Gamera:

Hilarious and a great idea !

Thanks Tonka, never even thought about some of it being in 1/24th auto scale.

Just fooling around with my camera and took a few pics of my haul. Red Army tanker Boris Whakoff being 1/35th will help me to demonstrate...

'All this stuff will look great back on the collective farm!'

'Don't tell Manny that while he's away I comrade Boris Whakoff have appropriated his bathroom for the use of the glorious Red Army!!!'

'Old man, stand aside! Stalin needs your pumpkins for the war effort!!!'

These 'carpets' are made of real cloth. Expensive but they're really cool looking. The wallpaper is nice too.

Like others I am constantly looking for stuff to use.   It's not that I am searching it out but everywhere I go I look at stuff in the context of how it can be used in modeling.  And when I do find something my wife will ask what it's for and she says, "Oh yeah, it's for your models isn't it?'  And then rolls hers eyes.

I am always looking at nature too to find stuff.  I found a small twig on the ground once that looks someone had manufactured scale drift wood.  Almost instantly I had a diorama in my head built around this one little 2' twig.

Doll house stores usually carry 2 scales 1/12 and half scale (1/24) guess what you can use the 1/24 scale items for...:-)

I also regulary check out my wife's craft stores,,, They have lots of cool stuff and last time I found Ceramacoat and Apple Barrel acrylic paints in many many colors for .35 a bottle!

Great for brushpainting and I airbrush it also with appropriate thinner.

Gamera

But still some of the smaller stuff works quite well. AKA a basket of strawberries becomes a basket of apples, a small desk top photo frame becomes a large wall painting frame etc etc etc....

Good idea !

Well, last week I picked up a big pile of stuff from a dollhouse shop to use in dioramas. The woman working there kept giving me funny looks...

Most of their stuff was about twice 1/35 scale, I guess 1/15??? But still some of the smaller stuff works quite well. AKA a basket of strawberries becomes a basket of apples, a small desk top photo frame becomes a large wall painting frame etc etc etc....

Visualization is key ,the ability to 'see' something used for other than its original intent. Excellent post/ subject for modelers with supply problems .

Absolutely, a good modeler is likely to be a good scavenger/scrounger, as shown by the responses.  In fact, for us old-timers (Hammer, I respectfully include you) before anyone had ever heard the words "aftermarket" or "photo-etch", we had a term called "creative gizmology" (cf Shep Paine's books and articles).  If you had an old piece of electronics, for example, you didn't throw it out, until you had stripped it of anything that might be used, certainly the wire.  When I was a kid, I made spaceships out of the guts of old vacuum tubes.

As for cross-pollination between modeling hobbies, sure, you can find a lot of useful things in shops or catalogs aimed at model railroaders, or ship builders--a ton of small brass or wooden bits, for example, or decals, paints, molded plastic stock, ready-made electronics for making moving displays, to say nothing of the knowledge that old-timer model railroaders have.

In short, keep your eyes and ears open, you never know where something useful will turn up next.

Regards,

Brad

Evertthing I see becomes eligible for model-building now ,a cross over from signwork where I use lots of items ,what does the job is good as long as it meets  electrical code or CSA/UL standards. Model RR stuff is a goldmine ,if a guy can visualize clearly. Grandt line and Tichy are in a lot of my WIP's

I also brouse the local Model RR shop for small nuts and bolts.

I also take apart old wrist watches for the small gears and other parts.  In particular, watch gears make good elevator trim wheels for WWII aircraft.

Radio Shack can also be a good source for small gauge wire and other small bits.

Mark

techhnicaly anybody who has built a dio  has cross pollinated   the grass stones gravel etc  that you purchased  is made by companies that specialize in model rr

Absolutely, toys are good sources for wheels & tires, among other detail parts...  I scoop up my grandson's busted stuff all the time, lol..

Hans von Hammer

I look for parts & materials everywhere...

.  I keep some ziplock bags in the car along with a wisk-broom for gathering different kinds of sand, dirt, pebbles, even concrete...

Hans, we'll hafta start calling you the FSM Evidence Technician.

I don't build dioramas so I don't gather sand, etc. however, I did just find a suitably sized impeller for my 1/24th DB-601 supercharger  in a small MPC X-wing component in my parts bin.

I've lately been scanning toy isles for suitably sized tires / engine parts and have used " Zip Lock " ties as detail parts in kits.

I look for parts & materials everywhere... Not just the different areas of the hobby shop, but grocery stores, hardware stores, electronics, construction sites, dumpsters, ditches, & riverbeds...  I keep some ziplock bags in the car along with a wisk-broom for gathering different kinds of sand, dirt, pebbles, even concrete...

In addition to model forums I also read railroad, miniatures, and gaming forums and magazines to get ideas/materials.