Ever wondered what to do with leftover aspirin bottles, bits of hardware, and assorted bathroom type stuff?

You can make some pretty cool looking sci-fi models with them!

I found a site which has good examples showing how you can use everyday leftover toilet bolt caps, vitamin bottles, PVC fittings, and whatnot to build detailed, impressive science-fiction models of guns, spaceships, or whatever.

Part 1 introduces you to the process and part 2 completes the lesson with detailed information on how to make the little details which make a model lifelike.

I'm thinking that techniques like this could be useful to make backbox toppers for your sci-fi based pinball machines. You might be able to make something to fit under the glass, but I'm thinking that the final models are probably going to be too large for that unless you really try to stick to smaller bottles/etc. Perhaps a Judge Dredd or ST:TNG type machine could benefit from this machine - perhaps a Borg cube hovering over the game . Of course, if you're a sci-fi nut, just making stuff like this would be fun regardless of whether you "use" it or not.

I have heard that many of the guns, ships, and weapons you see used on science-fiction television shows are made using similar techniques. I was at the Las Vegas Hilton, which has the Star Trek attraction, and many of the guns and props they had on display had at least small bits of everyday things in them, but combined with TV and a coat of paint, they were very convincing. Combining this technique with some easy mold-making (excellent book) could yield some really interesting goodies.