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Scratchbuilding detail - Essential materials?


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Hi All,

 

I'd like to start looking into adding some extra detail into my builds with pipes, cables, and various parts. What are some materials and sizes you recommend always having in the toolbox for this sort of thing? 

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I've got a lot of found materials ...

1. Copper Wire from little, broken, electric motors, in as many gauges as you can find.

2. Lots of styrene stock. Rod ( Round and Square ) Tubing ( in a variety of diameters ) Styrene sheets, in a variety of thicknesses ... .005", .010", .020", .040",  .060"

3. Aluminum Foil, thick and thin household stuff

4. CA Glue

and lots and lots of found items ... I've been building models for about 12 years and doing a LOT of scratch building on every model. I mainly build Real Space subjects, check out some builds on the Real Space forum. And I try ... and use ... a wide variety of materials.

 

Pete

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If you buy a lot of different sizes of Evergreen, Slaters and Plastruct strip and rod, finding the right size from all the packages becomes a problem. My collection drove me nuts: I could never find the size I was looking for.

 

A year or two ago I solved that problem. I used plastic sleeves to put documents in a folder. I used a temperature-controled soldering iron set at 225C to make (say) ten vertical pockets in each sleeve. I made around ten sleeves, and put them together in a paper folder. And then I filled nearly all 100 pockets with all my plastic strip and rod, profiles, metal wire and Albion tubing.

 

I even made small stickers with the dimensions of the content of each pocket. All in all it was a couple of hours work. But it works really well. Every time that I used it ever since made me very happy.

 

folder-01.jpg

 

folder-03.jpg

 

Rob

 

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Everything Pete and Rob suggested +

 

Basic tools

A good punch & die set

Hobby Elements Section Tracer contour gauge (it's the best there is on the market; also, check the specialised tools they've got)

Some good needle files, tweezers and drill bits

A good moto tool with variable speed

Watchmakers parts

Mission Models micro chisel

Variety of Cyanoacrilate glue

 

Advanced tools

An opti-visor or any device alike

Dental vacuum-forming machine and dental acrylic powder

A micro-lathe

Mould and resin stuff

 

 

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, Rob de Bie said:

If you buy a lot of different sizes of Evergreen, Slaters and Plastruct strip and rod, finding the right size from all the packages becomes a problem. My collection drove me nuts: I could never find the size I was looking for.

 

A year or two ago I solved that problem. I used plastic sleeves to put documents in a folder. I used a temperature-controled soldering iron set at 225C to make (say) ten vertical pockets in each sleeve. I made around ten sleeves, and put them together in a paper folder. And then I filled nearly all 100 pockets with all my plastic strip and rod, profiles, metal wire and Albion tubing.

 

I even made small stickers with the dimensions of the content of each pocket. All in all it was a couple of hours work. But it works really well. Every time that I used it ever since made me very happy.

 

folder-01.jpg

 

folder-03.jpg

 

Rob

 

I love this idea. I'm constantly fighting my supply of rod & strip styrene. I may have to copy this set-up.

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I'll add another thing, a well stocked scraps box of parts from other models. I try to pick up extra parts at swap meets and contest from any old or new kit I can. You never know when one of the shapes is exactly what you need. Whenever you build a model that has optional parts, NEVER throw away the unused parts. chances are if you get into scratchbuilding it will come in handy one day.

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6 minutes ago, niart17 said:

I'll add another thing, a well stocked scraps box of parts from other models. I try to pick up extra parts at swap meets and contest from any old or new kit I can. You never know when one of the shapes is exactly what you need. Whenever you build a model that has optional parts, NEVER throw away the unused parts. chances are if you get into scratchbuilding it will come in handy one day.

 

I've got photos of my spares boxes.  The central slot of the yellow box is chock-full of wheels, they are my greatest treasure. I got them from another modeler who built all his aircraft gear up!

 

spares-01.jpg

 

spares-02.jpg


Rob

 

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11 minutes ago, Rob de Bie said:

 

I've got photos of my spares boxes.  The central slot of the yellow box is chock-full of wheels, they are my greatest treasure. I got them from another modeler who built all his aircraft gear up!

 

spares-01.jpg

 

spares-02.jpg


Rob

 

You sir are an organizing King! Hat's off to ya'. My spares box is just that, a huge box full of spares, many of which are still on the sprues, and takes up a huge corner in my garage. I need to take inspiration from you and get them sorted. It would make my life so much easier.

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6 minutes ago, niart17 said:

You sir are an organizing King! Hat's off to ya'. My spares box is just that, a huge box full of spares, many of which are still on the sprues, and takes up a huge corner in my garage. I need to take inspiration from you and get them sorted. It would make my life so much easier.

 

Haha, I never looked at it this way 😀 Thanks for the complement!

 

I do recommend larger compartment boxes, mine are too full. Otherwise it works well.


Rob

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A knife with a #11 blade hole punch, JLC saw with mitre boxes, Mission Models micro chisel, Swiss-cut needle files, calipers, dividers, and metal rules are my critical scratch building tools. I also have a spreadsheet computing various scale measurements for my common scales.

 

For materials, I use Evergreen plastic stock, thin aluminum sheet (from Costco 3-lb coffee containers), Albion tubing, brass wire, solder. and 6-mill carbon fibre. Solder is very flexible and stays where you put it. I just made some seat belts by flattening thin solder to make very flexible strips.

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