What thickness of styrene are you using to make scratchbuilt buildings?

[bc6]

I have the urge to build a building and Im wondering what size thickness would be appropriate to use thanks.

[maihama eki]

It maybe depends on what you want to build.

 

Thicker material (> 0.5 mm/20 mils) is of course stiffer and more structurally sound, but it is harder to cut with a knife.

 

Thinner (< 0.5 mm) is more flexible, but it is easier to cut with a knife. It is maybe also easier to implement smaller details.

 

If you have a laser cutter or access to one, thicker is no problem.

 

Evergreen offers a pack of styrene sheets in different thicknesses for experiementing. https://evergreenscalemodels.com/collections/plain-opaque-white-polystrene-sheets  You might find it at a hobby shop or order it online.

 

I sort of think that something like 0.5 mm/20 mils is probably where you will end up for walls and roofs, but it might be too flexible for larger walls or roofs without some reinforcement.

 

Injection molded styrene kits like Greenmax will have walls or roofs as thick as 1 mm or 1.5 mm, but that is a different situation.

[cteno4]

Also think of layering when your do walls. This can give you some inset and framing details on opening and not be one fat opening on the edge, most doors and windows have one of two insets on them. While it’s more cutting and lining things up, it will give you a bit more stiffness. You can also think of using 020 styrene for your core layer, cut out your openings and paint the styrene a trim color. Then trace the openings onto nice colored card stock (there are tons of these now for scrapbooking and they have a tad of texture on them which is nice). Then cut out these openings like 1mm larger and glue onto the styrene fo give you some edge insets and 2 toned window and door frames. You can also do the same with the inside with white cardstock to give the usual white interior and help reflect interior lighting so you can dim led down very low and get the usual interior bounce lighting and not the mini sun single fixture lighting you get in many models with a bright led and darker walls.

 

get a couple of sankei buildings. These are laser cut cardstock (a special stiff kind for lasercutting with no singeing) and use this layered wall technique. Will give you some ideas for scratch building like this. Of course a laser cutter or a plotter cutter is great for this! The silhouette plotter cutters are not super expensive and cut colored cardstocks well.

 

jeff

[Yugamu Tsuki]

I don't have my stuff with me at the moment but evergreen is the way to go. For thicker sheets I use a tiny hobby miter saw to cut both sides then snap the parts and sand them down, but that is only for rectangular walls/bases. Anything with windows i would make corner posts and then use thinner sheets as the walls with details cut out with a regular exacto. I stopped doing them this way after I invested in a cheap 3d printer since it saved time and my poor finger tips.

[Cat]

I have a huge stock of Evergreen plastics on hand.  My go-to thickness is .040 for being fairly rigid.  .060 for quite rigid.  Detailing strips in all thicknesses from .010 up to .250.
 
For super easy making square walls, Evergreen makes sheets of.040  sidewalk tile in tile sizes of 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2", even 1/6" and 1/3".  (For the unusual sizes, you need to order it by large sheets direct from Evergreen.  Score along the grooves and snap for super quick super squared pieces! 

The smaller tiles can be glued with tile side out for tiled walls!  Also handy for making sidewalks.
: 3

[bc6]

Thanks Cat  I'll start ordering some styrene for my project. I'm going to bookmark this for future reference.

[Guest]

I use matte board (for picture framing).  Can get in 1.5mm thickness.  Cuts nice with laser or xacto.  I find it much easier to use than styrene or pla sheets.

[bc6]

Thanks Bob for the suggestion, Do you use white glue to join the sections?

[Guest]

Right, I use Tamiya craft bond glue. 

[bc6]

Thanks Bob.

[Darklighter]

Adam Savage has made a helpful video on scratch-building with styrene: 

 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

For structures, I use 20thou plasticard. If the card needs to be more pliable - such as making tubes - then I go down to 10thou.

[marknewton]

I used Evergreen 40thou tile sheet to build this (incomplete) appliance repair shop in 1/80 scale.

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[Cat]

6 hours ago, marknewton said:

I used Evergreen 40thou tile sheet to build this (incomplete) appliance repair shop in 1/80 scale.

 

Another great benefit of the Evergreen tile sheets is the ease of cutting out square openings!

[cteno4]

The texture also helps cover up any little corner goobers you can get when cutting opening. All the groove detail totally distracts the eye.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Wow Mark thats an awesome looking building did you use any special tools to cut out the windows and doors?

Edited July 11, 2023 by bc6

[marknewton]

Thanks! On the front wall I scored and snapped the window and door openings, then glued the various parts back together and gently sanded the surface to remove the raised edges of the scored grooves. You can see the score lines around the three small windows on the second floor.

 

 

For the rest of the windows I simply drilled small diameter holes at the corners of the windows, and joined up the holes with a combination of cutting and scoring with either a knife or an Olfa scriber.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/olfa-p-450-p-450-scriber--236765

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by marknewton

[Cat]

2 hours ago, marknewton said:

Thanks! On the front wall I scored and snapped the window and door openings, then glued the various parts back together and gently sanded the surface to remove

For the rest of the windows I simply drilled small diameter holes at the corners of the windows, and joined up the holes with a combination of cutting and scoring with either a knife or an Olfa scriber.

Another good technique for this is to cut the corners by stabbing down into the cracks with a #16 XActo blade.  I keep mine loaded in a short pen-knife handle so I can press it with the palm of my hand when needed, such as punching the tabs on thick laser cut pieces:
 

[bc6]

Mark thanks for describing your construction techniques and the tools that you use. Your structures are simply awesome.