Wanting to help as many people as I can, I thought I would bring my tutorial from Second Sphere over here. The only purchase necessary is plastic glue, and a pair of clippers if you think its necessary, because this will involve a lot of cutting. I must warn you to be careful, this process can produce flying shrapnel in the form of tiny plastic bits. Other than that, I think this a great way to use up sprue that you have lying around, it will give you some use out of all that sprue you purchased, and less sprue being thrown away means less pollution and trash! Everyone wins!

Now, if you're really going for a high-quality set of scenery that your willing to invest a lot of money/time/materials into, this isn't for you, but if all you want is some simple scenery for a gaming table at home(like me), or your just looking for something interesting to build(I find this is a great thing to do when I get tired of painting lots of models), this is perfect! Here's the link, since I'm not willing to put this up for a third time :
http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,769.0.html

I hope you all enjoy this tutorial, and get some use out of it!

I did. Thanks a bunch man.

GW dosn't win you don't have to buy it from them


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also great tut

Some of those look great!

It does however assume the Imperium still uses timber stud walls with lathe and plaster.

very nice indee. i´m currently saving up sprues to come up one da with such clever ideas for their use as well. thanks for the tut.

cheers mate, vik

Nice! Would look awesome fully painted

I love the out of the box creative thinking! Looks like you make good use of the plastic clips as well. hahahahah

Bumped because its a great way to make custom stuff on the cheap.

you should turn this into an article

MiloticMaster wrote:you should turn this into an article

I will do that soon, then.

Thanks
ive got tons of sprus now i know what to do with them all!

cool stuff

yea really, thank you i had hundreds of sprus and i was going to bin them then this morning i started on building a city, done some baricades so far will post WIP pics

I'll pop some of my WIP stuff as well if you like. I'm toying with the idea of creating a modular trench system with my excess sprues now. Thanks OP for the tutorial.

Yea, im going to do a Battle report with my finished city when its done

I like it, good shanty-town feel to it

very make shifty

Thanks everyone! I would love to see what you guys have done.

Nice! Turn this into an article so it doesn't disappear. Any player could use this. It looks pretty good, especially how you can put it together meticulously and fill in the cracks to make imperial defense lines; leave out the filler for hastily constructed defense lines, or haphazardly put it together for something suitably orky!

Perkustin wrote:t does however assume the Imperium still uses timber stud walls with lathe and plaster.

Its called Flakboard for a reason.

@ MiloticMaster

So have I begun some scenery, making one "frame" barricade today. How about I make a blog for everyones creative sprue-ery efforts?

A few wip shots.

I think I'll add some more tissue paper to create more of a mound, then I'm trying out a new trick I picked up of Terrainoob's which is to collect your old tea bags dry them out and use the leaves as a free flock. Anyway looking forward to seeing other peoples stuff too. Oh and if you got any pointers let me know. This is my first piece of terrain outside of a tea towel and some books

The blog is created in the painting and modeling forum. Feel free to keep the creativity flowing here and if you want to post there as well please do!

Now i have a use for all those sprues I have been holding on to!! I was thinking of making terrain, but i guess i needed this for inspiration! now i Definitely know what to do with them!

Wow. I didn't know that this could be done so well. I might have to make an ork fort!

THat would be a sight to see! Actually, I think this could be a very good idea on how to use this article.

I've always used sprue as "part of" something, like railings on a building or scrap leaning against a wall. Never thought about building an entire "something" from it. I'll take a look at what I have and maybe contribute more back to this thread.

Some really good I ideas being put forward here. As this is the tute section though probably best if we move any wip shots and finished models over to the sister thread. Link below

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/329472.page

O.O I just threw away three boxes full of these *weep*

I've made simple fences before but these are awesome, I knew I kept a load pf spruces in my scenery box for a reason

Wow, I'm surprised at how successful this has been so far, I'm pretty impressed at what other people have done so far. I guess I should really get working on more stuff to show off.

Awesome to see your going to continue building Runer! My wall section is 1/2 complete at the moment.

Pretty cool, but it seems like it uses up a ton of glue

I've found strategicly placed dabs will do the trick.

Ive made a few little brick walls by cutting them into small brick shapes and glueing together a wall. My blood angel jump marine happens to be stood on a small section of wall i made with em. Only problem ive got is they do look too much like sprue bits to make a convincing wall haha

I hope you're happy Runer, I spent a good five minutes today staring at a old crumbling wall on my way to work. Just trying to figure out if I could make it look convincing with sprue. Then I spent the rest of the day going through which colours I could use on it in my head.

Curse you!

nice tutorial! as you can see, I tried it out, and it worked out pretty well!





I planning to make them for skaven, but since I don't have skaven (yet), I used a red moon goblin to show ho big (or small) it is. (still needs to be painted)

height: 3 cm
length: 4cm

I'll post some more pictures soon!

The next section of terrain is done, I had some suggestions to add a weight to the end but I think I'm going to make aq proper check point later. Anyway here it is.

And again the two terrain pieces together.

That looks nice too! I just finished two more fences, same size. I'm planning to make 7 more, so you can make on big line, or a circle, and a lot more options! Thumbs up for empty sprues!

I'd had a few ideas for mine but I like the fence line image I saw up above. This is a goldmine. And my first thought with them was, this was part of the cost, I'm gonna figure something to do with them out. I was considering a building husk, make it look as if they are the remains of old stud work or supports for a building that was long ago totally burned up and the frame is all that remains.

Now I have some more cool ideas.

i've used my sprus to make anything from weapons to chassis for ork warbuggys

These are some really awesome, cheap and creative ideas! But it seems like it would take up too much glue...

lol that second piece of terrain looks like a horse jump

I was thinking It could be made to look like the Nazi checkpoint in Indianna Jones and the last crusade.

Ok it might look like a horse jump but its still free .

D: Oh how many sprues I have cleaned and tossed over the years... At least I saved my other bitz. I will start to keep these in a drawer somewhere. Maybe I could stretch some kind of cloth or plastic wrap over frames to make a primitive village or something. It does make epic urban terrain though, as you have shown. Back to the Manufactorum for me!

I just finished up with a landspeeder and just quickly chopped all the sprue up into the straight lengths. i'm eventually going to put together some barricades but its much easier to store them as lengths rather than the whole thing.

Awesome idea, I currently regret throwing out 30 Necron Warriors worth of sprues now.
Will DEFINATELY keep them from now on and make a whole lot of walls and junk out of them

definately a useful technique!

Brilliant stuff if you are a gamer on a budget. I only use very small amounts of sprue on my terrain because if I use too much I just can't get over how much it looks like...... well sprues.

This is a brilliant idea! So many wasted sprues lol.

love it. it would be BRILLIANT for orks or lotr players

It looks like it works for more primative terrain, but I wouldn't want to use much of except for making baricades.

Thanks for posting this. I have been saving everything and not throwing nothing away. I didn't know what I could use it for, but I have seen great ideas here, and will try them out.

Thanks again for posting.

Noooooooo

I just threw out all my old sprues about 15 minutes ago!!!!!!!!!!

go get them out of the bin!

rofl

Nice. I've heard tell of people grinding up spue to make city rubble. Anyone ever heard of that?

FIRST let me say i am not belittling this thread or making insults , but i DO find it surprizing that this is being seen as such a new thing . i was using sprues to make necromunda terrain and gorka morka forts when those games first came out . i stopped because i didnt have to tools to make the bases the way i wanted out of plasticard .so it went on my back burner , pushed further back by my getting out of GW games .

i got a table top band saw a couple months ago , and am catching up on some other projects , and want to get a couple more tools , but i have since changed my material of choice for base making to PVC FOAM BOARD as detailed in this thread : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/332736.page

while i havent played WH40K since third ed first came out when i dropped it because 20,000 of my 60,000 points of painted chaos was no longer in my army list , and so i got out of the game , i still build the figs from time to time to ebay , or for my friends , so i still colloect sprueing . as such i have a small bin of sprue that i have cut into straight beams , and all the smaller seemingly unusable bits i have chopped up with my pewter snips into small rubble i can use when i FINALY get the sprue projects back on the front burner .

all that said , i do like the OP's projects , post some pics when you finally get them all painted and such

Wow. I'm a newbie and this sprue recycling thing is actually.. Mindblowing. Before this I was cutting them up to make 2d-ish stick figures. Thanks for sharing, mate!

No problem, always love to help!

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I wish i'd seen this earlier, i just threw out a stack of sprues a few weeks ago and now im kicking myself

Brilliant idea though

This is a great way to reuse sprue. I have tried it some, but I found it super tedious. Its tough making the sections all the right length and sanding them flat and such. Each board was taking me several minutes :( I will keep on it, cause I have more time than money right now

I have made a few junky ork bits out of sprue so far, I'm not sure what else it could really suit.. but it is perfect for that.


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Sersi wrote:Nice. I've heard tell of people grinding up spue to make city rubble. Anyone ever heard of that?

Shaved bits are good for 'metal filings left on the ground' when painted up I think..

That would look great for orks!

WAY COOL.

I always keep my sprue, but I've never had a really constructive use for it. Thanks a ton for the inspiration

Always glad to help.

I only my sprues for bits not whole walls and buildings. I have to check my supply I know I threw some out.

Here is something I just did with my piles of sprue laying around... after a while they got really annoying to work with, so I added popsicle sticks which I have in much more abundance.

Wow I really have to try some of these things.
So much sprue piling up when I could have had some more terrain. =P

Its a pain to work with... you have to clip everything, and then shave it down with whatever unless you want it to look really bad.

I would only do it in the future again as a last resort.

The Bringer wrote:Its a pain to work with... you have to clip everything, and then shave it down with whatever unless you want it to look really bad.

I would only do it in the future again as a last resort.

I can imagine it's a bit tricky but if your feeling creative frugal and happen to have the time I think it can be worthwhile

I have 4 Shopping bags full of sprues... I was going to melt them down, scent them, and turn them into candles(not really), now you gave me something to do with these things!

I wish someone could have shown this to me like, 3 years ago. All the terrain i would have now.....Oh well, thanks a bunch!

Man, and to think I just threw a bunch of empty sprues out yesterday. Thanks for the idea; it's definitely thinking outside the box and the next time I have enough I'll break out the tools and make something.

No really... I wouldn't suggest doing this. I find that using popsicle stick is much easier and much more convenient.

The only way I would suggest this is if you have no money...

For trees, I sometimes use the dried stems from grapes. The fat ends are great as is for a spiny effect or if you have foliage, you can cover the ends and it makes nice realistic trees. If you do not have foliage, you can also use the spent or cracked bird seed and glue them in clumps to the ends as well for a fall look to the trees. The bird seeds are also good for a gravel surface look as is or spray paint it grey and weather it with a wash for effect as well.

Sprue can be used in a few ways, not sure if any of these have been mentioned:

1) you can make cheap effective tank traps with sprue, use 3 pieces prop them against east other and glue. (I can take a photo to shou you if you like)

2) spare sprue also does well on bases shaped with an exacto knife to make crystals or spreads of metal. (again I have examples of these) I have seen people use them for objective markers and orkish barricades.

3) use sprue to give frames to doors and windows when making ruined buildings

4) Im sure I've seen of the web someone make a ladder for scenary aswell.

The Bringer wrote:No really... I wouldn't suggest doing this. I find that using popsicle stick is much easier and much more convenient.

The only way I would suggest this is if you have no money...

Or if your just too cheap. I have to sorta agree, it is a pain to work with, but I'm not willing to throw all that plastic away, so I'm sticking with sprue. Also, I'd imagine something with multiple levels made of popsicle sticks would crack under the weight of metal models, if you had enough(rangers, dark reapers, pathfinders, a few 40k squads you would want at range and in cover). Plus a good fall could damage it more than it would plasic sprue. I don't know, just my thoughts.


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Mighty Simo wrote:Sprue can be used in a few ways, not sure if any of these have been mentioned:

1) you can make cheap effective tank traps with sprue, use 3 pieces prop them against east other and glue. (I can take a photo to shou you if you like)

2) spare sprue also does well on bases shaped with an exacto knife to make crystals or spreads of metal. (again I have examples of these) I have seen people use them for objective markers and orkish barricades.

3) use sprue to give frames to doors and windows when making ruined buildings

4) Im sure I've seen of the web someone make a ladder for scenary aswell.

1. I've done some of those myself, pretty nice random terrain pieces.

2. The objective markers and barricades have already been mentioned, but the base things sounds awesome if you do them right.

3. Interesting idea.

4. ladders are really easy and simple, but very effective.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to this thread. I took this large display base I had for some WWE/NECA Street Fighter figs and flipped the huge bases over then flocked them with sand and bits to make a little arena going for our game.

The inspiration from this thread has allowed me to add a rickety fence to go around the base (to keep out spectators and such), the fence is still a WIP, but I have got some other sprues and make a boardwalk of them, also to go around the mini arenas. I'll have to get my camera set up for pics, but I owe it all to this thread. Thank you

You dont even need a frame, if you dont mind taking your time.

Because the lengths of sprue are angled, you can do neat stuff with them.

You can create planks by alternating the direction:
/_\ \_/ /_\ and this gets you straight lines.
/_\ /_\ /_\ when glued together gives you curves, you simply add one going in the other direction to resome going straight, or begin curving in the other direction. Some planks can be kept the same lengths to create panels, or you can make it random jumbled mess. They do not even have to be flush, they can randomly stuck out at all angles, and this looks like an incredibly orky wall.

poda_t wrote:You dont even need a frame, if you dont mind taking your time.

Because the lengths of sprue are angled, you can do neat stuff with them.

You can create planks by alternating the direction:
/_\ \_/ /_\ and this gets you straight lines.
/_\ /_\ /_\ when glued together gives you curves, you simply add one going in the other direction to resome going straight, or begin curving in the other direction. Some planks can be kept the same lengths to create panels, or you can make it random jumbled mess. They do not even have to be flush, they can randomly stuck out at all angles, and this looks like an incredibly orky wall.

True, and ive tried that, but its just pretty messy if you dont do it exactly right. Plus with the other lengths coming out of the outide ones and such, the sides of some make it really awkward unless you perfectly file all of them down.

This is SOOOO COOL! I'm going to try this now.

real nice one

This is a really nice idea. I've already made 2 low walls, and I'm planning on making a full building out of it too. I'll post pictures too.

Mighty Simo wrote:Sprue can be used in a few ways, not sure if any of these have been mentioned:

1) you can make cheap effective tank traps with sprue, use 3 pieces prop them against east other and glue. (I can take a photo to shou you if you like)

Pics?

I still have some bunkers I built using the sprues from the original RT plastic beakie boxes. Talk about PITA try trimming ROUND sprues!

I'm fairly sure the only reason I kept them was because of the ungodly amount of time I put into clipping\trimming.

Found this little gem while searching online. It's not my blog.

At first I thought it was some toy the poster found. Upon closer inspection, the "Mycetic Tombs" are actually made from a combination of plasticard, those vent thingys on the side of the monolith, and sprues! While I doubt anyone else would make "Mycetic Tombs", the way he used sprues could be excellent for texturing the interiors of Necron tombs.

http://musingsofametalmind.blogspot.com/2010/09/tyracron-update-mycetic-tombs.html

This is a really great way to recycle and since sprues cannot be recycled in a more traditional way... This is great.

Thats truly excellent. Ill never throw away a sprue again!

DAMN YOU!!!!!! about 4 hours ago when i was clearing out my 40k area i threw out a 3500 ork army worth of sprue.......not im going to have to go in the recycling box to get them all back. Still legend for posting the link, some of that will look awsome with my orks, cant belive i never thought to make scenery with sprues lol.

Wait, you mean people actually throw away sprue? what madness is this?


(Why yes, I am an ork player. What's that? Oh, yeah, I'm scratchbuilding everything... why?)

Crap i just threw out like 10 of these things last night lol....

Spidey0804 wrote:Crap i just threw out like 10 of these things last night lol....

Why?!?! Why do you torture yourself????

Really, if you threw it out, you are missing only pain, torment, and anguish!

I agree with the Bringer. I built one wall, and called it a day. I have a cardboard box ruin, and a paper mache hill. Both of the those combined were easier and faster than this stupid technique.

you have a right to voice your opinion , and you have . but once was enough to make it clear you dont like it .

so rather than trolling this thread since you dont like this method so much , which seems to be the view of the MINORITY of poster on this thread , move on with your lives and let other people try it for themselves and see if they like it or not .

as it is , IF YOU REALLLLLLLLLLLY DONT LIKE this idea , you are defeating your own purposes by complaining about it since you just bump it up in the listings , which while i am all for , seems kinda rude on your parts to do it by complaining multiple times and trying to discourage others from even TRYING something new . unless thats youur whole point is to bump it up so more people can read it , which i am all for .

i have been in the minis gameing for about 20 years , and i was doing this kind of building back when gorka morks JUST came out . the only thing that surprized me is that so many people seem to have not heard of it or tried it untill this thread was started . as it is i have a mini tote bin about 9X12X18 inches of sprues i have cut down to straight legths , and a container of sprue parts i have clipped into rubble bits , so its all ready to go when i get the time to do some more terrain with it .

Really fun to do. Thanks for the knowledge Oh, the pictures a little fuzzy but if you look close I glued a Storm Bolter ftw
still have to paint though

Gona giv dis a go!

Love the tutorial, already made some fences that look great =D
Really good idea considering you pretty much are bound to have all the supplies when you buy models. (amazed more people didn't think of it really).

Where were you like 11 years ago, just to think of all the sweet things i could have made, anyway sweet tut. no more wasting for this old boy!

Man, I feel really stupid for throwing away all those sprues! Well, now I know what to do with them.
This actually reminds me of this guy who made a Necron army completely out of leftover sprue.

I laready mentioned this somewhere earlier that there is also a better way of doing the same thing. When I stop being lazy I will get on it and show y'all what im getting at.

My chaos playing friend always just melted it down slightly to create tentacles chaos spawn for free.

jadebullet wrote:My chaos playing friend always just melted it down slightly to create tentacles chaos spawn for free.

That's awesome! What exactly did he melt it with? Just a candle or something?

Perkustin wrote:Some of those look great!

It does however assume the Imperium still uses timber stud walls with lathe and plaster.

They still use cavalry

This thread is made of win.

S**T - careful... One might suffer from Perils of the Inspiration!

What I love about this is anyone can do it.

If you’re lazy then you don't even have to file the sprues after cutting and people should have the glue anyway if they have made the models on the sprue in the first place. I agree with some of the things people have said in that wooden stirrers are better at x, y and z and this is better for that but this is a real possibility for all. If personally fin stirrers hard to use if I'm trying to make a corner and o find there uses limited.

Stirrers (or cardboard, putty or even foam board for that matter) over the sprues is my preferred method as I get the strength and stability of the glued sprue and the creative potential of my imagination.

A great and simple idea that should be shared round the hobby so that terrain and scenery is not so daunting or financially costly anymore!

Im going to have to dig mine out the bin now

I promised there was a better way of doing this, and I am delivering.

The key thing to do, is to spend that extra time shaving everything off of the terrain pieces. All of the studs and things that stick out so that you have straight panels that can lie flush. Why? You can glue multiple 'logs' together, and smooth it out to have a perfectly straight surface. After it sets, you run over it with sandpaper and smooth it down to a flat panel. The effort required for this is extensive, but you can feel good about not wasting anything, junking environment, etc.

Using the fact that each piece is curved to your advantage, you can either alternate curvature to get straight walls, or place them all facing the same way to get curves. If its orky, then twist it around back and forth: see the left spike wall and its randomness, eventhough I could have made it even orkier. The thing to remember in this instance though, is to vary the widths of the spars, and keep it random.

If you want something that looks awesome and regular; after you shaved it smooth, grab your saw. Run the teeth of the saw along ALL FOUR sides--you wont know in the end which side you will want to use--and score the 'logs' now they look like wood, and when glued together with care, they look VERY good. Obviously, use plastic glue for this, and plastic glue only. Super-glue is great for getting things done, but you need those couple minutes of gentle tweaking to get the right surface.



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One more thing: not all of the sprues are well-suited for doing this, because some, like the new IG Tank sprues, are just looooaaaaaadddeeeedd with stuff on the frame, which makes for alot of cutting. The SM tank sprues however have gorgeous lengths of un-tarnished spar.

Surprisingly effective my friend, nice work.

I have just today built a load of ork scenery from sprue and an old dvd case inspired by this thread, im just waiting on the spray paint drying beofre i paint it up n post it on here, but heres what it looks liek without detail and colour.

I like that a lot. Looks like it was made by an Ork! ( I mean that as a compliment )

thanks dude, it looks better now i have finished, well apart from the ork gunner lol.

Its some what interchangeable as well, i tried to make it so when i make more scenery i can mix n match it all.

Nice i allways saved the sprues but bro tought i was crazy but i knew it could come in handy and the AoBR sprues are reallly long also you can make some PK for orks horray for sprues!

Ok, this is cool but i use sprues for different things. those 'knobs' that you cut off, save them and they can be used for rivets on larger apoc ork vehicles, they can also be used as decoration on buildings if you line them up in rows, i recently built a paperhammer drop pod and used the knobs on the doors so that the doors wouldn't just smack full onto the table when opened, they didn't sit quite right, and the knobs evened it out so that the doors were even and flat when opened. The the longer sprues themselves can be shaved with the edge of an exacto blade to create a rod of plastic (warning: this creates a static filled shaving that will get all over the place, keep a good vacuum cleaner handy), this then can be clipped, warmed and bent and turned into axles, roll bars, flagpoles, banner poles, gun barrels, anything that you need a round piece of plastic for. Finally for those pieces that are not long enough to use but are too long to use for basing scenery, you can glue them to the insides of whatever your building as a brace, it gives you something more that you can glue to and it can be placed in out of the way areas where it is not readily seen, plus if you really wanted to you could make it look like it actually belongs there. IE, all you'd have to do is shave it down along one edge, then take a round file and file it lengthwise, then glue into place as instant crown moulding along the ceiling of a building, sandwich them between two pieces of large flat plastic, let them stick out a bit, hack them up along the tip slightly, bend them, and viola you have busted beams on a ruined building. the uses are endless if you just stop and think about it for a bit.

Here's my sprue made Ork watch tower:

Looks cool mate! Well done!!! I can't wait to get stuck into making lots of orky scenery once i get the my ork project up to speed!!!

I threw this together over the last couple days, it took a while but it turned out great, I tried getting a wood effect from Popsicle sticks but they are just too big to look like 2x4s at this scale.







By the way, I like that ork tower, I will have to give that a go.

Fantastic.

I must try this.

Digging around on the web, I found this article: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20556

Not sure if it's been posted, as ti seemed easy enough to find, but in light of the Orky-works, it's quite appropriate.

I will attempt it later tonight and if It works I'll post WIP pics of subsequent claws I make

Runer60000 wrote:Wanting to help as many people as I can, I thought I would bring my tutorial from Second Sphere over here. The only purchase necessary is plastic glue, and a pair of clippers if you think its necessary, because this will involve a lot of cutting. I must warn you to be careful, this process can produce flying shrapnel in the form of tiny plastic bits. Other than that, I think this a great way to use up sprue that you have lying around, it will give you some use out of all that sprue you purchased, and less sprue being thrown away means less pollution and trash! Everyone wins!

Now, if you're really going for a high-quality set of scenery that your willing to invest a lot of money/time/materials into, this isn't for you, but if all you want is some simple scenery for a gaming table at home(like me), or your just looking for something interesting to build(I find this is a great thing to do when I get tired of painting lots of models), this is perfect! Here's the link, since I'm not willing to put this up for a third time :
http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,769.0.html

I hope you all enjoy this tutorial, and get some use out of it!

i make tank traps or barricades

@yournamehere: Very nice!

This is an awesome idea and I must now go out and buy something so I have sprues to use!

Joe! respect man thatsso awesome and gorkamorka looking cheers mate

This is actually far better than building my stuff out of strips of foamboard. Why couldn't I have found this sooner???

The only suggestion I might have for using the old sprues is to shred them and use them as rubble. Easiest way to do this is to find an old crank style meat grind and put the sprues through it.

Didn't read most of this thread, but you could use them as the frame of your building only and then possibly using plasticard to avoid the log-cabin look?

GoldenKaos 2011/02/21 22:22:36 Subject: Tired of Throwing Away all Those Piles of Sprue? Turn it into Very Cheap, Yet Effective Scenery!

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Didn't read most of this thread, but you could use them as the frame of your building only and then possibly using plasticard to avoid the log-cabin look?

That..... actually seems like a really good idea... Some have suggested plastering it with putty filler, but plasticard is thin enough and easy enough to work with to make this happen....

I just found an enormous stack of sprue! hurray!

you'd be surprised at what you can recycle if you just stop and look at things in a different light, for instance:

i built an Ork fort out of old styrofoam, foam board, sprues, cardstock from cereal boxes, and spice bottles, and cardboard.

A number ten can of coffee, some sprues, and some plasticard or foam board, can be used to make a quonset hut type machine shop,
http://www.agr.state.il.us/spacerental/facility/images/misc/quonset.jpg

and canned veggies can be used to make quonset hut barracks.
http://learnsustainable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/quonset-hut.jpg

twist ties like the ones you get in boxes for garbage bags can be wrapped together and made into trees or just about anything, zip strips can be used for moulding on buildings, the plastic crap that stores put items into nowadays can be turned into weird alien buildings, windows, cockpits, lakes and ponds, etc, etc.

all you need is an imagination and a different perspective when looking at stuff, and you'll be surprised at what your mind can come up with.

edited for typos

I know my Gargant is made of an insta-milkshake cup, sprue, half-dome tops of veggie containers, and a whole heap of chopstick.

Nice, I'm so glad I saved all those sprues. Thanx awesome tut.

I really like that!! And I've got so much sprue lying around!!

Aw man, I find this just days after I throw all my scrap sprue in the recycling bin! However, anymore sprue I get, I am most definatly going to hang onto until I have enough to build something! Brilliant. =)

*runs back to trash can* time to screw GW

very nice tread mate, I used spure bits every once and a while but I'd never thought of anything like this. This will GREATLY improve the feel of our games. Goodbye megablocks and video game cases


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I've never been so happy digging through the recyclables I just built a land raider, khorne berserkes, a hive tyrant, and genestealers.

Now I'm going to build some ruins, low walls, and buildings, without spending any more money. This tutorial is a savior to all low budget 40k players.


Praise be to you sir.

I like it!! You're awesome to come up with something like this! ;D

This is what I managed to build xD

I thought walls were to easy to build so I made a guard tower. Well it's a wip tower ;D

That looks awesome, DiDDe! I was wondering what to do with those center-spoke sprue bits. And the Rhino door bit is a great idea!

Anvildude wrote:Wait, you mean people actually throw away sprue? what madness is this?


(Why yes, I am an ork player. What's that? Oh, yeah, I'm scratchbuilding everything... why?)

**COUGH** Sparta **COUGH**

I am in the process of building barricades and other such gubbins and a small fort/watch tower, I will post pics once done!

Hey.

Thanks for the excellent tutorial, now I finally have something to fill my time and use my immense amount of sprues I've been hoarding.

Thought I'd share my watch tower I've been making, by no means done; shall post it when its finished and painted





Roof is removable so you can put mini's in it and get some use out of it.
Anyway, yeah, thanks a bunch =D

--> Grayspear

that is freaking cool...and your design would work for guard too...

When I went a battlefield tour of Normandy in 2005, I saw quite alot of the Concrete Casemates and bunkers. An interesting fact and relevant to this, was that the the Bunkers were built with Wood Planking forming the "Moulds" into which the concrete was poured layer by layer. The result is a wooden imprint finish for some Bunkers, I will upload some of pictures to demonstrate this.

This isn't my Photo, I will upload my own later.

Possibly Point Du Hoc but cannot be sure, You can see the lines clearly on the roof of the Bunker.

It would interesting using Sprue pieces make the bunker and then fill the model in with model filler. Then rub it down to a nice finish and it should leave those long lines in the "Mock Concrete".

Love the overhang on the slits too, that's a 'real' bunker right there

Grayspear wrote:Hey.

Thanks for the excellent tutorial, now I finally have something to fill my time and use my immense amount of sprues I've been hoarding.

Thought I'd share my watch tower I've been making, by no means done; shall post it when its finished and painted





Roof is removable so you can put mini's in it and get some use out of it.
Jesus just spilled awesome sauce over that tower
Anyway, yeah, thanks a bunch =D

--> Grayspear

Grayspear wrote:Hey.

Thanks for the excellent tutorial, now I finally have something to fill my time and use my immense amount of sprues I've been hoarding.

Thought I'd share my watch tower I've been making, by no means done; shall post it when its finished and painted





Roof is removable so you can put mini's in it and get some use out of it.
Anyway, yeah, thanks a bunch =D

--> Grayspear

Dude, this is freakin awesome.

Sweet

Without meaning to sound disrespectful when I read the title I wasn't expecting sprue scenery to look too hot, I think I had better pour bbq sauce on my words and start eating them!

This really is a great idea and the photos of your sprue terrain look great, I'm never going to throw sprues away again, really looking forward to using this as inspiration for my own sprue terrain.

Good job dude

Not quite scenery but I used sprues to make the frames for my grot's crows nest and the frame for my screaming bell.

Thats amazing! I love those Orks.

This is something I've been working on this last week. Thanks for this topic, and the inspiration. Awesome post.

Holy guys great work LOVE the wood plank look

Very nice. I dug in to the forum to find this. I saw it once and then forgot about it till one day I was like; HEY, what the hell am I going to do with all this left over sprue from painting my best buds 50 some odd orks?! Make him some custom ork terrain stuff! Hell yeah!

Oh damn. I binned my sprues a couple months ago :( I had literally hundreds. Oh well, at least I know what to do with all future sprues now.

Thanks for reviving this thread and sharing

I'll have to keep this in mind when making future terrain and save my sprues.

Nice work

This thread is full of win.

I wanna see if any of your internet people have made weapons/guns/robots/ vehicles out of sprue. DO TELL, or do share please!


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I wanna see if any of your internet people have made weapons/guns/robots/ vehicles out of sprue. DO TELL, or do share please!

Well, I'll tell since I have no camera.

Sprue is great. I have a couple of Tankbustas that I've made legs for out of sprue bits, properly angled.

Ol' Chugga, my first attempt at a Battlewagon, has its chassis made of sprue.

My Stompa's outer shell is supported by sprue.

And I've recently discovered an amazing way to make Deffrollas. Take the round metal ends of Crescent Roll tubes, (after washing them, of course) and put them on an axle/line them up. Clip bits of sprue to length, without trimming thebitz off, and glue lengthwise. Keep doing this all around the edges of the metal ends, then take little shorter bits of un-cleaned sprue and put those betweeen the longer bits. You'll get a sort of 'cheese grater' Deffrolla that looks absolutely chaotic.

Anvildude wrote:Well, I'll tell since I have no camera.

Sprue is great. I have a couple of Tankbustas that I've made legs for out of sprue bits, properly angled.

Ol' Chugga, my first attempt at a Battlewagon, has its chassis made of sprue.

My Stompa's outer shell is supported by sprue.

And I've recently discovered an amazing way to make Deffrollas. Take the round metal ends of Crescent Roll tubes, (after washing them, of course) and put them on an axle/line them up. Clip bits of sprue to length, without trimming thebitz off, and glue lengthwise. Keep doing this all around the edges of the metal ends, then take little shorter bits of un-cleaned sprue and put those betweeen the longer bits. You'll get a sort of 'cheese grater' Deffrolla that looks absolutely chaotic.

please get a camera

Anvildude wrote:Well, I'll tell since I have no camera.

Sprue is great. I have a couple of Tankbustas that I've made legs for out of sprue bits, properly angled.

Ol' Chugga, my first attempt at a Battlewagon, has its chassis made of sprue.

My Stompa's outer shell is supported by sprue.

And I've recently discovered an amazing way to make Deffrollas. Take the round metal ends of Crescent Roll tubes, (after washing them, of course) and put them on an axle/line them up. Clip bits of sprue to length, without trimming thebitz off, and glue lengthwise. Keep doing this all around the edges of the metal ends, then take little shorter bits of un-cleaned sprue and put those betweeen the longer bits. You'll get a sort of 'cheese grater' Deffrolla that looks absolutely chaotic.

Please get a camera! I'd love to see that rolla!

An IG-player buddy of mine used sprue to build brick walls for his Sniper bases. They look pretty ace.

I have seen a technique called "stretched sprue" used to make aerial wiring, and bolt heads. Looks good but takes some practice. Would also need adult supervision if applicable...but yes sprue is definitely an untapped resource.

Cheers,
Effendi

god stuff!

I too looked at the metal ends of crescent roll cans and though."hey i can do sumthing with these" alas i've yet to find a good use for them thus far

Some more inspiration - Jersey barriers and crash barriers

haHA! I love it! This WILL definitely give a guidelines to build a late-18th Century field fortifications. including a Blockhouse.

I'm planning to build ones acting as a fortified encampment for my IG army during their campaigns.

=^.^=

Definitely a great idea for orks. They already recycle everything. Just putting the ork mentality to work in real life.

Flinty: love that crash barrier, it's already the right shape. And I didn't spot it the first time I saw the picture, which means it felt right in place.

I've been trying to think of ways to reuse sprue, and I think this one is a winner. Very clever!

<3 Fo finding it.

</3 For having jut trown out a year supply worth....>

Good idea. Been doing something similar for a while now. What I can't use for structures usually gets chopped up into tiny bit that can be used as rubble or rocks.

Sadly, since my clippers broke a while ago I have not been able to make anything with sprue at the time being, so I have nothing to present. I do have ideas for full ruins and buildings, maybe even some kind of makeshift bastion since I enjoyed my few experiences with Planetstrike. For models I am using a knife to get them out, but I don't believe they will work very well on the sprue.

Either way, I love what you people have been doing, you've gone beyond what I have imagined this building style could do, and I hope that it can be taken even further, and once I can get back into it I will be more than eager to join in!

Why did i never think of this.

Wow thanks for that link. Im gonna have to make some for my basement table now.

If only I had kept the two bins worth of sprue s a little longer.

This is a great idea, I am certainly going to use this for some chaotic fences.

Here's my simple use of sprues. The Kannons are made from Hotel-Sized-Shampoo Bottles with the caps turned around. The spikes are also sprue.



I have always wondered what else I can do with these. I have been saving mine for a big project. Now I have lots of ideas! Thanks everyone!

You could use old sprues to build upp a strucure and then use Plasticard to make walls if you want cleaner, yet more expensive buildings

I just use the sprues for rubble..If you can get a hold of an old meat grinder. you can chop them up and use if for rubble for terrain or your bases..That is what I would do. I have yet to find a old meat grinder, but I have been looking for some time now.

I'm not sure about whether a meat grinder will handle thick plastic.

Love the OP tutorial, was building some walls this morning in fact! The other showcases have also given me great ideas

You would be surprised what you can do with sprue, I'm scratch building 3 reaper bolt throwers out of the stuff.

I worked in a deli / butcher shop for three years and a ole meat grinder can handle anything even the tip of my boss's finger haha

Field Marshal Wiley wrote:I worked in a deli / butcher shop for three years and a ole meat grinder can handle anything even the tip of my boss's finger haha

Ouch!

This is what we need. I mean this is the biggest brakethrough in denying GW your money since recasting, but its cheaper! Its even Free!!! You can do so much for no money at all! I love this so fething much

Yeah, my sentiments exactly

I KNEW I should be keeping the sprues. So I did, and guess what?

Fantastic!

That's awesome. I'm in the process of building things with all my leftover bits and whatnots, so this will totally help. Thanks for posting it.

I think i could make my Titan look much Better with this Tutorial.

This is helpful to say the least, will have to dig up all my sprues now

I love you. I just got the Chaos Battalion box, and with all the sprues, I was able to make some nice terrain. With some leftover bits, I even made a few Objecive markers too.

Those should be fun

Post up some pictures when you're done, I'd love some inspiration for objective markers made of sprue, seeing as I'm super-low on bitz

Great idea, why did I throw away so much sprue when I could have done this?

Oh crap.... I've just chucked a load away....... :lol:

^ Always happens. People should really discover this thread BEFORE they even start wargaming

EPIC.
I am now going to make an entire ork fort using this and cereal boxes... ill put it in the p&m blog area

Wow you must have a lot of time

No he doesn't, because he spends it doing things like this.

Really good idea man! Can't believe I haven't seen this sooner...

Very nice and fantastic idea!

After reading this thread a while back i have gradually been making an Ork fort out of sprues and bits i find about the place. 99p store toys are always good to cut up and chuck on stuff as well, i have used a old toy lorry cut up which acts as a wall for my fort. The wheel mechanism I've turned into a Orky turret with rotating action !

Hmm, this is making me think of little green plastic army mans as collateral damage.....

wow, those look great!

Even better since popsicle sticks appear to be going out of production these days

awsome

What an awesome idea & great way to save money! I'm keeping all my sprues from now on!

This is bloody amazing. I am going to dig out some of my exta sprues and pus some use to them!

Cool.

As soon as I get home, i'm making siege cannons for my Dystopian wars-style steampunk battles. Ah, being cheap AND penniless at the same time means that it all looks great!

I might make a few barricades as well (basically a single strip of sprue on a base! Could cut it up to make zigzag lines of defences.) and maybe even some oil derricks and coal mines!

The Bringer wrote:No really... I wouldn't suggest doing this.

The only way I would suggest this is if you have no money...

You made that very clear in your first post,
Why would you suggest this method if the person in question has no money? if you have ''no money'' you can't even buy the kits where the sprue's come with

And if you can create a building or something similiar for free why would you spend an endless amount of cash?

Might as well throw my barricade in here. Not sure if I am going to keep the orky symbols on it or not...

finnaly something to convince me to finish building figs so I can use sprues!

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:As soon as I get home, i'm making siege cannons for my Dystopian wars-style steampunk battles. Ah, being cheap AND penniless at the same time means that it all looks great!

I might make a few barricades as well (basically a single strip of sprue on a base! Could cut it up to make zigzag lines of defences.) and maybe even some oil derricks and coal mines!

Probably better would be to use little chunks a'la the Magineau line (I think I spelled that wrong). Tank traps.

Anvildude wrote:

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:As soon as I get home, i'm making siege cannons for my Dystopian wars-style steampunk battles. Ah, being cheap AND penniless at the same time means that it all looks great!

I might make a few barricades as well (basically a single strip of sprue on a base! Could cut it up to make zigzag lines of defences.) and maybe even some oil derricks and coal mines!

Probably better would be to use little chunks a'la the Magineau line (I think I spelled that wrong). Tank traps.

Ah, thats a good idea. I'll have to get rid of my Robogear sprues somehow!

Oh, this comes in a great moment... i need to make my first table... Thanks!!!

This is an awesome idea, and all of the posted pics are very impressive. It's so simple and effective I'm upset I didn't think of it...

WIP, i don't quite know what to do with it yet,
probably a platform for a bullding...?

looking very good...and finally someone did something new!!!

Thanks this helped alot

Of course I read this the day I throw out all my sprue >_<
Awesome tutorial as well, just looks like GW will have to squeeze more money out of me

Nice, just discovered thread, I've been using plastic part trees as rubble for years. But I dig the idea of cutting it into construction material to build something. Brilliant.

Nice job now I save money on terrain

Thanks OP, never considered using it as wood, I've been using my old sprues as rubble filler or hedgehog tank traps (which look good used en masse IMO).

Years ago, a friend of mine was going to a tournament, and at the very last minute found out that they were required to bring a piece of terrain with them. So I slapped together a swingset out of spare sprue lying around. I regret that I never took pictures of it, but there you go.

Some really awesome ideas here, thanks. Now I finally have a use for all those mostly empty spruces.

As I was told in a PM, I realized my link now goes to some random page. Hopefully I will find the time to get it back up as a new thread on Dakka, and maybe make an article while I'm at it. It should take a few days at best, as I have a lot going on now that the school year is almost over(Can't wait to go to college next year!). I'm really sorry!

This is the greatest thread ever! Thank you all for posting in it! I have so many sprues laying around I simply didn't know what to do with them... Now I do!

Nice work, lots of great ideas here, I used them as pipes in my Oil refinery, the hots were left to hold valves and other bits. No photo though, sorry.

YAY!
I Love sprues!!


I have lots! 2 crates full in fact!

Unfortunately link at the top doesnt work anymore

I want to do an ork vs chaos diorama, but I only have damaged ork models. Perhaps they are all blown up and warped by chaos...
This is a really good way to make scenery for free!

ive tried chopping up my sprue's in a kitchen machine/shredder/chopper but it didnt really do anything but spin them around. what is a really good way to chop them up without me having to cut them by hand and roughing them up with my dremel?

i bet a meatgrinder or mincer would do...tho the part where the minced meat usually comes out you have to take away...

SO MUCH SPRUE !!!

Cool.

I like the ideas coming from this,

I will make the Ork Tower from sprue, and I will place there command satellite in it.

Only so many objectives an Ork can control right?

The link in the OP takes me to a thread about marker lights....

what happened to the link?

Runer60000 wrote:Wanting to help as many people as I can, I thought I would bring my tutorial from Second Sphere over here. The only purchase necessary is plastic glue, and a pair of clippers if you think its necessary, because this will involve a lot of cutting. I must warn you to be careful, this process can produce flying shrapnel in the form of tiny plastic bits. Other than that, I think this a great way to use up sprue that you have lying around, it will give you some use out of all that sprue you purchased, and less sprue being thrown away means less pollution and trash! Everyone wins!

Now, if you're really going for a high-quality set of scenery that your willing to invest a lot of money/time/materials into, this isn't for you, but if all you want is some simple scenery for a gaming table at home(like me), or your just looking for something interesting to build(I find this is a great thing to do when I get tired of painting lots of models), this is perfect! Here's the link, since I'm not willing to put this up for a third time :
http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,769.0.html

I hope you all enjoy this tutorial, and get some use out of it!

Sorry, probably just me being a dofus, but when I click the link it takes me to a page that says a thread about 'markerlight sheninegans' or something. Could you repost please?

Also found a tutorial on using old sprue as rivets that looked pretty good; http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42559

You get some metallic mesh with circles in it as your template (or whatever shape really), then you heat up the sprue for 2 seconds and poke it gently into the hole. The best way to go about removal involved using pretty much the hole sprue so there was lumps all over it then he cut them off afterwards with a knife, then he would keep reusing the stick until it ran out (3cm of sprue is maybe 10 rivets). Best part it is very easy and cheap to get different size meshes if you want to mix and match rivets, not to mention you get tiny bits of sprue left over for rubble or the like.

Hope this helps someone!

Repost the images please, link's dead :/

I couldn't find the article on Second Sphere, but I was able to find a copy on the Internet Archive. Hopefully this will help people read the original article, and maybe pull it into a permanent article here.

http://web.archive.org/web/20110318045905/http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,769.0.html

Neep