"Unconventional use for Crayons" Topic

I've recently networked a contact with a crayon maker, who can set me up with quite a few freebies. But what the hell to do with them? Yes, I could make smoke bombs…..but what practical application could a crapload of crayons be used for in tabletop wargaming / terrain?

Useful suggestions appreciated – PLEASE DON'T CLOG UP THIS THREAD WITH USELESS, SMARTASS COMMENTS.

I don't know how viable it would be because I've never tried it, but my first thought was to make alien mushroom trees or something, melt out the bottom to look like fungus or a root structure? Flock the top and/or paint it to match?

Depending on the green, asparagus.

Melting them, red and yellow for burnt vehicle, smoke markers with brown or colors

Pillars for a small scale temple?

Missiles in a silo?

Stacked logs for a log truck, log carrier railroad car, or lumber camp scenario?

Tree trunks? Maybe stick wire in the tops for branches?

Clip off the top for traffic cones?

Stick in card fins and call ‘em retro spaceships?

Candles in a large scale fantasy temple?

Get some candle molds of various creatures and create large, colorful idols?

Melt them into puddles around the feet and legs of figures and call ‘em Lavamen, or Shapeshifters, or Clayface (Batman foe), or the Wicked Witch of the West post-bucket encounter.

Some humor in the above, but then perhaps some viable options, too.

If you can't find a use for them, donate them to a local school. Schools are always looking for stuff like that at the beginning of the school year for kids who can't afford all the supplies they need. TIG

I agree with Tigrisgt. Donate them to a school.

So far, some interesting suggestions, which I appreciate. I'm planning on experimenting with 14Bore's suggestion for burnt/damage markers. If I can melt and blend a few key colors, that might be a possibility. In any event, I'll have a new project to keep me busy for a while.

I was just perplexed, as you can't really paint them, which seems to be their biggest limitation. And even with melting and molding, I'm thinking you would still want to try and paint something (unless you are doing alien / sci-fi stuff). And my other concern was the transfer of grease/wax whenever they come into contact with any other terrain or figure.

As for donating to the schools, I already had that covered, as my mother-in-law is a special ed teacher – so she'll get a few shoeboxes full to hand out.

you can heat a bunch up in an oven so they are soft, and them smush em together to form rock like structures. Coat with PVA glue and then you can paint them. Or if you have clear resin, you can melt droplets into it to make it look like weird floating blobs in a pool on an alien planet. Lava flow down a mountain.

Sculpt the miniature from the crayon and then cast metal miniatures from those using the Lost Wax technique.

link

Melt down various colors into strips to make 'toxic' flows or streams for terrain…

One more idea— "Quaker" cannons.

Make a stockade fort for a Wild West game.

Melt one color into a vat, puddle, or crater, then swirl in a bit of a contrasting color. Voila! An alien spawning pool, or some toxic-looking scenery for a post-Armageddon landscape.