Bits Club?

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

The First Rule of Bits Club is: Don't talk about Bits Club! 

Seriously, is there a "Bits Club" where people swap tales about how they used all the off cuts from their MDF kits?

Or does all that just go in the bin?

[Red Orc]

Many years ago I was a regular contributor on a Warhammer 40K forum. I'd got into it because my eldest son was playing it so it was my best chance of getting a game of anything. When a new edition came out (probably about 4 editions back) I suggested that everyone who'd bought it in the first week (a good couple of hundred people on the forum I reckon) took photos of all the sprue that was left over and/or what they had made with said sprue, and we could collectively put together an unofficial guide to 'what to do with the bits left from your new 5th (?) Edition Boxed Set'.

I still think it's about the best gaming idea I've ever had but the chances of ever being around such a significant event where loads of people are all getting the same stuff at the same time seems to be much less these days, sadly.

Not that I'm dissing the 'Bits Club' idea, but if I understand properly, it might be a bit hit-and-miss.

[Cubs]

My top tip is the sprue itself. If you have a square-ish cross-sectioned sprue, you use a big cook's knife and chop it into little brick-sized chunks. Trust me, you need a big knife, because those babies are tougher than they look and you want a clean cut (not a pinched end, like you get with sprue cutters). Then you can nibble away at their nice sharp edges with a hobby knife to make bricks in rubble. If you chop one in half at an angle, it can poke up a bit like a half-buried brick.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

What got me thinking was all these left over bits of MDF from the various building kits I've been building. Two corner bits from the Sarissa Precision Arena set caught my eye and after fliping them about and trying various edge-to-edge configurations I thought "this looks like a nice high-pitched roof".



The semi-circular cut-outs will probably end up hidden, and I haven't figured out what to do with the roof crest yet. Could just carry the cardstock overlay (like Sarissa normally does with their roofs) up to a sharp point, or have the roof crest follow the semi-circular profile, or something in between.

The arena set has enough of these corner off-cuts for a dozen pairs like in the photo - at least, I may have missed a sheet! Assuming one used three pairs to provided end and center pieces like Sarissa normally does that allows for four of these high-pitched roofs. The width of the roof about matches the base of Sarissa's long workshop/warehouse blocks.

Now I'm wondering how those might be cannibalized to make a villa or maybe a temple, palace or clan-house for Tekumel, perhaps.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Another thing I noticed is that for pieces that have the locating notches (the male end), the off-cuts surrounding them can be butted together to make nicely cut notches. And, at least with edge pieces, the edge remnant often seems to be just the right width to fit the resulting notch. Which means beams can be fitted between the above roof trusses (if that is the right word).

[Red Orc]

Lost me with that last bit but I definitely agree that it's an interesting shape.

First things that spring to mind - as you say a gable, but that rectangular hole is covered by a kind of trapdoor for ventilation/light ('it's not a bug, it's a feature').

'Anglo-Saxon' huts could be very low, because some of them (grub-huts/Grubenhäuser) are actually based in pits - basically in modelling terms you just build a roof but don't bother with the walls, the 'roof' is the entirety of the hut visible. Maybe the hole is a door - not really sure of the scale of the pieces, can you do a shot with a mini in it?

I like the cutouts but agree they might make things difficult. How about a massive 'half-log' beam?

Can you attach four of these together in a cross-plan?

What does it look like if you put the pieces together along their short edge? It would give a very different roof-profile.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Lost me with that last bit but I definitely agree that it's an interesting shape.

Even as I typed it I thought "this is not gong to make any sense". 

[fastolfrus]

My first thought on seeing that shape was some kind of si-fi type thing.
Whether it be a free-standing gizmo or even just a statue (you would probably need 4 or 5 glued together to make them stand up) perhaps even a si-fi Christmas tree?
Or two of them glued to the front of a rectangular box to make it more interesting as a possible building.
Four of them laid flat could be a decorative hatch cover (perhaps for a diamond shaped rocket?)

We use lots of sprue pieces to make scatter terrain. Long straights get stacked up as pieces of building timber.
Large pieces get used for bases

[vodkafan]

Sci-Fi? No, It's a Dutch Gable! Honestly loads of buildings with that shape on the front in any English town if you care to look upwards in the High Street above the ground and first floors. And of course in Paris and Holland /The Netherlands too

[Red Orc]

There is something a bit Queen Anne about it.