Free building materials from Ikea

[fastolfrus]

Ikea sell all sorts of household stuff.

Including pictures and picture frames.

These arrive in the shop in large cardboard boxes, but to stop them rattling about in the boxes and getting damaged in transit Ikea use a variety of packing materials to hold them in place.

Some of those packing materials are "frames".
Bits of plastic with channels to hold the pictures upright and stop them bashing together. Hard to describe, but a bit like a set of plastic "U" shapes, but flat bottomed all next to each other. I suppose if you looked at them from an edge they might look like: LLLLLLLLI

They come in different sizes (depends on the size of pictures in the box, and different styles. Most have holes in them (uses less plastic, so cheaper and lighter) but the holes vary, circles, rectangles, squares, triangles.

Most are fairly hard black plastic (but we've also seen grey, green, and pink).
The plastic cuts easily with clippers, or with effort using a modelling knife (score a couple of times and then snap is the easy option).

[fastolfrus]

Long winded preamble, but what use are they ?



Small frame with em-4 28mm figure and 15mm Flames of War for scale

[fastolfrus]

Easily cut and clipped :



to make quick ruins (these were intended for 15mm WWII, not finished yet) :

[fastolfrus]

Or complete buildings.
Again intended for 15mm WWII (our club is looking at Stalingrad as a project and we need enough terrain to cover a table 20feet by 12feet)



Trimming the small frame down (it is 5 panels wide) gives a simple small apartment building 3 panels wide and the end corners then makes another small building.
2 frames, a small amount of foamcore, 2 buildings.
Not highly detailed, but we are mass producing the things at present.

[fastolfrus]

Also used for internal "walls"in factory buildings.

Poor picture of a WIP factory :

[fastolfrus]

Other frames available :


Square holes


Rectangular slots


Triangle/girders

[fastolfrus]

And perhaps the most common one we have found, circular holes :

[fastolfrus]

Other possible uses

Easy Space Hulk style corridors

[fastolfrus]

We also found a few pieces that dont have holes.

An L shaped piece of this makes an easy wall section :



But if you lay it on the other side, since one part of the L is shorter than the other, you get a very easy 28mm barricade section :

[fastolfrus]

Apologies about the long rambling thread, but I thought some of you might want to find free materials.

[Westfalia Chris]

That is awesome, and despite me being a happy IKEA customer (insert customary *if you don't follow the instructions, your SMÖRREBRÖD kitchen table assembly may result in an atomic bomb instead* joke), I've never seen those before. Apparently, they prefer styrofoam  and plastic bags in Germany.

So many uses - you could build a skyscraper construction site for Pulp games with that.

[Donpimpom]

very very interesting, the circular holes looks nice for some sewer section, or VSF submarine door sections.

But how you get them? sneaking in the ikea trash containers?

[fastolfrus]

Sorry should have said how to get them.

Just go into the shop mid afternoon (when they are tidying stock), find a member of staff in the pictures department (that's often the hard part), and explain that you would like some of their scrap packaging for a modelling project.
If you show them a piece (it's usually easy to find some in the bottom of a picture box) it's easier. If you're lucky they will be half way through tidying the stock and have a pile of frames that they were about to bin, if you're really lucky they will give you them in a cardboard box -easier to carry - and some helpful staff might go and find other odd bits of useful packaging for you.

[anevilgiraffe]

grrrrr... no Ikea around here...

[fastolfrus]

We don't have an Ikea near us either.
But they generally seem to be near motorway junctions, and their cafe is cheaper than motorway sevices (and better food), so we usually look in when we are on long journeys to somewhere or other.
Also, if you get an Ikea loyalty card (doesn't cost you anything) you get free tea and coffee in the cafe midweek.