Styrene

[John]

The new MR touts styrene as a modeling medium .. I stopped by MB Kleins today to grab a bunch of stuff .. odds and ends mainly,  went to the back where the "styrene" bags were .. $6.25 for most sheets of scribed stuff .. OMG .. The last time I bought this stuff .. it was $3-4 ..   I guess I go back to walmart to get more yard sale signs and pull out the Xacto and scribe my own

[Catt]

See, gas isn't the only thing overpriced because of oil.On the serious side find a plastics distributor or a sign company that makes plastic signs ( the large signs not the forsale size) and see if they will sell you some sheet stock.

Does your local transit system have ads on the sides of their busses? Ours does and the signs are large sheets of styrene that are discarded when the advertizements are changed.These are at least .040" thick and usually free for the asking.

You could also try this place   http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=22883&clickid=redirect#

Or this one  http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Styrene_Hi_Impact

[Philip H]

Or you can grab two dozen used campaign signs out of the trash at a car wash and have enough 0.05 to last a life time

[CoalPorter]

I have used clear plastic from used food containers from the deli for window
material for quite some time, but never admit it publically for fear of losing my
modelers card. 

[Philip H]

That should have been 0.005 

[jimmo]

The new MR touts styrene as a modeling medium

Seriously? I have been using styrene as a modeling medium for the last 40+ years. Most of Willmodels' masters are made of it. I gave up wood and paper a long time ago--once I saw what styrene was capable of.

[nkalanaga]

I switched to styrene after moving to Kentucky in 1978.  It wasn't readily available in Pasco, WA, but in Kentucky the humidity was so high that the wooden models, including well-braced freight cars, warped.  It wasn't so much that I liked the styrene better, as a matter of desperation, although it turned out to be much handier than the wood and paper. 

I still use both wood and paper, but mostly for structures, where it can be VERY well braced.  It's probably overkill, but one small shed is a piece of 2x4 with paper siding.  That thing will never warp!  The sloped roof is a slab of balsa, sanded to the right slope, with paper roofing. 

For what it's worth, the only wood models I've never had warp are those made of balsa.

[Alwyn Cutmore]

There is a book around by Al Armitage by Kemtron on Modeling in Styrene. It is one of the best publications you can get on the subject. Although Al was a HO Modeler he was a real pioneer in the use of Styrene and how to get the best out of it. To make it even better he was a true gentleman. Kemtron was acquired by Precision Scale Products so an enquiry with them you locate your nearest source. I have used this book as a guide for the past 30 years.

Regards

Al

[Zox]

There is a book around by Al Armitage by Kemtron on Modeling in Styrene... Kemtron was acquired by Precision Scale Products so an enquiry with them you locate your nearest source.http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/585-9784

Walthers lists "Styrene Fabrication" by Al Armitage as being "in stock" for $6.00:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/585-9784

There's also a 6-page Data Sheet by him on the NMRA web site:

www.nmra.org/member/sites/default/files/datasheets/General/D1l.PDF

[John]

Seriously?

sorry .. I forgot the sarcasm emoticon on the origional post

[rogergperkins]

May 2013 MR arrived and readers may note I already was motivated by the body mounted coupler article.

The cover article title of "Scratchbuilt Structures made simple" also caught my attention; I have book marked the 1st page.

Paul J. Dolkos outlines 7 simple steps.  Step 3 is the one that interest me most because he describes scoring a sheet of styrene and breaking it apart, then reassembling the pieces so that window and door opens are created.    This sounds great to me because I have hesitated to do more scratchbuilding because of cutting these openings neatly.  I am eager to move forward on a long delayed structure.

I have done limited scratchbuilding with styrene over the years; my first attempts were to reproduce a few of the structures that Gordon Odegard included on the Clinchfield featured in MR several years ago.  Most of those attempts are stored some where in a collection of buildings with out a home on the layout.

This article has prompted be to try at least one postponed structure. Be d*mned the cost of styrene. 

[conrail98]

In addition to the campaign signs Philip mentioned above, don't look past the Dollar Store and their many "For Sale" type signs. You can use them for a lot of things, one side is usually unpainted,

Phil

[Alwyn Cutmore]

John,
While your initial post may have carried some sarcasm Scratch Building in Styrene is still one of the cheapest ways of getting just what you want. There are all sorts of different sources of styrene but cost aside Evergreen is still the best source of styrene shapes and while Plastruct did pickup their game and now have some lattice shapes and other shapes as well. I sell four different size sheets here down under for $6.25 but most of that is taken up in the labour.
 
I did previously mention the Al Armitage book and quite rightly it is available from PSC and is called Styrene Fabrication by Al Armitage. It is in the HO Catalogue from PSC which is a good resource bood for the underbody detailing layout of heavy weight coaches.

Regards

Al

[John]

John,
While your initial post may have carried some sarcasm Scratch Building in Styrene is still one of the cheapest ways of getting just what you want. There are all sorts of different sources of styrene but cost aside Evergreen is still the best source of styrene shapes and while Plastruct did pickup their game and now have some lattice shapes and other shapes as well. I sell four different size sheets here down under for $6.25 but most of that is taken up in the labour.
 

Al, there was a touch of sarcasm .. I actually build a quite a lot with styrene .. and use the common for sale sign from the local hardware store as a basis for much of it .. its about $2.50 for a nice size - usually about .20 in thickness ..  the specialty sheets - scribed - are much harder to get away without purchasing evergreen ..

[Kisatchie]

Mmmmm... styrene.


Hmm... Kiz gave up
styrene for Lent...