As the last snow melts and the greenery emerges, other treasures appear in the edges of my yard… Little bottles thanks to passing cars.

Fortunately, as a scratchbuilder, I’ve actually found a rather good use for these unorthodox deposits- they make a great initial structure for making cubical forms.

In this shot you can see a variety of shapes and sizes. The first step of course is to thoroughly wash these items , remove the labels, and trim of the neck.

 

For the next part, I often use a piece of Gatorboard as the foundation. For those who are not familiar with this material, Gatorboard is a laminated Plastic sheet that is used often for outdoor signage in kiosks or on the sides of buses. It can be cut, sanded, carved and glued much as one would work with polystyrene, and it is perfectly receptive to paint applications.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/gatorfoam-board/

 

From that point onward, it’s a simple matter to cut and attach the side and top, made from gatorboard or sheet styrene. Gaps can be filled with modeling paste or putty.

 

The resulting cuboid forms can then be sanded and leveled.

 

And at that point, one has a nice beginning shape to which other parts and pieces can be attached to create various bits of machinery or equipment. In my case, a variety of computer monitors.

 

And here, the results. Having primed the final assemblage with some Krylon Fusion paint, I can then use a combination of Enamel and acrylic spray and model paints to create the surface and add weathering and distress effects.

So once you start to develop that “X-ray vision” in which you see objects not as discrete items, but rather as shapes and forms, you can find all sorts of uses for the most unconventional of materials.