Possible future MCM Article

[Mike Whatshisname]

Here's the scenerio; you have just put the finishing touches on your new model car and you have a bunch of parts left over in the box. Do you:

A) save the extra parts for a future car

Use the extra parts as trunk, interior or engine details on THIS build

C) Use these parts for a future diorama

D) Use the parts, tires, wheels, styrene sprue, clear sprue and chrome for scratchbuilding more detailed parts for this car

and for my diorama.

Please answer this question WITH DETAIL as to what you like to do with the extra parts and even what you do with the box. Credit will be given if the idea is used. Thanks for your help!

[James W]

I always save parts that are unused. The most obscure part might just be the part you are looking for later down the road.

I have my work area lined with organizers, the type you put screws and washers into. I have drawers full of water pumps, distributers, rear axles,mufflers headlights, flathead parts, straight six parts, slant six parts, Mopar parts, bumpers, brakes, manifolds, etc.

The larger parts ,seats, window louvers, truck beds, go into old model boxes. Next to these are boxes full of tires, some held by string into groups of four.

The Boxes that do not get used are folded and stored when possible. Box bottoms are saved occasionally.

If I have duplicates of a kit I am done with, the spare parts go into the unfinished kits. Sprues get cut and parts removed for maximum space efficiency. I often replace kits I am working on with the same kit to save for another day.

Hope this is helpful.

[Clay]

Well I usually throw the tree's away, maybe use some of them for other things. Spare parts get put in a parts box, to use in a diorama that I plan on building when I can stop moving around the country.

[Mike Whatshisname]

Well I usually throw the tree's away, maybe use some of them for other things.

Thanks for the input Clay. Can you be more specific as to what "other things" you might use the sprue for?

[Mike Whatshisname]

Hope this is helpful.

Very helpful James. Thank you. Do you manufacture diorama pieces out of any of the extra parts?

[James W]

Very helpful James. Thank you. Do you manufacture diorama pieces out of any of the extra parts?

I don't really have any dioramas going, always thought I'd do the 'junk yard' thing but haven't yet. I do use parts for 'props' in a pick up bed or set them next to a model at shows on the table.

Our club in Portland did a swap meet 10 years ago. I put some stuff in little cardboard boxes, used radio shack circuit board as peg board to display parts for sale.

That junk yard may happen someday yet.

[Pete J.]

My boxes become a chronology of my builds. I cut the top off and date it and stick it on the wall of my shop. Gives me a running history of my builds. Now this works for me because I generally get two or three builds a year done and I have a large wall.

[Clay]

Thanks for the input Clay. Can you be more specific as to what "other things" you might use the sprue for?

Ok, since I do move about every 2 or 3 years, my models can take a beating in the process, I woul use the sprue to repair axles for say, one od my monster trucks, if the wheel broke off. Just simply drill out the wheel insert and drill out the axle, insert the shaped sprue to either, glue, and there ya go.

And once I do retire or find something alot better for my family, I would like to do something like Georrge did with Smallville. I have parts from scrap builds that didnt go right, to some diorama peices, wheels and tires, engines.

I also keep my instruction sheets in a drawer along with the decals if I dont use them, mainly if someone on here might need them.

[gerry78]

i used to build stock car frames out of the used spruces. back in the old day when dirt track cars were hard to find, and before i found evergreen. most have got thrown out over the years. i used to cut up models and sanded the spruce were i would have half-rounds and glued them behind the seems. i had built a cherry picker out of some almost square spruce and some old air plane wheels. i looks a little rough, but what can you expect from a teenager. it is one of the thinss from my teenagers days that survives.

as for the extra parts i save them for other people that are looking for parts in my local club. they make great junk loads, bodies to test new paint on, extra bodies to cut doors out of to open other kits doors up.

the old boxes are used to store the parts. most of the boxes are sorted and many of the collections i have bought over the years are still unsorted, due to not having the time and room needed for sorting.

hope this helps. gerry

[george 53]

Mike, I gotta agree with James on this one. I too have those little Drawer boxes for most of my extra stuff. One with Chevy stuff, Valve covers,headers,rear ends, built/unbuilt engine blocks,heads, intakes. You get the idea.Got all my engines an parts sorted like this.In the larger units,with bigger drawers I got,like, stock bucket seats, racing buckets in another.Hoods with scoops, seperate scoops,Bench seats,you know, just a way to try to keep track of stuff.Once you get used to it ,it works pretty good.I strip parts off the tree, and put 'em in their respective drawer.I works pretty good for me. I use the long peices of sprue for makin trailer frames an junk like that. If you got some old liquid glue to spare, chop up the sprue into SMALL peices1/8th, 1/4 in. an drop 'em in the liquid glue till it's 1/2 full, let it sit for a coupla days, it'll melt and you can use it as a medium for casting small peices like emblems, door handles, fender ornaments. Smaller stuff you need copies of.If you do it with the red plastic sprues, you can even do taillights.(small ones) Hope this helped.

[Tony T]

Sometimes I throw the leftovers from a build into a ziplock bag, and throw into a parts box-1/8 scale Trans Am box, actually. Some organization, as a couple of model box bottoms are used for tires, wheels, and wheel backs. Box tops usually end up flatttened down and retained in a pile. Instructions go into either the ziplock bag with the spares, or into another model box. Same with any leftover decals. Occasionally, leftovers have been known to be cast directly into the bottom of the parts box.

As for sprue, I made a two-tiered tire rack for my diorama, and have used it in place of styrene stock at times.

[camaroman]

I have a unique way of never having to deal with left over parts......

I NEVER finish a thing, but I am continually plotting my next unfinished project LOL!!!

[torinobradley]

When I get done with a kit, or even when I am working on it and know I am not going to use some of the parts, I will usually bag & tag 'em. Things like complete motors, bed assembly options or multi-piece assemblies go into a box or small ziploc type bag and if they are somewhat ambiguous, are labled. The individual parts are sorted and put away for all kinds of future uses. I can't tell you how many end up in other kits, displays and projects. Many times, used for things they were not originally designed for. Like vice grip pliers as a window crank on a hot rod or beater. I am always looking for new uses for old kit parts.

I have lots of parts stored in various forms.

I was lucky and found a couple of the large termnial boxes at a garage sale from an auto parts store. This is where most of my tires end up. The exception is wheel & tire sets which go into the flat clear parts organizers (like the type for sewing or fishing). The one-off style tires or ones I don't put much value on (like the two piece ugly ones) go into their own box.

I also have several of these flat cases with different, special parts I don't want to store with the rest of them (rod mirrors, special intake setups like the cross boss). I'll take things like the complete extra engines from a kit and put them in little ziplock bags so they stay complete. These usually go into a larger bin/box so I know where they all are, along with the aftermarket stuff. I also have several of the tall parts drawer cases but the main one is pretty empty now thanks to the last cat... I came in one day to see the cabinet laying on the floor and thousands of little parts covering the carpet... I am sure I will be finding parts for the next few years on that one...

I also have the clear shoeboxes full of seats, tires, radiators & firewalls, clear parts, bumpers & body parts, interiors & dashboards, etc...

I keep the 'rebuilders' or old buildups that aren't shelf fodder in larger ziplocks and in a couple of bins/boxes as with a couple of box-less kits I have.

The sprues have been used for so many different things throughout my model building. Tire racks, frames, engine hoists & stands, axles, pushbars, rollbars, exhausts, intake manifolds, etc... Not to mentioned stretched sprues (just used a stretched clear sprue to replicate the glass fuel level indicator on one of my last models). I also use them to fill holes/slots/gaps in bodies, engines and the like. On a kit I am working on (Lindberg 34 Pickup) I heated up a piece of sprue until it was molten and put a plastic blob on the left side of the thunderbird intake manifold. Then I filed it to the correct shape for the water passage on the real motor (the kit motor didn't have this). Because it was molten when it went on, it bonded itself to the kit part and became one with it. I have used drills to turn pulleys and make other similar parts. I have so many sprue trees that I usually just keep unique ones with odd shapes or interesting patterns. I have also used them to hold parts while painting/detailing. I have also seen where someone used a lit sprue to do the smokey flame licks on custom paint. Mind you, this makes a lot of little black floaty things swirling around the room for a while...

Decals go into a couple of old cigar boxes. Instructions and box tops go into a box for someday, when I will put them all over my hobbyroom wall (my hobbyroom right now is covered in shelves and what leftover wall space is take up by a cork board full of little drawings of future ideas...)

Whew, that was a lot to cover and I still have lots of other stuff in boxes all over the hobby room.

Edited February 11, 2009 by torinobradley

[Smart-Resins]

Parts to me are of benefit for many things! First, the sprue is good to use by rubber cementing or gluing with elmers glue to the inside of bodies, or tacking onto other misc parts for painting. You can cut it up and "melt" it down in a half a used bottle of liquid styrene glue to make a plastic filler. You can heat it up and stretch it to make atennas or other kinds of wires, brake lines or whatever you need. You can use the piece where it starte to flare out for plugs and such. You can also use it for roll cages ect. As for the boxes, I use them for storing projects, or keeping my spare parts better organized by breaking them down into interior junk, exterior junk, chassis junk, engine junk, or bodies or chassis ect. I can also use them for making mold boxes out of for my resin casting. As for the left over parts themselves. I have hogged out rims and made new ones to fit other tires by combining htem, used bumpers on other projects. I am always looking for good glue bombs and never know when you will need say a rear end or a front axle and spring, or a different style of seats. I am continually scratchbuilding chassis to use on my parts box builds ect. I am also building a dio, so misc stuff will also be used in it for "clutter" on the benches or up against the walls, or on the shelves. I can take a bad bumper and tarnish at and heat it up and bend it and make it look like a junk bumbper the boys at the shop took off a car. Now for the unwanted items that are too new for me or I have no interest in, they always make good trade fodder eventually! Waist not, want not as I was always told! I hope this was of help. Thanks. Jody

[tuffone20]

slant six parts, Mopar parts.

James, you wouldn't happened to have a spare slant six motor would ya??? I'm going to be needing one down the road some day for a 74' Duster I want to build.

[Mike Whatshisname]

Like vice grip pliers as a window crank on a hot rod or beater.

The sprues have been used for so many different things throughout my model building. Tire racks, frames, engine hoists & stands, axles, pushbars, rollbars, exhausts, intake manifolds, etc... Not to mentioned stretched sprues (just used a stretched clear sprue to replicate the glass fuel level indicator on one of my last models). I also use them to fill holes/slots/gaps in bodies, engines and the like. On a kit I am working on (Lindberg 34 Pickup) I heated up a piece of sprue until it was molten and put a plastic blob on the left side of the thunderbird intake manifold. Then I filed it to the correct shape for the water passage on the real motor (the kit motor didn't have this). Because it was molten when it went on, it bonded itself to the kit part and became one with it. I have used drills to turn pulleys and make other similar parts. I have so many sprue trees that I usually just keep unique ones with odd shapes or interesting patterns. I have also used them to hold parts while painting/detailing.

You can heat it up and stretch it to make atennas or other kinds of wires, brake lines or whatever you need. You can use the piece where it starte to flare out for plugs and such. You can also use it for roll cages ect. misc stuff will also be used in it for "clutter" on the benches or up against the walls, or on the shelves. I can take a bad bumper and tarnish at and heat it up and bend it and make it look like a junk bumbper the boys at the shop took off a car.

Ahhhh. Now these are the kind of ideas I am looking for. How some of the stuff in the bottom of the box is used for things other than it was originally meant forAND can be used in a diorama. Thank you all so much! Any more????

[Ariel]

Ahhhh. Now these are the kind of ideas I am looking for. How some of the stuff in the bottom of the box is used for things other than it was originally meant forAND can be used in a diorama. Thank you all so much! Any more????

What-r-u-dreaming should be your name youwill never get that article on MCM especially not in color

[ffreak]

I have found that certain Revell Nascar kits have a section of sprue that makes a perfect frame for a t bucket or small street rod. It has the correct bends for the rear end housing to mount up to. All that is needed is to trim it and glue the 2 halves together and then your ready to start adding your suspension and engine mounts to it. Perfect to let your imagination run wild with.

Danny

Edited February 20, 2009 by ffreak

[Mike Whatshisname]

What-r-u-dreaming should be your name youwill never get that article on MCM especially not in color

Not only does he call me Mike Whtshisname but my byline says written by "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS". I guess Gregg considers black and white 2 different colors so there you go...it is in color!!!!!!!!

[Ariel]

Not only does he call me Mike Whtshisname but my byline says written by "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS". I guess Gregg considers black and white 2 different colors so there you go...it is in color!!!!!!!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSexy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!