RMweb Premium Welly Posted May 1, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 1, 2011 My mate has a baby and the boxes that the nappies came in are being used as bases for the scenery on the club's new layout. And I have kept the whitemetal lumps from an abandoned MTK kit for use as weights in future locos, rolling stock projects! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 The hard core Greens prefer "reduce : re-use : recycle" in that order. i.e. 1. don't use or waste so much in the first place (e.g. measure twice, cut once) 2. re-use stuff for other purposes 3. recycle (reprocess, using more energy to convert it) A lot of what we call "recycling" would in fact be "re-use" under those criteria. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scots region Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 Just a note of thanks for all the sensible comments I've received so far, for resiting the temptation to throw politics into the works and earn me a right Royal 'Steel cap up backside'. Do please keep up the good work, who knows? maybe this'll be the start of a trend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 9. Firework rocket sticks - an excellent source of stripwood. I use them for 7mm scale signal posts. Most of them are good enough to plane a taper on. Coffee stirrers are used for the staging on bracket signals Never throw scrap etch away; you'll usually find a use for it eventually Jon Fitness Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poggy1165 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Ferrero Rocher boxes make brilliant glazing material; actually, they are also rather useful for storing things in. Odd sleepers that get cut off the ends of flexible track can be used i) to fill in unsightly gaps in sleeping so often seen on model railways ii) as lineside fencing iii) as sleeper piles iv) as loads for PW wagons. I have a theory that the contents of tea bags, suitably dried and painted, would make ash ballast in 7mm scale. Need to test this theory, but in the meantime they do work as fertiliser in the garden. Many types of cardboard can be recycled into lineside buildings or even wagon bodies. If cereal cartons were a good enough building material for G Illiffe Stokes they should be good enough for anyone. Plastic sprues from wagon kits, etc., can be glued inside vehicles to hold lead weights in place. Knackered old 009 locos can be fixed inside 7mm scale vans to add weight. (Same applies to most redundant castings.) Utterly useless models and bits should be put on Ebay or its RM Web equivalent - someone, somewhere will have a use for it and will pay at least 99p plus postage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Old guitar strings for vac pipes - I had forgotten about these, then my grand-daughters have just arrived with two woefully strung guitars, so I've just put on new strings, I now have a trainload of vac pipes. Nothing to do with railways - we have had our County Council doing road repairs and rebuilding some walls in the area, they have dumped tonnes of unused materials. I've now got piles of different sizes of gravel, etc., on the drive and loads of reclaimed timber and shuttering for some future community projects. - There's a joke going round the village at present about how long will it be before the yellow PortaKabin 'disappears' too - won't fit on the drive though . We know from a previous Council exercise, it all gets loaded up into a lorry/skip and is dumped. The other night when I was 'reclaiming' some gravel, a person stopped and told me off for dumping rubbish there, I told them I was collecting material for their garden work to be done by somebody else in a few weeks time - that changed their tone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldknotty Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Plastic sprue can be heated over a light bulb and stretched into pipes and wires , flower heads make excellent trees , shaved styrene can be mixed with styrene cement to make excellent fillers , odd pieces of foam board can have one side stripped off and scribed to make walls ect . bits and bobs from old computers and electrical stuff for wheels and loads in wagons suitably weathered . I always give stuff a second look just in case I can use it . Now if you want to see some excellent recycling done on models check out what Alan Downes does sometime :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Although Ferrero Rocher boxes have been mentioned I felt that this one was slightly different, the Oxford Classics car boxes that are see through can be used as the basis of a scratch built building. Also the flimsier plastic can be used as individual window glazing on both scratchbuilt trains and buildings. Real life sticks can be cut up to be used as model logs. Although Ferrero Rocher boxes have been mentioned I felt that this one was slightly different, the Oxford Classics car boxes that are see through can be used as the basis of a scratch built building. Also the flimsier plastic can be used as individual window glazing on both scratchbuilt trains and buildings. Real life sticks can be cut up to be used as model logs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 SCNF Stephen, you could have saved some energy there, only needed to be done once, TIC - but then France's record for environmental awareness is not that great (SCNF!) Re. Real life sticks can be cut up to be used as model logs. I had a 100' long privet hedge long ago, the arisings made many 4mm scale pit props. Once the hedge was cut, the bits on top where left for a few weeks, then collected, cut to length and left to dry out. I have about 8 wagons with the props in, all about 40 years old. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegheny1600 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 18. Brown paper from Hattons parcels reused to send out my ebay sales.......... Cheers, Mick Speaking of ebay or RMWeb Marketplace(!), I have been saving (decent) old cardboard boxes for years to send out any of my items for sale in. Similarly, I always save those little polystyrene beads for giving extra cushioning to said items. Best of all, ask your friendly local supermarket if they can save you any of their old bubblewrap as they pay to dispose of it - brilliant for wrapping items in to protect them further! Yes! I send my sold stock out in about three layers of packing in total and the only thing I have to provide is sellotape and time! Cheers, John E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scots region Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 Being ruthless here, cherry picking your favorite bits from old magazines and recycling the rest. good way to save space Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MooUK Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 We only ever dispose of boxes and packing material at work when it's either unusable or we completely run out of space. I harvest small boxes from work for all ebay selling - and generally the ones I want are too small for us to use anyway! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard brown Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 What I am doing to do my bit is as follows 1. cut trips to the model shop (I was doing trips every other to my normal model shop for just on thing now I do trips every other mouthy but spend the same amount (save the retailer banking bills)) 2. buy in bulk (one box of track rater then one box over a year or one order from an online supplier this mean less packing and less waste you some time also get bulk discount) 3. bring you own bag (bring your own bag to the shop or show they are normally stronger then what you get given and you save the retailer some money and in turn save you money) 4. have a shopping list so you don't need to make the trip two times Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Huw Griffiths Posted May 2, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 2, 2011 Although Ferrero Rocher boxes have been mentioned I felt that this one was slightly different, the Oxford Classics car boxes that are see through can be used as the basis of a scratch built building. I'm also looking into using a couple of these as a "shell" for a freelance O scale NG railbus - but there are a few things I'd need to work out first (like if / when I'll get the time). They also make excellent housings for small electronics projects - as do the "Cararama" ones - for example, I built a LED based track wiring tester in one the other year - I'm sure there are loads of people here who could think of better ideas. Another variant on your theme is to use the clear parts of damaged CD and audio tape cassette boxes as glazing material - they work well as individual windows, fitted to frameworks or into thick bodyshells. However, if you're thinking of gluing long strips of other plastics to them, it's best to allow for expansion / contraction (or use an adhesive with a bit of "give"). A few years back, I tried building whole sides of an O scale railcar in this way for a magazine competition (the other plastic being strips of the dark plastic they also use when making CD cases) - I hadn't made allowances and "solvent glued" the dark strips to large pieces of the clear stuff, then had to leave everything for about a month because of visitors. When I finally got back to it, I found it was starting to warp - lesson learnt. I then started again - but built the bodyshell using plastikard / Evergreen strips and just dropped in full length pieces of the clear stuff. I wasn't able to finish my new model in time - but, when I saw it the other week, it still hadn't warped. By the way, a number of years back, I believe there was a challenge somewhere to build a model railway diorama in a Ferrero Rocher box (any size) - not as radical as some ideas in this thread (it was still being used as a box) - I guess it counts as recycling! Huw. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penlan Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 ...... By the way, a number of years back, I believe there was a challenge somewhere to build a model railway diorama in a Ferrero Rocher box (any size) - not as radical as some ideas in this thread (it was still being used as a box) - I guess it counts as recycling! There still is a challenge, our own Stubby47 is doing /has done one recently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davet Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I have recently used the bases of n guage oxford classics boxes as the basis for hoppers on a 4mm scale building i constrcted for a fellow club member. From what I have already read looks like i will have to use my imagination a bit more Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold pirouets Posted May 3, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 3, 2011 Sticking on a couple of extra layers so I can keep the heater on low in the shed. (Also remembering to switch the shed off when done!!!!) Old plates - Make great templates for cutting curvers in to things Back card sheet of A4 note pads. Great modelling card. Soil dust from garden - Great for making mud paths and tracks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Colin Posted May 3, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 3, 2011 Kitchen towel/bog roll centre tubes can be cut to size & glued end down onto the baseboard - if also glued together (side to side) the resulting "cluster" can make a surprisingly strong base for scenery. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davet Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 One I used on a previous layout. Not my idea I originally saw it in an old copy of the mudller I think. Redundant computer keyboards with the keys and gubbinns removed with a new panel on top make a flat lightweight control panel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poggy1165 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Just thought of another one: Old 4mm scale rail can be soldered to flimsy 7mm scale etchings to strengthen them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
binesrail Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 2 liter cider bottles cut up and made into glazing for churches works quite well. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 And I have kept the whitemetal lumps from an abandoned MTK kit for use as weights in future locos, rolling stock projects! It would be interesting to know how much of MTK's production of castings finished up in use as ballast for other projects. Certainly that's where most of my 101 kit went ! My contribution - Food grade expanded polystyrene (chip trays, posh pizza packaging) - there was an article in MRJ a few issues back on how to turn it into very convincing stonework. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted May 23, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 23, 2011 It would be interesting to know how much of MTK's production of castings finished up in use as ballast for other projects. Certainly that's where most of my 101 kit went ! Not only white-metal kits prove to be more trouble than they're worth. I have just abandoned a Ratio kit, which required me to put no less than 15 items together to make a wall 45mm by 55mm. Life is too short to mess about like that, and I will use plasticard and micro-strip to achieve a bigger and more suitable building in half the time. Every plastic modeller has a big box of spare bits from previous projects - mine just got fuller! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 7013 Posted May 23, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 23, 2011 I have used toilet roll card insides to make silos/containers/tanks. Also plastic sprues that come with kits can been used as pipework and valves. someone on another thread mentioned that the filter filling in Brita filters makes good ballast/scatter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I have just abandoned a Ratio kit, which required me to put no less than 15 items together to make a wall 45mm by 55mm. Provender store by any chance ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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