Hawkeye’s Squawkbox

You know the old saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. That is so true when it comes to left over modeling parts and pieces. My spares stash has been in existence since I first started modeling nearly forty years ago. A recent acquisition was a tote full of sprues filled with parts as well as assorted loose parts and subassemblies.

When you first look in you really don’t know the value, but as you work your way down you find treasure in many forms. Like this sprue of 1:48 B-29 transparencies. You just have to slowly dig your way to the bottom.

When I am feeling a bit under the weather and not in the mood to build, I pull the sprues out and start sorting the parts. I have several of these totes to sort through as well as several smaller ones.

You just grab hold of your sprue cutters and a sprue and start sorting out the parts by category or application. I’ve gotten to the point I need more of these large drawers, they are starting to fill to capacity in many cases. I could probably spend a whole year sorting through all of what I have on hand.

Besides sourcing these from my own projects, I also find them at rummage sales, some have been donated to me (unfinished projects someones kid started or believe it or not…modelers who do not believe in having a “Parts Stash”. Isn’t that breaking a modeling law? If you don’t want them…I’ll take them!

So do yourself a favor now that will pay you dividends later. Get yourself a small set of drawers like the ones you see pictured above and start keeping those unused parts. If you keep them managed well, you’ll have a valuable resource when you need to do a little kit bashing or scratch building for a future project. Besides they make great trade goods when bartering for something you really need on the cheap.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Tips & Techniques. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.