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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?)