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Whoa, that's surprisingly good! Not your work, that's always good, but the use of sprue. I definitely need to reconsider using sprue as a medium for some things. It clearly lends itself quite well to objects like this.

cormadepanda wrote:Great work fluff and all! I can do that axw for yoy when I get home on the 25

Thanks and thanks.

Casey's Law wrote:Whoa, that's surprisingly good! Not your work, that's always good, but the use of sprue. I definitely need to reconsider using sprue as a medium for some things. It clearly lends itself quite well to objects like this.

Thanks Casey.
Sprue is a ridiculously useful resource for modelling.
I've used it somewhere on all my most heavily modified models from small spacers, to bulking or framework to the actual shape of whatever I'm making.

I found you could use it for things like swords when I decided to try a spare for one of my Dire Avengers.
Chap on the left. The handle and guard are made from scraps of plastic and putty with wire wrapped round the handle, but the blade is carved from one piece of sprue.


I also used sprue in the same way for the rear spoiler of the WS and the hinges (amongst other things) are also made from sprue.

Things to remember when using sprue like this, I've found, are that there is quite often small bubbles down the middle of the sprue which can lead to holes in things like swords (I had this with the first sword above, but filled it with putty and you can't notice it). This is why I am cutting the sprue down the centre for these swords.

Also, don't go too thin as it can be quite weak to work on. Just found this out on one sword where I've snapped the tip off, that's one design to try in putty instead.


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It's also tricky work, potentially dangerous for fingers and thumbs and quite time consuming.

And satisfying when it works...

Great tips for "waste material", I'm going to try out

Yeh thanks for the tips, I'll be trying this out. I might try a scythe shaft at some point soon. Have you tried bending the sprue after dipping it in boiling water? You'll need asbestos fingers but it's the best way to bend plastic from what I've tried.

SelvaggioSaky wrote:Great tips for "waste material", I'm going to try out

Yep, and you get loads for free with every model.

Casey's Law wrote:Yeh thanks for the tips, I'll be trying this out. I might try a scythe shaft at some point soon. Have you tried bending the sprue after dipping it in boiling water? You'll need asbestos fingers but it's the best way to bend plastic from what I've tried.

I haven't yet, but it's on the list of useful things to know. I believe we talked about this in regards to Tyranid tails on your blog a while ago...
I know a good way to get realistic looking helicopter rotor blades at rest, e.g. bent downwards slightly, is to use a hair-dryer carefully.

 Dr H wrote:
I believe we talked about this in regards to Tyranid tails on your blog a while ago...

Oh yeh! Ahah! The circle of Dakka blogging at work, information travels well between us.

^It's good to share information often and widely.

Few more swords carved.
You can see the bottom left (sword concept 2 for those of you keeping track) didn't come out well, the sharp features weren't working and then I snapped off the tip and gave up on it. The other two I'm quite happy with. Top left (concept 8) I made slightly less curved as I intended, I actually bent the sprue for that slightly before starting and then carved it as is.

A little touching up here and there maybe and then thinking about the grips and guards later.
I actually paid attention to the time while carving the sword on the right (concept 11) and it took me about half an hour to get to this stage. I think the first eldar-looking one (concept 4) took nearer to an hour, but I wasn't watching the time...

Too bad shipping would kill the point of this, but if you ever need sprue, let me know.

I have more still. I threw out about twice this amount when we moved. At one point I thought of making a sprue necron army, can't find the pics now, but it would be glorious.

Ha Ha. I have plenty of my own sprue thanks Theo. I even have some non-GW sprue for variety. Even with the many uses I have for it, sprue does seem to last quite a while.

I'm sure you could find a suitable terrain use for that pile. Internal structure for a building, or even actual scaffolding for the outside... Watch-towers, ladders, stairs, fences... The list is endless.

Terrain? No, I will build the army to fear. An army of lost stc, that will rise up again and again. They have come to assimilate your unused sprue.

I wish they guy who built these painted them and took them to a grand tournament. I'd love to see GW post an addendum to their rules saying that armies must be made from parts and not sprue.

Thing is, with careful carving you could get them to look even closer to the actual models than just the basic shape. Maybe I'll add that to the "to do" list, make a realistic model from only sprue...

The blades look good, pal. As for sprue, I remember reading in an old White Dwarf that they used an old hand turned meat grinder to chew up sprue to make tonnes of rubble for cityfight boards.

Thanks Casey. I've read something like that before, although not having a meat grinder or a gaming table (yet) I haven't tried that.

I'm not short on basing material either as I mostly use dried paint for the rocks and sand. I don't know if Acrylic paint does this when it dries out, but when the Enamel I use dries up in the pot it usually ends up either in one hard lump that you can cut up into chunks or (if you catch it before it's solid) you can scrape it out the pot and let it dry to a variety of rock shapes and sizes.

It does, after first thickening up to a putty like consistency if it is left sitting too long

Good job on the spueblades mate, great for my INQ28 adventure

shasolenzabi wrote:It does, after first thickening up to a putty like consistency if it is left sitting too long

Yeah, probably the same then.

It was just when I was cleaning out some pots that I thought I may find a use for, I ended up with a pile of dried paint that sat on my modelling board for a while and one day I was looking at it and I thought that some of it looked like small rocks and importantly was also free and at a time that I needed to think about bases.

So, some PVA glue, add a few large lumps and then sprinkle on the smaller stuff, paint up to look like mud and rocks, job done. Perhaps not the best of bases, but bases none-the-less.

SelvaggioSaky wrote:Good job on the spueblades mate, great for my INQ28 adventure

Thanks SS. I look forward to your's and other's attempts.
I am lurking on your INQ28 thread at the mo. Will comment soon.

I've done 2 more sprue-swords and some pose/scale pictures with Guardian Number 10.

These are swords 5 and 10.


and this is Guardian 10 blu-tacked together in a possible pose (imagine more dynamic legs though) to show the carved swords (in scale) and how they look with the guardian's body.
Swords (l to r): 4, 8, 11, 10 and 5.


I believe these were the popular swords, let me know if I've missed one (I do know that I'm missing number 2, that is waiting for a putty remake as it didn't work in plastic).

What do people think?
I'm planning to actually cut the hand off the arm used here and making it out of putty, combined with the hilt and handle of the sword/axe that is chosen, so ignore that particular area for now.

11 and 5 looks really good on the Guardian .

10 is way too classic and We don't want It right? (looks good as well )

if I have to choose I would go for number 5 tough.

The first one looks more realistic size wise to the guardian, but the second is still my favorite. Excellent work .

i like the design 4 and 10... and i must say... you are very ambitious... carving sprue like that... that is truly inspiring... i have a ton of sprue sitting under my desk and it is work like that that keeps me from even thinking about getting rid of these...!

my only suggestion would be to be nmore in scale with the available swords for eldar... elves per se are a thin breed... hefting such big cleavers is a bit OOT... if you manage to get them a "BIT" smaller than you are golden!

Thanks guys, that pretty much covered all of them between the two of you

I'm aware no-one here actually picked number 10, I just have a thing for leaf shaped swords. But that doesn't mean that I'm bias towards that one, I just wanted to make it (it will definitely get used at some point, maybe I'll do something in suitably classic armour to go with it...).

Yeah, I thought some of them did look quite large when I stuck them on the model, but I was basing the scale on 40k weapons, so I'm not surprised that they turned out big (I don't think any are too "too big" though).

and don't forget that there are the axes still to be made... I have options coming out my ear-'oles...

i choose number ten... (10) me, me, me!!!^^

it was the design i liked first of them all...because of the classic look...

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
i like the design 4 and 10... and i must say... you are very ambitious... carving sprue like that... that is truly inspiring... i have a ton of sprue sitting under my desk and it is work like that that keeps me from even thinking about getting rid of these...!

my only suggestion would be to be nmore in scale with the available swords for eldar... elves per se are a thin breed... hefting such big cleavers is a bit OOT... if you manage to get them a "BIT" smaller than you are golden!

Thanks Vik.

Yep, I'm really trying to make my modelling money go as far as possible (I have tons of random household "rubbish" that I've squirrelled away for possible model use) and sprue is no exception. It's just so useful and it's made of polystyrene, just like the models, and therefore you can use the usual glues for the jobs. I even have a pot with add off-cuts from sprue and other plastics that could prove useful...

It's also a nice challenge trying things like this.

I see what you mean, maybe if one that is a little too large gets chosen I could always carve a Ver.2.0 and make it a bit smaller.


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 Viktor von Domm wrote:
i choose number ten... (10) me, me, me!!!^^

it was the design i liked first of them all...because of the classic look...

Yeah, I didn't see your post while I was typing that one. Thanks again. Duly noted.

yup... to use the same glue is a blessing really... you then know what you work with and have a profound confifence that the parts wont fall off all of a sudden... it is a nightmare for me to have this happen... superglue is often a fail... and i have tow very different kinds of plasticcard with my materials... the fist round i got to the stuff... it doent take any plastic glue even ??? so i had lots of misfortune... i wish i had known about materials what i know now back then^^... but you are totally sure when you deal with sprue!... which still wants me to do that mechanical steed out of sprue...

 Viktor von Domm wrote:


yup... to use the same glue is a blessing really... you then know what you work with and have a profound confifence that the parts wont fall off all of a sudden... it is a nightmare for me to have this happen... superglue is often a fail... and i have tow very different kinds of plasticcard with my materials... the fist round i got to the stuff... it doent take any plastic glue even ??? so i had lots of misfortune... i wish i had known about materials what i know now back then^^... but you are totally sure when you deal with sprue!...

Yeah, I have quite a selection of glues on my board (Thin, brush-on poly' cement, thick poly' cement, superglue, PVA and even some araldite at the moment although that was for some other use apart from modelling), so if one doesn't seem to hold I'll throw another at it.

which still wants me to do that mechanical steed out of sprue...

Do it... You know you want to...

...

so you´re collecting glue, eh?...a two component glue is something i need to try some day too... epoxid i used but the thin, liquide stuff... that would be a first one

and yep... a mechanical steed... who wouldn´t want one?^^

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
...

so you´re collecting glue, eh?...a two component glue is something i need to try some day too... epoxid i used but the thin, liquide stuff... that would be a first one

and yep... a mechanical steed... who wouldn´t want one?^^

Yeah. The trouble with epoxy glues is that they take ages to dry. Good for a strong, flexible bond, but you have to keep it held in position for ages and (more importantly) you have to wait all that time before you can do anything else...

The thin cement is my first choice for model work, then I will use the thicker cement for when a join is load bearing. Superglue is for when one or other of the surfaces is not polystyrene and the PVA I'll genereally use for basing. But sometimes, when one glue isn't doing the job, I'll add one of the others to help out (the thick poly' cement is good for this, just because it is thick and dries to a hard structure). I've even filled small cracks with the thicker glues rather than mess about with putties (I've even got putty options, a one part modelling putty and a two part milliput).

Can't argue with He-Man, he had one.

I really like 4 and 11 matey. I still love 8 but I still think it'll be nicer as a two hander for someone later on.

I never really tried conscious glue mixing... when I just added in a non thinking way some superglue to whatever cause I was at... for now it worked^^

and yeah... heman had one... (that model soon gets ton be made a transport by the way...as I got me an old warhorse at a fleamarket^^)

Casey's Law wrote:I really like 4 and 11 matey. I still love 8 but I still think it'll be nicer as a two hander for someone later on.

Cool, thanks. I may try and make a slightly smaller version of a couple of these and see how they look.

Viktor von Domm wrote:I never really tried conscious glue mixing... when I just added in a non thinking way some superglue to whatever cause I was at... for now it worked^^

and yeah... heman had one... (that model soon gets ton be made a transport by the way...as I got me an old warhorse at a fleamarket^^)

If something's not working I'll try everything I have at my disposal to get it working. I've seen somewhere that for a typical superglue join, to get round the problem of it being brittle and falling apart in the future was to use a little PVA with the superglue (mixed at the join), as the mixture bonds as well as superglue but retains some flexibility and therefore doesn't break so easily. (I'm sure that's what I've read, but could be making that up... )

Even yesterday, I attached the arm for the sniper to the gun with a pin (as I need to sculpt a hand from putty) and superglue, and then glued the wrist and elbow to the stock with plastic cement. They are not going to be separated...