Should I keep my empty sprues?

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hi everyone.

I am new into scale modeling and I would like to know if I should keep my empty sprues. If yes, what are the things I could do with those?

Thanks for your help!

2

I throw my empty sprues out. No sense in keeping them and taking up room that I might need for something more important.

3

You might want to keep a few pieces if you plan of doing some streatched sprue, but other wise just throw them out.

4

I toss mine,although I will save some leftover parts.Dragon kits have tons of extra parts that may come in handy.

5

I throw away 99.5% of my empty sprues. But every now an then a kit will have some sprue lengths of certain diameters that look useful for scratch building or detailing work. So I will cut out lengths of those and save them.

6

Toss them out. Cut off the unused parts. I gave a whole lot of unused parts away to bunch of fellow modeling freinds.

7

I try to save the clear sprue/trees just in case I need to make a wing nav light or landing light.

8

I know a figure modeler here in the forum, who uses old styrene sprues to make blanks, from which he carves his figures. His forum handle is captfue. Shoot him a PM and ask if he could use them. I fill a large freezer bag with mine, as I accumulate them, then I reach out to him and mail them to him.

I do keep a small stash for scratchbuilding or for filling seams, and so on.

And regarding the advice from so many to throw them out-NO. NEVER THROW ANYTHING OUT! You never know when you might need it, be able to use it, or find someone else who can use it. Throwing something out should be the last possible solution.

Heck, at the Scale Model Addict forum, there’s a build blog running from a guy turning a Head & Shoulders bottle into a spaceship.

9

I keep all the clean straight sections, great for many things such as stretching and making glue applicators. Best ca glue applicators you can find…

10

I throw my empty sprues away unless there is a part attached that I know will be useful for a planned future build. Too many good options out there from places like Evergreen when I need rods or strips of specific sizes to scratchbuild things with to mess with sprue stretching/melting and that sort of thing.

11

Hi, WWII - As many have said, I throw mine away. The few that I have saved, maybe 5 lengthy ones and a couple of clears offer limited use. Sometimes I use one as a “spreader,” if I need to widen one side of a fuselage to match the other side.

Often a bit of streched sprue can be used as a filler for smoothing a seam, I prefer that over using putty filler when possible. The streched bit and cement make for a much stronger join, the putty doesn’t make for a strong structure.

Otherwise, leftover sprues just seem to add to my clutter, which I’m VERY good at creating.

Patrick

12

Hey Baron,thats what my father in law use to say.After he died it took me and my wife almost three months to clean out his house !!! [:'(]

13

Hi;

I would say keep them. But, you may not build as many Tanker Ship models as I do. I keep the roundest ones and chunk the rest. Clear, I always keep .I use it to make clear Sprue Glue. The rest is kept only if it’s the right size and not to out of round. It makes great Roll bars and other “pipey” looking things. It’s great for making "Brush Bars for Truck Models and Tow Trucks etc. Armor can be enhanced with “Anti- Grenade cages” etc.

14

[dto:]

15

I keep a few of the longer straight sections of various colors for stretched spru, filler with Tamiya extra thin and making replacement parts. Keep a lot of the clear ones for landing lights and any other parts that I can make if needed. The rest get chucked.

Jim [cptn]

Stay Safe.

16

Thanks everyone.

The thing is that eventually, I would like to create little dioramas on which to put my models. I was curious to know your advices on the subject.

17

I generally toss any sprues that had all the parts removed and keep those with any extra parts. If I ever need a bit of sprue, I just go to the extra part box.

18

I used my sprue stash last night to help fix a really badly molded windscreen

John

19

I do the same, keep straight ones I can use as paint stirrers or stretch into antenna.

Flat portions that held sprue letters/numbers are used to blank off holes in the interior of the hull. Tamiya kits have very sizable flat portions.

But the vast majority of my sprues do end up in the garbage, but older modelers that had to scratchbuild a lot of items learned to keep what can be repurposed.

20

I’m glad you mentioned the numbered tabs, Rob. When I started building Maschinen Krieger kits, I learned that some modelers would save numbered (and lettered) tabs, to reconstruct foundry markings on things that are, according the MaK backstory, cast. It sounds fiddly, and it is, but guys shave those off and apply them. Some of those kits come with a tab of bolt heads, anyway, which are meant to be shaved off the tab and applied. So it was just a short hop to using the numbers. I’ve got a little jar with a stash of tabs I salvaged from sprues, just for that purpose.

I use a hex punch for bolt heads, though. I might be crazy, but I’m not dumb.