A petition should be started here where we ask companies to include an extra sprue in their kits which would consist of extra parts in terms of small, fragile, fiddly and easy to lose parts for that specific kit...Just a small sprue with say 4 extra of each part deamed small, fragile, and easy to lose. We need more recruits in the age old battle of the modeler and the carpet monster...

Good luck with that. Maybe you can get Dragon to use Magic Tracks again while you're at it.

Dragon is the manufacturer I have the most small part losses from

Michael, I'd be down for something like that. Bronco has some extremely small parts on their sprues. While luckily I've never lost a part (knock on wood), I have broken one or two. It would be nice if they'd just give us one or two extras!

Regards,

Eric

As long as you realize this would increase prices; tooling more molds for extra sprues isn't free and these companies aren't going to do it if it costs them. Plus, how will you determine exactly what parts will need duplication? Some parts are more trouble for some people and not others. I just don't see this happening.

Some companies would use generic sprues for the little bits that were common fittings between multiple vehicles. There were always spares. I also like it when companies arrange to do common fittings on two or more identical sprues so again there'd be spares.

Because I am ham-handed klutz who drops EVERYTHING all the time.

I learned how to scratchbuild making pieces I had lost.

Both Griffon and Voyager include multiple copies of the very small PE parts on their frets.

The floor under my workbench and chair is the cleanest place in the house due to my constant sweeping to find the small bits I drop! True!!

I agree 101% !!! I've launched & dropped more parts than I care to admit. It doesn't help that the carpet in the "Man Cave" is Dragon plastic Grey.
Usually every kit contains a pair of sprues that are the same. Why not put the fragile & tiny parts on those sprues?
As far as the manufacturers caring about our mishaps, well...... as Shell said, we'd have better luck getting Dragon to include Magic Tracks in their kits.

I attached the bottom of an apron to the underside of my work bench. When working, with small parts I put the apron on. 90% of the parts I drop are caught by the apron.

Good point. Putting extras on the same sprue as the likely to be lost or broken parts would be more cost effective.

I have a heavy clear plastic bag with a zipper that some bed linen came in--now that I think of it, that would be a good place to snip parts from sprues. It would be really difficult for small pieces to jump out of that bag. But I bet some would manage.

miniart has small & brittle parts. I believe Bronco wins the "tons of small parts" award.

Good luck with that. I believe in your cause, but don't think it will get much traction. In response to the small parts loss and breakage issue, I've learned, as others have said--"to scratchbuild" parts. I also have a method using a razor saw on my Dremel tool to remove small parts from the sprues without shedding too much blood. So I guess I should be thanking these "more little details" model companies for increasing my manual dexterity and the cleanliness under my workbench-- also as another of you mentioned.

VR, Russ

As was said earlier, every extra part costs more money to tool. If there are sprues with nominally duplicated parts and you add to that, you are adding to the size of the sprue and the cost of the tool, overall. Nothing is for free. It may not cost much, but it costs something. That something, magnified by the various wholesaler markups, will get passed on to you.

Also, as was said, who decides what parts are to be duplicated? For some groups of models, there could be _some_ standardisation (say Shermans), but the number of parts that carry over from a Sherman to a Jeep to a Greyhound to a Deuce and a half is actually pretty small. Standardisation was almost nonexistant on other country's armour.

No, it might be nice, but it's highly unlikely.

We're all going to have to remain careful and vigilant around the carpet monster.

My all time favorite is doing surgery on a vacuum cleaner bag looking for a tiny, or any small missing part

To make that process of finding parts as easy as possible I put down black rubber interlocking tiles...the contrast of anything on black makes it a lot easier to find dropped parts

exactly...new molds don't have to be made because they can add the parts to one of their existing sprues. I've seen this before...

First off, I don't see this happening either...it was just a thought

Yes I realize that everything costs something and for the deciders of what extras to be included I think would be pretty simple...the tiny parts on the sprue along with thinly molded small diameter parts...give the kit to an experienced modeler and he/they can make recommendations...I know that I can identify problematic parts just by looking at the sprue.

about my floor tiles, I haven't lost a part in the 3 years since I put the floor down

And I thought I was the last one to know about this trick, apparently not so:

1)Take the head attachment off the vacuum cleaner and stretch a nylon stocking over the end of the tube, attached with a strong rubber band.

2)Set suction to High.

3)“Sweep” in ever-expanding circles until tiny object is found held against the stocking.

It’s particularly useful when the part flies off the sprue at the exact moment you blink so you have no idea which direction it went. I think my record’s about 4 metres away & it took 15 minutes to find, but that was still quicker than scratching a replacement.

That implies you didn't have a floor to begin with-- I know your user name is "CellarDweller, but I cant believe you didn't have a floor until 3 years ago!?! On the other hand, my Dad used to mess with telephonic window treatment salesmen by telling them he loved their products, but since he "lived in a tent" he didn't think it was a worthwhile investment...the silence on the end of the phone line was hilarious. Your comment about floors is almost the same!
VR, Russ

On the other hand, those rubber mats some of you swear by for finding small parts don't do a thing for me-- as I have the same ones under my workbench in the garage. My paint rack is two feet above my bench. Yesterday, I reached for a bottle of paint, only to have it jump right out of my hands. It hit the workbench (which has a glass top by the way), bounced off, and landed soundlessly on the rubber mats on the floor. I searched fruitlessly for a half hour before giving up, empty handed. I figured that particular paint bottle had fallen through the inter-galactic time-warp wormhole that seems to reside under or near my work bench. But this morning, as my wife and I were leaving for the grocery store, I opened the garage door to catch sight of something rolling down the driveway-- the missing bottle of paint. It must have rolled under two cars, and wedged itself against the sill of the door. Either that, or the Aliens living in the worm hole threw it back.
VR, Russ

I was talking to a gal just the other day about the carpet monster, but she told me her floors were bare. But I digress...
Russ's Dremel saw method works well, but I have a feeling there re some folks out there who would just be launching parts into the stratosphere. I've used other methods as well:
The first is a hot no. 11 blade - works well for delicate parts.
The second method, for delicate parts that might snap because the sprue cutter doesn't have much clearance and will put pressure on the part, possibly breaking it, is to cut the sprue sections out of the larger frame, and then work it a piece at a time so no pressure binds the piece.
For small pieces I like to place a small block of fiber board underneath the part - small enough so that the part can lie flat on it, and chop straight down with a chisel blade. Putting a piece a masking tape on the fiber board helps keep the part from flying off.
I've never lost a part, although several years ago I couldn't find one for several hours after it sprang loose from my tweezers while cementing it. After fruitless search I gave up, only to discover it clinging to my forearm later on.

Here's something that has dropped my BTF ratio (Bench to Floor) of dropped parts to about 95%.

All I did was make a simple wooden tray and clamped it to my workbench. Essentially a thin board with a lip on the edge.
It forces me to work closer to the flat surface, while still allowing the arms to rest on the edge of the tray. When I drop a part, most of the time it won't make it past the tray, and onto the floor.

Here's how I use the Dremel saw method (I have a set of fine toothed circular saws from Micro-Mark). One in particular has 200 teeth on a half inch diameter blade. I use a sprue cutter to cut the sprue down to a manageable size without over-stressing the part, as 18Bravo has mentioned. When I have the small part isolated, I transfer the sprue to either forceps or a cross-tip tweezers to hold it. Then I use the Dremel saw blade to slice it almost completely off the sprue. I sometimes use a B&D surgical blade (or razor blade) on a sheet of glass to finish cutting, depending on the part, similar to 18Bravo's method. I used to hold the sprue just with my fingertips, but since I stopped doing that, I can grip the tweezers or forceps with my nine remaining fingers better.
VR, Russ

My problem is that I am just lazy. I worry about a part flinging into the great unknown. When that doesn't happen for a while I get complacent and zing, back to worrying again.
My biggest headache involved the .20 nozzle from my Iwata airbrush.
I disassembled the airbrush, ultrasoniced the parts and let them sit for a while. I lifted the basket of parts out setting it asside and sloshed the liquid contents into the flower bed. Later i went to assemble the airbrush and was missing the nozzle. Well you know where that was going to be. I got a piece of screen wire out and sifted for an hour and covered about 9 square feet. If you priced a nozzle you know why I spent the time. Well no luck so I said I will use some science to solve the dilemma. The nozzle was denser than the flower bed material so I got a sloose pan and slowly started panning for the nozzle. I went through all the material I previously searched and again nothing. I grumbled for a couple days and surrendered to the fact I was going to place an order to Pacific Air. I went to move the ultra sonic cleaner back to the shelf I store it on and I discovered the tiny nozzle in the bottom of the ultra sound cleaner. It was the same color as the tank and as I sloshed out the liquid it stayed in the bottom of the tank. Had I simply overturned the tank it would have ended up in the dirt. I would say the moral of the story is don't give up however it was pure luck in my case that it didn't end up lost in the dirt.