Scratch building ship hulls (Hey Pete Nolan have you seen this?)

[pnolan48]

I'm happy with my old Silhouette, which has been replaced by a modle called the Cameo. These are in the $180-240 range, and can't cut through.020" styrene. Max cut width is about 8 inches. It's a small, tidy package that weighs about 4 pounds. I use it when in Alabama for prototypes. It is a score and snap machine on .020.

My production cutter is a 13" BlackCat Cougar. It's a brute of a machine, weighing 28 pounds and taking up some desk space. The 13-inch model is about $800; wider ones cost more. 13 inches is more than enough for me. It will cut through .020 styrene, and probably thicker styrene as well. Cutting all the way through styrene presents problems because of the materials high drag on the blade. Beware of the Silver Bullet, and any reviews that rank the Silver Bullet best but don't even rank the BlackCat! The Silver Bullet gang and BlackCat are having a rather nasty fight--that's another story, but the Silver Bullet is basically a rip-off of the earlier BlackCat Lynx.

Mastering this machine for styrene took me a long time, but it now cuts nearly flawlessly. I'm cutting less than dime sized hose reels with at least eight openings out of .020 styrene. The result looks like phot etched brass.

[jimmo]

Thanks Pete.

[S Class]

I found another method you gents might like

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=38899.0

[jimmo]

I found another method you gents might like

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=38899.0

Been there done that.

[pnolan48]

I found another method you gents might like

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=38899.0

I've used this method many times for concave bows and convex sterns. I ended up using a lot of filler on either end. That's not necessarily bad, but it can be a lot of work, and results can be asymmetrical in any dimension, and hard to detect. I've found, with careful fitting and a bit of stretching, I can cover most bows with single sheets over formers. Yes, I can stretch styrene just like metal, but only so much. Which makes convex sterns a little more trouble. Today's sterns often have a relatively flat transom, so the hull shape leading up to the transom is a gentle convex curve. I make my really curved sterns the simplest way--I just carve them out of wood, or sometimes foam.

How do I stretch styrene? The easiest way is to heat it, but that can get messy if you get it too hot, or for many other reasons. I just have a wooden ball, mounded firmly about six inches off the table, and draw a sheet of styrene over it until it start taking a hole (or mound from the other side). It's a little bit like shining a shoe. Another way is to roll the styrene tightly in one direction, unroll, then roll tightly at a 90 degree angle, and keep repeating.