Well, there is the old coffee stirrer trick. I find they come in lots of different sizes. The best for fine grain and straightness is Starbucks. The thinnest seems to be Whole Foods.
Cut the edge of a plastic soda cup top and stretch it out straight and it looks alot like dental molding.
Polystyrene is everywhere in take out items - look for the number 6 recycle tag with the letters PS. It comes in clear and many colors and weights. In addition to cutting out flat pieces, some of the molded shapes could probably be used for something. I just am not sure if that is the same stuff that is used in modeling. It does glue up with Testors plastic glue.
Collect the little paper/card stock punch outs that result from binding documents in the GBC binder at Staples/Office Depot/Fedex. They are the size of shingles or cut stone etc. Speaking of punch outs, I recently heard someone say they used a hole punch for making circles. I guess they come in different size and shape holes.
From a Dave Frary book I saw he used the little molded image on the top of a drink stirrer for a fish store sign (it was a lobster). I must have to drink more because I haven't come across anything like this.
On the OGR forum I have seen really wonderful stuff done with cut up paper and cardboard. I have seen it cut straight or into wavy patterns and diamond patterns with scrap booking scissors. Also check out the Coast Line RR. It is On30 and alot of his buildings are done with artist paper (but that isn't free of course).
Other posters on this forum have mentioned using chop sticks and skewers. I guess if you want them free you need to start making shish-kebob to justify the cost!
A failure was using an old gift card to cut up into strips. It cut real nicely, but I couldn't get it to glue properly or take paint and don't want to sand the stuff. I think they are PVC.
Good idea for a thread.
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