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 two 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!
If a redhead works at a bakery, does that make him a gingerbread man?
My main parts box is mostly old models that have fallen on hard times, or are not done very well. I'm soon going to try and convert my old "Red October" Typhoon sub into a Star blazers style EDF space submarine.
I have a smaller box full of old electronic parts and motor. Never know when I'm going to cross into that lighting or moving model genre. Plus its great for weirdo looking greeblies. Though I am worried about capacitors or whatnot leaking or something.
I have another box full of old Zoids - mostly for the cool weapons.
Finally, I have a bitz box with trays for Warhammer/40k/BFG from GW.
I have a pretty good selection of parts from aircraft and armor kits plus a few others for sci fi (including a couple of old Leggs containers). Recently added a few more parts. Picked up a box of 48th SR-71 parts at our club meeting a couple months ago. Person said there were parts missing but had parts from 2 kits. Yeah, I figured I could probably put together 1 plane out of the bits but when I opened the box, the same sprue was missing from both kits (nose section) and there were a couple of extra sprues thrown in (like two kits were packed wrong at the factory, why else would someone take the nose parts from 2 Blackbirds? It isn't like you could make a space ship or... oh, nevermind). I sent Testors a nice long letter to see if I could get at least 1 sprue of the missing parts and some decals (also missing). Yesterday, I got a big box. Opened it and... a whole new unbuilt kit. Now that is some customer service. Especially when it may not have been the companies fault in the first place. Needless to say, I have a bunch of leftover parts (landing gear, cockpits, tails, engines, etc) that I probably won't use.
Hey, anyone interested?
I collect any and everything I can but as others have stated - it must catch my eye. My cohorts think I'm strange because when they show me a model they have an intrest in I look at the boxart upside down. It gives me a different perspective on the shape. One guy has two ME-109 and I'm trying to get a set of the wings from him -it has potential. Keep your eyes open you never know what you'll find.
I stopped by the Dollar Store and looked around not long ago. There was a bird feeder with two clear plastic domes that were shallow. At the movie theater where I saw ROTS--I noticed very small clear half-spheres that are smaller than the usual globes that hold little toys out of machines.
These smaller globes are perfect half-spheres--and just a little wider than the PL 1/1000 nacelle caps. Good for scratch building slightly larger warp nacelles.
As my primary building material is foam, cardstock and chipboard I suppose you could say I have a bunch of stuff on hand. Detail parts are a little trickier. I have to get a lathe and milling machine
Currently doing design work on the Earth Defense Force Hatchet Class Rail Gun Frigate
I got a plastic glue stick (yellow tube) that just fits the clear/blue (nebulizer?) cap that is perfect for Sea Dragon. A spool with the rims cut off serves as the stumpy first stage. (The cap of the first stage is a dead ringer for that blue breather cap (that comes in a cup that blocks a hole some way.
At work I found a rubber adapter that screws into wooden handles. I removed the wood and it makes a great nozzle.
So I have bashed a passable 1/1000 or so scale Sea Dragon.
The slick plastic doesn't take paint well.
It takes me a long time to collect parts and make up my mind on how I want them to fit.
I miss the: I have a few part, but gather more when need arrives.
Mostly I just rebuild one to three kits in something new.
Gives one a two models normaly.
In one of those Carol Wright/ Dr. Leonard catalogs (mainly for older folks) is a meat tenderizer with a plate that retracts on srings like an Orion pusher plate. It might be good for an Orion base--with the spikes trimmed.
Dollar stores have the coolest stuff for bashing. Check out the toy sections and the kitchen/bathroom sections for those cheapo styrene shapes.
If you are lucky to have an American Science and Surplus near you, they also have all sorts of neat gizmos and things like that.
Also try going to those One Hour photo places and see if they are willing to give you all their 'used' disposable cameras. I'd like to credit Larry Strickland aka LDS20 for that disposable camera 'find'.
There are some really cool looking parts in those cameras. Just be extremely careful taking them apart when removing the battery and discharging the flash. That flash packs a serious punch.
I recently moved my parts into banker boxes. It took 5 boxes. In the process I realised that I have more stuff than I coul dever remember having and either need to a: get rid of some of it, or b: organise it.
For now I'm going to try b. See if I can find some of those little store drawers and start storting parts (someh ow, some way).
If you can make open face molds, any part from a pen, or CD Rom drive, or shaving razor can be used. Molding nylon parts that aren't normally useable or are limited in number provides all new depth to the gribbly box.
Organizing that pile of itty bitty parts though is daunting. With that said:
<a href="http://www.planomolding.com/" target="_blank">Plano</a> will send you free, that’s right, free extra dividers for their plastic bins. I got 220 dividers from them in the mail over vacation.
I also get the extra dividers for the <a href="http://www.kc6sye.com/images/images_12_ ... m_rnd2.jpg" target="_blank">ToolShop Storage bins you can never have to many</a>. Locally Menards carries the dividers in stock, otherwise I order a 100 or so when I start to run low, they don't cost much but not having them can through a monkey wrench into the organizing process.
If you can make open face molds, any part from a pen, or CD Rom drive, or shaving razor can be used. Molding nylon parts that aren't normally useable or are limited in number provides all new depth to the gribbly box.
Organizing that pile of itty bitty parts though is daunting. With that said:
<a href="http://www.planomolding.com/" target="_blank">Plano</a> will send you free, that’s right, free extra dividers for their plastic bins. I got 220 dividers from them in the mail over vacation.
I also get the extra dividers for the <a href="http://www.kc6sye.com/images/images_12_ ... m_rnd2.jpg" target="_blank">ToolShop Storage bins you can never have to many</a>. Locally Menards carries the dividers in stock, otherwise I order a 100 or so when I start to run low, they don't cost much but not having them can through a monkey wrench into the organizing process.
Holy frell Spaky, that's so...so...organised. Damn, now I want to do that also.
You didn't click on my tag line link did you? That mess is still there on the table. But the good news is I have another 2 sets of gribbly sheets ready for rubber from that mess. And one of them has a dozen of the thruster bits we figured will look good in the studio scale, "new" viper. The MKII I think it was.
So many plastic bits. I filled five organizer boxes with double their stock dividers, each has around 48 compartments. The better bet would be to put them all in the toolshop bins. They have 50 drawers, and the older ones have 3 usable divisions in them if you have dividers for them all. The newer ones only have one slit for a divider. But the toolshop bins aren't portable. Not that the workshop is all that portable as a hole.
I'll try to get another picture of the shop as it is now. It's a mess but we have a build day Saturday and I need space for 4 living bodies not including me. I also got 2 more hanging bins that aren't hung up anywhere yet.
BTW that link is a picutre of the table top from some time ago, more has shown up since then
Well, what I've found is that if you don't have it organized enough you'll end up with more parts than you can remember. I've gone digging through my boxes and ran across parts for other projects. Which makes me want to do another "Great Lego Project" where I sort and organize my junk parts.
As a BTB, the Great Lego Project II (dis-assembling old Lego kits and re-sorting the Lego colection) took aproximately 2 weeks of sorting.
One thing I have been doing is separating all "even" greeblies, i.e. things that I have two (or four, or six...) in separate bags, one for the things, other for their "pairs", and I staple the two bags together. This way I can easily find greeblies for engines, for example. If I do a two-engine ship, Both engines will have the same detail parts, (actually, I'm scavenging for a four-engine - two pairs of different engines - model) so I take a part from each bag.
Sheer elegance in its simplicity.
Political unrest in dictatorships is rather like a round of rock-paper-scissors: The oposition goes on denouncing the regime on the papers, the regime censors the papers, rock-throwing ensues.
Well, as a fifteen-year old, thus unable to drive, and without a modeling store in walking distance, I have never done much building of models before. However, I have collected small plastic pencaps, stickytack and Micromachines for a while and occasionally I see something that I think would work and, as the site motto says, Just Glue It. However, I have never worked on anything larger than the palm of my hand without adult help, and even those were snap-together. Recently, my Mom got so agrivated about all the stuff lying around that she went out and got me one of those tackle boxes with the folding shelves. Without it, my desk, which functions as a workspace and a place for my laptop would drown in a sea of plastic bits.
Now begin to think about expanding your storage space. You'll need. Eventually.
Sheer elegance in its simplicity.
Political unrest in dictatorships is rather like a round of rock-paper-scissors: The oposition goes on denouncing the regime on the papers, the regime censors the papers, rock-throwing ensues.
A couple more websites: www.popitplug.com
If you call, they will give you a free one--used to cap PVC pipes.
There is a new pen called the BICSmoothie 1.2
This pen looks just like an ENT-E era warp nacelle (even the clicker is inclined like the aft of one) and can also be used for a craft all it's own.
I use a bunch of wood bits from wooden ship model kits, and lots of Evergreen and Plastruct plastic bits. I also comb the aisles of Home Depot looking for assorted odds and ends.
Try looking in the Health and Beauty section of stores like Walmart, Target, K-Mart. Look at the tooth brush holders, pill boxes, and bar soap containers. I've had good luck finding neat styrene shapes there.
" I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail
fast; for I intend to go in harm's way." --John Paul Jones
Oh I was on vacation that week and banished to the attic to finish that project. . .
