Wasted Sprues

[Cagarner]

Hey all. Im just posting to ask what people do with the sprue runoff channels once all the bitz have been taken off. Do you just throw them away, or has anybody made anything creative with them?

[Inquisitor Rosenadel]

I usually throw them away, but sometimes I cut parts of them and use them for barricades and other random stuff. I used a cylindrical part for a bolter modification.

[experiment 626]

two words mate; "sprue" & "rubble"!

i have a big box of emptied sprues that i'll cut up into rough bitz and then use them for basing my guard army to make it look like they're fighting in a urban hell!
also very handy if you're planning on making terrain! a few piles of sprue rubble can really help to finish off a ruined city.

for those very few and rare 'rounded' sprues, cliping up those can easily be used to convert snipers or standard bearers and such!

the main thing to be carefull of is avoiding the areas of sprue that have the part codes on them!

cheers!

[Heroka Vendile]

well with the new plastic molding tech they have, there will be even less wastage in the future - however, untill then, here's a perfect use for your sprues:

http://uk.games-workshop.com/cityfight/rubble/2/

PS - I find it goes through the mincer better if the pieces still have bits sticking out of them, rather than cutting it down to straight bits of sprue. Also, a course grain gets the best results.

[Cagarner]

Argg! I always cringe when is seen good models used as scenery, like that land raider in the last page. Its like that warhound titan that was used on a table display. Ouch!

[experiment 626]

Originally Posted by Cagarner

Argg! I always cringe when is seen good models used as scenery, like that land raider in the last page. Its like that warhound titan that was used on a table display. Ouch!

auctions my friend! go to the gw store auctions and you can get some good deals on damaged kits and/or kits that are missing a number of parts!

paying 20$ for a partial land raider = great terrain making!

and yes, if you're going to be wanting lots and lots of sprue rubble, get a grinder or similar!
trust me, the blisters you get from manually cutting up the first two dozen sprues are bloody painfull!

cheers!

[Dan296]

LOL
after reading that article a couple of months ago, that idea stuck with me. for previous armies, ive done grassland, desert, and a chaosy landscape. with my latest brain spawn i thought to do an urban basing, and ive been doing the same thing! just cutting up old sprues and putting them on the bases. when im not using some bitz i even stick em on there, like for my dreadnaught i have a disemboweled space marine, and an old banner pole sticking out of a rubble pile. it looks really cool, and its also an ecinomical use (no buying urban basing kit! though they stopped making it...dam!)

[Stubber]

The sprues can be used for roof beams too. Just bend them out of shape and stick them out from under the floor or roof panels where the they meet the point where an earthshaker round landed.

[r4wr89]

lol i recycle them sometimes, but generally i keep my bits on the sprues to prevent my losing them :[ sometimes, however i use the sprues as a sort of stress relief...bending and twisting them repeatedly is always fun..lol


actually yea, i use it as rubble sometimes, i cut it up by hand [i know, stitch, it hurts but i don't have money for a grinder lol] and stick it in a pile of GS. granted, i'm often too lazy to actually get my gs out/cut up so much sprue but oh well :]

woa they stopped making the urban basing kit? WHATTT? didn't that come out...onyl recently ? dang..anyways, i also use some sprue slices as gap filler/angle changer/more surface area for superglue in cramped spots.. :]

-ant

I actually do a sort of 'whittling' effct on them with my knives (I both cut and work leather as well as being a budding swordsman and blacksmith, so my digits are already maimed), to create a sort of chaosy like tree ala the Murder scenery described in the recent Horus Heresy series from Dan Abnett and the rest. This looks really nice. Also, if inventive enough, they make great random spikes to have erupting from spawn models. A friend and I made one using the clwed arm with a tongue for the head, a marine leg and a warped tentacle like leg, as well as the armored looking crabs claw and the huge splayed claw like hand. The body is a grotesque blob of GS with.. you guessed it! Excess spruings that make a lovely little spike covered back and tail!

[Heroka Vendile]

r4wr89:
both the Urban basing kit and the Hero basin kit were produced in limited runs, the Hero basing kit alot more so than the Urban one.

Also, I havn't bought a hand-cranking mincer either, i simply got my Grans ancient one off her, its not like it ever got used anymore - try a junk shop if you can't scrounge one off a relative.

[hairyyahoo]

Well if the sprue is large enough you can stick it to a base of some sort and you get an instant floor plan for a building. all you have to do is build up the walls with foamcore or plasticard. kinda cuts out the complecated design stage of the whole process.

[Dan296]

heh nice Erus.
you just sculpted a big blob of green stuff and stuck bitz in it?
you could also use them as scaffolding, if you have a constuction zone or something, or as a frame of a burnt out building. sticking them in lines along a green stuff base could also make a good linear terrain.
orky vehicles could also use them. primitive extra armor or bracing. things like that.

[experiment 626]

sprues are great for using as building girders/supports as pointed out! to give them that extra bit of realisim, take a pin vice and drill a hole into the top end, then jam a paper clip into it! (obviously, you'll need the superglue here!) once it's dry, just clip off the end and voila! part of a steel re-inforcement rod sticking out!

this is great for using up the elbow's of used paper clips... the natural curve can also help you model the angle of the original blast!

cheers!

[Heroka Vendile]

Originally Posted by Dan296

you could also use them as scaffolding

You have no idea the amount of ideas that one line has caused to be flying around my already jam-packed head.

[fearlessgod]

I cut them up into small pieces. I them add them to my building bases (for my CoD table). They look like fallen bricks. I also add them to the bases of barricades and razor wire. Works for me.


~fearlessgod~

[newpaintbrush]

Generally, I use leftover sprues for little things like markerlights that don't require a lot of detail.

I chopped up a few and used them as the core to build spare legs. Requires Green Stuff application.

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

I have kept every single sprue ive bought for the past three years. now i paint entire army commissions for people, on to pof the crap i buy for myself, so over the years ive accumunlated a lot of sprue.... now if only i could think of something to do with them

Stitch is right, the beast thing (if you dint mind the irregularity in tehs hape) is to cut them down and use them for rubble.

i use the round bits on the corners to externd the legs on my marines before filling them in with GS, and i use shavings to make interesting shapes on my bases.

but, generally, theyre usesless, unless you happen to have an injection moulder, in which case you can just save them and melt them down to use for new sprues. of course not many people have injection moulders

now, the old polystyrene trays were a godsend for buildigns, now we get these crappy plastic trays taht cant be used for anythign other than bitz boxes (which is a good use). but i like polystyrene

[timjonesiddqd]

i cut up my necron green rod spurs and turn them into clear crystals to use on my bases