I've been modeling for 25+ years (mostly armor and dios) and have built a massive collections of assorted parts, add-on accessories, old kits pulled from dead dioramas and 'good stuff'.

I have it all stashed away in old kit boxes, plastic bins, drawers and cabinets.

It takes me hours to fiond just the right item to add to my latest project - like: "where is that perfect pouch needed to complete the tank's stowage collection?"

How do YOU organize your parts collection?

I want to spend my time modelling, not sorting, organizing or searching....

Use to have the same problem, we modellers seem to be excessive pack rats..... (Hummmmmm rats, just rembered I need to order those Plus model rats).......
I got a few of those plastic draw thingy's you find at the Home Depot or Wally World for a few bucks, and actually attempt to sort things out as I stash them away, for that future diorama that I'll probably never live long enough to build.
I really do try to keep American, British, German, equiptment separated into a different draws and compartments.. Cuts down on a few minutes or hours of searching. I also try to keep WWII and Modern stuff separate.
Resin/metal figures I store in pieces with the photo or instructions in a comparmted fishing tackle box, until needed.
I also learned that no matter what I think, I really do not need 250 German gasmask cans, nor 75, M-1 rifles.

i use those things, buy them at wal-mart, comes in handy, i put my brushes in them, my tools and yes, spare parts, then organize the parts by type (weapons, accessories, bodyparts, clothing etc....)

Get some of those multi drawer 'organiser' boxes that you can by in hardware shops. They are perfect. You can use one drawer for legs, one for backpacks, etc. If you than LABEL you drawers, you have a quick way of finding your bits, and they can be stored coniniently.

Cheers
Henk

Aah Dave, as you probably well know, you can not throw anything away, as you will way day think " I wish I hadn't thrown that away" :-) . I know I have. As you say, we must be the biggest packrats. My wife still rolls her eyes when I clean the aluminium take-away trays :-) :-)

Cheers
Henk

No wife, but the cats look at me strange when I'm washing the cat food tins..... LOL

That old saying is true! What is cosidered junk to one man might be considered a treasure to another.
I try to save anything I see that can be useful, like the thin metal lid that went between the cinnamon dough, and the frosting, on the freezer cinnomon rolls.

You can never have to much, like the other day, I thought I would take my new bus wire I bought the other week to do air lines for trucks.

Well the Truck I'm doing now is a lot bigger scale, and that bus wire would work fine for 1/35 scale for air hoses, but now I'm going to make a spring out of it to hold up the bigger air lines, cause of the much bigger scale.

See trucks had a big spring that hooked to the headache rack then half way on the air lines and power cord, so they didn't drop into the drive shaft, or fall down and catch anything to pull them out of to where they hooked up at.

This was just another safty precaution, even if they had a deck plate, now some went to the joy stick, but this was before the joy stick, cause the line was long enough to catch one of the tires, cause it has happened when the spring broke.

That is how much difference there is in the scale, to what was an airhose for one scale, is now a spring holding up an airhose for the other scale.

Kerry

well, here in Belgrade there is lots of "all for $1" storeshops, i use them for shoping cheap suplies, picture frames for dio bases, brushes for doing groundworks (u get 12 brushes for $1, so if one if you forget to wash them, who cares? :-) )

also they have lots of diferent "tool boxes" from 20x20 cm to 50x50cm with lots of place for dividing small and large items, so i have a "German 1/35 box, US 1/35box etc..." all things cutted off the frames and sorted out... so if i need a german soldier accesory i dont need to go through the stash....

but hey, considering my small money budget, i dont have much of larger boxes with models so they're not problem

I can "store" some of your kits @ my place for no charge :-) :-) :-)

I use the Hardware stoore organizers...with labeled drawers.......(Spend the time now and try to organize.....)

you don't need to go "nuts" i put all the pineer tools in 1 drawer.... and so on...

I keep all spareparts in the original boxes. When my wife askes me why I don't throw away all the empty boxes, I can truthfully say "They are not empty boxes, they contain spareparts" :-)

I use a mix of the hardware store grid/drawer storage things, the wall mountable 'bucket/box' organizers, tupperware type boxes, old film slide boxes

The key - label Everything and stack it so you can see it.

I have a Fishing Box for accesories(gun, box, helmet, tracks, lights,etc.

And and plastic box for everything else. I believe that searching is part of modeling. When looking for something, you could be suprise by the stuff that you find and that you did not remember that you had and that could be use in your present work. I believe it's fun to search for things. The time you will take to place everything is time that you are not modeling.... but time that you are cleaning.... and I hate cleaning ... #:-)

I forgot to mention the AM sets & In progress vehicles go into those Plastic Shoe Boxes for storage

I do use clear storage boxes, similar to shane's picture, but I'm running out of space for my unbuilt kits, due to the large collection of parts boxes.

I suppose I could take Mirko up on his offer for storage, but I'm afraid he might be tempted to 'help' me by building a few.

I guess it's all about quantity.

I do enjoy searching, as I do find some good stuff I'd forgotten. But it's getting out of control...

Thanks

I use the hardware organizers for the small stuff and cigar boxes for larger. Good reason to buy the cigars by the box!

Bravo -
Definite believer in the clera plastic storage boxes. Larger for kit (that snap shut keeps nasty stuff out). For my "need it close" stuff, I like the stacked drawers on roll around wheels. Label makers are my saving grace for smaller stuff and i like to use the clear plastic "baseball card" holders for smaller stuff as it makes it easier to see what's there. Also like to keep instructions and decals in the "zip lock" bags so moiture, spills don't trash them. Still too much but it works for me.

Blade48mrd