Why Do We Hoard This Stuff?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2022
- This is my lifetime collection of empty plastic sprues from Warhammer, Archon Studio, Conquest, Warlord, Wizkids, Mantic, Wyrd, etc. I've saved them up because one of these days I'm gonna do something really cool with all these!
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This should be a pretty easy one for GW in the UK, every six months they could release a mini for 40k and one for aos that you can get in stores by trading in a certain number of sprues as a loyalty reward/recycling thing. Maybe you would need to keep receipts and the sprues to stop people cheating it.
that'd be pretty cool! 🙂
Or maybe they could start a recycling drive where you turn in X amount of weight on sprue and you get either store credit or some off your next purchase on a rewards card or something.
GW could even take the recycled sprue back and remelt it to make new minis.
Heck, I'd take a: Turn in clean empty sprues in a box no larger than x and you get a thank you. ;) But I actually use a lot of my sprues to make debris, fencing, etc.
@@jordanbeard6687 I used a bunch of mine in tank minis to add weight on the inside.
this sounds nice, but, the major costs of manufacturing are the equipment, not the material. they'd lose money doing this, especially if it needed a new mold that ended up getting low volume of production made out of it. Molds are V E R Y expensive.
I started making models back in the mid 1960's. I'll be 62 in a few months. I used to use the sprues to make all sorts of things. Heating them up with a lighter (yes, it was all I had) you can get them nice and soft, stretch them and turn some sprues into nice, long wires, cables, antennae, trees, posts and building beams.
Sprues are one of those 'waste' products that, in my time of frugality, was a sure source of quickly cobbled together items that added something to the models and dioramas I made 'back in the day.'
Pretty much everything I did with them required heat of some sort. That said, you can use the sprues for all manner of bits for all the things listed above and more. With a nice hot knife (not a hot wire) you can make them into barrels, tires, wheels, logs, tent poles, fence posts, coiled wire, capstans, bogies, crane supports, legs for large stands, etc.
Sprues are usable in many more ways as well, limited only by your imagination. Need a pile of scrap metal parts? Sprues to the rescue! Missing that one bit of oddly shaped equipment in your naval scene? Sprues to the rescue! Need a small bit of plastic to make that properly awesome weapon for the Orc King? Sprues to the rescue!
Love the show, sir.
I love this! this is the kind of inspiration I need. The sprues will not go to waste 🙂
I heat sprue ends and then push it into micromolds of emblems, sm chapter heraldry, bolts, bricks, shell casing, etc. Much faster than rolling a kneadadite just to make a couple of bits
I clip my sprues down to small pieces and store the in large cheese puff containers. When I have some free time I melt them down in an old toaster oven. While it's still hot it's pretty easy to quickly mold it into different shapes, I particularly like making trees because each one turns out different from the last. Just make sure to do it in a well ventilated area and wear a respirator.
I was going to say that the fumes might be pretty nasty.
That's pretty dope
you're right! I need some cheesee puffs! good thinkin :-)
That is a cool solution! And, of course, there are all those cheese puffs beforehand.😁
seriously though, The Miniature Hobbyist uses these melted down all the time in his stuff. He probably would salivate at the shear amount of raw materials you have there.
Oh he was definitely on my mind. If he lived closer I would happily hand these over.
I thought about this exactly! His scratch builds are pretty nice lol. But I can't wait to see what comes out of this mountain of sprues! It's so fun to see what creative things each person comes up with!
I was about to bring up his Tau Manta build!
He just started streaming a new sprue build this week. He's been asking for sprue donations.
This video is like porn to him! LOL!
Brent, I cannot decide if you are a genius, or just evil. (Maybe it is evil genius). When I heard you running your fingers through the chopped up sprues I was struck with an overwhelming desire to go and buy more minis. 😂
there's a lot of power in that tinkling of plastic! 🙂
“That, is the sound of inevitability” 🤣👌
@@GoobertownHobbies I could totally go for a 10 hour ASMR video of tinkling plastic.
Righteousness Genius
He clearly gone mad, just watch the last 30 seconds 😂. He's a mad scientist, genius combo hybrid of some sort.
GW could pre cut their frames, so that the customer only gets the parts and not the frame. This way they can make smaler and lighter boxes and reuse old frames.
but at the same time they would just include enough parts for what it says on the box, 5 figures, no more spare bits. knowing GW greed, they would love it.
That would automatically bump up the price, plus we’d have loads of little baggies holding all the bits to hoard then instead
Theoretically this would be better, but you are asking for more manual or fine labor on their end.
Look at other mass produced injection products. They usually have quite visible nubs still on them.
I'm pretty new to Goobertown, but I love how often I'm left in a mix between thoroughly entertained, but also feeling completely trolled. His hilarious thumbnails are another great example of this. It's very wholesome that Brent always seems to poke fun at himself in the process, being part of our shared hobby/addiction/obsession with all things mini and fantasy.
Bandai actually has a system for sprue collection in Japan for sprues from Gundam models. I think it works pretty well, but it is only confined to Japan, so that makes logistics a lil easier
that's awesome, I didn't know that!!
I gotta give props to Bandai. They have their manufacturing down to an art form.
They've also expanded from only limited releases of Ecopla kits to incorporating recycled material whenever they can. I think they're limited to Gundam Base locations for collecting old sprue though.
Japanese are used to serious waste sorting. Most capital cities collect a different type of rubbish every day. Plastic / glass / aluminium / but able waste.
The Japanese are very used to processing their waste responsibly.
No respirator while blending, you're a madman! "Don't breathe this!"
yeah... but that guy blends lithium batteries for fun hahahaha
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
exactly ;-)
Thanks for binging this up!
There was a blog post somewhere, I cannot find it anymore, in which the author proposed alternatives to recycling.
One of my favorite ones was a proposal to the manufacturers to add texture to the sprues. Like that, suddenly the (mostly) useless piece of plastic that used to keep your miniatures safe can become a wood plank or a riveted beam for the next piece of terrain that you build.
Basically there is a blank canvas for the manufacturers to use that could enrich the hobby but is just being wasted at the moment.
I find the whole element of giving yourself permission to hoard or other things that might not make a heap of sense to others really comforting
Thank you, Brent, for helping me get into this hobby. Your soothing voice and creativity always puts me in a great painting mood.
The downside is that he makes us feel inadequate.
@@MarquisDeSang he may he far and out of my league, buy something about him makes me feel proud of my little creations regardless of others
Have a great weekend 🙂
@@MarquisDeSang I love you just the way you are 🙂
The hobby of collecting sprues, right?
I love that after your blender broke you were "sad, overwhelmed Brent" with your hair hanging down on either side of your face and a big frown. It was funny and theatrical, but it also just perfectly conveyed the hopelessness that I've felt looking at my pile of shame sometimes. I feel you, brother! :)
Don't ever change, sir. Goobertown is one of my favorite channels.
Honestly all the furniture in my hobby space, if not entire home, came from the road. I totally get this.
...holy crap. I thought I was the only one hoarding sprues. 😂 My plan is to create some moulds, turn the sprues into melty plastic and use it to create cheap and cheerful scenery.
I think we need an hour long ASMR compilation of Brent joyously shuffling all the sprue bits
What a joy to have another video from Brent.
Just perfect for some well-deserved minutes of wholesomeness.
have a great day! 🙂
Your kitty seems concerned with your sprue obsession.
yeah... it turned out she was just waiting for her chance to steal a piece and run off with it... :-)
What a gift to us and the hobby you are Mr Brent
Have a great weekend! :-)
I need to do this now. I have a similar box of sprues building up
do it knarb, do it!!! :-)
*Towards the end of the video, Brent playing with the cut up*
Kitty: Dad, what are you doing? Dad, please!
I remember back when Cities of Death for 4th edition 40K came out they had an article on how they made the debris for all their urban boards. They found a manual meat grinder in a charity shop and it ate through sprues like nothing.
i fully expected Brent to fix up and glue the plastic part of the blender motor using the already blended sprue, immediately giving us a moral to the story.
A little JB Weld 2-part epoxy and a screw might have that thing back up and running.
I have a solution for your broken blender. It is a wood chipper/mulcher. Amazon has a boatload of them and some shred down to fairly small pieces. Now I know what to do with my boxes of sprues. Thank you Brent.
6:15 Colored sprues are pretty useful for sprue goo, because it makes it easier to see what you are doing and what might need some cleaning after the sprue goo has dried.
totally! my bottle of sprue goo on my hobby table is gold 🙂
I have been cutting mine up as I go. I then use Acetone to melt into goo for filler and creating other plastic pieces. Usually terrain type pieces.
I would say that Sprue’s are Trees and we should call the excess Melds. I usually call them Racks, but I believe Melds would be an agreeable term.
yes, the melds. we have an excellent collection of melds.
Before this video and the paint bravely podcast episode I had no idea people even saved the leftover, unused model bits - let alone empty sprues! I never really saw the point in saving old bits because you get the same bits every time you buy that kit, and if I am going to change weapon options I'll likely just get another copy of that model so I can have one of each. I just build the model and toss the leftovers out.
oh ya gotta hoard those bits! someday you'll realize that left arm you didn't want back in '17 has the perfect two-bladed axe for a conversion that you're working on!! 🙂
@@GoobertownHobbies now I feel the need to do a conversion of some kind… I’m currently working on an entire chapter of Iron Hands Space Marines (yes, all 10 companies of 100 soldiers each plus vehicles) so guess now is a good time to start saving this stuff.
Hey Brent, you should check out the NPO precoiusplastics. They have solutions for recycling your spruebits.
(Double plug with Crafsman and his injection mold video: th-cam.com/video/uEXQMAM53E8/w-d-xo.html )
And to continue with the Precious Plastics suggestion, I went down that rabbit hole shortly after getting back into miniatures. They have some videos, or affiliated ones, where they hook up their DIY plastic grinding kit to older exercise bikes so you can prep your plastic bits while getting some cardio in.
Brent, you got to educate yourself about the Precious Plastics initiative. Go check Dave Atkens Precious Plastics YT channel. Now!
I would love to see a collaboration with the PP team, have been following them for years. Can easily be converted into panels for terrain building
whoa, this is a great recommendation, thank you!! :-)
I'd think you'd want to keep some of longer lengths. I've used sprue parts for battlefield junk or terrain, and also used them for internal supports of conversions or scratchbuilt things. But if you chop it up like that, and put it in a jar, and pour testors liquid cement over it, it becomes "sprue goo" you can use for filling gaps on models.
Yep, that's certainly an option! I didn't save any long pieces this time, but I'm sure they will enter my collection again before too long 🙂
Hi Brent I just wanted to say thanks you are my favorite lunatic. You make things fun whether it's teaching us the science of paints and glues painting great minis or fishing with space marines. You do it all with a great big silly grin and 2 mad cats. And as a person who suffer from serious depression it's nice to go through some of your old (and new) videos and just have a good time. Thanks again.
hehehe, happy to help, I hope you have a great weekend! :-)
The look on ur face sifting through the spru bits made me laugh. That's worth watching the vid. Funny stuff dude!
Would love to see you craft a sprue monster one day
Yes!
A sprue golem!
ok yeah i commented the same thing but shoulda scrolled down first
A rectangular sprue can be used as a frame for those flimsy fresnel lenses that are designed for magnifying pages but can be used to start fires when camping.
there's a great channel. Miniature Hobbyist, that has some excellent videos making terrain and models out of "sprue goo" ...from simple structures, panels/boxes to entire sculpts.
that being said. I actually find it relaxing to clip the sprues down, I have a large pickle jar that i put all my clipped sprues in. I keep telling myself when I have the space I'm gonna try some terrain building, So it's held in reserve as a raw material.
You could make a giant Smaug diorama, but with grinded sprues in stead of gold.
Polystyrene or HIPS is recycle code 6, in case anyone needed to know. Depending on where you live, disposing in the landfill is sometimes a safer option for single use plastics, because some places simply bundle up recycled plastics to sell them overseas or dispose of them, where they end up in a landfill anyway (or worse, the ocean).
I think it would be pretty cool if GW had a sprue reclamation project in their stores. It may not work well outside england, but they could get a grinder in their factories and reuse them in new miniatures.
yeah it'd be cool to see a pilot program for recycling sprues centered around Nottingham. It wouldn't make much sense outside of england, but it'd still be pretty cool!
The green transparent sprues that come with some Necrons are perfect for making small crystals. Sand them to a quartz-like point and attach then to bases. Some sprues can save a building or a tank. I keep some empty sprues at hand, but not many. They also make perfect rails, pipes and stuff for WH40K.
I made gnarled twisted trees from sprues. I clipped the straight sections off and kept the middle part whole. I hit sections of the straight bits with short (1/2 second) bursts with a small hand-held butane ('Tradeflame') torch. This heats them enough to twist them. I did that every 1/2" or so until each straight section was transformed into a rather organic twisted 'vine'. I then twisted multiple vines together (again heating with the torch) until I had a tree trunk shape (with roots, side branches, etc). Next I took the middle part of the sprue which looks like spreading branches, and did the twisting thing again, but this time posing the 'branches' like the tangled crown of a diseased tree. I attached the crown to the trunk (I melted them together, but you could use glue). I then filled some gaps in the trunk with Sculptamold or Spackle and coated everything with a home-made texture paste made from black gesso and sawdust. This retained the shape of the twisted sprues but helped to soften out the smooth plastic to make it look a lot more organic and gave it a great texture for drybrushing. The result was a gnarled dead tree with a twisted trunk and branches (that you could easily glue foliage to). It took a while to make each tree (and - yes - using a respirator was essential), but was immensely satisfying and the trees looked great!
1) Print a terrain piece on a filament printer without infill or bottom layers where possible. Use a contiguous infill like Gyroid if you need it.
2) Seal the outside of the print with PVA.
3) Turn the piece upside down, like a bowl.
4) Fill voids that need reinforcement with sprue chips.
5) Place the piece upside down in a non-plastic receptacle.
6) Pour acetone in, melting the sprue, but not the printed PLA, and prevented from leaking by the PVA (I don't think acetone dissolves PVA but you're the chemist, not me.)
7) Allow the slurry to set in a well ventilated area.
It allows much faster filament printing.
A secondary use of the slurry would be with scenic molds like those of Woodland Scenics, a much lighter, more durable material than plaster.
Using this as a filler is a good idea! Medieval folks dumped all kinds of crap in the center of their wall construction! ;-)
@@GoobertownHobbies On pieces optimised and split to print in vase mode, this should vastly reduce print times.
Hey Brent, a few years back someone petitioned GW to start taking back their sprues. The petition didn't pick up.
If a few popular youtubers would get together and promote this idea and relative petition then we might go from "no hope" to at least "perhaps".
Half the battle with big corporation is reaching their ears. If enough of their customer base insists for something they are more likely to follow through than if a few do.
Quick idea foe the sprues: I've been keeping mine in the hope of findint a way of melting/softening/pressing it into textured tiles and make my own playing table 👍
Great video Brent, thoughtful and relaxing. Thank you
The trick is to get them back to the factory without using a ton of fuel. A collection point inside Warhammer World itself would be pretty cool.
@@GoobertownHobbies only for the people lucky enough to live near one. Most of the worlds SoL
@@OrionTheAussie Even if it doesn't do you any good, it will be workable for many - in the UK there are lots of GW branded stores (as well as FLGS) that have to be getting restocks in, so taking the sprue away at the same time, as the sprues can't be a greater volume than the original product is a great idea. It effectively costs nothing as the delivery trucks had to be going anyway and the plastic doesn't weigh in enough to really change the fuel consumption of just moving an empty truck.
May never make sense with the shear scale of the USA to ship this stuff widely, even just to a US based mini factory, but lots of Europe and some parts of the USA are densely populated enough that a return trip for the sprue isn't entirely implausible in those regions! And may even start to make economic sense if some of the ideas on taxing more heavily virgin plastics or charging the maker for the plastic produced upfront come in - though it won't work while the fresh petrochemical stuff is still cheap (and even now its spiking very high to its norm its still pretty cheap really)
I love the idea of textured tiles - perhaps the best way it occurs to me to go about it is to just take a dremmel type tool to a fairly thick sheet of steel to create those patterns or CNC if you want really neat crisp detailed tiles. Then just heat the buggery out of it and put some sprues on top, weight down with another steel sheet/back detail sheet - as long as you are careful its going to be safe for you and everyone else. But do your research on every particular plastic stuff before trying any plastic recycling - they don't all behave the same!
@@foldionepapyrus3441 yes might work but be laborious. I was thinking softening of melting them somehow (chemical process, but it is pollutant though) then laying the goo between two sheets of kitchen foil and using a texturized rolling pin
LOL, your cat is thinking "What the heck is going on?" 🤣
yeahhhh those cats normally are pretty confused about what's goin on around here :-)
And here's another video from Brent that you'd never expect anyone would make, yet fits so perfectly into the hobby space! xD
Btw, your videos always inspires me to work on my own videos. Every time. Thank you!
hehehe, I wasn't gonna spend days chopping up sprues and NOT make a video ;-) Thanks for watching, I hope you have a great weekend for hobbying
Hehe! I think you made a good choice in making a video out of it! xD
Thanks, and likewise! :D
It astounds me how much solid wood furniture gets thrown in the trash when the finish gets worn or the wood is scratched/damaged. I rescue a piece now and then but there's so much of it.
The grit and determination to plough through that third box of sprues can only come from someone who has spent many hours in the research lab
I widened the opening on an old shredder that is able to shred old CDs, DVD's, and credit cards. It's probably a lot less safe than previously was.
However, it cuts sprues down into smaller "rubble like" bits fairly quickly. The sprues just need to be cut down to about the diameter of a DVD first. It is rather noisy, so it can't be done while family members are asleep in the house.
The result is decent rubble for terrain pieces. Smaller bits can be dropped into thin model glue to make sprue-goo to use as a gap filler in models. Larger bits sometimes work well as parts for custom vehicles.
I also use some of my sprues to test paint color schemes on, to practice a new painting technique, or as practice with my airbrush.
I have storage under my bed, so I do in fact, sleep on my hoarded sprues like a dragon along with my hoarded bits of plastic and other materials to eventually build terrain out of, "one of these days..."
Gotta say, I didn't expect a "will it blend" video. Nice!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are in that order for a reason. While we really do need a cradle-to-grave closed loop for all our manufactured goods, maybe the best plan is to buy less to begin with or support the used model market. Still, good on you for kick starting a great conversation about what to do with our "waste". There's SO much creativity in the minis community; surely we can come up with a reuse or recycling solution.
I have been missing your videos lately Brent, great video. I have made so much from my old sprues without melting them down, and you really tapped into the psychology of why we keep hold of these seemingly useless pieces of plastic
I make sure to always keep a half dozen old sprues.
After applying your basing compound of choice, lay in some ragged bits of sprue for instant wreckage. Can be painted as wood, steel, or crete. Some of my Nid bases have alien crystals which are just sprue bits carefully cut to appear jagged and faceted. I'll bet the smaller bits your blender produced have a unique texture and could be made to resemble shattered asphalt or broken glass.
Also good if you like to mod. I made a couple custom Tyranid monsters whose thoraxes are held together by sprue. I changed out the tracks on my Taurox for some Hot Wheels monster truck wheels and they were so big I had to build a whole axle/shock assembly out of sprue bits to get them to go on. Looks pretty bad if you pick it up and look at the bottom, but looks badass on the tabletop where most of it is hidden. Buddy of mine went absolutely bonkers modding vehicles for his Orks, we're talking sprue city.
I paint in sub-assemblies, I use sprue bits as paint handles for tiny parts like heads and arms. I also do sprue-goo and use it for rubble on bases.
Broken futons on the side of the road can also be an excellent source of bedbugs.
yeah!! :-)
That pile of small runners pieces inside the box at 3:27 could become a small mountain of rubble and serve as a diorama of a collapse building. Could fit a few miniatures if position correctly.
oh yeah, that's some good rubble right there 🙂
First thing that came to mind was melting them and using a silicone mold to make your own bases. Probably an old toaster oven only used for hobby projects would be best and in a well ventilated area.
The bases would be great for kit- bashing or minis like those from Reaper or WizKids that only have enough space for the figure to stand on.
As I type my brain also goes "I wonder if you could use the larger chocolate silicone molds to make your own plastic plinths?"
I clipped my sprues into even smaller bits and used them on my city ruin bases. the angled shapes add a good variety to sell the effect of rubble.
You're not alone. I've been trying to clip everything to make it manageable. I keep the long straight bits for bricks and crystals when basing, the melt the rest in acetone. The sprue goo is coming in handy for more basing stuff, so I'm excited to see where this goes.
I could listen to Brent talk about the philosophy behind paint drying and he'd hold my attention and interest the entire time.
idk but his voice and cadence makes me feel like im a fever dream, at one point i sat there watching with my mouth open and unfocused eyes
hehehehehehehe
I would strongly suggest cutting off the really long straight pieces (outer perimeter ones) and keeping those for good build material.
I use a really old hand crank meat grinder with the largest screen.
I have also hooked up a drill to the end rather than hand crank.
It makes the cut sprues almost indistinguishable from what they were, I find that oddly a value added result.
It is helpful for rubble to fill in the odd scenery and when droppering-on styrene cement, it is a VERY sturdy rubble pile when done.
I had two contractor black garbage bags full when I started breaking those down, I even sold a few in sandwich bags at the local hobby store (through them).
that is way more sprue than I thought from your mentioning it on Paint Bravely, I have to ask... where are all those models!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?
hehehehehehehehehehehehehhehehehehehhehehehe
Talk about an evil looking [sounding?] laugh 😉
After hearing you and Casey talk about this on the podcast, I was inspired to get rid of my sprues. I clipped off all the bits and tossed the empty sprues. Definitely a good feeling.
I have a little catch tray on my hobby station that catches all my sprue cuttings, so I have a hoard of even those that I use for sprue goo and such 😊 I use my sprues for terrain, paint handles, and even just as bits for when I magnetize models (I had to use a lot to magnetize that new HH Spartan Assault Tank), and it feels great to do so!
I’m a big recycler. And I saw this other dude (I don’t have his TH-cam Handle at hand right now) but he would Smelt the Melds/Sprue’s and make them into New Units
I cut up ABS pipe and dissolve it acetone then coat the bottom of my Royalex canoe with it using a paint brush. The outer layer of PVC gets scraped off the Royalex after years of paddling over rocks exposing the ABS underneath. Coating it with a layer of dissolved ABS pipe has doubled the life of the boat.
Although cutting up plastic is a pain in the butt. We need a plastic grinder that can turn it into powdered plastic or at least small granules.
I remember a GW White Dwarf issue from the 90s: they crushed the sprue bits in a meat grinder to create even smaller pellets for a terrain build
I found recently while cleaning that about 1/4 of my hobby storage space was just old sprues... kept around in case I needed another arm or gun somewhere. It took a lot of effort but I tossed out probably 99% of them. It felt so wrong, but makes sense. Even with a 3d printer and being able to make new pieces if I want a conversion, sprues just feel like a necessary part of the hobby. I almost want to make a shrine and hang some sprues from the ceiling, with a little bitz box on a pedestal.
The return of the menthol cough drops bit! I love it. It IS a bit though right? Those aren’t candy
No, they are not candy. They are for the mature and sophisticated palate. ;-)
Wargame spirit, a shop in France dedicated to wargaming, recycles the sprues into goblets. People can then use them back at home.
Precious plastic do a great system but it's expensive. We made a system for our makerspace ourselves to recycle 3d filament, and it works with sprues. We use a tree branch shredder, panani press, toaster oven and an pneumatic press. We make our own molds etc and are working on use sprues to make display ases using silicone molds.
I use the left over sprues to build terrain pieces, as well as framing for my RC monster truck ramps. Of course you add other parts but works out pretty nicely.
That cat sitting there thinking: "The moment he gets up, I'm gonna get in that tub and lay on those bits....like a furry dragon."
I used to heat my sprues and pull them while soft into long strings, that I could then cut into smaller thin “rods” resembling arrows to be used for base terrain (like if shot into the ground). The ends of the thin “rods” could also be squished flat while soft to resemble fletching.
Great video. I too, at one time, had a massive hoard like this. I still have about a shoebox sized tote full of clipped down sprue for rubble on custom terrain. However, I moved houses about 12 years ago and nothing spurs culling a hoarding habit like a cross country move! I broke my sprue hoarding habit (not my miniature hoarding habit though!). I love your material!
I collect sprues from the local game shop and use them as filler for tabletop structures, terrain, and melt some down with acetone to fill rock molds. Way better to use them than have them end up in a landfill!
As a way to use up old sprues, o use them as antenna for kitbashing/extra detail and I also turn them into sprue goo with my 3/4 empty extra thin cement
I used sprue bits as basing material for my Dark Eldar. Then again, I don't have a LOT of empty sprues, since many of my models were bought used and preassembled.
Cue “I’m going slightly mad” by Queen at the end 😉
One thing I used sprue bits for was basing material. Clip a bunch down to vaguely brick size and voila! Bricks! Did it for my ork kill team bases. They weren't perfect, but nothing the ork and some texture paste couldn't hide lol
Plus I do plan on using them to make terrain and sprue goo, but also had the idea to use them as basically the bones of a model and covering it with something like miliput or green stuff or something similar.
Midwinter Minis has a video about using sprues to make Ork 40K terrain.
Rubbish In and Rubbish Out has a video about using a hand crank meat grinder to chop up old sprues. The insert in his is just the right size to create the perfect rubble for his scenery.
Nearly everyone has seen The Miniature Hobbyist using sprue goo to cast different stuff (I love all those videos).
It wasn't until I saw the above mentioned videos that I started hoarding my old sprues. I'm reading the comments to find new ideas.
So you're telling me that I can make a lego sound machine out of my old Sprue Bits? That is epic, I need that. Finally, I got something useful to do with my sprues.
"It makes me happy. "
No further explanation required, sir.
And Ginger is watching and thinking "Not on my Watch Matey, I need a new bed but not made from that."
It may be a bit of a boreing answer but I'd say the most practical use for sprues (and resin print supports) is to just chip them up and use'm to fill up the insides of hollow models and terrain(spritzed with enough glue or cement so it doesn't all rattle around hopefully) this solves the primary goal of keeping it out of the landfill(well at least for a few decades) for the least amount of work. Really its always gonna be faster to buy something to fill with sprue chips than it is to make the sprue chips into something presentable to fill with sprue chips
Sure it's been suggested. But if you have an old hand crank pasta roller. You might be able to make sheet plastic out of your bits. Make sprue goo. Dump it out on a sheet it can't stick to. And don't let it harden fully. Slice it up to fit in the pasta roller to bring it to the thickness you want. Just an idea. You can pick up one of those rollers easy enough
I hope the boys aren't looking at that tub of sprue bits and thinking "Hey, our human got us a new litterbox!"
I love this video because I had the exact series of thoughts and experiences late February. My melting experiments lead me to believe that you want around 3-5 mm pellets. After the blender I tried a sheet metal nibbler which produces really good plastic pellets but you have to flatten the runners to get them to fit so it is very not any faster. Next I tried making an attachment that would feed the runners in to the blade which eventually worked well but required to much concentration for me to use for extended periods. My next ideas are to try modifying the jigsaw blade to make more of a pinch and shear rather than scrape and saw. I also have an old food processor which I hope to modify.
Keeping the long straight lengths of sprues can be helpful in building stuff. Great for ruins as construction beams and whatnot. After a lot of cleaning up, could be turned into styrene rod... though it's a lot easier to just buy styrene rods, and they're not expensive.
I remember an old issue of White Dwarf recommended using a meat grinder to break down sprues. The issue was from around the time Cities of Death.
I sometimes chop up bits of sprues and use them as chunks of rubble on bases and terrain. Gives it a nice effect!
I've seen long bits of sprue used for terrain and greeblies. Makes me leery to chop everything into tiny chunks or blend them. But I hate throwing them away. We recycled everything growing up and when my roommates threw aluminum cans in the garbage I'd go into twitching fits. Part of me wished I could make my own metal molds for a home injection machine
Also laughing here when you introduced the second half of the hoard! ^^ Thanks for the video.
I clipped down a load and melted them in acetone to make ork terrain. The majority I took with me on a trip to Warhammer World as it's really close by. They put them in the staff bins.
I have a baggy full of chopped up sprue chunks that I use for agitators and sprue glue. I keep my baggy topped up and send the rest to the recycling centre.
My favorite use of sprue bits outside of making sprue goo is inspired by a 52 miniatures video where he uses them to make cobblestone bases.
I sculpt terrain, make silicone molds, melt the polystyrene and recast it into the molds. I have a system that works incredibly well! It holds up really well as long as you don't melt it higher than about 520F. I melt it slowly at 485F and that seems to be the sweet spot. The colored sprues (blue, green, yellow) seem to melt lower and get smokey if you try to melt them too fast or too hot. I'm assuming there is some sort of additive in those plastics to get the color that is causing this.
Mate, you could make a whole goobertown castle with those
that's the spirit! :-)
The blended one can be used like "sand" on bases :)
I've mostly saved sprues to make ruins, because they kinda look like beams in buildings. They can also be used as light-weight support structures, when applying something like modelling paste.
Polystyrene can be distilled into a fuel if you heat it up in an anaerobic still. At some point the heat gets so high the styrene falls apart into basic hydrocarbons. Making it was safer and less toxic.