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Hey everybody i just was wondering (like my title says) how can i get and then use plasticard? and what is it?

Thanks

its styrene sheeting/shapes that can be found at most LGS's and hobby shops.

Home depot is the Cheapest source for Flat Plastic-card sheets.

run down there(or any Dollar store, Drug store, basically anywhere that carries the following) and pick up a "For sale/rent" sign they run anywhere from $1 to maybe $3 for a rather large sheet and you can just trim off the bits you want.

Depending on where you go and the price you can find quite a few thicknesses, you will need to gauge how thick you want/need by eye, and there will be lots of red print on at least 1 side, but you will be painting it anyway.

Plasticard is the UK Trademark name for sheet polystyrene. It will have a different name in the USA.

It comes in thicknesses from about 0.1mm up to 2mm or thicker. The most useful thicknesses for making models are 0.5mm and 1mm. They are the easiest to cut and cement.

You can also get plastic sheet embossed with patterns such as aluminium anti-slip materal, tiles, and bricks. These are great for making walls and roofs.

Rods, tubes, girders, and a number of useful architectural accessories such as ladders, can also be got and are brilliant for advanced work.

I just got an order from hobbylinc.com and I was satisfied. they have a huge selection. I am using it to do some minor conversions on a couple of vehicles.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/Model_Scratch_Building_Plastic_Supplies

Plenty of shops online that sell it. In the U.S. you'll find it as "sheet (poly)styrene" or "plasticard," variably. Two bigger companies produce sheet, as well as various pre-made shapes, tubes, and rods that are pretty widely stocked are Plastruct and Evergreen. If you can find them, plastic "for sale" signs are a pretty cheap alternative, if the thickness suits your purpose.

As for the uses... that's an unbelievably broad question, as it's a very flexible material (both literally and figuratively). It can be cut, scribed, filed, sanded, bent, glued, painted... The sky is the limit.

General advice when working with styrene:
-Don't try and cut all the way through a sheet with a craft knife. A few light strokes will score it deeply enough that it can be bent and snapped, leaving a reasonably clean edge.
-CA/superglue will hold it, but there are specialized plastic glues that melt and fuse styrene. As the bond is essentially a weld forming one seamless piece of plastic, the results are stronger. Just be sure to get it right the first time, as it's a permanent bond.
-The CAREFUL application of heat can sufficiently soften the plastic to allow radical forming (why it's used in vacuum forming). You can make some very convincing flags and banners this way, but take care not to burn yourself and/or the plastic.
-Plasticard is flexible and the thinner the sheet, the more it bends. For larger structures (like scratchbuilt vehicles), it's often better to use other materials to bulk out the shape, then attach a "skin" of plasticard.
-Different thicknesses have different uses, but I find .02" and .04" to be the most useful (mentioned in an earlier post, but I thought I'd give inch measurements, since you're in the States)
-Look around for scratchbuilding tutorials. Most are for building specific things, but the techniques are universal.

Thanks a ton guys

Even beter than For Sale signs are comic book dividers. You can get a pack of 25 from Ultra-Pro for $12 off of amazon. They're exatly 1mm thick and (oddly enough) are about the size of a comic book! Way beter than spending $4 on a sheet of Evergreen that's half the size, or even $2 on a sign that's only double the size and has paint on one side. Only real downside is the corners are rounded, so you lose a bit of material when squaring it off, but it's so cheap it's not an issue

http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-COMDIV-Ultrapro-Divider/dp/B000PEJRI2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293084069&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Depraved wrote:I just got an order from hobbylinc.com and I was satisfied. they have a huge selection. I am using it to do some minor conversions on a couple of vehicles.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/Model_Scratch_Building_Plastic_Supplies

I know there is a company that makes them but I wonder if those Flourescent rods would work as alternative Necron power rods

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:

Depraved wrote:I just got an order from hobbylinc.com and I was satisfied. they have a huge selection. I am using it to do some minor conversions on a couple of vehicles.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/Model_Scratch_Building_Plastic_Supplies

I know there is a company that makes them but I wonder if those Flourescent rods would work as alternative Necron power rods

Plastruct is the company that makes the rods, and they're fantastic. They make 1/16" diameter rods in clear, red blue and yellow-green which work great for stuff like lightsabers (http://www.pbase.com/emberviii/image/48381313), and 1/8" rods which are perfect for necron rods. I use the clear ones for flight stands (the 1/16" ones aren't rigid enough to use for anything other than servo skulls and the like). The colored rods are not very vivid, but going over them with a permanent marker of the same color to "stain" them really makes em pop, especially the red that I linked to.
rods

hmm ok and they're pretty cheap to. I'll have to order me some

Thanks for the responses everyone!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ill be sure to get some plasticard for future usage