Model makers in general - and model plane makers are no exception - have a happy knack of being able to turn all sorts of everyday items to good use in their models.

What ordinary (or not so ordinary) things have YOU turned to good use as a means of adding extra detail to your models? Tell us what you have commandeered from the kitchen or pinched from the parlour or any other source (legitimate or otherwise!) and used for your model making. Please send a picture of the finished article if you can, but don't worry if you can't. The 'recyclopedia' will remain a permanent item on the site for reference for others looking for inspiration! Entries do not necessarily have to be your own original idea, either - similar ideas you have gleaned from other sources are also most welcome!

Entries are listed in alphabetical order and most work in two directions - blue entries show the unrecycled product and its application; brown entries show the application and refer you back to the appropriate blue entry. New entries are flagged and the contributor will be identified on the first appearance of the entry, but not thereafter. Some of the pictures, but not all, are linked to larger images.

aerosol caps - spinner blanks, cheeks, cowls, dash surrounds.

aileron wire tubes for small electric models - MacDonald's "thick shake" straws

air scoops - airline spoons

airline spoons - silver-coloured plastic spoons make great air scoops for small models.

aluminium beer cans (1) - a great source of thin aluminium for panels, etc., contact cemented to the model.

aluminium beer cans (2). When you cut up the aluminium beverage cans for the sheet aluminium, keep the concave dome from the bottom of the can as well. The dome can be cut to any diameter making terrific little hub caps up to about 1 3/4" diameter (44.4 mm), or scale inspection covers for light planes.

aluminium beer cans (3). Wrap the body of a beer can round an electric motor to make a precise hole cutting tool for accurately fitting an electric motor into a foam wing or nacelle.

aluminium louvres - ventilator grilles

baby buggy wheels. These are lightweight, and are around 4 - 5 inches diameter, ideal for the larger models, and rough fields. Add a bush by inserting a piece of alkathene micro-irrigation hose, works great. Also, smear on a thin layer of Automotive silicon (black) to the tire, and then roll it in dust; it gives a great non-shiny black finish.

battery flight packs - mobile phones

bicycle spokes. Small bicycle spokes from cycle shops can work out cheaper than the model shop threaded pushrods. Check the strength first, of course, and a proper fit for your clevis.

blu-tack. I use glo-sticks with a replaceable battery; I bought a pack of NimH cells of 3300mAh in Aldis for a paltry couple of quid, and charge 'em up before each flying session. This means I have 3 little firestarters in my flightbox drawers: not so - a small blob of whitetack or the more pc blutack over each positive terminal of the loose cells makes them virtually inert. Plasticine would do the same as would any putty.

brass curtain hooks - Glider tow/launch hooks. Robert Ellis.

cable ties. Use cheap cable ties to keep control snakes in control.

canopy windows - OHP transparency plastic

caulking gun nozzles. For anyone building a warbird fighter around 5th / 6th scale, the plastic screw-on extensions from various types of caulking gun tubes make very fine wing mounted cannon barrels. OK, not exact scale but can be close enough for flying scale. Different makes are slightly different, so the closest match will do, cut to length and push mounted on a short dowel in the wing. They'll remove easily for transportation and no tears if one gets lost - just fit another!

clevises - IBM Selectric typewriters

clock gears. Use a clock gear to mark rivets on to litho plate. Take the metal gears out of an old alarm clock and fit a suitably sized one to a handle made out of a bit of tubing - or dowelling - using the gear's own axle. The rivets are embossed into the plate simply by running the tool down the edge of a ruler, laid over the back of the litho plate panel. (Taken from the first ever issue of modelflight, dated 30th January 2000.)

coasters - coffee jar lids

cockpit openings and canopy frames - yellow (manila) folder paper

coffee jar lids - coasters for when you sit back satisfied!

coffee stirrers. Recently in motorway services and the like I have found that they are supplying wooden stirrers for tea and coffee. About 5mm wide and 1 to 1.5 mm thick and in various lengths, they are ideal for local reinforcement say where you want to thicken up a servo mount to take the screws.

creme brulee pots. A family favourite in my house is Creme Brulee. This comes in small shallow glass containers, which, when washed out, make excellent mixing containers for epoxy. Also use 'Long Matches' from the supermarket to mix the glue, and used lolly sticks to apply it.

cooking pots. The BALSA USA Eindecker kit comes with a rather odd looking two piece ABS plastic cowling and cheek cowls. I went to WAL-MART and went to their cooking section and found two very cheap (and thin walled) aluminium pots. Actually I bought one single handled pot and tried to make the cowling from it but it just wasn’t the right shape and diameter. It later became the cheek cowls. I went back to the store and found a two handle aluminium cooking pot that was about another 1-1/2” in diameter and much deeper. With a little creative tin snipping the two pots became pretty nice open bottom cowling and cheek cowls for about $12 total. Click the picture for enlargement.

covering - Fablon

cowls - cooking pots; plastic mixing bowl

drinking straws. Put a straw or several straws joined together into the fuselage to run the Rx aerial down. ASDA produce some giant drinking straws which are 1000mm long, 25 for a quid (£1.) Could take servo wires if the plug was removed before inserting them.

drumstick ice cream caps. The plastic caps on top of 'drumstick' ice creams make good hub caps (not applicable in the UK where this type of ice cream generally has flat cardboard disc lids!). Picture shows one with plane manufacturer's motif traced and painted on.

dural rod - knitting needles

epoxy caddy - milk shake carton

eopxy mixing bowls, large and small - creme brulee pots/tablet packs

exhaust gaskets - shaving cream tubes

Fablon self adhesive film. Use Fablon instead of the usual self-adhesive Solartrim or similar. It comes in all manner of colours/patterns, sticks better, takes varnish and fuel-proofer, doesn’t bubble or wrinkle and it’s CHEAPER! Picture shows Geoff's Fablon-decorated Uno.Wot featured on June 2008 workshop.

fly swatters make good working radiator grilles - they look good and really do let the air through.

foreign coins - washers, weights; easy to cut/file.

glider tow/launch hooks - brass curtain hooks

glow starter protector - glue bottle plug; print cartridge bungs

glue bottle plug. The plug in the top of new bottles of epoxy resin makes a perfect cap to slip on the end of glow starters when stored in the flight box. It keeps the contacts clean and, in the case of self-contained battery-powered starters, prevents any danger of shorting across the contacts caused by other metal objects in the box.

guns - toy soldiers

hole cutter - aluminium beer cans (3)

holographic paper. After cutting it to shape, peel off the very thin film image from its cardboard carrier and apply for imitation landing lights on wing edges, or wherever.

hub caps - aluminium beer cans (2); drumstick ice cream caps

IBM Selectric typewriters - a great source for clevises! Most are threaded and might lend themselves to push/pull rods for servos. Karl Bublak.

kitchen sieve for radiator grilles. Source - a cheap kitchen sieve from Wilkinson's or similar budget store. Strong and stiff woven steel mesh of about 1.6mm pitch, ready-formed into a convex shape for those curved applications, but capable of being flattened if the size isn't too large.

knitting needles are a good source of hard dural rod in SWG and metric sizes. They usually have a thin anodised skin which can be abraded-off if required. They can often be obtained very cheaply from charity shops, although one such shop has stated that they are no longer allowed to stock them because of Health and Safety concerns!

landing lights - holographic paper

MacDonald's "thick shake" straws make great aileron wire tubes for small electric models.

milk shake carton. How do you ensure that your epoxy is always ready to use even when it's a bit colder in the hangar? You cut the top part from a Nestlé's Nesquick milk shake carton and store the bottles inverted. Don't forget to put on the caps! As long as you do the bottles won't leak.

mobile phones are becoming a nuisance to dispose of when they die - I scratched around my store of them from friends and family, and was able to make up two excellent battery flight packs - a bit of soldering required, as the phone packs are 3 cell, 3.6 volt, and need another cell joined to make 4.8 volt. Mine are giving good service, hold a charge well, and although they don't specify capacity, seem on a par or better than my store bought ones.

OHP (overhead projector) transparency plastic. I make up scale canopies from aluminium strip cut from thick sheet, then covered panel by panel with OHP transparency plastic, which is thin, light, and quite scuff resistant. I roughen the edges with sandpaper to ensure a good bond to the aluminium with epoxy.

panels - aluminium beer cans (1)

pipe joiners. My method of getting better purchase on the big, big spinners, like my Zero, is to go to the plumbing supply shop and purchase a small rubber section designed to join pipes. It slips on the outside of the starter cup, and I initially used two large hose clips to hold it on, but after losing a bit of knuckle skin to these, I removed them - the sleeve pushes onto the aluminium starter cup fine, and a rubber band underneath helps assure good grip.

plastic mixing bowl (mould). I found a perfect shape for the FW 190 cowl in the local $2 shop - a plastic mixing bowl. I have had good (and economical) results with papier mache shapes rather than fibreglass. A lot more crash resistant, still light, and fuelproof if finished right: ie. two coats of automotive undercoat, and two of topcoat, from spraycans.

plastic drink bottles. Polycarbonate drink bottles can be used to make wind sceens and canopies. Keep your eye out for suitably shaped polycarbonate bottles that have canopies and windscreens 'hidden' within. (click picture for enlargement.)

print cartridge bungs. Anyone who refills printer cartridges with Jet Tec refill kits can make an anti short device for battery glow starters from the "bungs" in the kit. Photo, right, is self explanatory. The warning flag is held by a thread (in this case fishing line) pushed through in a needle, and knotted each end. Ray Powell.

pushrods - bicycle spokes

radiator grilles - fly swatters; kitchen sieve

receiver aerial tube - drinking straws

reinforcing wood - coffee stirrers

rivet marker - clock gears.

shaving cream tubes. The supplied exhaust gaskets for the ASP 52 are reputed to be short-lived, and certainly that has been the case for mine. Apparently there are better OS and Magnum alternatives, but I was in a hurry. I decided to go to very soft aluminium, but where to find that in a suitable thickness? Erasmic Shaving Cream tubes - that's where. But be quick! It's being discontinued and is disappearing from the shelves. (There are other products using these tubes - some adhesives and some medical creams like E45 are still produced in them.) Enough material for about half a dozen, and easily rolled flat. The holes for the exhaust bolts are best drilled first, and when trapped between a couple of pieces of hardwood, to prevent burrs. I do about four together, in a sandwich. After drilling the holes, I next cut the centre aperture with a pointed scalpel blade, then trim around the outside with tin-snips or ordinary scissors, leaving plenty spare along the narrow edges. A very thin coat of RTV-type silicone sealer on assembly then sees to it that there is no oil seepage. Colin Stevens.

shoe laces - a piece of wire inserted into a bit of shoe lace and fed through the firewall and into the cabin, gives the appearance of the old, woven insulation found on the magneto cables of many vintage planes.

spinner blanks, cheeks, cowls, dash surrounds - aerosol caps

spinner grips - pipe joiners

strip lining - vinyl sheet

tablet packs - ideal to use as small epoxy mixing bowls. Robert Ellis.

toy soldiers. Scale-looking guns can often be sourced very cheaply from those shops which sell cheap children's toys, like soldiers festooned with weaponry.

undercarriage wheels - baby buggy wheels

ventilator grilles. I found some great, scale-looking aluminium louvres for around the engine of the latest project,( a 86" FW 190A) in the ventilation section of the local hardware store.

vinyl sheet. I go to a sign shop and they take a piece of vinyl, 22 inches wide x six feet in length, and cut it completely into strips of varying widths, like 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16, 7/32, and 1/4". It is real good stuff, and it does stick. You get a lot of strips doing it this way, and it costs much less than buying the same amount in rolls.

wind screens and canopies - plastic bottles

wing mounted cannons - caulking gun nozzles

woven cabling - shoe laces

yellow (manila) folder paper. Use yellow (manila) file folder paper on small (up 55" wing spans so far) electric scale models in place of 1/64 ply to make the cockpit openings for open cockpit models, and canopy frames where there are no compound curves. It can also be used in place of balsa sheeting on cowls as well. MUCH cheaper then 1/64 ply, easier to form, and attaches easily with any type of white glue.