leftovers from frames

Unusual question which elicits unusual answers. First, there's never such thing as too many spare parts. I have two boxes of the Academy Su-27 (and that's a LARGE box) filled with spares and whatever I could recover from my most unfortunate, earlier attempts. As for sprues, I have clipped some of them to bits, melted with trichloroethilene and used it to cast simple copies. The technique was described in an old issue of REPLIC, but I'm sure there are variants. This never worked well for me, anyway - the plastic warps as it cures and there are bubbles everywhere. Some weird-shaped frames I keep - semi-round ones are great for modeling small bulges and I used a square section one to build one of those flak walls that protected aircrafts in Vietnam. I had a lot of time on my hands then... But mostly I let the dog chew them. Apparently it causes him no harm and it's better than having teeth marks all over the wing of a Mitchell.

Ciao Bonehammer

I use the straight sections for stirring paint.

I save parts, thow out the runners...unless I need a particular length for a painting armature, structural spreader, to stretch over a flame, etc. Otherwise I cut them into small peices and throw them out.

If you ever get into model railroading the sprues make great piping for structures. Right now I mostly use them for stirring paint and , reshaped, parts for scratchbuilding purposes.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

snipped-for-privacy@cox.net (Dave) wrote in :

That wouldn't cause it to break. I think he's probably not moving it far enough away from the heat source.

Pulling too slowly, I think. I haven't dome it for some time but I used to quite a lot. I still have pieces in one of the parts boxes.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

snipped-for-privacy@swbell.net (Al Superczynski) wrote in :

That might be it. I use a candle to heat the sprue, and I keep the sprue over the flame while pulling.

I've also tried a paint stripper (heat gun), but that was too hot (plastic would turn into a charred blob).

That's *definitely* what you're doing wrong. Get the sprue hot enough so that it's shiny and starts to sag, then move it well away from the flame before you start your pull.

snipped-for-privacy@swbell.net (Al Superczynski) wrote in :

Thanks. I'll try that.

to strecth sprue you must pull with the faith of a peasant. (apologies to cahill gibrahn)

hehe, you got me. my fave expat bostonian. i once lived in a house he lived in on dwight st.

Khalil Gibran, vielleicht? Cahill makes him sound Irish. :)

Bill Banaszak, MFE

I Keep all my leftover sprue .................it has all sorts of uses,in model making .the most usefull is making all the ariels that armoured vechiles are covered with these days ......and with all the WW2 armour etc ............I ..hold a piece in my hand ......I have an Artery forcep clamped on the other end .....and apply heat to the middle with a cigarette lighter .............when it begins to move .....i stop the heat ...and it just stretches out bueatifully ........it even has a curve like a real whip antenna

Aw, silly me, I forgot to mention the endless possibilities of stretched sprue. Clear sprues, especially the rounded corners of the frame, are great for position lights on aircrafts. For the flush style, =E0 la P-47/Yak/Mosquito etc, cut away the portion of the wingtip and glue a piece of clear sprue in its place; sand and polish until you restore the original wing profile. You can drill a small hole in the clear piece and pour a drip of red/green clear paint for the light bulb. For the stand-proud style, as seen on P-39/P-40/Lavotchkin etc., stretch a section of clear sprue over a candle until it reaches the approximate dimension, then cut it in two. Now hold the thin end close to the flame; the plastic will shrink and form a round 'drop'. Squeeze this drop gently with a pair of tweezers, flattening the sides. Chop the end with a scalpel and you should get almost the 'half-raindrop' shape you need.

HTH Bonehammer