I am modeling a paper mill and the paper machine building is going to take a good quantity of Evergreen 4529 metal siding. At $4.59 a sheet it will get spendy very quickly. Does anyone know of a supplier that has a meaningful discount on this material, or a substitute that would look good? I am approximately 100 miles from the nearest LHS so I would prefer online if possible. I have only seen one sheet offered at auction so far. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Jim
I’ve bought big sheets of plain styrene from http://www.usplastic.com/ for a great price. However, they only have plain sheets. You might think about how you can model the metal siding starting with a plain sheet - possibly by grooving the siding or adding strips to the outside. I’m not familiar with that pattern, so if you’ve got a sample you could photograph and post, maybe somebody has some ideas of other ways to do this.
One suggestion someone made for corrugated roofing is to take a small sample of the styrene and press aluminum foil down on it, using the styrene as a form to shape the foil. Something like that might work for you.
I bought a single sheet each of “Tile” and “Sidewalk” patterns, and used liquid latex rubber to make molds of them. Then I cast the molds with hydrocal, so I have plaster models of the same pattern for just a few cents a sheet. This works great for me, because the plaster takes paint and weathering very well, and has a texture much more concrete-like than the plastic sheets would. You could do something like this, but the structure would be quite heavy. This is an in-construction photo of what these looked like before painting the walls:
Thanks Mr. B. I did experiment a little with trying to fabricate this material from plain plastic and was quickly convinced that I would go nuts long before I made a dent in my requirements. Maybe that is a good example for why the material is pricey.
I am willing to look at the idea of plaster casting to duplicate these. Can you give any more specifics on the type of rubber you used to make molds and the process?
Here is a photo of what I am looking for:
Your castings look great to me!
Jim
Fellers,
Appropo of cheap styrene sheets, I’ve been buying plastic “help wanted” and “for rent”, etc, signs at WalMart or the local hardware store and using them. They run about 75 cents to a dollar each for a 9X12 sheet.
Of course, it’s printed on one side, but since I’m going to be painting it anyway, there’s no problem there. One other source of small plastic for details, hatches, etc, is the little rectangular twist plate from bread sacks and english muffins, bagel bags, etc. Nice hard styrene and you get one free with each loaf! I just toss them into the parts box. Also, don’t forget about plastic single-serving yogurt and jello cups, etc. They are excellent for disposable paint mixing cups. Same with old foam meat trays. I wash them and set them aside to dry. Then, when I need a paint palletts for mixing or dry brushing, I pull one out and toss it afterwards. They also work well for trays to set structures and such in while applying weathering washes.
Respects,
Hello Jim,
I too ran into this same problem.You see , I model steel mills and I plan on building a BOF structure {Basic Oxygen Furnace}. This structure will measure about 4’ long by 2 1/2’ in width by 3 1/2 ’ in height.
This will reqiure a lot of sheet metal. I found a sorce for very cheap siding. Two years ago I begain collecting large screen TV coverings. The protective covering that goes over the screen ,looks like HO scale sheet metal. I have enough to complete my structure now. So if you have friends with big screen tV’s and their getting rid of them,you might want to get the screen off of them before they go to the dump.
I find these old TV’s all the time,seeing folks are going to HDTV and are not in need of large screens any futher. Hope this helps …
I’ll post a picture of the TV protective covering later on today.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Evergreen sells 12" x 24" sheets for 14.99. Four times the material for 3 times the price. Not a great saving but something.
Morning Jim: I just finished a model of the Cleveland-Cliffs concrete mine head. Goolge Cliffs Shaft to see a picture of it. It’s concrete but the meterial I used was PVC sheet. This stuff is used to make signs. I got all a bunch of 3mil thick sheet scraps from our sign shop at work that cost me “0”. The PVC sheet comes in 4ft X 8ft sheets. Prices are very low compared to styrene.
1mil thick by 4X8 is $12.80 ea
2mil thick by 4X8 is around $20
3mil thick by 4X8 is around $27
I really liked working with the stuff. It’s easy to cut with an Exacto kniff and sands well. I used CA adheasive to glue the mine head together and it worked very well. I wiped off the stuff as I was using it to get any parting compound off and it took paint great. You would still have to put on some thing for the corragated steel siding. I’ve got another mine shaft in the works that I’ll have to cover with corrigated sheet. I’m working on that.
You might try embossing heavy duty foil on to the plastic sheet you have. Just lay the foil over the plastic sheet and work it down with a balsa stick. Work form one side and allow enough slack as you go to fill in the grooves. You can then glue the foil to thin ply or even cardboard for that matter using R/C 56 which is a great material for unlike subtances. You can find it in R/C hobby shops where it is used to glue plastic canopies to wooden bodies. I’ve used this quite a bit without any failures. The foil of course comes off your plastic original which is used oveer and over again. If you want you can make the sheets scale size to have some realistic joints in the siding but you need to figure how to cut and embossthe material before you cut, 'cause cutting them with that deep grooving will distort the siding.
Woodland Scenics makes the latex, their catalog number C1204. You just spread it on with an old paintbrush, let it dry and repeat. I used about 5 or 6 coats on mine. It’s probably a good idea to figure out some sort of overhang for the edges so that you can have a “dish” in which to pour the hydrocal. Then just mix up hydrocal and pour it in. It dries very quickly, but I usually just do the pour and then come back the next day to do another one.
I made the mistake of making mine completely flat, so I made up a styrene frame to contain the hydrocal. It leaks a bit around the edges, but I just trim that off. I find the castings work best when they are about 3/16 of an inch thick. You can cut them to size with score-and-snap, or slice them with a Dremel for accuracy. As the picture above shows, you can even curve the mold around a piece of wood like a 1x2 and get a curved casting.
For casting, the latex stuff works ok, but it does have certain disadvantages, it requires multiple layers, each needing to dry before applying the next one and it needs re-enforcement for larger molds. It can take several days to produce one mold.
A sturdier, more durable material for molds is silicone. Micro Mark offers a starter set which includes the RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) silicone, and the casting resin.
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82084
I know the $66 pricetag seems a little steep, but once you start using it you’ll find a lot of uses for it. This set will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. You can also use plaster (like hydrocal and others) to cast parts instead of the resin. It’s all 1-to-1 mixes, so no complicated measuring. The mold is ready to use in about 4 hours, the resin hardens up in about 7-10 minutes. The final product can be sanded, filed and drilled just like styrene, and can be glued with CA or epoxy. You can make about 75 - 100 castings per mold depending on the intracacy of detail in the master.
To make a mold of the corregated material, you glue the original (master) to a flat surface (some of that sign material someone else mentioned), I use Microscale’s Kristal Kleer (so the part is removable), you could also use Tacky Glue (Walmart). I also use a brush with some glue to seal all the edges of the part to be molded. Then build a wall around the part with some of that sign material, about a half inch around the part and about a 1/4" to 3/8" above the highest point of the part, (seal all these joints too).
To make a flat back, I use a piece of polyethylene (the stuff you put on the floor when you’re painting a room) cut a bit oversize to lay over the slightly over-filled mold, then lay som
Check out some of the online stores that advertise in MR.
For example, the place I get most of my stuff, First Place Hobbies, which usually has the lowest or near-lowest prices, at http://www.1stplacehobbies.com/ has the large sheets for 11.95. That’s “only” 20% off list, but per square foot it’s 40% off list for the small sheets. And you’ll probably waste less.
Try some of the other stores . . . you might do even better!
Try Wholesale trains online…
I found what you specified Evergreen styreen #4529 at $2.87 per. If you are buying a lot, I’d try them.
here is the link:Wholesale Trains, Cars, Boats and Airplanes - Custom Built Hobby, Parts, Peripherals, Services
Good luck
I like your thinking! I believe in using as much free or scrap things as possible. The other day I noticed that the tray of a TV meal with it’s little compartments would be handy for storing small parts from a box car or other project while you were working on it. I’m always looking for something that can be used instead of thrown away.
Thanks for all your ideas. I think a good thread could be started on these kind of ideas.[^]
Walter in Columbia, TN
Hey Modelmaker,
Can you post some pictures ofyour car float apron?? I am getting ready to put a couple in myself.
Thanks!