I am looking at building this structure. I was going to use styrene painted black but now I am thinking either bass wood covered with card stock or just card stock. I have never used card stock before. What thickness should I go with?
I would suggest .030 to .040. I recently completed some Japanese temple out buildings that were laser cut cardstock.
Would card stock be an issue when it comes time to paint since most paint are water based? I would think thin styrene sheets would be better. Tougher, easier to glue with liquid cement (almost instant dry) and impervious to water. With the thin sheets, it's easier to "cut" with the score and snap technique.
Several thin coats of a fast drying paint like Vallejo work fine but I have only done very small pieces. If the structure in the picture is the build then styrene is the obvious choice since the structural shapes can be readily had for the tower. And glueing styrene to styrene is a snap with a solvent based glue, or a plastic weld. Windows of the shape found in the tower may be out there also.
I am a bit out of date with details, but I built a structure with similar board and batten siding, and I found sheet styrene N scale board and batten. I find styrene the easiest to work with. It is easiest to use the score and snap technique made popular by Bob Schleicher. Wood can be a problem getting it glued together, and wood glued with CA often fails at the joints. I don't know what the old magazines from the forties and fifties that described using cardstock actually meant, but I do know from my days ordering things printed that what is called cardstock now is like the stuff that 3 1/2 x 5 index cards are made from. Thats, to put it mildly way too thin. I can't see any reason to do this but if I was doing something using a paper product I would use matte board. I do remember David Haines built several structures from shirt cardboard.
Not true. Or else all my RC balsa airplanes would be falling out of the sky. Or my RC wooden boats would be at the bottom of the pond. You have to use the right CA and like anything else, know what you are doing. The CA joints are stronger than the wood itself.
How does one know what is "the right CA?" I've never seen Perfect for Wood on the label. But then again, where I live, hobby stores that sell trains have not traditionally sold airplanes or cars, and vice versa.
I've seen some amazing stuff built from card. Seems to me being able to send card thru your printer is a major advantage. Having said that, I've built a lot of stuff with styrene but my skill set with card is nonexistent so I would use styrene.
The very delicate and detailed structural components of the temple outbuildings I completed about 4 months ago are all card stock. Of course they were laser cut on either a gray or brown card stock in Japan. I have support pillars. columns, rafters and other things. The secret is they are all cut out by laser. I wish I still had some scraps of the kits around so I could measure thickness. But you wont be able to match a laser for the cut edge.
