What do you do with your empty sprues?

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**yearzero**

So what do you do with your empty sprues?

I usually keep a few for random conversions or terrain and throw the rest away

**Footsloggin**

There was a very good thread that showed how to make terrain out of sprues awhile back... Anyway, I melt mine down, and attempt to make stuff out of the melt. Most of it winds up crappy though.

**yearzero**

Footsloggin wrote:I melt mine down, and attempt to make stuff out of the melt. Most of it winds up crappy though.

I've always wondered if I could pull something like that off, but I don't even know what I would do with it once it is molten.

Secondly, I've also always wondered what GW would do if i sent them a massive box of empty sprues.

Thirdly, I've always wanted to send GW my massive collection of mold line shavings as a big

you. If i'm going to be spending at least $3/ model i demand 100% less mold lines

**Footsloggin**

Well, usually nothing I make works, generally due to the fact that GWs models are produced under a good amount of pressure. (That's my theory at least)

**Ma55ter_fett**

I pile them up into unstable stacks.

Only occasionally will I use them for anything.

**Footsloggin**

I forgot to remind you, before you go running off and melting down your model sprues, realize that the fumes produced are toxic, and without proper ventilation and respiratory equipment you are putting yourself at risk.

**yearzero**

Footsloggin wrote:I forgot to remind you, before you go running off and melting down your model sprues, realize that the fumes produced are toxic, and without proper ventilation and respiratory equipment you are putting yourself at risk.

I guess I should stop smoking the sprues then

**MechaEmperor7000**

I cut them up and use them for conversions, mostly filler for parts that call for long rods or big boxy things.

**Footsloggin**

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:I cut them up and use them for conversions, mostly filler for parts that call for long rods or big boxy things.

METAL BAWKSES!!~!

That aside, you could make molds and use synthetic resins to recreate models if you want, but I'm not really sure if that's legal, so I wouldn't recommend that either... Maybe I should stop posting...

**epil**

I thought i would use them. But after saving the sprues from 3k nids, 5k chaos, and 2k eldar, I realized I will never use them and filled my trash can with them. Luckly if I ever need more I can always buy a few more boxes of minis.

**Ecurb The Mighty**

Back scratchin' goodness...

**Just Dave**

Not mine, but some people find good use for them:

**Dark Scipio**

Just Dave wrote:Not mine, but some people find good use for them:

Most awesome. I think I will stop recyling my sprues form now on.

**Stvafel**

Just Dave wrote:Not mine, but some people find good use for them:

Sweet necron army :>

**mega_bassist**

I've used some of the longer ones to retreive stuff dropped under my work desk/dresser

**MechaEmperor7000**

Ah yes, the famous Sprue-crons. Just shows what you can do with a little creativity.

**bthom37**

Fences!

Although I am seriously disturbed at how much time must have gone into the spruecrons.

**Kanluwen**

I have a far more important use for sprue bits than that.

I use melted plastic as a gap filler

**Bullfrog**

I use them for making untidy piles in my cupboard in the vain hope that I might make something out of them one day.

**Kanluwen**

I also once made a hat out of several sprues soldered together.

It was hideous, but served the purpose well.

**oadie**

I keep a small tupperware container topped off with clipped/ground up bits of sprue to use as rubble when building terrain. Straight sections can also be cleaned up a bit and used as girders, curbs, sliced into bricks, etc. (there was a whole thread on sprue terrain that someone mentioned earlier in this thread - it's worth a look).

They're also good for reinforcing hollow forms when building terrain. The roofs of my plastic take-out container lid bunkers are always a bit too to flimsy until I add some internal sprue supports.

I've also seen sprue used as filler stock - a piece is shaved, as one would remove mold lines, and the shavings are mixed with and melted by plastic cement, with the resulting goop being painted into the gap.

Squash casting is also a possibility for small items. After a single experiment, I'm pretty confident that with a bit of practice, I could get decent looking trukk kit scaled glyph plates just using a candle, sprues, and a baked polymer clay mold.

**xlightscreen**

I use them for simple blocking terrain

Reinforce and add frames to building structures like windows.

gap fillers.

**Trickstick**

Well I use mine to fill up all those annoying empty spaces inside battleforce boxes. These then go in a cupboard. It is a real life saver having something that can take up space so well.

Seriously though, I heard someone mention that you can put them through a meat grinder and then use the results as effective rubble for scenery. Sounds good, I just don't have a grinder to try it out.

**Lizar7**

For the most part, stack them up in my closet

though I have made some really nice urban terrain using them as bended girders or something like that in small amounts. As of forty three seconds ago however I use them for necrons

The little cylindrical tab things are good for extending the barrel on black reach orks' sluggas to make them shootas!

**AvatarForm**

Footsloggin wrote:There was a very good thread that showed how to make terrain out of sprues awhile back... Anyway, I melt mine down, and attempt to make stuff out of the melt. Most of it winds up crappy though.

This.

I recently sculpted an entire chaos spawn out of acetone-melted sprue... then posed it in a diorama and got a Bronze at a local modelling comp.

**loota boy**

I snap them up and hotglue them together to make Piles of junk and scrap for ork settlements.

**wib**

I tend to chop them up and use them as framework for scratch-building Ork vehicles or as cores to parts I need to bulk up with greenstuff.

Quite useful stuff really.

**Kilkrazy**

Recycle them.

**Juvieus Kaine**

For the record the sprues are recyclable but GW won't ship them back to the factories to use as recycled plastics because the transport costs outweigh the benefits. Apparently. That's what one guy at GW said when I asked him..

**Trickstick**

Juvieus Kaine wrote:For the record the sprues are recyclable but GW won't ship them back to the factories to use as recycled plastics because the transport costs outweigh the benefits. Apparently. That's what one guy at GW said when I asked him..

Plus the recycled plastic would not be as good as the original material, leading to a lower quality of product.