Left over sprues?

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Just curious if there are any pro's to keeping them, I see people selling bundles of them on ebay from time to time. And I'm starting to accumulate a large amount of them recently. Was just curious what do people use them for most of the time? I've just been throwing all mine in the closet and when I get a big stack was gonna figure something to do with it.

[Tichinde]

I've just finished chopping some up to fill the pillars of the Sector Imperialis buildings to allow me to fit some magnets. I have also seen some pics of people that can do amazing things with sprues. the only other thing I would think to use them for would be some ruined/piled steel/iron bars or barricades.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Ya I heard stories of people using them for terrain, if anyone has can you post pics would be cool. Guess I'll just save them til my imagination comes up with a terrain idea lol.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I use bits of sprue for rocks on bases. It works alright, though being bare plastic it can look a little odd on occasion. For the most part, once they're empty, they go in a pile to get trashed later.

[Jukkiz]

You can do alot with sprues.

Some come round, some with wedges, mould gates and such. You can make rebar looking pieces, poking through terrain, iron beams on walkways, catwalks of sorts ETC.

I like to take certain peices and go up / down / up / down couple times while dryfitting them to make industrial bases, be sure to glue them together on flat surface and then to base or your base might warp abit if you would to it on it straight.

checking sprues, you see part numbers that you can sometimes snip and save. These could be used to make signposts or markers around terrain too.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Jukkiz

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Right on, thanks for the tips....think I'll do some of that make bases and terrain unique!

[Jukkiz]

also, tinier sprues, like Space Marine Heroes lines 1&2 seem to be tiny enough for pipework

[Gederas]

Also: You can also make the GLORIOUS Spruecron army if you have enough of them :lol:

[No Foes Remain]

This dude on Imgur made some frames for buildings then just covered the sides with plasticard, which is probably what I will do with them. Good way to make extra terrain with leftovers and cheap plasticard.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Also: You can also make the GLORIOUS Spruecron army if you have enough of them

Such as my Phaeron Spruementekh.

[Ciler]

If you on the other hand decide to discard your leftover sprue, keep in mind they do not go into recycling bins, unfortunately, due to the type of plastic.

[Filkarion]

If you on the other hand decide to discard your leftover sprue, keep in mind they do not go into recycling bins, unfortunately, due to the type of plastic.

Are you sure about that? If so, I have done some damages over the years... but I guess it is different based on the part of the world you live in... I hope...

 

Anyway, sprue can be used as basing materials, as converting material (for filling purpose, or you can easy build skeletons for models to be covered with greenstuff or even better with bits, as you can use plastic glue). They are the same material as your miniatures, so they naturally look the same (Plasticard, for example, sometimes "flashes out" even after paint).

 

They are also great to try things/colors/processes you want to apply to your minis (I have just done so with a tecnique to model "power armur connection ports" without ruining precious miniatures)

 

I had to trash a lots and lots of them in time... Still I have plenty! In a way it's good to make use of them, as they probably are at least the 50% of the plastic we buy...

[Ciler]

 

If you on the other hand decide to discard your leftover sprue, keep in mind they do not go into recycling bins, unfortunately, due to the type of plastic.

Are you sure about that?

 

I have it in an email from GW customer service, unfortunately. That was a few years ago though it may be worth enquiring again.

[battle captain corpus]

Strip the little bits off. These make excellent basing pieces and objective markers etc. Then hack the sprues themselves up into chunks et voila! Instant urban basing kit!

 

BCC

Edited November 22, 2019 by battle captain corpus

[Exilyth]

Well, there are many uses, including:

• Cut up sprue pieces (and sprue chips/dust) is a great filler material for terrain building.
• Smilarly, round sprues can make for piping while rectangular sprue can serve to model all kinds of structural components from buildings
• Many GW sprues have a roughly trapezoid crosscut - removing protruding bits and laying them one up one down next to each other, they can be glued into plates
• Rectangular sprue cut to ~1cm pieces with slightly sloped cuts can serve as gold bars, with straight cuts as bricks
• Four round corners can be combined into a circle.
• Some parts of sprue look like other shapes already, e.g. ladders, window frames, e.t.c.
• Heating some length of the sprue in one place and pulling it apart into opposite directions is an old scale modeler trick to make antennas. Do note that the plastic gives off toxic fumes when heated so ensure proper ventilation and try not to inhale the fume when doing this. Also too much heat can cause the plastic to burn.
• A skeleton made from sprue can serve as a base for sculpting models from scratch

And ofc. using them to create models like the aforementioned spruecrons.

 

 

As for recycling:

As far as I know, most GW plastics are polystyrene. Which bin this belongs into depends on the regulations of your local administration.

For general information about finding out which plastic you're dealing with, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_identification_code and/or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_codes

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Alot of great ideas, thanks all!

[battle captain corpus]

Alot of great ideas, thanks all!

 

Make sure you post up some pics if you can of any wok you get done bud!

 

BCC

[DBadger]

I've heard you can use an antique (fully metal only) meat grinder to churn it into rubble. But only if you find one at a bargain price, as you end up spending more than it would be to just buy a tub of rubble...

[Son of Sacrifice]

I've heard you can use an antique (fully metal only) meat grinder to churn it into rubble. But only if you find one at a bargain price, as you end up spending more than it would be to just buy a tub of rubble...

Is that true? You've got me checking eBay now

[DBadger]

They end up looking like this:

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qieByAwwtg0/T4X8L3O0x1I/AAAAAAAABgU/BmrefGNKVgY/s1600/IMG_0025+-+Copy.JPG

http://bonds-skin-instantly.blogspot.com/2013/08/quick-tip-get-most-out-of-your-plastic.html

 

But I imagine bases would get boring quickly.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Oh that's really cool! I also saw someone on a facebook group for Necromunda terrain using different sprues as the framework for walls which I thought was a really great idea.

[Reyner]

They work pretty well as tiny walls for Titanicus Miniatures too you could chop them up and have tiny dragons teeth or defence works and stuff.

[MegaVolt87]

Best use I have seen is as re-bar/ frames for damaged buildings as extra detail. the 4ok buildings look way more realistic that way. 

[DakkaDysfunction]

I melt small bits of spruce in a tamiya extra thin cement jar that's gotten pretty low on glue. It makes a grey plastic-saturated glue that is great for precisely filling small gaps.

[Subtle Discord]

The old meat grinders easy to find in second-hand shops and the like, and usually come with different plates used to control how coarse the grind is. Get the right plate with larger holes and the bits will come out looking more like shattered brick or cinder blocks. Note that they are usually very robust in how they're build (they simply don't make things like they used to) but naturally putting plastic through them is not what they're intended for. The grinder will likely be up to the task but it will be very hard on it, the person doing the grinding, and whatever you clamp the grinder to. Be sure to attach it to a very secure workbench that you don't mind getting marked up as you clamp it really tightly to keep it secure against the strong torque it'll be dealing with while it grinds the sprew.