Lollypops and cotton buds.

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Cotton Buds and Lollypop Sticks

Miser, skinflint, stingy git call it what you will,,but when it comes to the addiction of plastic crack every penny saved is more I can give to GW for yet more minis.

I've been found upside in dumpsters, skips and bins all around my local area salvaging interesting bits n bobs for various projects for about 22 years now.Working in recycling now has only made me worse.

It's caused some 'interesting' conversations but luckily no legal action so far.

So whats the point of the waffle? Erm.. anyway the idea is to share some of the more socially more acceptable things you might find useful.

This one is one of my all time favourites the lollypop stick (sucker stick) cotton bud (Q tip) combo.

First off select your Lolly type, it obviously has to have a hollow plastic stick and be tasty. You can just cut the lolly off and sling it if you are worried about dentist bills though, this is after all meant to be cheap.



The second part is the cotton buds, here is a bit of counter intuitive thing for a misers guide... buy the expensive ones they are made of thicker plastic and are stronger and easier to work with.



Here's the good bit, these 2 things seem to be made to go together. The cotton bud fits perfectly inside the lolly stick.



Main thing is with these is that super glue is a must, they just aint the right stuff to use plastics glue on.

That aside here is a selection of things you can do with them, although the only real limit is imagination.







Now if you are really bored you can play a quick game of spot the lollypop sticks and cotton buds...

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Cheap or even free 1mm thick plasticard styrene.

Cheap 1mm Styrene

Styrene, it's a word you'll see a lot when you read conversion blogs or see pictures of scratch built wonders.
Normally bought in hobby shops in sheets of about A4 (approx US Letter Size), sometimes referred to as Plasticard.

I have grown to hate cutting up large sheets knowing full well that later on I will want large pieces normally for some Ork gubbins and will have to go buy fresh, no matter how many offcuts I save I still end up doing it.

Free Styrene.

Mmm freee stuff.

Then the missus got into Gardening, well I say gardening, every summer she seems to go into a plant buying frenzy. These are duly planted into the garden and during the following year are eaten, dug up or just plain peed to death by our three dogs.
It was whilst clearing away the debris ready for the next years cycle of this I noticed all the labels for the deceased plants were styrene.

So start hunting round the garden ( your Mums, Grandparents etc ) for all those discarded labels or ask if they throw them away and could they save them up for you.

Cheap Styrene.



Not got a gardening friend or member of the family? Not all is lost you can buy cheap enough Plant Labels if you look around, just make sure they are styrene by avoiding and Rot Proof ones they will normally be a oily feeling type of plastic that will not take to gluing in any form, even superglue.

Using your Cheap Styrene.

If you are buying blank writable Plant Labels then you can treat it just as you would a sheet you have bought from a Hobby store.

Notes on Printed and Recycled Styrene use.

Using the recycled Printed Plant Labels is pretty much as straight forward as using new, but for the sake of completeness I will mention a few of things worth bearing in mind.

Always wash the recovered labels well, as well as the obvious compost and dirt that will be on it you never know what Pesticides and other substances might have been sprayed over it.

The print, if covering large areas can interfere with gluing a little, super glue will stick to the ink and can pull it off the surface of the styrene meaning stuff under any load stress can pull apart, liquid poly will dissolve the ink though. That said a quick rub with a bit of Emery Paper (Wet n Dry) will sort the separation issue.

The print can show through a bit if you are someone who uses very thin paint layers and washes, so another reason for a quick sand off with a bit of Emery Paper.

Free Styrene in action...

Great for Chaos trim on tanks.

Honest, I do use it for non chaos stuff.