Who collects stuff for scratch building?

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Sat May 03, 2008 10:24 pm

While I agree with your sentiments on Dave (Hey, I like the guy having sat through his presentation at Wonderfest), let's please, please, please, please not get this thread closed down in a pro-Dave/anti-Dave battle.

Kenny

Scratchawan Learner · Post by **Scratchawan Learner** » Sun May 04, 2008 3:49 am

There isn't any "Battle" as it were, Lieutenant. My opinions are my own, and only my own. I generally say what I have to say once, and let it go at that. If you care to reread my prior posting, I also said I admire Dave's work. As a Scratchbuilder, David Merriman has few, if any peers. (Just ask Dave, he'll tell you all about it, and in exhaustive detail) I don't hate anyone on this forum, or anyone who builds. Hate is the strongest word possible, for negative emotion. Nope Lt. I don't hate Dave... it's just that I find his superiority complex rather tiresome. It's rather like being in the Service branch of your choice... and serving under an officer, who's a real rectal orifice. You have zero respect for the MAN in the uniform...but still must respect his rank, paygrade, and position as a unit commander, platoon leader, take your pick of any combination of the aforementioned.
Been there, done that, and glad it's over. At any rate, 'nuff about Merriman. I took a waltz (figuratively speaking) down the cosmetics aisle at my local Wally world Supercenter. Jiminy Cricket!!! Maybelline, Loreal, and Covergirl have all been holding out, on Starship Modeler novice builders! Lots of interesting plastic shapes... good for vertical lift fan housings, and other possible thruster/turbine housings. Take a stroll down that section, and tell ME what you see? Most of the shapes in question, are in either clear Styrene plastic, or Clear Acrylic. LOTS of possibilities.
Excelsior, Scratch

Liberator · Post by **Liberator** » Sun May 04, 2008 4:50 am

I'm currently in the process of knocking up a ship out of bits 'n' peices. Part of an old glitter lamp, nozzle off a honey squeeze bottle, CD case, greeblies from my spares box, a Ferro Rocher chocolate container as well as some interesting items from a laboratory that I manage. The lab always has some interesting shapes and devices - mostly disposable plastics that can make some really interesting equipment. The weapons on the ship are made up out of some swabs - as soon as I saw those I thought they would make for interesting weapons. Better still they strip down into a number of interesting parts. Ship still has a long way to go. Gave it a light silver paint to see how it would look.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p42/ ... 14079r.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p42/ ... 14082r.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p42/ ... 014360.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p42/ ... 014365.jpg

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Sun May 04, 2008 4:54 am

Looks good. Sometimes the best ships are the ones you dream up when you see something cool to make them from...
I once did the same thing with a clear Christmas tree globe...
Scratchbuilding can get addictive...
Bar.

Liberator · Post by **Liberator** » Sun May 04, 2008 5:01 am

and that Bar is sweet.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sun May 04, 2008 10:55 am

I've got the front end of an old Sony boombox that will become the back end of a starship if I can ever find some drive nozzles big enough.

1138thx · Post by **1138thx** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:08 pm

How big nozzles do you need ?

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:32 pm

At least 4 inches across @ the mouth. Throat should be no less than 2 inches.

Bar · Post by **Bar** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:44 pm

Sparky has some GIGANTIC nozzles. I forget where he said he got them. They are monsterous...
He sent me one, but it's in a box at the office.
Bar.

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:44 pm

The pieces aren't that big, I think Kywell got one at wonderfest, or in a box of gribblies. . .its 8 lego pegs in diameter. . .

http://www.kc6sye.com/techmages_12_14_07.html

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Tue May 06, 2008 1:15 pm

I've thought about using those as a base and getting a large enough egg to cut down and detail up.

Cygnus_X-1 · Post by **Cygnus_X-1** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:17 pm

Bar wrote:Looks good. Sometimes the best ships are the ones you dream up when you see something cool to make them from...
I once did the same thing with a clear Christmas tree globe...
Scratchbuilding can get addictive...
Bar.

If only the prequels had ships half as good as yours...

Scratchawan Learner · Wed May 07, 2008 10:52 pm

Bar, your globeship is VERY cool looking. Thanks for sharing it with us... This is the kind of ship I love to build... where you just see an object, and voila! Instant inspiration!

Sparky... those engine greeblies of yours... are AWESOME. I'd love to have a few myself! I'd love to know the original part's origin. (Bet there's a cool story behind that one!) I think of about half a dozen uses for those greeblies right off the bat...and if given a bit of time to actually scratchawan my noggin and THINK about it... there's no telling what I'd be coming up with! Um... might I trouble you to cast some of them up? (That is, if the mold is still in decent shape... flash isn't a problem, friend...just dimensional accuracy and no warping... Send me an email with the particulars...and perhaps we can do some business.

Many thanks, Scratch

Scratchawan Learner · Post by **Scratchawan Learner** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:08 am

By the way Liberator... I forgot to mention... VERY nicely done, on your egg hulled ship. I could be wrong, but it appears to be 1/24 or 1/25 scale.
I admire folks who build the larger scales. One of these days I'd like to build a (genuine not recast!) Mike Salzo/Scott Alexander X-wing fighter... and I know that's in 1/24 scale. I'm going to attempt to recreate as closely as possible, a studio scale Y wing.... and am gathering the needed greeblies. When you build on a scale that big... everyone can see everything. Things that are too small to notice in 1/72, pop right on out there in "Studio" scale. *chuckling* hence my usual preference for 1/72 scale! (If I thought more of my modeling skills, I'd probably be okay building larger scale models) However, that was one VERY cool looking gunship. Final note to anyone else checking out egg options.... Hot wheels had a playset in H U G E plastic Easter eggs... one section was blue, and the other was clear. I'm going to buy a couple, and see what I can knock together out of them. See what you started Liberator? Three cheers for creativity!

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Fri May 16, 2008 6:45 pm

I collect stuff (mostly greeblies from all sorts of things), but I also like to collect bigger shapes, like deodorant, shampoo and other kinds of polypropylene/polyethylene bottles. I have a problem with paint/primer sticking to those plastics, and thought of a solution: Bare-metal foil. It adheres to the surface of even 'waxy' plastics and can take a coat of paint/primer rather well (better than the original plastic anyway). If I want to do some flakey/chipped/peeled paint, even better: the undersurface is metallic already.

Scratchawan Learner · Post by **Scratchawan Learner** » Mon May 26, 2008 3:54 am

Chacal had a very nice tip... using Bare Metal Foil on Polyethylene plastic.
I had long wondered what the best way was, of using PET on models.
Due to the 'waxy' nature of this particular plastic... getting paint to stick to it was beyond tough. Also, the only way to get a PET part to stick to another part... was by mechanical fastener, and most often it was some kind of screw, or rivet. Hard to drive accurately, (had to predrill your hole) and then slowly tighten it up. In some applications, mostly structural, screwing or bolting is still strongest way to go. However, for surface applications... I vote for Chacal's Bare Metal Foil tip.

Peace, love, and harmony to you all,
Scratchawan

vettecote · Post by **vettecote** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:38 pm

If I see something that looks cool or could be used for a far advanced civilization, I will throw it in my big 'O' box of future space fairing vehicles...ion

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:03 am

The foil and polyethylen/polypro ideas are great. I've had luck with them lightly sanding, wiping away residue, and then using CA glues. Granted, not the strongest bond in the world, but if you need something non-structural and you can't use a fastener, it works.

Kenny

Ti Raven · Post by **Ti Raven** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:27 am

I am sooo running out of room...

CoMMiES... get ready!

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:52 pm

At the "Everything's a Dollar" store, there are these plastic baby blocks. They're adorned on all sides with raised details and a raised frame forming the sides of the cube. As a bonus, one side pops off. All that needs doing is grinding down the raised detail, taking care to leave the framing forming the "border" around the edges of the cube and you're left with a scale crate.

They're Baby Shower party favors and are in the aisle with all the other party favors.

Kenny

Joseph C. Brown · Post by **Joseph C. Brown** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:28 pm

Minor update: I stickied this thread so that it won't get nailed by the ol' Auto-Delete.

And I think that Hog did a fantastic job of using a couple of old inhalers over on the What If forum's Flying Sorcery Challenge!

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php ... 000.0.html

I *have* to do one of my own; my wife uses the exact same inhalers for her Asthma, and I have dozens of them squirreled away. I'll just use a different Chris Foss paint scheme.

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:12 pm

That is actually quite good.

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:34 pm

Joseph C. Brown wrote:...I *have* to do one of my own; my wife uses the exact same inhalers for her Asthma, and I have dozens of them squirreled away. I'll just use a different Chris Foss paint scheme.

As long as you don't give the poor dear an angora cat or some similar hairy beast so you will get the 'empties' more often...

I myself have to admit that, once, when my wife bought a bottle of shampoo which had a very nice (read greeblous) cap, I started to rinse and repeat—often.

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:18 pm

This might be modified
http://www.amazon.com/MATCHBOX-MEGA-RIG ... B0014412KI

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:51 pm

Too bad it is a bit expensive to buy for shapes, but still, this shower head is jes a wee bit awae from a proper starship, cap'tin.

naoto · Post by **naoto** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:56 pm

publiusr wrote:This might be modified
http://www.amazon.com/MATCHBOX-MEGA-RIG ... B0014412KI

Oddly familar for some reason...
http://www.hlj.com/product/HSGSTX1

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:34 pm

Of course-that is far better, mind you.

Interesting ships here
http://www.hlj.com/product/wrs81006

bigh827 · Post by **bigh827** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:06 pm

Scratchawan Learner wrote:Sparky... those engine greeblies of yours... are AWESOME. I'd love to have a few myself! I'd love to know the original part's origin. (Bet there's a cool story behind that one!)
Many thanks, Scratch

They are the end holders for big rolls of paper. The three foot long rolls they have at work, the the teachers use to cover bulliten boards have those in the ends. A long metal rod goes through the hole and the stand that the paper goes on to hold the rolls in place.

Lord Darth Beavis · Post by **Lord Darth Beavis** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:44 pm

GREEBLIE ALERT!!!

If you have an Interplak rechargeable toothbrush, the protective caps that go over the brushheads look like they'd make great warp nacelle caps. Plus, AFAICT, they are polystyrene, and not PETE or some other kind of useless plastic.

publiusr · Post by **publiusr** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:15 pm

Interesting lobed containers
http://www.jesrestaurantequipment.com/p ... _id=757824
http://www.akitchen.com/store/rapi-kool.html

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