What do you guy’s use to model sheet metal ? I’m always looking for ways to model sheet metal. I’ve started with a pull down blind with grooves,cut them to length and width according to HO scale.
One of the problems I’ve encountered is,after glueing them on,they just don’t look right…out of scale. Building a BOF structure is no easy task,sheet metal is very important to the over all look of the structure. I’ve heard of folks using PC circet {spell check } board,cut to scale,painted ECT. Is there an easier way to model sheet metal ?
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
I’m assuming you mean getting corrugated sheet metal siding without spending a fortune on Evergreen sheet styrene? I haven’t mastered that one myself yet, I did my BOF 10 yrs ago and it only has “plain jane” sides (painted plexiglas). Looks OK from about >3ft back though.
you can use the styrene plastic sheets like the ones manufactured byEvergreen as stated above or Plastruct, another styrene company (they also come in corrigated, tin roof, and clapboard patterns) you can also use brass sheets to model sheetmetal…chuck
The 1950’s el cheapo method is to buy 1 sheet of platic or wood corrugated siding, then tape a piece of smooth paper to it and run a stylus/pencil/old pen down the grooves to make grooves in the paper. You can do every groove or only every 3rd or 4th grove, depending on the type of corrugated metal siding you are modeling.
I just bought the Evergeen plastic sheet and put it on the visible sides of the buildings. The “off” sides were just plain sheet styrene painted the same color.
Here is a link to a very nice How To on corregated sheet metal. It’s a “large” scale How To, but can be improvised for smaller scales. I’m also a moderator at this forum. Look around, you might find something else you like.
I’ve only ever bought the evergreen stuff, but have always thought there must be a way to use it as a “mold” to make your own… Just not sure how I’d go about that…
I’ve thought about that myself. The stumbling block for me is that the resin or other casting material would ultimately cost just as much as the Evergreen itself - and much more labor intensive.
One thing I have thought about but not yet tried, is taking a sheet of Evergreen and pressing it over aluminum foil. This may yield several sq.ft. of corrugated sheeting, but it would be fragile - could lose its ripples very easily.
That’s been my thought too, Ken. If I could find something along the lines of really thick foil and/or really, really thin sheet metal, I bet that would work and be durable enough… But I’ve found nothing of the right thickness.
Now my curiosity’s aroused![:)] I’ll try that experiment tonight and post the results [good OR bad]…
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[LATER EDIT:]
OK I tried it, and I was NOT happy with it! The grooves in the foil were much too shallow, and it crinkled too easily. I snapped some pics anyway, I’ll post them IF anybody is interested.
I may be cheap on this but I’m scratchbuilding with tin pie plates (unpatterned) and an HO scale ruler, seems to work for me.
if I wanted the corrogated look, I’d use a pin/needle to put lines on the roofing or walls.
Someone on a recent similar thread suggested running a bolt thread across a sheet of tin foil to press it to the corrugated shape… You’d need to find a bolt with the right ridge centre-to-centre. Using threaded rod might help make bigger sheets to cut panels from.
If you’re going to make your own corregated siding you need to use “heavy duty” aluminum foil.
I have also used silver mylar party streamers. You can get rolls of it cheap at a party decoration supply store. It looks very much like corregated siding, a little oversize for HO, but for roofing a large area or for large warehouse walls it’s very acceptable. You have to use a waterbased glue, or double sided tape to attach it and it can be painted with acrylic paints. You can also spray it with Testors paints if you put on successive light coats. It looks really good once it’s painted and weathered.
Campbell Scale Models offers scale corregated siding made of metal foil.
I’ve used aluminum foil. in small sizes, 3"x5", then cut to scale 4’x6’ sizes and glue individual panels on buildings, but I’ve only done small buildings and it’s very labor intensive. The foil is fragile, but for small sheds or rooftops , you can peel and bend edges to get excellent weathered results.
I’m trying to save a bunch of money. You see ,a BOF structure is huge,by the time I get the walls ,pipeing, installed. This structure will be20" in height by 18" in width by 36" in length. It’s quite a bit of structure to sheet metal in,way to much to warrent campbells sheet metal. Thank you for your idea though,I didn’t know that campbells made that product.
Hi There Patrick;
A crazy idea. Make your walls from cardstock or thin styrene as a base. Then get a couple of pieces of 3/4" or 1/2" pine & use a V groove wood carving tool to make grooves in the pine. Lay some heavy duty foil on one of the blocks & press down with the other one. Use some spray glue to fix the foil to the walls to avoid too much handling. I told you it was a crazy idea.[:D][:D]
Tom
Why not use that??? Because some people like scratchbuilding. I like to build structures with no plans or instructions. Maybe only a picture or two as a guide. I know some VERY good modelers who do it the same way. I can only aspire to be as good. Yall really need to check out the link I posted that you seem to have ignored. That is a LOW dollar How To. I’ve worked with tin foil. Tin foil??? You gotta be kiddin me. Yall need to try cardboard. You can work wonders with it. Once you purchase the few tools needed in the How To, theres nothing more to buy. I use cereal boxes, beer boxes shoe boxes and an assortment of other paper products. Some of the best structures I’ve ever seen were scratch built with paper of some sort.
here’s a photo of an H0 factory building roof where I used the mylar party streamer material (about 30 cents a 2" wide/50’ roll - is that cheap enuff??):
This has been Dullcoted, normally it’s shiney like aluminum foil. It will get weathered when it gets a new home on the new layout.
Here’s an example of corregated metal done with cardboard.
This is from my friend Dawg’s layout called The Clear Creek Railroad. You can see more here: http://www.dawgstrainhouse.com/ Click on “My layouts” on the left. Dawg is a master scratchbuilder. 95% or more of what you are looking at has been scratchbuild or bashed by Dawg.
Although this is in Gn15, this can be done in any scale.
