Two Questions?

[Uruk-Hai]

Hello Figureteers!

For my current project Ive run into some questions/problems that I could use a little help dealing with.

Im looking to find a clear plastic rod(or tube), it could be of real glass as well. The diameter Im looking for is 1mm - 2mm(0.04 - 0.08). Ive tried strectching clear plastic sprue with mixed results. Probably cause my very few and short pieces of clear plastic sprue as I dont do very much planes or cars. So, do anyone else have any good ideas for me?

The second question is that Ive made a curtain of Magic Sculpt. It has hardend and its tin but I would like to alter the shape a bit, nothing much, just straighten it out. Could I dip it in hot water and do this? Other options?

cheers

 

[garyjd]

Janne, Hot water (boiled in a tea kettle) or maybe even a hair dryer would work.~Gary

 

[Einion]

Hi Janne, stretched clear sprues from an aircraft or car model would have been my first suggestion, do you know anyone in a local model shop who might let you have any spares? Most people would have little use for their sprues. Only other thing I can think of is fibreoptic fibres, the type used on the colourful desk ornaments are plastic and pretty thick if I'm remembering correctly (about 1mm) but finding one that has 'fallen off' might be a problem :lol:

Yep, you can heat-form thinly-rolled MagicSculp. I tried a test a while ago and you can get a 90° bend from flat if you heat and bend in stages - I used a hairdryer, the MS was about 0.3-0.5mm thick - so slight adjustments to shape shouldn't pose a problem if you are only bending in one direction, trying to form a compound curve will be tougher.

It's definitely a case that the hotter you go the easier the bending becomes so I would try boiling water as per Gary's suggestions if you want to bend a lot or if it's reasonably thick. One thing, like Kneadatite it has a little memory so if you heat it after you've shaped it will tend to go back to its original shape a little bit.

Einion

 

[Brad S]

Janne,

I not sure where exactly you get hold of it, but you can buy clear acrylic rod in various diameters.

Brad Spelts

 

[quang]

Originally posted by Brad S@May 5 2005, 09:16 AM

I not sure where exactly you get hold of it

HERE !

HTH
Q.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Thanks for all the suggestions mates.

Ill have a hairdryer here(annected from the ol´lady years ago when I was doing vinylkits). Ill think I start with the hot water method though. I usually boil the water and pour it in a cup and bring it down to the hobbyroom. That works fine for plastic and resin.

Im not proud to admit it but I do have friends(?) who build such things as planes and cars that I will harass to get some more sprue to practice on.

Also last night I used a fibreoptics device which I tried to stretch with an odd result. The string went a little flat when stretched and it wasnt clear but had tiny lines in it? It still worked however but the intense of the light was lower afterwards.
Ive also put a piece in my motortool trying to sand it down but the friction became heat and Ill think you can guess what happend then.

Ill check out the the acrylic rods.

I also got the idea of vacumforming some plastic over a rod with the end up?

Thanks again fellows.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Update on the subjects on clear rods.

A "friend" went through his stash of unbuilt kits and found an Tamiya 1/48 Corsair who would act as a donor.

This kind of plastic showed to be much better for the purpose of stretching sprue than the previous one. I knew that Tamiya was better stretching normal sprue but this seems to be the case for clear plastic as well. After 4 tries I have 3 rods that is useable.

It showed to be inportant that one warms the plastic properly and the wait a few seconds for it to cool down before starting to stretch. The more you wait the thicker rod you will get. This hasnt been that inportant when stretching normal sprue.

I actually found the half built kit of Dragons Fokker DR I Triplane with the Richthofen bust in it. Quite good, I like to recall that Mike Good sculpted that piece.
So many models and figures and so little time.

Cheers