Who collects stuff for scratch building?

Augustus · Post by **Augustus** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:28 am

This is getting ridiculous. I have to get going and organize this collected (yet thoroughly cleaned with soap!) pile before it takes over my house.

Time is running out. I'm not sure how much longer the defences around the "Ye Shall Not Touch These Spare Parts Boxes" area will hold....

It looks grim.

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:44 am

Hurry! Signs start to loose their effectiveness quite rapidly!!

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:46 am

Chacal wrote:
Ti Raven wrote:(where is an umlaut when I need one?)
Here, you can have this one.

Ã¼

I'm not using it right now.

Why, thank you very much! I think I shall.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:24 pm

Augustus wrote:This is getting ridiculous. I have to get going and organize this collected (yet thoroughly cleaned with soap!) pile before it takes over my house.

Time is running out. I'm not sure how much longer the defences around the "Ye Shall Not Touch These Spare Parts Boxes" area will hold....

It looks grim.

Make a few holes in the box and label it:

Do not rattle this box
It upsets the scorpions

That oughta buy you a coupla weeks.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:55 pm

Put them all in a big plastic bin, save some box tops from kits that you have completed, or have bagged, then 'line' the bin with them.

Anyone looking at the bin's contents will only see box top logos, they will think the bin contains a completed, or bagged kits.

To reinforce this idea, use a plastic bin lined with a box top to carry a completed kit to a model show, and happen to show this setup to the people who inspect the hobby area.

Augustus · Post by **Augustus** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:53 pm

Chacal wrote: Make a few holes in the box and label it:

Do not rattle this box
It upsets the scorpions

That oughta buy you a coupla weeks.

ROFL! I gotta try this!

Augustus · Post by **Augustus** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:54 pm

Sparky wrote:Put them all in a big plastic bin, save some box tops from kits that you have completed, or have bagged, then 'line' the bin with them.

Anyone looking at the bin's contents will only see box top logos, they will think the bin contains a completed, or bagged kits.

Sneaky!

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:49 pm

Yes, very!

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:19 pm

I was in the Pound shop today and i saw a "laser straight edge"(When you turn it on, it produces a vertical straight line directly ahead).
It also has two spirit levels on the top.
It only took me about a minute to strip the entire thing apart and remove the lens that produces the vertical line. Then it's a normal Laser.
Also, there is a push-on/push-off switch, and the diode is easy to remove from the main housing.
So basically it's a cheap laser diode, battery compartment, switch and a couple of spirit levels...(And the spirit levels could easily be some sort of canister of green liquid on a model...).
Not bad for Â£1...
Bar.

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:02 am

Score one for The Bar!!!
Cool idea, sir. There may be quite a few folk who keep this
idea in mind for later use.

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:21 am

I certainly cannot confirm that it's safe(That i am going to cannibalise laser equipment to add to a model), but i know it will be cool-looking...

Bar.

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:43 pm

Winn Dixie supermarkets have nice croissant/rolls in a plastic tin with a base of concentric circles

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:43 am

The mini croissant type@ Costco has hex patterns with raised sides.
Each brand prob. has a diff. pattern.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:40 am

I recently found a line of Chinese-made gift bags (just like the ones given out on fancy stores, the kind that folds flat and opens to look like a box with straps as handles). The kicker is that they're made of thin plastic (I suspect polyethylene) with a finely detailed, raised honeycomb pattern, really small, 1.5 to 2mm in diameter, about half mm deep. I bought one (dirt cheap) and intend to pull molds from that pattern. Great for hi-tech tiling on spaceships' hulls.

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:11 pm

The brushes for the Sonicare electric toothbrushes have a cool cap covering the base.
It has a great nose-cone shape with little oval depressions just down from the open tip.
Mine are all promised to Kylwell, but check with your friends/families for access to these little beauties.
http://www.sonicare.com/products/elite/default.asp

david bailey · Post by **david bailey** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:39 am

i collect anything and every thing that might be useful.i go to the good will and buy junk especially toys for my scratch building.i go to the craft store for stuff[micheals,wal mart,i even go to the hardware store for stuff.i m constantly on the look out for stuff. i even go to the flea market for stuff and yard sales.i have several totes full of stuff and then theres my small boxes of stuff.then theres models i buy for kit bashing/scracth building.i some times buy several kits at once for parts.i jioned a local modeling club around here and on ocasions trade with other membars for stuff.you won't believe the stuff i have gotten from other people.i urge all to try this,its away of recycleing stuff.in my area theres several model railroad shops[this is aother place to get stuff as well].

Stewart Rodriguez · Post by **Stewart Rodriguez** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:25 am

I have boxes and boxes of spare part, forms, busted pieces of old models, etc.I am always roaming housewares aisles and hardware stores ,looking for shapes and parts that might convert into the next starship hull or landing pod or Bussard ramjet. At a flea market, I once bought a box full of poorly built TOS Enterprise parts, lots of glue was used and the pylons were busted on one of the E's. I paid 2 bucks for this , in the hopes of using the parts for a couple of kitbashes. In one corner of the box I found a couple of funky, red tail lights that I had thought came from a 1950's car model. Turned out that they were the clear red engine inserts for the Leif Erikson.I had no idea as I only knew of the Glowinthedark version that had no inserts. Now if I could just find those Liefs....

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:54 am

There are a lot of interesting pen designs--and they just keep getting better. There is a type of funnel that looks like a Dalek's eyepiece (grey rubber) be on the lookout for it.

I forgot to tell you that the new Aquapod (bottled water) looks a bit like a dropship.

Joseph C. Brown · Post by **Joseph C. Brown** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:24 pm

publiusr wrote:Try this enclosed cone shape:

www.wrsweeney.com
http://www.wrsweeney.com/mole_gopher_pr ... ct=peanuts

It stands over a foot high.

Great for that VTOVL design with the jets all around it that I can't recall at the moment.

The heck with the VTOVL, I'm using that as a pattern to form forward & aft hull halves for a big XSL-01!

Joseph C. Brown · Post by **Joseph C. Brown** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:10 pm

-bump-

I'll get some pics of the heat-formed sheet cones that were made from this form up on my PictureTrail site after I get back in town.

Although with the holidays coming upon us, surely some party-supply company already has made decent sized cones....

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:59 pm

One corner of my room is just spare parts. A number of battleships, but mostly Gundams that were sold off from K-Mart and Walmart and pulled apart. They have some great designs! Also misc toys that have just 'that' shape.
Just today I bought the V-Wing and Sith Infiltrator toys to be used as parts. Their noses could make great starship bows.
And as you know, that supply just keeps growing...
and growing.........
and growing................
I'm a pat-racker.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:05 am

All I have is boxes

and boxes

of stuff.

Joseph C. Brown · Post by **Joseph C. Brown** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:55 pm

Occasionally, I'll see an Ebay auction that says something like "old broke model box" and check it out. If the picture looks sufficiently interesting, and the price stays low, I'll go for it. It can be a cheap way to get models that are *already* broken and ready for the parts box.

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:24 am

I have collected the LAST disposable camera parts for the year.

Sent a promised box of goodies and my 'Secret Santa' gift off just stuffed with weird... well, stuff.

Yes, I did get zapped again but either it was a light one... or I'm just ...twitch ...getting used to it....

Down to ONE box of greeblies and a few odd toys. That 3-storey disc launcher...wow!

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:42 am

I have seen small, almost perfectly spherical holiday bottles of Coke that look like ornaments.

In the dollar stores there are small spheres containing erasers but they are smaller.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:54 pm

Again: 'Tis the season to be jolly!

Because Christmas ornaments are just so good for that warm greebly feeling inside... Specially now that most new stuff has gobs of LEDs.

Candy also is a good source of nice greeblies. LifeSavers have now a little metal (aluminum?) ball filled with—I dunno, three or four rolls? I've seen other candy packages in "christmas ball" motif.

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:47 pm

They ran out of the Coke Spheres but should have them next year...

The small plastic spheres with erasers were made by the same folks who produce the tiny Finding Nemo figures (that has some sort of partnership with the Beverly Hills Teddy Bear company)

Greenbrier International Inc.
500 Volvo Parkway
Chesapeake, VA 23320

*************************************************************

Wal-Mart's private label Kid Connection toy line has a real find. It is rare you can find any spaceship figures anywhere apart from the Mars Mission Lego craft, but there is one as part of Wal-Marts ultra cheap-o selection on the back wall.

There are some figures, a ground based cannon, and a fantastic winged style spacecraft quite above the usual quality. Transformers are often boxy, as are the power rangers merch--but not the spacecraft here--which has a light-up bow and sound effects.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MISC

--for the audiophiles

http://www.shadowaudio.co.uk/index.php? ... ts_id=1033

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?src ... machinegun

One of the better looking spaceships comes from this film.

http://www.amazon.com/Planetary-Travele ... 856&sr=8-1

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:10 pm

More on the Wal-Mart Private label toy design.

Tjher products can be found here:

http://www.happykidtoy.com/

For those of you with molds, they might be interested in them...

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:01 am

Ti Raven wrote:I have collected the LAST disposable camera parts for the year.

Sent a promised box of goodies and my 'Secret Santa' gift off just stuffed with weird... well, stuff.

Yes, I did get zapped again but either it was a light one... or I'm just ...twitch ...getting used to it....

Down to ONE box of greeblies and a few odd toys. That 3-storey disc launcher...wow!

The 3-story disc launcher now lives with Zog. It really did look like it could
become a carrier. Def. not ST, BSG, or Bucky R.

Joseph C. Brown · Post by **Joseph C. Brown** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:17 am

bump - not ready to see this one die off just yet....

Starship Modeler Discussion Forums

Who collects stuff for scratch building?

Do you collect parts?

i collect stuff too