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.

Anybody know what kind of plastic I should search for? I am planning to build a terrain board and I want to have 4x50cm plastic plastic sheets that are about 3mm thick covered in static grass.

Also I want to have some extra sheets to have as boards for terrain pieces.

I have some evergreen styrene sheets but they are way too costly for the sizes and thickness I want. But ideally this kind of plastic is what I want, but cheaper. So what kind of plastics is the closest I can get? It need to give a fairly nice cutting edge.
And if it was a little bit less flexible wouldn't bother me.

I know you can get ready made boards but I want to build It myself its for the fun of it.

I'd skip that and look to MDF for that thickness.

I'd look at 3mm mdf instead rather than plastic.

I thought about mdf but plastic feel much nicer too me. I like that it doesn't soak in paint also. And its light weight which is very important for me since I cant have a permanent board but I have to pack it away for storage.

What is the cost of plexiglass at that size? Might be brittle though.

I looked at it and its really expensive, I think that variant is called acrylic plastic. And its really hard to cut it so it wouldn't be good for the bases for terrain pieces I think.

There is something called FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) that's sold in the USA. It comes in 4'x8' sheets at home improvement stores. The thinnest sheets I've seen are 1/8" thick. That's pretty close to 3mm. Those sheets usually cost around $30. They're used for wall sheathing in bathrooms. It's pretty rigid considering its thickness. Generally it has a smooth side and a textured side that looks similar to a heavy aggregate.

For 3mm thick material, I use hardboard. Easily found, easily cut using a Stanley knife, and one side is smooth, so takes paint easily. There's also foamed PVC, which is light and again, easily cut.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
For 3mm thick material, I use hardboard. Easily found, easily cut using a Stanley knife, and one side is smooth, so takes paint easily. There's also foamed PVC, which is light and again, easily cut.

Foamed PVC sounds really nice, I looked it up and they have that for a good price close to where I live. But I wonder how is the feel of it? Does it feel similar to Styrene or close? Anybody know?





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Looking at some youtube video and foamed PVC is looking real nice. Can be scored and snapped like styrene.

It feels much like styrene, but it's both lighter and LESS rigid than polystyrene at that thickness.

It can be superglued, though, and spray painted with regular spraycans. Can also be cut with a knife, but it will wear through blades quickly.

The trick is to find a plastic supplier. Don't try and buy a table's worth of polystyrene from Evergreen, it'll cost you a fortune.

You need to find the wholesalers who will just sell you a standard sheet (typically 1200x2400mm or 48x96 inches). If you live in or near a major city you can probably just google around and make some calls, a lot of wholesalers (most of them out here) won't advertise their prices on their websites, you have to just ring them and ask.

If you google "high impact polystyrene sheet" or "high impact styrene" or "HIPS sheet" you should be able to find suppliers. I bought 4' by 8' sheet of polystyrene that was a few mm thick (can't remember exactly, but thicker than what I'd normally use for terrain) for under the equivalent of $100 USD a couple of years ago just from a local plastics supplier.

Maybe that's still over your budget, but I thought it was pretty good for a 4x8 sheet given what Evergreen sell them for If you only want a smaller amount you can often get offcuts for cheap, I bought a sheet that was only a couple of feet by a couple of feet for, ummm, I think it was $5.