I save all of my sprews for making conversions and so on. I'm still fascinated with the idea of Lincoln Logs and am surprised that no one I know of has made them whether in plastic or wood in 1/72. There virtually no 1/72 log cabins to buy for a reasonable price that look like a Abe Lincoln Cabin. So, since you ask, I've been saving all of my sprews, just throwing into a big drawer. The first thing I'll make out of Atlantic nice thick sprews like from their Greek Warship set, will be a very simple Pioneer / Cavalry Stockade Gate. Got the doors, just need the Gate frame. Then I'll practice some Lincoln Logs from the sprews. I bought a Proxxon hobbyTable Saw in 2016 especially for making the grooves in the logs. Need time and space to set everything up. I think also an ACW or AWI type zig-zag fence made of logs would look cool out of sprews, too. They would be very useful for Strelets new American Civil War Range! Nice question.

Thank God for Wikipedia,
I had never heard of Lincoln logs I had the same thought of building basic log cabins foe Napoleonic Russia with teddy bear fur roofs.

Very interesting story about the development of a toy that i guess is well known in the USA but not here in the UK

We could make the figures out of semolina or mash.
I was treated on the lunchtime news today to a clip of a dead antipodean gull having its stomach sliced open to show it was full of Strelets figures (actually plastic fishing waste). There is a story somewhere of how my recycled stuff ends up off the coast of Australia in the gut of a gull but nobody has informed me of it. Still good for a British BBC camera crew's awayday + expenses.
I hope the white metal fans don't get smug for the gulls would sink if they got their "choppers" on those.
Happy days long ago when Cousteau and Hans und Lotte Hass would just tell us "how beautiful der unterzee vas". Now it has to look like a plumber's nightmare.
Yes, very perverse of humans at the point we have converted most things into their plastic simulacra (first use of that word in this forum I bet) to then want to ban it.
The Kinks sang about it back in 69:
He's gotta plastic heart, plastic teeth and toes (Yeah, he's a plastic man)
He's gotta plastic knees and a perfect plastic nose (Yeah, he's a plastic man)
He's gotta plastic lips that hide his plastic teeth and gums
And plastic legs that reach up to his plastic bum (Plastic bum, plastic bum )

Blame Ray Davies I think somebody stole his Airfix figures.

My grandpa used to say, "Waste not, want not."

Over the decades since I started collecting 1/72 (actually Airfix HO/OO) figures on sprues I was always looking for ways to use my sprues. Over the years I've built ruined log cabins out of them but it was always problematic getting the stuff to stick together in the old days of soft plastic that refused to glue properly - or chemical advances that allowed us to glue said plastics and such.

One of the things I had the best results with was using sprues for log split railed fences and defensive positions. I'd pile a bunch together in a more or less organized pile - pour glue over it and light it up, letting it melt together to make small terrain pieces. Then I might stack some straight pieces like logs, and melt some in front to make it look like a log enforced dugout. With brown and/or OD pieces from 20th Century sets I could maybe get away using the pieces as is. With other sets I could always paint them to suit.

I also made felled trees and logs - mounds and such - general scenery. Over the years I managed to make some good pieces - some not-so-good. Actually, imagination's the limit and if you come up with a melted blob - it's war and battle damage and all good.

Well plastic is only bad if you throw it away... personally I don't see me throwing my collection away in my lifetime...

The problem is that plastic is not being sensibly recycled in many countries and I dont think recycling a few figure sprues is going to make a lot of difference... Its possible where I am to recycle pretty much everything, we dont have more then one bin of actual rubbish for the tip per year, paper, plastic, glass, organic etc etc all gets recycled...

Anyway why not plant some trees whilst browsing the internet... it may help to placate a guilty concience.... and at least the air can get better...

https://info.ecosia.org/what

:wink:

Where I live all the plastic, except black is accepted for recycling as they have a processing plant that can separate out the different grades. Plus if they could sort out the loony element of the environmentalists we could use any that couldn't be recycled as fuel.

Aren't we victims of our own processes?

In an effort to mechanize and streamline our packaging for the sake of convenience, the end result is no one is responsible for the everlasting result - trash. Companies have developed p.e.t. bottles for pretty much all non-alcoholic beverages. And beer and wine bottles are disposable also.

Without getting too deep, it's really too bad bottles don't have a deposit value anymore, not here anyway. We as kids walked the route to the supermarket picking up all the bottles the drivers tossed out their windows, took them to the supermarket, and any cashier counted out or deposits and gave us cash, we then turned that into HERSHEY Chocolate or Payday candy bars. We cleaned the roadways for free!

I also miss the milk man delivery. Fresh and cold milk on your porch. Funny isn't it. Now 60 years later supermarkets have "Order On'line; we deliver." And Millenials go, "Wow, home delivery. What a great new idea!"

The real crime here in the U.S. is, China last week announced they were no longer accepting our ocean tanker loads of recycleable trash because they've decided to clean up their own backyards (actually they have state of the art recycling centers, apparently) and have enough of their own garbage without ours. So, now that W...M... finally distributed new "Recycling Cans", rumor has it both cans may have to be combined and dumped into landfills.

Why aren't we the worlds leaders in recycling and reusables? It's not the faults of Millenials. It started with my generation. I guess it started back in my old days with - "No Deposit; No Return"

Plastic from plastic models is a drop in the ocean compared to the major plastic product. Plastics like antibiotics are essential but misused products.

The problem is that manufactures always know best and unfortunately, too many politicians in the UK scream 'nappy state' the moment people suggest banning unnecessary products like free plastic bags, excessive packaging , plastic straws and plastic coffee cups from the leading coffee shops etc.

Unfortunately the environment will always play second fiddle when profits are concerned for the big intentional companies.

Yes but the worst thing is it can be recycled but we only recycle something like 15% We or more like own children will pay for this folly.