A question about plasticard

[Conium Maculatum]

Hi All,

After finding some awesome tank conversions, both here and elsewhere on the web, I have a question or two. They are quite basic so please bear with me!

1) Is plasticard sheet styrene found in most model shops, generally near the railway section?

2) What is the best/most versatile thickness of sheet to get? This is of extreme importance because the stuff in Modelzone and 4D models ain't cheap!

3) how do you put rivets onto the sheet once you've cut it to shape (if necessary)?

Thanks

 

[freakinacage]

Can be found in a lot of modelling and art shops

Credit card thickness is about right for most things. Bear in mind you can actually use old cards...

Rivets can be done with a push mould and putty, rolls of putty rolled out into sausages and cut into thin disks, water filter beads (cut the filter open and you have a load of bits of charcoal and ceramic type beads) stuck into mini drill holes or you can simply buy them if you want fancy hex bolts

 

[RuneBrush]

It is often found with the railway bits in a hobby shop, but in my experience hobby shops & especially Evergreen (which is what shops tend to stock) is very expensive for what you get - a single sheet of plasticard will set you back anything up to a fiver for an A4 sheet. Annoyingly I can't remember where I got my last lot of plasticard, but try Station Road Base Boards or Antenocitis Workshop

In fairness you're going to want a selection of different thickness sheets. I tend to have 3 sizes at home - 0.5mm, 1mm & 1.5mm and a few pieces of thicker. 1mm in my opinion is the most versatile as it's substantial enough to support it's own weight. However the thinner stuff is really easy to cut and great for covering over gaps and similar (I used some for covering the end of barrels with a awful join line).

As freak says there's a lot of different ways of doing rivets. One way I saw on here recently is to cut off little lengths of plastic rod, glue in place and file to the correct length. There are metal molds that exist that you can squidge molten plastic into which one you work out how they work are pretty good. Metal ball bearings are also possible though manipulating ball bearings that are smaller than a pin head can cause you to say words that you wouldn't repeat in front of your mother Search Google for "Rivet Maker" and you'll get a few results too.