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[stevebo]

Hi anyone.
I want to use 0.25mm styrene sheet to plate the wood hull of my scratchbuilt Flower class corvette, 1:100 scale. The straight bits are OK, but how can you do a 3-dimensional curve in the sheet to fit the tight stern plating? Ideas would be very welcome.

[dreadnought72]

Always worth a quick look is this article on making hulls out of tinplate.

You need to stretch, curve and form plastic in a similar way. Can I suggest experimenting with dunking the plates into very hot water, and rubbing the plate under spoon into a dished former?

Andy

[John W E]

hi Stevebo

What you require is a plate expansion drawing.   This actually gives you the shape of the plates to be cut out and stuck to the hull as in the real ship.   If you don't have this drawing, the next best thing is to draw the actual plates on the hull itself; then take sizes off the hull and transfer them to the Plasticard.   The best way to shape the Plasticard plate was to work it between my thumb and forefinger - sometimes I used the hairdryer to warm the plate up whilst I pressed it against the hull.  I used to put a small drop of superglue onto the hull in the area where I was going to locate the plate.   Drop the plate into position and rub the plate with a soft piece of lint cloth to press all air bubbles out.    Sometimes I used a steel tube to roll out the air bubbles on the long flat pieces of Plasticard plate.    If you have a look at the master class build of the Spashette, you will see where I plated the hull there. 
  http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,13888.msg133159.html#msg133159

Don't forget, you should be working with 2 thicknesses of Plasticard, one representing the inner and one representing the outer plating.

Also, here is a link to HMS Exeter and her hull plating:-

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,33734.msg338887.html#msg338887

aye

John

[John W E]

Hi again,

Just a thought, a while ago I built a model destroyer and instead of using Plasticard as a plating, I used printer cartridge paper.   This was pre-sprayed with grey primer on one side, cut into the plate shapes and then glued to the hull and it was then sealed with several coats of satin coat varnish after I had actually given the plating several coats of Humbrol enamel paint.   Yet again there were 2 thicknesses of cartridge paper used to assimilate the ins and outs of the plating.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3462.25.html