Using Plastic Sprues
Uses for left over plastic kit sprues
This sprue has been mostly cut up and two magnificent straight rods have been salvaged. There is not much left of the original sprue, but another useful piece can be cut off between the two vertical red lines indicated in the photo.
Making good use of left over sprues from plastic model kits
On completion of a model kit you will almost always find that some parts are left over. These will normally be where the manufacturer provided two or more different parts to give the modeller options to build different versions.
Every modeller will have a spares box where all these parts have been hoarded and this will be a valuable resource for the modeller. However, there is also another valuable resource left over from the building a model kit and that is the plastic carrier sprues that held all the parts.
Sprues make great paint stirrers.
Next time you finish a kit, go through all the left over sprues and cut away any straight sections that have little or no 'branches' and save them for the following uses:
- Making aeriels, scale wire and even bolt heads using the 'stretched sprue' method.
- Paint stirrers.
- Internal bracing of models to give them additional strength and prevent them flexing.
- A piece of sprue can be used to hold small items while painting them. For this purpose an 'L' or 'T' shaped sprue is sometimes best to use. Lightly glue the end of the sprue to the part to be painted and break or cut it off later. See the article 'Holding Small Parts' for further information.
~~ Last updated May 23, 2009 by Peter Hall. ~~