Other Media.....

[monkeyhanger]

I was impressed with the RAF C5 and the 'Russianised' B24 and B17. how many of you work with media other than plastic. I know there is some good work being done with card etc. I have some Heroics and Ros 1:3000 stuff and it is really good. Obviously, at this scale details are sparse! but it is a cheap way of producing lots of Whiffs.

Any suggestions?

[Daryl J.]

I've used ice cream sticks, grocery store receipts, wood dowels, cardboard from cereal boxes, 2X4 lumber, and the like.

The trick is at least three fold:  use a glue that holds everything together *over time*, make sure the product is sealed on all sides prior to using the finishing color to avoid huge levels of distortion, and make sure one has a method to provide a proper surface ''smoothness'' consistent with other materials around it.

The Glousteshire Schooner I built is my most enduring model ever and it cost a total of  nineteen cents.   A dab of borrowed epoxy, a borrowed belt sander, an expended razor blade from my wife's leg-shaving-kit, some time and imagination, and voila!  



Daryl J., who loves multimedia

[Rafael]

I Use cardboard (Cardboard, Yum!!!), toilette paper, resin for automotive applications, plaster, paper, a filler made with sawdust and white glue, and if I had to build biplanes, stringers made out of hair from my Yokshire Terriers!!!

Rafa
(man, I DO love multimedia too!!!)

[The Rat]

Good old balsa! I believe that there are IPMS regulations that forbid almost anything but plastic for show entries, so I think everyone tries to stick to that. You often see build articles in which someone on a scratch project carved forms out of wood which were then used to vacu-form the actual parts. Me? I would cut out a step and just start detailing the wood! A few reasons why; I don't plan on entering shows, I'm lazy, and I'm mildly weird.

Apart from that I recommend trying all sorts of stuff if you want to save time and money. One that I've mentioned on here before is using those plastic bread bag ties for making things like seats and other small bits - easily worked with, can be cut with nail clippers, X-acto knives, and scores easily, takes paint well, and regular polystyrene cement welds it terrifically. Another good source of scrap is those plastic lids for take-out coffee. It's really thin and can be bent around all sorts of ways to create instrument panel coamings and the like. I'm always looking at bits of old ballpoint pens and so forth to see what might look good.

Remember; never throw anything out before turning it around in your hands and saying "What kind of missile could I build out of this?"  :dum:  

[Mossie]

Remember; never throw anything out before turning it around in your hands and saying "What kind of missile could I build out of this?"  :dum:

I do that!  Even to the extent of keeping off-cuts of plastic because that shape might just come in handy for something....  Usually doesn't, but the more I keep the more likely I find that perfect little item!  Hording works, no matter what the wife says!