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.

I'm not really sure what to call what I'm looking for, but whenever I see someone make custom armour for tanks or weapons or things like that they always have some plastic with more thickness to it than just a sheet of plastic and I'm wondering where I can find it? I want to be able to make or extend a sword for a space marine, I want to make a chain sword that would make an eviscerator cry, but everything I can find around me is just too thin to work with reasonably. Obviously I'm not looking in the right place.

I have all sorts of ideas I would like to try, but it all hinges on finding the material I can work with. Any suggestions on what/where to find? Any personal experience building or converting and using something like this would be helpful too.

you're looking for 'plasticard'.
I can only give you websites & shops based in the UK but hopefully someone else can help find somewhere more local to you.

Amazon.com and .ca give me hits for that. It looks like that's exactly the stuff I'm in need of. There seems to be quite a few sizes, but what thickness is generally best? It's hard to visualise based on the item descriptions.

0.25mm is like thick paper. 0.5mm and 1mm are the best for general use. 2mm is difficult to cut -- the score and snap method works best. There are also 3mm and 5mm thicknesses.

You can also get embossed textured sheets like brick or non-slip steel plank flooring, and a useful variety of pipes, rods, girders and other such pieces.

I ordered some 1 mm sheets, so I'll see how those are. Thanks very much!

now I just need to wait for them to get here.

"Evergreen" is a main manufacturer of plastic styrene.
http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/

I found Plastruct is a big supplier as well but has some more interesting shapes:
http://www.plastruct.com/
They have a very involved catalogue here:
http://www.plastruct.com/picat/Vol_10_CatalogSMFL.pdf

You could go to any hobby shop or one that specializes in model trains and find either of these suppliers.
What makes it great is that it is similar material to normal models so can "welded" on directly.
They have so many different shapes it is ideal just the tubes that fit inside each other is a godsend for hydraulics.
I have a drawer full of their stuff, you always wind up with more than you need.

I use a Tamiya plastic scriber & rate it very highly for cutting plasticard.
You should also consider a metal ruler with finger guard & non-slip base.

As Bubber says,get a scriber and a metal ruler.I'd suggest two other things; First, dymo tape. You can use this to tape over curved areas etc. when a steel ruler can't and still get a straight line.Second;get an engineer's scribing pen. Basically it's a pen with a steel point! Can make scribing a lot easier. Also look out for scribing templates (model kit shops sell them)which have a variety of shapes for panel scribing.

It's called "Styrene sheet". You can buy Evergreen or Plastruct, they are the main hobby suppliers of it. But if you're just looking for flat sheets of it, sometimes local plastics suppliers will have big sheets or offcuts which end up being significantly cheaper.

I went to a local plastic supplier and asked for thin styrene sheet, they bought back a "sample" which was an offcut from another job, but it was big enough have about $50 worth of Evergreen plastic bags and they sold it to me for $5.

One of the local hobby shops realised this and alongside their rack of Evergreen plastic they have a bunch of $1 A5 sheets of styrene that they just bought direct from a plastic supplier and cut up to sell cheaply to customers.

Of course if I want something other than a flat sheet, I-beams, angle section, textured surfaces, then Evergreen and Plastruct are good sources.

Here is where I get my Plasticard, and cheap too: Walmart.

I buy those plastic signs for like "Yard Sale" "No Tresspassing" and so on.


I get a large sheet of plastic for a much lower cost than from Plastruct/Evergreen. And the writing on the signs dont bother me as they are going to be covered up by paint.

I scratch-built an entire warhound titan out of the yellow "Posted" signs.