Leftover plastic…

[Calimero]

Hello all,

I have yet another question for the collective wisdom of this exceptionally fine forum.

What do you do with all the leftover pieces on plastic figures or vehicles sprues? Some manufacturers pack their sprues with loads of options/variants pieces.

Obviously, you can send them to a needing fellow wargamers or keep them for the "spare parts box". But my question really is do you left them on sprues, or do you separate them from their sprues? I find that letting them on sprues go a long way to identify each little piece, but it takes a lot of room.

Did anyone of you have a clever idea… a preferred way to deal with this "problem".

Cheers!

[Storm Wolf]

bits and bobs come off the sprues and more full sprues i keep.

The wargamers curse I am afraid

Glen

[v_lazy_dragon]

I used to have an organised system with a little drawer system - all imperial guard bits in one drawer, etc... It made it easy to find stuff but wasn't the smallest thing (especially as some drawers were half empty)... Now I just have a tub with it all in, bagging up specific stuff (like frostgrave bits) and that works well enough.

[Westfalia Chris]

It depends on the piece in question.

Robust pieces I usually cut off and put into sorting boxes grouped by type, i.e. all pouches and bags into one compartment, all arms into another, torsi into a third, heads into a fourth and so on.

Fragile pieces, such as most scale model (as opposed to bespoke gaming figures) parts, including rifles such as the Perries' and Warlord Games', I prefer to leave on a sprue, but cut down the whole tree to make it more easily handled and stored.

That said, I have much too much of these, anyway. The plastic heights lining the road to Lead Mountain aren't exactly anthills.

[westwaller]

Like Westfalia Chris, I also tend to cut sprues down to fit them in drawers etc. The problem comes with those sprues that it is easier to keep components on so the can be easily identified or that have specific arms etc. to be used in a figures construction such as some of the Victrix stuff.
Those sprues tend to go in any available box.
I would also add that for the time it takes to cut down sprues or bag up components, I always end up thinking I would have been better using that time for assembly!

[Ogrob]

I have a bookshelf full of sprues sorted by manufacturer. It is definitiely easier to find bits when you know what sprue to look for though it does take up a good bit of space. I do want to get some sort of multi-compartment box and start putting bits into from the sprues that are almost empty.

[Davout]

I cut the bits off the sprues and sort by type. I then place the bits in little bags with a label telling me what is in the bag.

I find that this doesn't take up that much space and I am always glad I've kept the bits. 

[AzSteven]

Normally I would pull spare bits off the sprue, because I shread leftover sprue to make urban rubble for basing or terrain pieces.  But if the sprue is more than half full I tend to keep it intact for later.

[Condottiere]

Normally I would pull spare bits off the sprue, because I shread leftover sprue to make urban rubble for basing or terrain pieces.  But if the sprue is more than half full I tend to keep it intact for later.

With what do you shred the leftover sprues? I've read of using an old blender, but I don't have one, but how about an electric spice grinder? I'm starting to use old sprue and scraps of plasticard as base filler for elevation, instead of cork or putty, but filing down is a chore, so shredding seems as easy as applying flock, but with polystyrene cement.   

[AzSteven]

With what do you shred the leftover sprues? I've read of using an old blender, but I don't have one, but how about an electric spice grinder? I'm starting to use old sprue and scraps of plasticard as base filler for elevation, instead of cork or putty, but filing down is a chore, so shredding seems as easy as applying flock, but with polystyrene cement.   

Apologies I missed your question.  I have an older military-surplus document shredder that handles plastic well.  previously I used a hand-crank sausage grinder.

[Cubs]

The sprues themselves, the ones with a square cross-section, I chop into bricks with a big kitchen knife. It needs a big kitchen knife because the sprue snippers pinch the plastic and leaves snippy marks, whereas the big knife cuts straight. These bricks I keep in a jar and use for urban rubble basing.