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I'm looking to convert a Stormtalon and I was hoping to scratchbuild the winds and possibly the rear fuselage from Plasticard. Having never used it before, I was hoping somebody could point me in the right direction which thickness card I'll need. For some general pointers, I'm wanting the wings to be of a similar thickness to the other flight surfaces on GW flyers so they are inkeeping with the general aesthetics. Oh, and as I've never used it before, whats the best way to cut Plasticard cleanly and scribe detailing into it? Many thanks in advance.

Well, I use evergreen plasticard - they have a good selection on amazon (search for sheet styrene).

They are sold by thickness, so all you need to do is measure the thickness of the wing you want from other flyers and look for a thickness. The sheets generally come in ~12" x 6" sheets, but the thickness varies greatly.

I suspect that the plasticard isn't going to come in a thickness you need, so if, for example, you find the wing thickness is 1/8" (0.125), look for 1/16 (0.0625)" thick sheets and glue two of them together.

As for cutting, good sharp scissors are all you need. If it's too thick for that, a good razor saw will do the trick.

For details, a good sharp xacto knife.

I haven't actually got the Stormtalon yet (I like to get everything together before I start - rather than end up with a half-finished project on my desk) so measuring it may be difficult. I've just thought now - I'm guessing it's going to be similar to a Landspeeder's rear tail-planes (The stubby wings). In that case I'm going to need 3mm card.

How exactly do I go about scribing in the detail? GW's detailing is quite wide, certainly wider than an X-acto blade so I'm not sure how I can replicate that.

What I'd so, instead of trying to etch something into plasticard (which is going to be REALLY REALLY HARD), buy some thinner plasticard, cut that into the pattern you want, and glue that to the top of the wing.

I mean, maybe if you had a really fine dremel and really good control, you could etch something in, but it's going to be super hard.

here's an example - the jolly ork face on my sail is just something I traced, cut out, and glued it to the surface of the sail. Once the model is painted it'll provide a nice detail and contrast for the sail.

you could get a similar effect by simply painting your details on, but if you want a raised detail, I'd definitely recommend adding a cutout than trying to etch it into a surface.

Good Idea - I can layer 1mm thick over the 2mm thick sheets or if I want detail on the underside as well, I can layer 3 1mm sheets. I take it Poly Cement or Super glue is the way to go?

Yup, etching detail consistently onto plasticard is difficult (without some fancy equipment like a laser cutter which I presume you don't have access to). About the only exception is simple straight lines which can be scribed fairly consistently, and even they can go wrong.

Since you'll probably be needing to glue layers of plasticard together anyway to get the required thickness, I'd go for Kap'n Krump's above suggestion of cutting the detail into the upper layers - that will give a consistent depth when glued together.

I use superglue, works great. your standard 40k model glue will not work AT ALL.

Well I think that just about covers everything I was going to ask. Many thanks Kap'n Krump and Clang - much appreciated.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
I use superglue, works great. your standard 40k model glue will not work AT ALL.

Depends on the plasticard - some (especially anything labelled 'styrene') stick fine with ordinary plastic glue, others (especially the fancy stuff intended for serious architectural models) doesn't.