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Nothing new here as kits more detailed but I just opened up the Z-M F-4E to start and counted 15 sprues!  How do you deal with all those sprues?  Many times the parts you need for a particular area of the build (cockpit for example) are spread out over different sprues which requires sorting through multiple sprues to find all the parts.  I am not complaining about the amount of parts at all, I think the added detail is great.  What I want to know is has somebody got a good idea of organizing these sprues so they are easy to sort through but not spread out all over the workshop?  Last kit I worked on was the Tamiya F-4B and I had to just spread them out on the floor which is hardly efficient or practical.  Any suggestions?

 

Geoff M

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I go to each sprue and cut part with sprue on it if I can, meaning I cut all the cockpit parts and leave as much sprue as possible, do that assembly then do the same for the next step. What I try to do is paint on the "mini sprued" parts without totally removing them so I have something for the alligator clip to grab. There is a method to my madness but someone else probably has a more efficient way. Hope this helps but doesn't confuse you either, I have "odd ways" to cure "odd problems".

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15 tree/sprues? Is that all?

The AMK 1/48 Tomcat kit has over 56 sprue trees. I just re-counted them. And 3 decal sheets.

 

Scott

CNJC-IPMS

Edited by F-16
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8 hours ago, viper730 said:

Desktop sprue organizer works for me. I bought this  https://www.hobbyzone.biz/shop.shtml#!/HobbyZone-OM13-Sprue-Module/p/102650226/category=17925293

It has 15 slots but b/c of various parts shapes it usually holds fewer parts trees.

HTH

 

 

That might work for holding some sprues for when you are working on a particular area of the kit.  Might have to give it a try.

 

Geoff M 

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4 hours ago, Gwen Phoenix said:

Oh dear; I once got a terrible rebuke from my husband for having taken all of the sprues out from his Kinetic 1/48 Su-33 kit and have been unable to put them back together inside the box so that the lid would fit. :rofl:Not even a Tetris expert would have succedeed.

Cheers,

 

Gwen

Takom seems to be very good as making boxes that fit once.

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I bought a tool chest from Harbor Freight to sit beside/behind me as I build.  The top 4 drawers are for sprues of the kit or kits I’m working on.

The rest of the drawers hold all the small tools that use to clutter up my bench all the time.   Between builds my bench is cleaned off 100% of everything, all tools put away and everything wiped down.

Of course I’m only on my 3rd build with this new system.  Let’s see how long it lasts. LOL! 

Another tip is to ”Flag” the sprue with tape and write the sprue number on it with a marker. 
 

BeEd45.jpg

Edited by Scott Smith
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/28/2022 at 10:56 AM, Gwen Phoenix said:

taken all of the sprues out from his Kinetic 1/48 Su-33 kit and have been unable to put them back together inside the box so that the lid would fit

 

That proves my suspicion that with the rise of GPS the roadmap factory map folders got new jobs at plastic model companies.

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On 10/27/2022 at 8:26 PM, Geoff M said:

Nothing new here as kits more detailed but I just opened up the Z-M F-4E to start and counted 15 sprues!  How do you deal with all those sprues?  Many times the parts you need for a particular area of the build (cockpit for example) are spread out over different sprues which requires sorting through multiple sprues to find all the parts.  I am not complaining about the amount of parts at all, I think the added detail is great.  What I want to know is has somebody got a good idea of organizing these sprues so they are easy to sort through but not spread out all over the workshop?  Last kit I worked on was the Tamiya F-4B and I had to just spread them out on the floor which is hardly efficient or practical.  Any suggestions?

 

Geoff M

Most kits these days give each sprue a letter and then number the parts on those.

I just arrange the sprues alphabetically on a rack and pick out the parts required.

When they dont have a letter then I just look up the parts diagram in the instructions.

When the kit is really old they generally dont have that many sprues to search through and you just go looking over the sprues to get the part you need.

 

Keep it simple.

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