I thought I’d float this as an open, personal experience-type question:
What’s the strangest place you found modeling materials?
I’ve found sanding sticks at beauty supply stores. I’ve bought tools in electronics stores. I’ve gotten paint mixing cups from a pizza shop and mixing sticks from Micky-Dee (who hasn’t?). I’ve purchased casting tools (Lego’s) from a toy store and ‘scale cable’ from a jewelry findings aisle. I’ve even picked-up some incredibly fine-grained leather in an airport sex shop.
But my flat-out weirdest was talking a clerk at a stationery store into punching elongated holes in badge material. I had him demonstrate that retainer punch a dozen times. I’m certain he thought I was crazy. Yeah, crazy like a fox. I didn’t care about the holes, but I was careful to keep the punch-outs! They were perfect windows for one of my SF spaceships.
The little plastic cups filled with grape juice used during communion.
I’m an usher and occasionally save a bag full of these. I take them home and rinse them out in a bucket of water. I could easily grab a bag of new ones but could not live with the guilt! Now if this were something from work…[:@]
Great for mixing paint, washes, small part storage, and two part epoxy. Trash them when done.
You can buy them online but shipping is almost as much as the product.
Yep, Frankfurt. In a window display, there was this brown leather greatcoat — “gestapo” style with lots of hidden pockets — that was as soft as butter. It was a shame that the bullwhip was permanently attached to the sleeve! The polishing material I wound up buying was just a handkerchief-sized swatch of leather.
Every now and then I’d go into my local Sam’s Club and make my way to their photo developing area. I told the nice lady behind the counter that I’m a model builder and the old 35 mm film containers make perfect paint mixing cups. I asked her if I could have a few and she gave me a plastic shopping bag full of them!!! Half a year later I went in to get some more and she remembered me. She gave me some more. [:D]
I used to work at one of the more popular national pet store empires and every week we would get a shipment of live crickets meant to feed the reptiles in the store and sell to customers looking to feed their pets. The little bugs would come in little cardboard boxes and featured a stiff wire mesh along the sides so as to let the crickets breath but not escape. The mesh was stronger than screen, say for a window, and had wider spacing so it made for great chain link fence.
I used to procure a lot from that store. Some aquarium ornaments worked particularly well as features in dioramas, like old Greek or Roman ruins, or their plastic plants, etc.
I don’t so much think it is ‘strange’, but I was looking all over town for a good large brush for dusting off the kits, and maybe for weathering too I suppose. Everywhere it was ‘you want what for that dambed thing?’. I don’t care how rare red sable is.
Finally I ended up in the cosmetics section of my local drug store and wow, look at the size of this thing (make up brush). If this was red sable it would cost me this month’s rent. All it cost me was 6 bucks though. Not sure what the bristles are made of, but they are soooo soft. Should have known (I am not included to use make up, so it had not occurred to me).
I also find it comical, that you can either pay a fortune for a puny bottle of paint thinner from the paint rack, or just get some rubbing alcohol at the drug store and buy it by the liter for peanuts.
