build recycling

[kerick]

Just a question I've been considering lately. How many folks use past builds for new projects? Do you give a new paint job and decals or strip it down for parts and throw it in the spares box? Or are the kits you build on permanent display forever?
Some of my builds will definately have a long life on the shelf while others are looking ratty and the poorer skills of the past are showing through. Considering the cost of some new kits recycling looks better and better. What do you think?

[sandiego89]

I have recycled quite a few, especially some of my 1/700 scale ships and aircraft- new schemes, updated to have the ship serve with WHIF modifications like angled decks etc. new paint jobs for the airings. Most aircraft carrier kits come with way too few aircraft, so I like to reuse them.  

Have also recycled aircraft as well.  The 1/72 scale SeaDart as my profile picture is on around its third paint job.  I love the SeaDart, but the MACH II kit is about the only semi-affordable kit and I'm too cheap to buy new $40-$50 kits to try another scheme.  For standard priced kits I would likely just start a new one.  

I have recycled a few built models that I built years/decades ago, and my skills are better, and I have an airbrush now, so some look better that they first did.  

Some built kits have been donors for for other projects, and I may use landing gear, canopies, etc.  

I am not much for displaying once I have built. I am not very sentimental except for a few (less than 10) that I am proud of or just like and will likely never touch.  I do have a few hanging on the wall and ceiling in my garage- where I build.   The rest are usually put back in their box or put in a drawer and are fair game for experimenting, parts donors etc.  Some built kits have been donors for for other projects, with landing gear, canopies, weapons and noses being the most scavenged items.

For some reason I do not think Mrs. San Diego89 would have the same appreciation of these kits being on inside display in the house.  Can't figure it out  

[Wardukw]

As a pretty serious armour builder and whatif builder recycling kits is something i do on a regular basis but one thing i also have is a massive pile of spears in the parts boxes .
I will buy kits (on sale only tho ) with no intention of building them because i only want them for their parts..i have something like 150+ kits just for parts and god knows how many spares there are in the many boxes i have full of em .
If i have an idea and the model i need to use for that is already made then i will either buy a new one or if its a cheap kit then i will attack that one with out a moments hesitation but yep i also have quite a few models which will never meet that fate .
Some kits just turned out so good they will never be recycled but every once in a while i will go thru my shelves and see which kits dont meet my standards now and then that model will go into a parts box for later use and in turn it gives me more room on my shelves ,,so its a win win 
Recycling is a good idea and what you said about cost is also the main reason for many of us do it .

Phill 

[zenrat]

I tend to retain them as a history of how i've improved and how my tastes have changed over the years.  I've recycled (or wreckscued as it's known on another forum) a few car builds that had cracked paint (lacquer clear over enamel) or turned out too far off what I was imagining (imagination over-reaching talent usually).  I have a number of cars still to wreckscue (more paint jobs gone bad and at least one I rushed to finish for a show that I was never really happy with) but no plans for major re-dos of planes yet.  Although I have just gone back and adjusted the red prop warning lines on the Godwit and the too dark panel lines on the Thunderfly.

[kerick]

There were a number of builds from years ago that were not as well built as now that I stripped of likely to use parts and tossed out the rest. Now I wish I had them back for whiffing.

[NARSES2]

I honestly don't think I've ever recycled a kit. They get kept for posterity

[Captain Canada]

When we moved back in '98 I threw some models in a box to take, whilst I broke up dozens of others. Builds from way back etc. I broke them up to throw them in plastic garbage bags....sad, really.

I have rebuilt the odd kit, but can't really recall recycling one.

[Dizzyfugu]

In my early days, I repainted some kits after a while - but that was way before I put more effort into building. Some kits from that era are actually still around and on display, but these were built with effort and rarities.
In my 1st anime/mecha period I also repainted kits - due to the lack of more/new material, but in later period I started re-building some of the models when I realized what treasures I had at hand, and it was way before the internet age which made getting hands on those exotics/rarities much easier.

The whifs I have built so far are mostly OOB conversions, with donation parts from the early days (I threw away a whole lot of early junk that I deemed beyond restauration effort), or from what has been left. And all the stuff (as well as the mecha and character figures models) is actually on display, behind glass. Space becomes scarce, though...

[kerick]

I was looking over the shelves last week and thinking of which ones to get rid of. No real space left to display new stuff. A couple could be retired to a drawer or box until I think of a better use for them. Several will be on display no mater what as they are products of considerable work and effort and turned really nice.

[McColm]

I do that all the time, even when they aren't finished. I'm always pinching parts off other builds. That's why my Blogs are all over the place, following them must be a nightmare until they are finished.
I try to sell them or give them away.

[Go4fun]

When I was just entering Junior High (Middle) School my Dad gave me a 63 Ford Galaxie kit which of course I painted and built to replicate his car. Then I entered in the school model show and didn't get any notice. Over the summer I rebuilt it with a parts pack fuel injected DOHC Ford engine, a redone interior and much cooler wheels and tires. Took third place. Next summer I took the roof off, moved the front interior forward, did away with the back seat and put 2 (TWO!) double supercharged DOHC engines side by side with a TV Tommy Ivo four engined kit for parts. The nose was as short as an Econoline van and the exhaust was over the trunk lid.
It got totaled in the 1966 tornado (Along with a good swath of Topeka) when the attic hatch got dislodged and fell on it.

[Joe C-P]

It depends on the subject and the result. If it didn't come out too well, then I'll recycle it eventually, or at least break it down and start again. If it was really good and I feel like I'd been really inventive, I'll keep it.
Unless you're building for permanent display, though, remember it is your model, and if you want to break it apart and reuse it, or keep it and pass it on to the next generation, it matters only to you.

[Old Wombat]

Just a question I've been considering lately. How many folks use past builds for new projects?

Not yet, although I've been thinking of turning one of my tanks into a paint tester /scheme manequin.

[kerick]

Just a question I've been considering lately. How many folks use past builds for new projects?

Not yet, although I've been thinking of turning one of my tanks into a paint tester /scheme manequin.

That's always a good idea. Weathering practice too.