GHQ Models Forums

I am rapidly getting a box of leftover metal from cutting the mini’s from their sprues and its starting to pile up. What should I do with it? Is it reusable? And if so should I send it back to GHQ once I have enough so they can reuse it.

A very good question. I would also be interested in knowing this.

I believe that GHQ uses a lead free pewter called Britannia metal. I have used the extra bits & bobs off of sprues to make armaments for custom Aeronefs for a VSF game I play. They also are great for custom Space Opera ships, decorating terrain, & similar sorts of projects.
The Sprues themselves I've used in terrain or even cast a few of them together to make roundballs for my flintloque rifle or lead-free shot for duck hunting with my smoothbore flintloque.

Skal,
Sven

It would be nice if we could figure out a cost effective way to send it back to them so they can re-use it, but given what it weighs, I'm guessing at best it would be a break even proposition, although I haven't researched any numbers.

Maybe GHQ could do something along the lines of for a certain quantity of metal returned, the returner would get a free blister or maybe free shipping on their next order.

Assuming it is reusable, for a recycling program to work for them, their cost of acquiring new pewter would have to be greater or equal to the cost of recycling the old pewter taking into account their processing costs + gamers benefit.

Their processing costs would consist of whatever steps are necessary to return the recycled metal to usable form. I assume this would consist of sorting, cleaning and melting plus some admin costs to handle reimbursements or credits.

The gamer's benfit woud consist of our time and shipping costs netted against whatever incentive GHQ could offer such as credit towards future purchases or free shipping.

Or if it is recyclable and the numbers don't work for any gamer's benefit, we could take one for the planet and just send it back to GHQ to reuse and get nothing in return but Karma.

I'm a toy soldier home-caster, and I love to accumulate a few pounds of scrap like this to add to my old tire weight metal to make a better quality casting metal. Just about anytime I have a new army project, I end up with a pound or two of scrap that gets melted down and reused. Sorry I can't afford to help and offer to pay postage or anything to take it off your hands, but if GHQ doesnt want it, you will probably find a metal recylcing business in your area if you can accumulate a pound or two of it. Might be able to turn that into enough money for another blister pack that way, as most of those companies will pay something for it.

Tom Oxley

Just "for what it's worth"-
You can buy "new" brittania pewter, RETAIL, in one pound lots for $12 US per pound.
(this is well down the "food chain"; not from a primary metals supplier)
I don't know what the wholesale price/lots would be, other than "significantly less"...

Looking to save a buck or two I asked GHQ this very question a while back. their response was that they couldn't do it because they couldn't control for quality - is it "old lead" or "new pewter". It would take more work to sort it than its worth given the relative cost of fresh material from their supplier. They wouldn't even just take it off my hands for free.

Paul

Another small problem that i've had re-using it is that the filings dont melt, creating a "slag" that sits on top of the molten metal. I used to do all my filing over the scrap box and try to keep every little bit of it, but it wasnt worth it. The filings corrode or something much more quickly than the larger pieces, so best is to just toss that part. Keep the larger parts to try to recycle, but don't expect more than a few cents per pound. Might make a club project, but not much on your own. Between my own GHQ projects and a couple of FoW projects for a friend, I was able to accumulate about 3 pounds of scrap in a couple of months.

Tom Oxley

Each year, my wife and I gather with friends around New Years to do some "divining." It's a silly ritual that takes place in a darkened room where each person melts a bit of lead (leftover GHQ material) over a candle and drops it into a bowl of water. The cooled shape is passed around and it's discussed what it looks like (animal, item, and so forth). Using a cheap "Dream Interpretations" book, we sit around and laugh about the predictions for the next year over a glass of wine, etc. It might be a waste, but a fun waste!
Cheers,
FM

LMAO.. That's a great one BaronvonFrank.

HAHA anyone done any custom works on their remaining pewter though?
The Last time actually tinkered around with scrap metal is when I put the scrap metal pewter over a spoon and watch it melt and form a ball.

Pretty lame, but it was rather fascinating. Though I could cast something out of it, But never gave it any serious thought because I'm sure its a lot more complicated than it sounds.

It makes pretty good casting metal or helps improve cheaper metal if you add enough. I have a bunch of Prince August 25mm Napoleonic molds, and if you have a few pounds of scrap to use, you can turn out a decent infantry unit or two. Relatively simple and cheap. Molds are available from at least one company in the US, the Prince August website and at many hobby stores around Europe, and there are always a few on Ebay. I use old discarded tire weights, a very poor casting metal but I get it for free, and I'll mix a pound of scrap from GHQ stuff with a pound of tire weights and get pretty good results with it.

Tom

I often use my old spues to make dragon's teeth or debris in my dioramas.

Catseye,
Have any pics of how you have used the excess/surplus pewter? Thank you.

I've used an old sprue that had several points on it as a "hedgerow plow" for an Ogre cybertank...not that an Ogre would really need one. It looks damned intimidating, and I guess it would be useful in forests and jungles.