Midwest products plastics. Another product that seems to have disappeared from stores and online
I’ve used both the styrene sheets and clear polyester sheets for windows in many scratchbuilds or rigid shells for 3D prints. These products were widely available at big art supplies stores and on Amazon. They seem to be gone now.
I preferred non-acryllic plastics for windows because acrylic requires special solvents to adhere to styrene or 3D printed PLA plastics
Any suggested alternatives? Seems I can get plastruct for solid colored sheets but it’s more pricey. I’m not finding clear plastic with thick dimensions, or plastic that’s non-acrylic. It needs to be rigid for large expanses of glass
I don’t know if it’s suitable for your use, but I cut up the rigid clear plastic containers that a lot of stuff (cookies, some vegetables, etc.) at the grocery store come in nowadays. Works great for even fairly large windows.
I’m glad to see someone else is being “frugal” in this way. One good source of very clear and very flat packaging plastic is cotton swabs 300 count – both Qtip and the generic equivalent found at food and drug stores, and it is a nice large expanse. It also makes a nice sized tub for mixing paints and holding a supply of ballast trackside.
My wife gets mixed greens in an even larger clear plastic container but those don’t always have a large expanse of perfectly flat clear.
I go with transparency paper. It’s the kind to write on using old school overhead projectors. You can find a stack of them at most any office supply store or online.
Midwest products was purchased by a large company out of Saunders, Wisconsin. Their batten board #4444 is no more. Hopefully, (The Pride of the cork roadbed industry) will continue to be available, or not cheapened.
By the way, was saddened to hear from Bruce, Micro Engineering changed hands a while ago too, also having an effect on some product availability[:'(]
The blister packs that many products come in are great for windows. I’ve also used microscope slide covers too. Have had no issues fastening either with simple white glue.
Kevin going back to the 80’s midwest made almost exclusively dimensional lumber. I suspect more of their business has always been more balsa and model airplanes as they always carried specialized shapes for that. Northeastern is the one that does the scale sized lumber.