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[GG]

When wiping down and checking my latest model at home. it suddenly struck me that a lot of the material that went into it had come from my stock of scrap.  Scrap in this case meaning bits that were left over from building other models but were just too "handy" looking to discard.  You know things like the end of a sheet of wood that's left after cutting all the parts out, the pieces left after cutting a curved shapes, and so on.


Kits can often supply you with useful bits after the die or laser cut parts have been removed from the sheets.  As these parts are usually cut away from the edges of the sheets, it is possible to trim some useful lengths of strip from the sheet edges.


Many of my models have used card for nonstructural parts,  a perfectly good material provided you stop it getting wet and soggy.  So, when recycling packaging, I often save handy bits that have potential hobby use.  A similar approach is taken with other items intended for the recycling bins, tubes can often be re-purposed into funnels and beer cans cut up, after drinking the contents of course, supply handy sheets of thin metal.


One of these days I might be able to build a complete model from such "scrap".  No doubt the cruel members of this hobby will then be able to add "and it looks like it too!".


Glynn Guest 

[colh107]

That would be a great achievement, and I'm sure it'd be possible!
When I moved house last year, I skipped a lot of junk but made damn sure to keep hold my store of 'potentially useful' wood. (My sister has the same approach - we blame/thank our Dad for that).
I need a foot-long 18mm piece to bridge across bench legs at work. Had a look online for cheap blockboard/chipboard (not mdf.....yuk...), but then found I have a random piece in the garage, an old shelf or something, that will do the job just perfectly. Not elegant, but it will meet the needs - so I've saved myself a few quid (and saved the planet some carbon footprint for an Amazon delivery).
I'm using a MacD straw as an aerial tube. And who hasn't fixed their leaky car exhaust by jubilee-clipping an opened-up beer can?!


So yes, why not use and re-use! I'd hope that most members of this hobby would be impressed by the ingenuity 
Best wishes if you embark on such a project - I'd contribute some of my scrap to help you, except..... I might need it myself one day...!!! 

[coch y bonddu]

 I always go to the scrap bin for bits to build superstructures as I am a tight fisted Welshman...and if you thought the Yorkshiremen were tight you ain't seen anything yet




Dave

[RST]

Dear sir,

I got into this hobby as a youngster, my pocket money prohibited me from buying kits or materials so I had to make things from "stuff" and re-cycle things frome one model to the next.  When I started 27mhz radio's prevailed but there was "no way" my old man would have spent that money unless I was serious and didn't end up disassembling it like I did every electronic thing before.

I think nowadays with 'tinternet the learning experience is very much diluted.  I would rather have spent £5 then and now on a magazine and read a book rather than just look for instant gratification etc.

So the following photos are a smattering, not all I can find -all probbly made entirely from "scraps" or no more than £20 probably re-invested between them (prop, motor etc).  Most of it from scrap card, bits of wood or anything I could re-purpose at the time!  Maybe one sheet of balsa. On card models, when they got wet the mechanics were transplanted to the next model!

I think this kind of learning curve is lost these days.  I learned from reading from the likes of you and the other great and well known modellers.  I was not afraid to try it myself rather than look for an exct answer.  Everything early days was mostly scrapped now but I still have a few, learn from it and move-on and keep thinking how to re-use things and materials!

Rich

[BrianB6]

You don't know what scrap is unless your wife is a (retired) art teacher.