It just seems to me that if a person had a simple 2 piece press, hinged with a top and a bottom, with a scale (HO or N or S or whatever) corrugated surface. That he could take some heavy duty tin foil (aluminum foil) or even a thin soda can and put a piece of foil inside or between your press; squeeze, and wal la – a corrugated tin roof section. But I have never seen one. Do they even make one? Just asking…
Possible, but by the time you produce it, you’ll have enough money in the tooling that you’ll be thinking of making it to sell. HO scale corrugated is rather fine, so this won’t be something the typical modeller can throw together.
I’ve heard of people using various combs, drawing them over the material. Sounds iffy, but doable.
I’ve been using Northeastern corrugated siding. Not real cheap (about $1 for a 1.5"x8" sheet with standard hobby discounts) but works for me. Here’s a pic of one of my recent projects:
It’s a model of the Gold Prince Mill in Animas Forks, CO on the Silverton Northern. I still need more corrugated for the roofs, but spray painted them silver in the meantime.
LION makes his corrugated surfaces (walls roofs, roll up doors, and transit walkways) out of 40 or better yet 80 conductor computer cables, the kind that connects the motherboard to the hard disk drive.
Here is some of it used as a corrugated wall at Dyckman Street.
And here is a snip of material auditioning as a length of walkway on an elevated structure:
That is actually a very good idea. [Y]
You will want to look at this thread from TB
ratled
Lion and Ratled; thanks for the idea. Lion mentioned it and Ratlet posted a link to see how it’s actually done. Thanks to both of you. [bow]
That is rather a clever idea, and if the material need to be quite thin the TrainBoard link to forming your own is great. I wonder if you could “groove” a stronger alum material like cake/ pie pans? Maybe w/ your fingernail or wood/ styrene stick?
I appreciated all of the ideas. And the link to using a computer ribbon cable was very helpful, maybe even the answer. Is this what you were talking about LION? And Miehman’s example of the Gold Prince Mill was nicely done. I plan on putting together a Campbell ‘s Red Mountain Mine in the future.
Actually, the LION did not bother with the aluminum, and just painted and used the cable itself. But then I maintain a computer network, and and have all the cables I need for such applications. Works better for people with clumsy fingers, but I can see that what he did is better for his application.
ROAR
A technique I picked up years ago and have used a good bit is to make your own with typing (ok printer paper). First step is to get a sheet of corrugated siding (I use Northeastern, but others should work as well). Then tape a sheet of thin paper over the siding. Using a ball point pen draw a line down the corrugation pattern you want. This leaves an impression that shows up in the paper. Next is cut to size, apply to the model, and paint with silver paint. Weather as desired.
Wow! That’s an easy method to remember. Whodathunk that 1:1-scale ribbon cable and HO-scale corrugated roof sheeting had a bond. [(-D]
Tom
Gidday,your query led me to have a go at a technique that was suggested to me a while ago, which was pressing a piece of kitchen foil between 2 sheets of “Evergreen” 4526 Metal Siding, .040" Spacing(1.mm) styrene. Looks O.K but fairly flimsy,would, I think, need to be glued to a sheet of thin card. May not suit a ham fisted person such as myself. Would like to try it out on a disposable foil baking dish, being thicker material, but as I do not want to incur the wrath of her-in-doors will have to wait until I can replace hers!
Using the commercially produced product would probably be the easiest option, but in this part of the world , have to consider the exchange rate and the horrendous freight costs, plus where’s the challenge?
Will have to give the other suggested options a crack.
Thanks and Cheers, The Bear.
I have a set of these. They really do work! I’ve been making grain bins with them. Here is one of my first efforts, it gets better as you use them.
Hey, there you go. Those dies look like they do the trick. I doubt you could come up with anything slicker in the home shop as easily.
Nice grain bin! Just needs to say “Butler” or whatever at a spot or two to be right on.
I made an HO tin building a while ago, simply by painting balsa wood heavily with gray paint and then carefully combing it with a fine comb. it turned out pretty good, especially after streaking it with rust.
–Jeremy
Lay the panels of heavy duty aluminum foil on one or two thicknesses of paper toweling. Roll with a 10x32 machine screw (head cut off) using a small block of wood at least twice the length of the panels. Cant the screw slightly to allow for the thread pitch.
FWIW, Geohan
I cut a piece of Evergreen Corrugated siding to a scale 4’x10’ rectangle (with the corrugations running long-ways). I nestled another, larger, piece of Corrugated siding on top of the 4’x10’ piece and cut the larger to match the 4’x10’. Now I have an HO scale 4’x10’ ‘press’ for kitchen aluminum foil. I cut, or tear, or take a wrinkled piece and place it on one of the 4’x10’ forms. Place the other 4’x10’ on top and slide them along their corrugations (just pressing them together doesn’t yield as good a result) while squeezing them together (it doesn’t take a lot of force). After a few seconds, line up the 4’x10’ edges and cut off the excess aluminum foil. Instant scale 4’x10’ piece of corrugated siding, ready to install directly to the model. (If a piece gets damaged before you install it, simply put it back in the ‘press’ and flatten it out again.)
I did this to a scratchbuilt tipple, while it took a little while but wasn’t hard, was totally cheap and makes scale thickness corrugated siding/roofing. It is delicate (just like any scale sized detail), is easy to do (I trained a girlfriend’s 11 year old daughter to help; she made about 20 sheets for me before getting distracted by a TV show), and looks great. It can be dented, torn or crumpled to simulate repair work on existing models (I don’t like seeing an HO crew up on a roof, with a .040 (scale 4" thick!) piece of corrugated metal, with no damaged panel/pieces of panel lying on the ground nearby. -just a pet peeve of mine).
After gluing (I used thick CA) to the styrene core (or whatever you’re using), paint, weather, chemically etch, or do whatever you like to it, the shiny (even the dull side) is too shiny for anything except chrome plated siding. Stacks of the extra 4’x10’ panels ended up being stacked and placed in my lumber yard for sale to their customers.
Good luck, and keep those thin, non-magnetic, electrically conductive, metal bits from turnouts, track, motors, etc.
I have a technique so quick and easy that I can explain it in 17 seconds. And I do:
http://mrr.trains.com/videos/expert-tips/2016/05/model-railroader-quick-tips-corrugated-metal-siding
Steven and delray:
That’s too easy! Nothing in model railroading should be that easy!![swg][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Thanks,
Dave