box!!

Warped Speedster · Post by **Warped Speedster** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:04 am

I guess I'm at the point where I don't know where all my greeblies are anymore. I try to keep them in little clear boxes and then keep those inside organizer drawers. Now I've got parts drawers >behind< parts drawers.

It doesn't do too much good to label them because most are miscellaneous parts. I do have a few parts boxes marked as "priority one" though, and always sitting out on the bench.

I probably get most of my stuff from the same places other modelers get theirs.

Mostly lotsa model railroad stuff.

Car parts.

Some aircraft and armor.

Surprizingly, not too much from Scifi kits.

Lotsa stuff from drugstores and kitchen supply stores.

Lotsa stuff from craft stores and thrift stores.

Some watch parts.

All kinds of candy containers. (Gotta eat a lotta candy though)

Almost any plastic container is usefull.

I never throw away a vitamin bottle, especially if it's the hard plastic kind. And their caps are handy to mix paint in, or to temporarily set parts in.

It's too bad that a lot of items that used to be made of a hard plastic are now made of a "rubbery" type of plastic. (Like the new Easter eggs, yuck) The new plastic is pretty useless for scratchbuilding as far as I'm concerned. So all the good hard plastic stuff that I bought in the past is a lot more precious to me now.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Tue May 03, 2005 10:44 pm

This was already in another thread, but every Easter, you can get various sizes of paraboloids and hemispheres in the form of plastic Easter eggs. Tomorrow I start my first scratchbuild. It will be of a near-future space probe, and the project was inspired by the Easter egg paraboloid.

Kekker · Post by **Kekker** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:54 am

I've got the box a Canon printer came in just chock full of old parts. All leftovers from kits where there were spare parts, extra weapons, etc. I also save all the wee photoetch bits from detail sets, and he resin extras, too.

In addition, I have gotten a couple of things just for detailing. The refinery piping sets for HO trains are a great source of nifty detail stuff. I also got an injected detail set for some train car that has some cool-looking detail-y bits.

Kev
(Now to find ways to use them...)

General Mayhem · Post by **General Mayhem** » Thu May 19, 2005 4:50 pm

Some think I am the Fred Sanford of model making world...

Johnnycrash · Post by **Johnnycrash** » Thu May 19, 2005 5:35 pm

General Mayhem wrote:Some think I am the Fred Sanford of model making world...

A grouchy old black guy who builds models?? I don't get it??

If you want bash-fodder, buy the built junk lots on ebay. A quick way of getting some good stuff. And there is always that little gem in the middle of it all.

And they are usually cheap, becuase it's "junk". Sure it is.

General Mayhem · Post by **General Mayhem** » Thu May 19, 2005 9:08 pm

johnnycrash wrote:
General Mayhem wrote:Some think I am the Fred Sanford of model making world...
A grouchy old black guy who builds models?? I don't get it??

If you want bash-fodder, buy the built junk lots on ebay. A quick way of getting some good stuff. And there is always that little gem in the middle of it all.

And they are usually cheap, becuase it's "junk". Sure it is.

Oh Elizabeth, I'm comin to join ya honey...right after I rip apart this broken printer for parts!!!

Johnnycrash · Post by **Johnnycrash** » Thu May 19, 2005 9:20 pm

General Mayhem wrote:Oh Elizabeth, I'm comin to join ya honey...right after I rip apart this broken printer for parts!!!

Damn!! Didn't see that coming!!

Just watched an ep yesterday!!

But it is a good analogy. A box full of "junk" that others see as just that, junk. Or worse, garbage.

Have you ever had a part inspire a built?? As compared to finding parts to match your build??

TimeScape · Post by **TimeScape** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:09 am

I have three rubbermaid containers.....no make that 4 full of parts etc. The first three are sorted by model car parts (first 2) and aircraft parts. The third is just odds and ends that I've picked up over the last few years. Just a few weeks ago, I took apart an old watch. Talk about getting "geared" up....

General Mayhem · Post by **General Mayhem** » Fri May 20, 2005 8:12 am

LOL

Well I am currently building a prop star wars type blaster I thought up from a piece of pvc pipe. Not quite the same as a stormtrooper blaster, but similar.

Once I finish that, I will go back to the other plethora of 1/2 finished projects I have...

Bomech1 · Post by **Bomech1** » Tue May 24, 2005 10:42 am

I am always on the look out for stuff. discount stores, garage sales, stuff on the street, anything. my freinds think i'm lost. they show me a kit and laugh when i turn the box art upside down and look at it for what they dodn't know. look at things in the mirror also - it gives a whole new view of what your looking at.

Peace above all.

MillenniumFalsehood · Post by **MillenniumFalsehood** » Sat May 28, 2005 3:28 pm

I have a rubbermaid box and a set of large drawers chock full of parts, styrene scraps and sheets, unfinished models, etc., etc., etc.,...

I am currently trying to expand my collection so I can build the twon most greeblie-infested Star Wars models: the Star Destroyer and the Millennium Falcon. I could use the various "Guts on the outside" kits to do the sidewalls of both models, but I have this thing about doing it myself and watching the ship evolve rather than just happen. My middle name is "Don Quixote"

I now know that being a packrat is a sure-fire symptom of the Acute Advanced Modeller's Syndrom!

Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Who collects stuff for scratch building?

Do you collect parts?

Who collects stuff for scratch building?

collecting parts for scratch build