so still being a beginner..i am trying to scratch build some pieces for my wheelhouse..i have seen the masters work wonders with plasticard.i have evergreen sheet and want to try..i see pencil lines on most..i also have plastruct and bondeane solvent weld and superglues.my question to my peers is when scratch bulding a box or other components how do you go about it.
1. do you use holders to get your 90 degree corners?
You can use other components within the structure to hold your angles such as a bridge dash board, bunks, desk etc, or if you are building a structure with no windows then you can make right angle webs. Make sure the edges of your plastic plates are straight especially when making the first marks on a fresh sheet of plastic as they often shear the sheets off of a larger sheet and this makes for a bevelled edge at best. Practice makes perfect, so do not launch yourself into a complex structure to begin with.
2 how are you cutting say 2mmx2mm square rod/pieces hollow tubing and what are you doing to make it flat/square.
Again practice gives you the ability to cut freehand, but larger square/oblong section can be marked with a set square (Order some 10x2 and 6x2 strips of LEGO off their site as these two sizes joined together make excellent set squares. I have used it for twenty years all told for my small work) and then cut carefully slightly oversize and then sanded/filed to size.
Rods and tubes can be cut by rolling the blade along the marked line or dots until it cuts through the plastic wall. I find it hard to get a perpendicular edge on my tubes but carefully sanding will make the job good. A quick way to mark tubes is to keep the last twentyfive mm ends of your stock of tube (assuming they are supplied square) and use this as a marking guide by slipping a larger size section over the piece you want to mark and drawing around it with; in my case, a sharpened propelling pencil.3 can anyone post pic's and a how you did it as a primer to follow showing the pencil lines?
4 folding/curving methods
The common methods are:-
A. Heat forming
B. Laminating
C. Multipart construction
D. Rounding cornersA. In heat forming you can use hot water, electric heater element or naked flame, and in some cases the Microwave! You need to have a container of cold water to cool your shaped plastic piece therwise it may distort while cooling such as sagging or impression distortion where the thing you put it on to cool might leave a pattern, say the top of your old work bench or a wall etc.
Vacuum forming uses electric elements, and you can use hot air guns or a cooker hob.
The naked flame is the least controllable method and is best only to stretch model kit sprue for filaments to make aerials or the like.The Microwave can be used but it might be unpredictable. I have heated up resin parts in the microwave and also have accidently mangled a couple of of unsuitable food conatainers demonstrating it can be done!
B. Laminating is better for small things like rings or the like where there is not much surface area to see as the solvent adhesive has to evaporate from within the layers of thin plastic thus softening and possibly deforming the flat surface, so tread carefully. I have made quite deep rings using this method and it can work well providing you lesve it a week or two for the solvent to evaporate.
Basically, you take several layers of thin plastic, say .25mm and apply plastic weld or similar in between the layers sandwiched together and form these around a curved item such as a shaped block of wood or a metal rod. You hold it in place with masking tape and let it set in shape. Be warned, older styrene can lose some of its elasticity and crack during this process. If your styyrene is yellowed, it may be worth replacing it.C. Multi part constrction. You want to build a wheel house with curved corners which are not too big. You can make this by finding tube that has the same radius as the curves and slitting it to give you quartered tube. Glue these onto the edges of the flat walls and sand to make the parts look as one.
D. Rounding corners is easily done providing you make the corners thicker, or use thicker styrene sheet otherwise you wil file your joint away!5 I read many use cardboard to make a template to copy.aside from tape how are you holding all the bits together as you go?
many thanks to any who can shed some light on this art
I hope this helps somewhat.
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Topic: working with evergreen or plasticard (Read 3218 times)