Greeblies - Categorisation and Organisation (I'm losing my marbles)

[vectorzero]

Pretty dry subject line - so what's the question?
I've read in awe about how incredibly hard it is to recreate a Studio Scale model. Unbelievable work has been done to identify donor models for the detail parts (greeblies) seen on the iconic vehicles and props of the last few 5 decades. Its pretty straightforward
for us mortals now to stand on the shoulders of a few giants, and find on which sprue of which kit to get a particular detail. I'm humbled by that.

If I'm going to take advantage of some of that hard work, then I'm going to have to practice hard before I build my first SSM. Its been nearly 30 years since I modelled in anger (I'm a bit calmer now) and if I'm going to use someone elses hard work to get good reference materials I'm going to do the best possible job in the execution of the final model. (Maybe I need to calm down a bit more.)

So the plan was to go up into the loft, dust off some unfinished kits, then move onto refurbishing some old scratchbuilds. (OK, so its one scratchbuild - all the others died in a house move to my great regret). The final stage of my rehabilitation will then be to build something big and scary. Here, the Nylon GaG is my inspiration. His Delivery Ship thread gives me goosebumps. It is big and it is clever!

Which brings me (at last you say) to the point.

Out of the loft I pulled a bunch of boxes full of donor parts for my own scratch builds. One thing I recall from when I was building stuff as a teenager was that you can never have enough greeblies. Finding that super detailed technical look is very dependent on having lots of detailed parts from which to dress (or hide) your model. (Well it is in my case, as I'm both lazy and impatient - meaning I'll spend 4 hours looking for a greeblie, when I could have scratched something in an hour.)

So having more money than sense I have been buying a lot of stuff on eBay. From donor tank kits to job lots of unbuilt random models, to the entire modelmaking collection of an elderly gentlemen who was sadly having to give up due to the ravages of time. Its safe to say I went a bit mad on eBay. OK, I've become addicted to the pursuit of the greeblie, and forgotten that I'm supposed to be building stuff. I feel like I should just lock myself in the study with them, develop massive distended eyeballs from staring at plastic parts, and start muttering "My Precious" whilst rocking backwards and forwards....

Anyway, what this means is I have literally thousands of kit parts - some on sprues, some loose. The problem is that if I were Studio Scale god looking for a particular greeblie, I could go from model->reference material->kit->sprue->part. So I presume you keep the donor parts on the sprue, and probably keep the sprues in the original box. (Guys like Jason Eaton must have a warehouse in which to keep their donors). That way you can find the part relatively easy, as you have a classification system.

However, as a scratchbuilder you're looking to have a bunch of stuff to build up into something new. If you want to add some greeblies to your model, you can't just tip the lot out onto the carpet and kick it around with your toe. You need to have - a classification system, and to put stuff in boxes or bags. OK you dont HAVE to, but in my house there's this other person who doesn't see the aesthetic appeal of a million pieces of plastic strewn about the place, and she tends to get a bit grumpy.

So this problem is driving me both blind and mad. For the last several weeks, I've been trying to sort through all this stuff I've collected so if I ever start building again I can easily work out where I have to go to find it. I've bought what appears to be the entire manufacturing output of the "Really Useful Box" company, as well as about 2,000 transparent ziplock bags.

How do those of you with a working brain store this stuff? Do you categorise greeblies by some sort of family resemblance (grills, lugs, actuators, yet another WWII Jerry can), size (< 5mm, 5mm-10mm, wow thats a big, weird and awkward thing) or shape (domed, conical, round, what on earth would you call that). How did ILM do this in the early days when it was all about the creation of new stuff?

This is the current state of my workbench, and this is about 5% of my greeblie collection. Unless I can crack this problem, poor ED-209 in the background is never going to get assembled!


Any help help/thoughts/sympathy/abuse welcome.

 

[damienjameswebb]

Hey,

if you have invested in a collection of pieces like that, you should also invest in a set of some of THESE boxes. Sortimo is the best when it comes to compartmental style sorting and storage. you can organize each case for different genres of pieces, then within each case sort between size, detail, color etc. i've used them before and they are beautifully robust and rugged, you can take the compartments out of the case and take it to where you need to go, it has a see though top so you can just browse your pieces (just like you want to) without making a big widespread mess (like others hate). trust me... depending on the sized of your collection you may have to spend a bit of money on them, but they're worth it. I had an old set that lasted me about 6 years, even though i had bought them used. they were beaten up and scuffed, but never cracked or broke open (even after falling 10 feet out of a storage loft...)

Best part is all my stuff stayed organized just how i wanted. try it out.


P.S. - personally if it was me, i would organize by grilles, lights, guns, wheels, etc. and then by size and overall shape. the only reason scale modelers in a shop prefer to do it by model types for reference is because they sometimes NEED to go back and find that specific piece of a tank that they used. OR they buy like a hundred of a specific kit and need to categorize the kits themselves first before the pieces. if your building original pieces every time, my way would probably benefit you more cause then you can browse for what kind of shape or texture you want rather than trying to think what would be in kit #7736529 on shelf C Isle #4.

Good Luck!

-Damien

 

[damienjameswebb]

P.P.S. - whatever you do, don't use baggies..... soooo hard to pick tiny pieces out of... makes sense at first, pain in the ass in the long run.

-Damien

 

[Gattaca]

I agree with the guys above, I bought my compartment bins at thrift shops, and filled them with 'similar' parts, small round, flat, landing gear, tank treads, etc. I also use small clear plastic take out bowls for projects, so if I'm working on something that needs a lot of greebles, I'll sort through my compartment bins and pick possible parts and place them in the take out bowl, then I don't have to keep going back through boxes of parts all the time.

 

[ProfKSergeev]

I sort by size (tall, grande, venti) and keep the parts in Tupperware-esque containers with snap-close lids. I feel size the most important factor because when you want a greeblie, you want a greeblie, not a larger, potentially structural element.

 

[vectorzero]

Hey,

if you have invested in a collection of pieces like that, you should also invest in a set of some of THESE boxes. Sortimo is the best when it comes to compartmental style sorting and storage. you can organize each case for different genres of pieces, then within each case sort between size, detail, color etc. i've used them before and they are beautifully robust and rugged, you can take the compartments out of the case and take it to where you need to go, it has a see though top so you can just browse your pieces (just like you want to) without making a big widespread mess (like others hate). trust me... depending on the sized of your collection you may have to spend a bit of money on them, but they're worth it. I had an old set that lasted me about 6 years, even though i had bought them used. they were beaten up and scuffed, but never cracked or broke open (even after falling 10 feet out of a storage loft...)

Best part is all my stuff stayed organized just how i wanted. try it out.


P.S. - personally if it was me, i would organize by grilles, lights, guns, wheels, etc. and then by size and overall shape. the only reason scale modelers in a shop prefer to do it by model types for reference is because they sometimes NEED to go back and find that specific piece of a tank that they used. OR they buy like a hundred of a specific kit and need to categorize the kits themselves first before the pieces. if your building original pieces every time, my way would probably benefit you more cause then you can browse for what kind of shape or texture you want rather than trying to think what would be in kit #7736529 on shelf C Isle #4.

Good Luck!

-Damien

Thanks Damien. That's a really good idea about the multiboxes. I actually have a few of them in the garage holding nuts and bolts, but hadn't even thought to use them.

I agree with the guys above, I bought my compartment bins at thrift shops, and filled them with 'similar' parts, small round, flat, landing gear, tank treads, etc. I also use small clear plastic take out bowls for projects, so if I'm working on something that needs a lot of greebles, I'll sort through my compartment bins and pick possible parts and place them in the take out bowl, then I don't have to keep going back through boxes of parts all the time.
View attachment 224230

Another brilliant idea with the bowl. I'll definitely take that one on board. I'm also leaning toward the similarity, as when dressing something you tend to think things like "I wish a had something that looked like a strut/lug/box for here".

I sort by size (tall, grande, venti) and keep the parts in Tupperware-esque containers with snap-close lids. I feel size the most important factor because when you want a greeblie, you want a greeblie, not a larger, potentially structural element.

I understand what you mean. Maybe I need to expand my definition of parts to greeblies and other (bigger stuff). As the photo below shows I have a LOT of kit parts from my fevered bidding on eBay. Nearly every box is full. Some of the bigger boxes contain complete Tamiya 1:2th F1 cars still on the sprue, so they take up a lot of room. It was as I considered the upside of taking every part off the sprue, I began realising the downside - finding stuff.

The smaller boxes are very useful for the retention of smaller repeating parts. Jaitea's idea of using laptop keyboard hinges for small structural details meant I went out and bought 3 on eBay. I now have 3 sets of about 100 of these tiny hinges.

Red Bull can for scale, and for sticking in an inspirational vodka later.