So ive been in the habit of keeping the empty boxes with the leftover parts in them. I lilke the boxes as a reminder and its an easy way to keep the parts. BUT, the more I buuild the less room I have. I also like to keep the directions.
How do you all keep and sort your parts? Do you keep boxes and directions? Looking to cut down on clutter while still keeping some sense of organization.??? Tks
If you want the box art, save the tops. For the directions get a 3 drawer cheapie file cabinet. You can use one drawer for instructions, one for decals, and the last for box art. Use file folders to sort by scale, and type of kit
Folks can sort leftover parts by scale and function ( ordnance, wheels, engines, etc), and store in smaller plastic bins.
I have one big corrugated box for parts and spares…with heavy-duty quart-sized zip-lock freezer bags for individual categories of parts (drop-tanks, landing gear, etc.). The categories make it much easier to find parts without having to remember which particular kit they came from. [I do usually mark sprues or the inside surface of larger parts with a fine-point Sharpie, noting scale and kit/mfg., for reference.]
It’s a flexible system, easily allowing new categories (or the sub-dividing of old ones) as required. And since the bags themselves are clear, searching is fast with minimal unpacking required.
Don’t keep many instructions or box art these days; I used to, but found I almost never referred back to them. (I do more useful ‘log sheets’ for each build, noting changes or special details incorporated.) Any instructions, art (or decal diagrams) it seems useful to keep go into a larger general reference notebook, where I keep assorted info by type.
I use those oblong plastic takeout containers to store spare parts, bits of sprue, scratchbuilding supplies, and almost anything else. They stack, the lids are clear, so I can see what’s in one, and I can label them as well.
I also have some plastic storage bins used in garages, to store my figure kits. The bins are plastic, they also stack via pins and holes, and they also come in sets with a strip to mount them on a wall or on the back of a bench.
And to organize projects, I use the cardboard pallets used to package beer or fruit juice. I can put a kit and any peripheral items in that flat box and keep them together, and move things around as I move from one project to the next. I also use those to organize some of the toy soldiers in my gray army. Those little styrofoam trays used to package produce are also handy for this purpose.
Instructions and decals, I store in three-ring binders. I use clear plastic sleeves from the stationer’s, and I also put the decals in ziploc bags to keep them as air-tight and moisture-free as I can.
I used to save the kit boxes, but I don’t anymore. They just take up too much space. If I want to save a box lid with nice art, I can flatten it and stick that in a sleeve in a binder, too.
I do basicly the same as Goldhammer. The file cabinet holds all instruction sheets plus any research info, box art and pics used in making the model. The next drawer holds decal sheets in plastic zip-lock bags in file folders with name of kit on edge. The spare parts are kept in an Old Pal/Woodstream 5 tray, multi-compartment tackle box. Other often used spare parts are kept in a stack of small 9-drawer plastic boxes. If this sounds like a lot of “stuff”, your absolutely right. You have to remember that I’ve been doing this for 73 of my 79 years.
Oh, almost forgot, there is a computer paper box full of 1/24 & 1/25 car bodies left over from kits that I built over the years and salvaged for parts if and when when needed. Used quite a few of them up over the years making custom cars with tons of plastic and putty. At the time they probably looked good to me but were only terrible glue bombs but I had a lot of fun making them and that’s what counts. Right?
Jim [cptn]
Stay Safe.
Just in some boxes, some are in the plastic type shoeboxes.
unfortunetly, they are not sorted or catalogued
I use the fishing tackle containers with all the dividers.
I used too. I put things in used model boxes cut off the sprues. I gave lots of them away to to other modelers. It was a LOT! I still have 4 lage kit boxes ( Tamyia Sdkfz 9 size). And 3 boxes of various sheets of photo etch and odd resin parts. I no longer keep instructions or boxes, they took up to much room. I used to do a lot of conversions and scrach building. I got older and little things started to go wrong, so i gave that up. I have 6 kit boxes of Decals, A/C armor and various others.
Hi:
Number one and most important. I hear you Loud and Clear. I keep my instructions in a small four drawer file cabinet. I still have readable copies of the instructions for both the REVELL N.S.Savannah and the Adams Kit! Original issues!
For parts I do this. I have seven, count them I did. Seven, little file cabinets with the small and large drawers in them. Once a month or whenever, I sit down and clear sprues of parts. They are all sorted to their use and need. Canopies and such go in little plastic Zip-Loc style bags in the larger drawers. Do not over pack these either!
Decals go in a Photo Album with the plastic sleeves, inside Zip-Loc bags that have been pressed Flat and all the air forced out. NOT VACUUMED OUT. DO NOT use a food sealer!
Now odd parts or large parts go in accordian folders in the file cabinet. In one Quart or one Gallon Zip-LOC bags. I also have a file cabinet with no separators in it. Therein, go the Hulls and Decks (Large parts only).
Don’t think I am being silly with this next. There is a market for clean empty boxes with excellent tops. Some of these prices asked are ridiculous! You could sell them or take the front of the top cover and do as a friend of mine has done. He has albums of boxtops Front only, of all his kits he’s built over the years. His go all the way back to the Revell (S) series etc.
All the instructions go in Zip-Loc bags and reside in hanging folders that are sorted to type, era etc. I keep ALL civilian items in files color coded separate from Military items that have a tab of the primary color of the type on the edge, Planes,Ships etc. I hope this helps!
I have a selection of plastic boxes which i have devided into vehicles or categories depending on how much space the spares will take up. So for 35th German armour i have a box for each vehcile type, Tiger, Panther, 251 and so on. And for 72nd aircraft i have a large box for German subjects, and smaller one for British, Us and so on. I also have seperate boxes for weapons, ground equipment. I think in total i have about 20 boxes.
I don’t keep the box lids, but i do keep the instructions in plastic wallets which are storeed in several box files.
I don’t bother keeping the boxes and only hold onto the instruction sheets if the model will be entered into our contest as a non modified build.
The parts I put into various containers, depending on size or type of kit, such as armor vehicle parts go into a box regardless of the type of vehicle.
Small parts of the same type can go into things like plastic containers that range from containers from Colonel Sanders, to film roll containers to small plastic bags that go into a larger box containing the same type of parts. Sorting trays can also be useful for this.
I use a couple of methods.
For instructions for built kits, I use a few binders with those clear document protectors inside. I even have them tabbed. One binder is for armor and the tabs are for genre. So my armor binder has a section for WW2 US, WW2 German, Modern US, Modern others, 1/72 armor.
Then I have one for aircraft and a third binder for cars, ships, sci-fi and other. A fourth binder holds extra decals similarly tabbed. Many of the decal scraps are put into ziplock bags and then slide into the document protector.
I never get rid of instructions. Many times someone needs instructions for an old kit. I can easily scan them and email a copy. Other times perhaps a reissued kit does not include instructions for variants. For example, when Tamiya reissued the M60A1 RISE/Passive with ERA kit, that kit still includes parts for the M60A3TTS but the instructions don’t show assembly of that version.
I keep the sprues with spare parts and the directions in a Zip lock freezer bag placed in a file folder. The box gets tossed in the burn barrel, I don’t need them taking up any of my space.
I have a multi level shelving unit near the bench. It has cardboard pullout units. I store a lot of modeling things there- supplies and such. I have three units for extra parts and such- one each for aircraft, cars, and ships.
But they are kits . . . it’s like getting your car fixed, there’s not supposed to be left-overs!
Actually, I used to consolidate my ‘spares’ in one big kit box, but since I’ve slowed in kit builds, I haven’t had that much of an issue.
There are quite a few kits where the sprues are the same for kits with various versions of a subject, and the leftover parts are for the other versions. Or, even the same kit may give you options. I am building a kit now that has options for two different pullys, depending on which style belt you use, so I will have the leftover parts for the other pully. And of course, with military aircraft, I usually display them without weapons, so I collect a lot of them.
That being said, if I do happen to have leftover parts, I do carefully review the instructions, and occasionally find I have forgot to put on a part. It is worth checking.