Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

We've just nommed some cookies, and their containers will make great Anderson shelter style huts.

The plastic is pretty flimsy though. Any ideas on how I can reinforce them?

try to super glue plastic card and maybe use some tubes to make columns? kind like this sorta thing:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Great_Mosque_of_Kairouan_prayer_hall.jpg

just to support it

If you want Nissen huts try a Pringles tube cut in half and covered with corrugated plasticard if you want the proper full effect.

Much stronger than vac-formed biscuit trays.

I've experimented with this a bit for Infinity.

My preferred solution, after a few options, is 2-stage:

1) Coat the whole of the inside with decorator's caulk (very cheap, acrylic-based).

2) Reinforce the caulk with hot glue from a glue gun, drizzled on in a grid pattern, paying particular attention to the insides of corner (as they tend to get bashed out of shape most easily).

You have to be careful not to let hot glue get into direct contact with the plastic, or it melts & misshapes the plastic. The caulk is there mainly to stop this happening, but the laminated effect (plastic + caulk + hot glue) is also much stronger than any 1 or 2 elements alone.

Fill them will plaster of paris (ie use them as moulds)

Fill them with expanding foam.

Tried expanding foam, in one of my many plastic-packaging-destroying experiments.

Expanding foam, as it expands, is stronger than the thin, weak plastic we're talking about here. So it turns them a weird shape. It doesn't break them but it does take away any hard edges, and makes them look quite unlike buildings.

Huh...well that's good to know!

The nice thing with the combo of caulk and hot glue is that both those things are a bit flexible, like the original plastic. So it ends up reasonably durable.

Thanks for the advice. Given what usually happens when I use a hot glue gun, I think I'll just bin these things and scratch build something. It will be safe, quicker, and result in far fewer expletives.