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Imperial Naval Tradition is nothing more than rum, sodomy, and the lash.

and this is why i must kidnap you very nice tower so far

Well, that tower is coming along fantastically.

Goodnight everyone, and thanks for all the supportive comments!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Briancj wrote:Imperial Naval Tradition is nothing more than rum, sodomy, and the lash.

What a lovely way to start a page! lol!

ha looking foward to seeing what you do to this tomorrow

Very nice. The tower is excellent and it is not even finished. I'm really looking forward to seeing the top of the tower and seeing how you do the vents, without making the tower inhabitable for miniatures.

I've got a few of questions:

1. How did you cut out the rounded door hatch?

2. How do you cut your plasticard? I always find it awkward, it moves on the cutting matt, the edge isn't quite square, thin plasticard curls as I cut it etc.

3. What thickness of plasticard are you using for the raised details on the tower? You may have said somewhere else in the 20 odd pages but I reckon it will be easier to just ask than search for it.

Cheers

Peter

mind if i just sit here by myself in awe... with a fareaway look in my eyes...just trying to get in the sheer deatils you cut out from that nasty plasticcard?

the round edges....oh man!

too tired to reply with any more praise as the joyous cheering exhausted me to a point of fatigue^^

Thanks Rogue and Vik.
@PDH
1. FRESH X-ACTO BLADES! I just cut out a rectangle very carefully then just sort of eyeball sketched the rounded corners to it. The hatch has a thin piece of 0.20" plasticard glued to the back to cover up the scribed lines below. Once the two pieces were glued together I just roughly sanded them. It still isnt perfectly round on the edges, but meh, at least it's consistant.

2. NEVER EVER EVER try to cut all the way (or even halfway) through the plasticard. score and snap, score and snap, repeat. I use flat pliers to help snap off the small bits. The little angles in the cross-members usually require some knife-point cleaning up since scoring and snapping rounds the inside corners, but it literally takes 2 seconds to do it. Having said that, when cutting something hollow, like the round hatch or that little vent on side A, you are left with no choice but to cut all the way through on the inside edge. In these cases, just lightly re-scribe over and over again until you can see the impression on the back side of the plastic, then turn it over and cribe that line and then it snaps out. These little bits take more cleanup but it isnt too bad.

3. All these details are 0.40" High Impact Styrene. anything thinner would definately curl the plastic, especially if you tried cutting all the way through. Score and snap, score and snap. It isnt ever truely square, but you don't really notice, since scoring and snapping will at least give you a uniform look.

Use FRESH blades, score and snap, score and snap, score and snap.

So....if I'm cutting styrene, should I get new blades? And what are your views on cutting all the way through an the first go?



Sorry. I get on my wife's nerves too, it's not just you!

The awe in which I am in is complete. Can't wait to see moar!

You're like a machine!

Styrene, food, and time go in, amazing terrain comes out!

@ RSJake

I do a lot of styrene work myself. nothing as epic as this thread. I use this for my straight line cutting.

Its a Fiskar rotary trimmer, I put the plastic in it close the bar and pass the cutting blade over the plastic once or twice using light pressure. Then I bend the board and it snaps cleanly where the scare was made by the blade. Like the OP said you score the plastic instead of trying to cut through it.

@theunicorn - lol, I was just being silly since dsteingass has said "score and snap" so many times. I should have used the [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] font...my bad!

My wife actually has one of those cutters, she uses it for scrap booking, but she won't let me use it because she doesn't want me to "ruin it". Whatever!

I have had that cutter for around 8 years now and I am still using the blades that came with it. I use it on plastic and my wife uses it for our family photos. We are still using the original blades that came with it and it works great. So borrow hers when shes not looking, she wont know

Always amazed by the detail you pour into this...Looking great!

I am pretty excited today, I got some good news!
Ever heard of Raboesch Super Styrene? It's made in the Netherlands, and used to be imported to the US by Midwest Products, which is a major distributor in the US for Balsa Wood and other building materials used by model railroaders and R/C enthusiasts. Apparently you can still get it in the UK http://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=136_343, but it is no longer sold in the US.
The plastic is of the specialty variety, it is still just regular white styrene, but the variety of shapes is astounding, things like

Triangles, quarter rounds, cross sections for slotting in plasticard sheets, etc.

Anyways, In my Local Hobby Shop there is an old display floor rack full of the Raboesch strip styrene that wasn't selling (partly because the shop never had them priced or organized) I have been trying to dicker with the owner for over a year now to just sell it to me, rack and all. He wouldn't budge, finally this last time when I was in the shop stocking up on styrene I told him that the dust on the rack was only an inch thicker than when it was a year ago! Today, the shop took my offer and tomorrow night after work I am heading over there to pick up my Uber-Cheap rack (mostly) full of Raboesch Super Styrene!

Isn't that cool?

The envy burns in my veins like molten lead.....

Way to go! Hope there are lots of cool things in the display stand!

Take pics so we can say "nice rack!"

all i can ask is how much....and do they sell you all the above mentioned sorts of styrene??? i guess you will go balistic with that much possabilities^^ i suspect a new dimension of eyecandy coming our way...i once hold such styrene in my hand and i too saw the wide range of possible uses...


by the way...with you eye for detail and your ablility to 3D model terrain... have you thought about making your own walkers or tanks? i think you have a great imagination that could provide you with exellent vehicles...

Viktor von Domm wrote:
by the way...with you eye for detail and your ablility to 3D model terrain... have you thought about making your own walkers or tanks? i think you have a great imagination that could provide you with exellent vehicles...

This^ +1!

I'm not sure how much exactly, be sure I'll post pics though!

I've thought about it, I just haven't found a subject vehicle I want to model though.
I'm just making this up as I go!

I just make up my scratch build tanks as I go!

hah!!! i see a knight or even a titan looming on the horizon with materials like those...well for a game off munda probably totally useless but i think for me it would be the challenge^^

that vent is looking ridiculous cool...awesomely straight and good placed parts here!!! on such a length it is not something to come lightly...

that looks sweet so far man once you throw up some rivits it will look just like the origional

I would have no idea how to do big, round-ish titan plates in Plastic.. That would just frustrate me and make me say bad words and I would probably quit because it wasnt fun. lol

And again, thanks a lot for the comments, they really do push me ever onwards into the insane parts of my brain.

Don't worry, folks! I live a few hours away from him, I know what to do. Expect to see a lot of this fancy styrene in the Dakka Swap forum, soon.

--B.

Now, where did I put my pickaxe...

pssst...I cheated. the vent is actually HO Scale barn siding textured plasticard, very old... This is the last of it. Fitting resting place eh?

Lol. Interested to see how you go about that connector box thingy..

I guess I have to do the connector box thingy now huh?

Looks great all built like that. Im continually impressed

That's a very cool tower piece. It's so eciting to watch all this come together.

WOW thats hot man looks like it fits right in with those bulkheads