Curious at to what everyone does with their leftover parts? I hate throwing out anything but those finished kits, and their boxes full of sprue, are starting to annoy me.
I’ve just finished a RFM Panzer iv J. There must be a hundred or more left over parts. Obviously for other variations of the Panzer iv. I’ve stored the extra tools such as shovels, jacks etc. But that still leave a fair hunk of ‘other’ parts.
So store them or chuck them?
If you save the sprues, their vines shall overcome you. 
If you throw them out, you’ll be looking for that special part the days to come. 
IKTDRH (I Know That Didn’t Really Help!) 
As for me…I keep all of my leftover parts. I put them in a sealable plastic bag with the kit information, decals, etc. and store them and then recycle the box the kit came in. As for the leftover sprue, I send it to one of our fellow members that lives in Texas. He reuses the sprue and makes his own figures and things with it.
Just my two cents. 
Depends on the kit. If I know this is a one off and I will not be making a different variant then the extras go into the trash. (keeping tools, decals etc)
If its something I know I will build again then I keep it i.e. Sherman parts. Always usefull.
Personally I would store them.
You never know when you might need something. I hate it when I see a part then toss it and a week later think “Crap I need that part for something…”
I keep all my spare parts/sprue/decals stored neatly in a box that’s in a drawer. I keep them for that .001% chance I will ever need them. I also keep them so if someone needs something I can look to see if I have it to help them.
Say it isn’t so!!!
Randy 
We’ve been through this before as part of another thread:
“The Worst Model Kit You Ever Built?”
But it’s probably worth re-hashing as a separate thread of it’s own. My philosophy is never throw away anything that glues with ordinary polystyrene cement as it just might come in useful someday. That’s not just parts but sections of sprue too. But it gets worse; over the years I’ve acquired Tic-Tac and similar sweet containers, plastic cutlery, .22 Ammo boxes, Chip Forks (scrounged half-a-dozen of a new - at least to me - style from a local Chippy only last week) and (many years ago) the tubes out of rolls of thermal paper. The list is pretty endless. The why is quite simple; I like building weird stuff. Back when Space/Sci-Fi wargaming used generic rules rather than systems designed to sell a product you could knock out items over a weekend for a game the next week. But it goes further than that, modelling is a creative act and part of creativity is often a wish to make something which is uniquely one’s own - hence all the aftermarket stuff for people who don’t want their stuff OOB the way the manufacturer intended. Using junk for Sci-Fi builds is a low-cost way of fulfilling one’s glue-sniffing urges without all the bother of research and fixing problems in one’s usual field(s), a fun diversion when the mojo is low. And all those useless kit bits - go look at your favourite movie/TV series from before CGI took over and see how many components you can identify. I don’t build much now but when this cropped up on that other thread I just had to join a group build elsewhere and relive the good old days:
Regards,
M
Sort & Save… by subject and nationality. I snip the parts off the sprue (usually leaving a generous amount of the attachment point for speed and to prevent tearing out on the part). Put the parts in zip lock bags and label the bag with a Sharpie marker.
So, I have bags of Sherman parts in a box with other US kit parts, etc.
I keep track sets (indy link and link and length) bagged by type, one set to a bag, and boxed with other track sets (Fruils, Spade Ace, Master Club, etc.). So I have sets of DML Magic Tracks with other track sets.
I’ll occasionally bag and keep sorted individual sub-assemblies or alternate parts that are particularly interesting. For example, I have a No. 11 British radio set that’s quite nice that includes some PE parts that came as an alternate sub-assembly with the Riich Universal Carrier Mk. I kit. It’s complete and would go nice in any piece of early war British armor. Nice, complete engine kits for models that got their hoods closed up are also bagged separately. Things like that get a little extra TLC.
More “generic” stuff is sorted mostly like with like, so stowage and similar accessories are together, Jerry cans, crates, etc. Small arms are kept together, sorted by nationality and era.
Figures, for me, are mostly sorted by nationality and era, but things like heads and hands and all sorted together regardless of, say, any kind of head gear worn (because I’ll grind away hats and helmets and re-sculpt hair if I like a figure’s expression for some particular purpose).
Excess sprue, though, I put with all the other household plastic recycles. I will snip out particularly long, straight pieces for stretching, but I have quite a lot of that saved already over the years, so most sprue goes away. Same for kit boxes. If I need something for immediate storage, I’ll keep it, but the majority goes in the cardboard recycle.
A big spares collection wasn’t worth the space it took up or the clutter it created in my hobby room in my experience. The vast majority from kits from 1970’s to 1990’s all of it second rate by today’s standards.
After going through two cabinets of spare parts collected over thirty some years, realized the only spares parts ever used related to Pz IV, Pz III, T-34, Panther & Tiger.
What was two cabinets worth of junk is now one small shelf on a printer stand.
Filled two 30 gallon trash bags with spares, instruction sheets, decal sheets and so on and sent to the land fill.
Pz IV, Pz III, T-34, Panther & Tiger parts get filed and the rest of the stuff automatically goes in the trash along with all excess sprue, instructions and so forth.
No regrets.
Same as some,I save some and trash others.Could really add up if not careful
You know somebody with a use for all those sprues? Cool. Wish I had similar here so I wouldn’t have the guilt of adding to landfill…
I keep it all, I know I will only use 0,1% of everything I store but it’s nice when you need a part for a conversion or detailing project and you find it. And it happens to me often.
Not running out of space yet so I keep all extra parts. I have some of the Hobby Zone organizers so I have one labeled “US Parts”, “German Parts”, “US Figures”, “German Figures”, “Stowage” and of course “Misc” and one fairly empty one with assorted odd ball aircraft pieces from my occasional toe in the water build. I’ll hold on to every bit, some on short sprues to help find them and bigger pieces just floating. Never know when you can find just that little bit you need. With my pile of kits, several that have tons of uexcess parts I’ll probably have to redo my system later this year but thats a future worry. Alays save instructions and extra decals…just never know when you need an odd stencile or placard thats not quite visible but you needs something there (I picked up some various Microscale HO freight car decals sheets just for this very reason, for a little instruction panel way back underneath that you can just make out but not quite they give a good effect).
Hi all,
Having built only less than a half dozen kits my spares box is tiny, but I do remove and save any left over bits that I can. I also cut up the sprue, saving lengthy bits of straight and uninterrupted material for making either stretched sprue aerials, or for dissolving in solvent to create a liquid plastic for filling gaps, etc.
Cheers, 
,
G
Its a space issue for me. Plus I generally only model 1 of a subject so spares aren’t an issue. i.e. I am unlikely to build another Hummel, sdk.fz 232, P-47 Thunderbolt or HMS Warspite.
I have a giant tub of sherman parts though as I am a sherman-holic and they have come in very useful as well as a whole panther worth of spares (which I am planning to build as an early G at some point)
You are a modeler. Hoard, Hoard, Hoard.
Besides the hoarding I do (and not just kits, spares, etc. Just about anything I think might work.
-Begin Rant-
But the big reason I keep all spares including finished models that might have met a horrible demise is when I read about a build project and you get the info on what parts they used that was added from another kit UNTIL you get that one line that just states - Part X was from the spares box. Does not say what it is from other then the spares box. I hate seeing that phrase in a build and not just online but in Mag’s as well. How in the hell am I going to find a part just like the one they used. I can look in my spares all day. Betcha I won’t find one.
-End Rant-
Cheers (I think)
Any remaining spare parts in a kit are clipped off of the sprues and placed into storage. I have some small cabinets of drawers probably meant for such useless things as nuts, bolts, washers, etc. and use those to sort my parts into various categories and sub categories: aircraft & armor, figures, equipment, road wheels, tracks, ordnance, etc. Ya never know when a part will come in handy elsewhere for other than it’s intended purpose.
The empty sprues I throw away into our garbage recycle bin. No sense on keeping those. If I need to stretch some sprue, I’ll cut a length from a current project kit.
I had a 1/72 headlight disappear from a kit I was building so I used 2 large 1/700 searchlights and they looked fine. Ya never know what you can use
being a sci-fi modeller I use them as gerbils on some projects.
I combine my love of modelling with my love of HARIBO sweets. The sweets come in a sturdy clear plastic bowl with a lid. Wash and then use as spare parts bowl.
The “Sour Sweets” box is also high enough as storage for Valleyo colors