I kinda chuckled when I first read your suggestion, and then I thought, wait a second, why not?
Heck, that will work.
Evergreen sells 14" long styrene strips, and the Walthers pilasters are 2" long. So, I can get make seven pilasters out of each strip with no waste.
Rich
Hi Rich:
The V groove sheets also come in .020" thickness. Laminate two .300" wide strips together with the grooves in the middle. That will give you a smother surface to work with rather than trying to glue three strips side by side to get .300".
Dave
Don’t think anyone mentioned this, but those trigger operated clamps come in some small sizes. A pair of those can easily clamp a straight edge to the sheet of styrene, allowing a fixed guidline to run the knife blade along. Don’t even think about cutting through in one pass, if you don;t press hard you can easily hold the knife along the straightedge.
–Randy
OK, Dave, your persistence has paid off. I will include the a V-groove sheet in my order, and give it a try. [swg]
Rich
Good advice, Randy, thanks.
Rich
I can identify with the problem as I had the same issue. I changed my technique and lightly scribed the first couple of cuts. Much less likely to veer off course. After lightly scribing lines then I would use a slightly more and more heavier hand. Then snap.
I have never had a problem with cutting sheet plastic’s with a Plexiglass cutter/scriber with the blade wandering like a exacto blade will do. You just need to include the thickness of the blade in your measurements. In the material being discussed, one pass should do it. Or buy them already cut to size.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Some good ideas for cutting sheet styrene an this thread.
There may be a slight join line visible between the strips. If this is undesirable, I use a brush to spread solvent (I’ve used acetone) on the surface. This makes sure the pieces are solidly welded and smoothes out any glue that may have oozed out of the joint. Then sand lightly after the solvent evaporates.
No, there won’t be any lines, or seams, because I will laminate the brick sheet on top of them to make the 0.060" depth that I require to fabricate the pilaster.
Rich
Since we are storm braining on this, why is it even necessary to use a full 0.300 inch wide piece on the back of the brick sheet? Why cannot two narrower widths of whatever proper thickness material you have on hand be glued to the brick sheet, one along each edge? I don’t see the pilaster being a structural piece that needs support along all its width.
Well, I may have found my answer to the pilaster issue.
I have an unbuilt DPM Modulars kit that I don’t paricularly care for because, even though it is HO scale, the wall sections are way too big for my liking. Whereas the Walthers Modulars are 2.0" square, the DPM Modulars are 2.75" square. This makes a structure too wide and, more importantly, too tall. However, DPM pilasters are near perfect. Same width as the Walthers pilasters and only 0.010 thicker. Probably more expensive than other solutions but a lot easier and less time consuming than fabricating pilasters out of styrene strips.
Rich
This will be the only solution you will need. Find Walthers Cornerstone brick sheets. Item number 933-3522. Still in stock ,this product contains four .040" 5"x9" sheets with the 7th course of end laid bricks that Modulars pilasters had. In fact it can be used as a backing for any Walthers building that is placed against a background. Cut down the length to each sheet to get an exact height for a one storey pilaster. My guess you can make 80 pilasters per package easily. Unfortunately one edge of the top and the side has a .040 lip that you must remove to make even more pilasters with. This solution will exactly match what you need with very little fuss and money. As of now on Ebay you should only spend $11.00 for a pack.
Steven McDonough
Steven, thanks for that post, and I love the tag at the bottom.
Now, I have to say, that is one interesting solution. I was totally unaware that Walthers makes brick sheet. When I look at the dimensions of the brick sheet on the Walthers website, it does not mention the thickness of the sheet, but are you saying that the thickness is the same as the pilaster which I estimate to be 0.060" thick?
In any event, you leave me no choice but to purchase some brick sheets. [swg]
By the way, what is your technique for making precise cuts of the brick sheet to attain the proper width of the pilaster?
Thanks again.
Rich
I’d use a machinist’s square and a utility knife, and work on the face-side of the sheet. This would allow you to use the vertical mortar lines as a guide. Cut a half-brick wider than needed, then sand or file to the required width.
Wayne
The brick sheets are exactly the same thickness like all kits including Modulars at.040". The rectangular nubs to align pilasters on the back will not be on the sheet of course. Suggest to lightly score using a metal ruler like the brass colored one Excel makes called Deluxe Model Railroad Reference Ruler. It has lots of scale measurements for N,HO and O on it. Is sturdy and non flexiable. Clamp it down with the sheet under it and using a new Xacto blade lightly score the sheet .I would do that several times.Slightly bend the sheet brick side up a little and continue working light passes. The tough part is definitely the width of the pilasters. I wonder if a jig could be used here to align the sheet that was cut in half along its length and then cut identical pieces. Have not tried that yet. Doctorwayne"s advice about cutting wider pieces and sanding the width down sounds good!
Steve