soft styrene?

[Leigh]

I'm scratchbuilding some wings (for what you'll have to wait and see, suffice it to say it starts with an F and ends in een ). Anyway I'm  using evergreen sheet styrene which I've laminated with some strips of brazing rod inside to stiffen it up. So the styrene is really soft which is making shaping sharp leading and trailing edges a bit tricky, and managing to keep these edges free of indents. Also it scratches real easily. Anything I can do to harden it up a bit so that its kinda kit quality? Would brushing CA on it help? This is my second attempt at these things first one I didn't use any rod and was way too flexible so i don't wanna start again with something else, but tips for other materials in the future are welcome too.

[TsrJoe]

...would it be feasible to pour something like epoxy or urethane resin into the wing to add stiffness between your formers?...iv done similar to some of my stuff over the years!...

cheers, joe  

ps. cured ca is a proverbial pain in the posterior to sand down evenly, having said that its fine for trailing edges esp when kicked with baking soda!  

[John Howling Mouse]

If it's not too late, acrylic is much stiffer than styrene (use within your sandwiched lamination?).  Acrylic is harder to shape, though.

I find by wet-sanding styrene on a very flat surface (some people tape wet/dry 600-grit paper to a flat plane of shelving glass without sharp corners/edges) I can get a knife-thin trailing wing edge.  Use circular motion while angling the piece at a shallow incline (just like sharpening a knife).

As for the indents, I would guess you need a longer sanding surface so you don't knick the edge (?).