Working with sheet styrene

I know that most of you guys if not all use sheet styrene when you are kitbashing or scratchbuilding. Since I am just getting back into HO railroading, I want to start using this stuff on projects I might attempt that require using it. However, I have no experience using styrene and have never used it before, but on the brightside I have experience using power tools, hobby knives, etc so that might be a good starting point. A few good tips on how to work with this stuff like how to get it to fit into places, what thickness of styrene should I use, etc would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to share any models that you guys have used styrene on to build/modify with to use as a reference or example.

Hi...here's my top 5 tips for working with styrene:

TIP #5:

Get these tools!

#1 X-Acto knife
#11 X-Acto knife blades (get a box!)
3 steel scales: 6", 12", 36", marked in 1/32" increments
1 RR modeller's scale (HO, O, S guage scales)
"Self-healing" cutting mat
Small machinist's square
triangles: 30-60-90, 45-45-90

TIP #4:

Get this book!

Evergreen Scale Models has published a book on working with styrene titled "Basic and Advanced Tips and Techniques for Styrene Modeling". Retail price is $14.95 and you can find it at a discount on eBay or half.com. Evergreen has even published excerpts from the book on their website. Follow this link:

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Book.htm

TIP #3:

Stock up!

Stock up on some common sizes of plain sheet stock...say, 1 package each of .010", .020", .030", .040", .060". Just buy a bunch to have it on hand. Pick up an assortment of strips, too. Better to have stock on hand rather than discovering you need something when the hobby shop is closed! .040" works nicely for walls in smaller buildings and I use .060" for walls in larger buildings.

TIP #2:

Windows!

First, throw away the clear styrene windows that come with most kits!

Get some .005" clear styrene for use as window glass. Spray the "outside" surface with Testors Dullcote and back the "inside" surface with black construction paper. Glue this on the inside of a building wall with Walthers Goo (don't use liquid plastic cement or super-glue...it'll fog the the plastic) and you've got nice grimy windows and you can't see through the building.

TIP #1:

Here's a money-saver! Liquid plastic cement is a solvent called methyl ethyl ketone. Buy it at your local hobby shop and you'll pay $2 to $3 for a 1 oz. bottle. Go to your local Home Depot or Lowes and you can buy a gallon for about $20. Do the math and you'll see that this comes out to about $0.15 per ounce! Be careful to handle this stuff away from flames and in a WELL VENTILATED area, though!

I hope this info is helpful!

Best Regards,

Bruce J.

Thank you for all the tips Bruce, I greatly appreciate your help. I have never seen that Evergreen book but I read some of the PDF samples and have to say it sounds like a must have for me. Your five tips are also very useful and should definitely come in handy, looks like I need to buy some new tools though!

As I'm a prototype fan my model efforts are strictly amateur, but I do like working with sheet styrene. My local plastics dealer (non-railroad) carries sheets about 2x3 feet of .020 and .040 (and probably other thicknesses as well), for a few bucks. They also sold me some Plexiglass, cut to my size, and I made a dandy display box (no bottom) for my models, probably at some saving from the finished ones. But I asked for clear styrene and they only have that in .060 sheet, a little thick for HO windows! Tried a technique by Bill Darnaby in MR to use clear .015 Evergreen styrene for passenger car sides with small label stickers to cover the windows (see March 1994 MR). This was OK until I took the (Staples) 'window' stickers off, then they all left a gum which would not yield to soap-and-water (Darnaby's suggestion) nor alcohol, decal solvent, or an eraser. Recent MRs advertise a product called Goo Gone; only one hobby dealer here (Lehigh Valley, PA) carries it, but it does work!
A little expensive though. Also the .015 is a little thin for car sides, really needs some bracing behind it.
So good luck and you might try a local plastics dealer for bulk sheets and/or Plexiglass.

James E. Bradley Hawk Mountain Chapter N.R.H.S.

As a cement, I personally prefer the chlorinated solvents (marketed as Tenax, and a couple of others) to the MEK based cements. They dry faster and produce a stronger joint. Still a volatile organic compound, though (inthis case, methylene chloride, the same stuff in Liquid Paper correction fluid), so the usual cautions about good ventilation apply also.

Thin sheet stock is far easier to cut, but more subject to warpage once your structure is built up. If you use thin stock, make sure you brace it well, every couple of inches or so.

Window openings can be easily "roughed out" with a nibbling tool (yes, that's what its called--get one cheap at Radio Shack) that's commonly used to make holes in automobile dashboards. It creates a rough opening, but if you're using window inserts, or attaching your own strip styrene window frames, it's perfectly acceptable.

Paint the inside of your buildings black--it cuts down on light penetration through the walls and helps make the building look more solid.

Here's a station I built using various grades of sheet styrene and square rod... I used Plastruct liquid cement for the construction (with some Testors model cement).

http://ritmrc.org/photos/2004january/me ... ysta-1.jpg

http://ritmrc.org/photos/2004january/me ... ysta-3.jpg

This was only my second styrene scratchbuilding attempt! I worked from drawings I prepared and used a jig to make the uprights... the rest kinda fell together and the payoff was the finishing. My friend thought the platform was a plaster casting!

-otto-