Playing with evergreen

That is a nice little building perfectly designed to its purpose and fit.  Great idea, well done.  

I love Evergreen and Plastruk - if it were not for them I would not get nearly the pleasure I do from both my hobbies - toy trains and model ships.

Oh, the build list for those who'd be interested;

-.100x.100 square for the corners

-.125 metal siding for the roof

-5/32" angle for the roof cap

-.125 V-groove sidning for the walls

-.015x.156 for sides of the swing open doors

-.015x..060 for the door trim

-tichy train group 4/4 double hung windows{24"x51"}

..btw, the off line for the window top cuts was still there even after I swapped to taller windows...along the way mod.

Now the forktruck has it's own garage to park in...though it's an Osha nightmare for the usable space to drive on....it's just model trains though-relax! 

Thank you Sir, and I agree totally....my musses are model trains and 1/25th scale models.

We have a Coke tray that shows a neat old gas station with an overhang for the pumps...a good 12/12 pitch roof for both building and pump cover area...it's gonna happen in 1/48th...someday!

I have 3 big drawers filled with Evergreen and Plastruct. I order more Plastruct today as I think they are a better value and the folks there are great!

You know styrene is my favorite medium for models......

What do you build?? That's where I work some......

Not my build....but my artwork on the decals....

Sorry moderators, but he asked-

Just a few directions...

 Scratched Swab rescue body with a mack MB cab

Scania extended cab with stretched frame

Mack B cab with a twin boom wrecker body

...one of the shelves...

...my tastes swing fairly wide on projects...and yes, that's a "walking sherman tank" there

...a zombie build theme, 4 axles and a bulldozer front end, then the lower mack AB with dual drive...there's a trailer to go with that too

...a tear apart and rebuild of the old cat dozer...better this time

I step back to them from time to time...if they get too tedious I walk away till the muse hits me again...though I think the wife is right{don't tell her I said that!}, the muse needs to smack me around alot more to button these up-lol.

Dave, nothing against the modern stuff, but I really like that outside braced boxcar...sweet!

Nice decals too....what would it take to get you do make up some CB&Q heralds with the gold instead of white inlay.....? Still waiting on Jerry Reter to make me up some 1/25th Conoco decals for the mack AB tanker and trailer...one of these days I gotta rattle his cage again for that...

All us structure builders knew what "evergreen" meant in your heading.  I prefer wood, but have used plenty of Evergreen and Plastruct, including in one all plastic Skelly gas

station with a reverse-curved roof that would have been harder to pull off in wood. 

Also, in my late teens, I built plenty of 1/25th, but left soon after I had my brush painting technique down so it look like sprayed (and then rattle cans became common).  That little shed includes a lot of detail.

Nice pictures all

Brent

Nice Job Bob got a pic of the inside?

You got me thinking about my first project

This is 100% styrene:

Here ya go chief.....need any more, just yell.

Note the .100x.100 inner square stock for added strength...that's your call on that one.

Given a scale ruler, you can take any multiview drawing and convert it to 1/48th scale...or any scale for that matter...convert an HO scale drawing to O scale or whatever. Take a picture in your minds eye and make it real...might help to draw it out on paper 1st, then tweek as needed, then go plastic hunting. You'll need a good straight egde to guide long cuts, a fresh exacto blade{and decent cutting surface-not the family dinning room table}, a sanding stick for rough edges and glue- I like brush on liquid glue, myself.  

Got a pic?...this is supposed to be an inspirational thread...add on!

As for the detail, once you build the basic form, "added details" seem to flow easily- almost addictively....

Nice!

I model passenger equipment and the standard sheet size for evergreen,& plastruct always means a seam somewhere you don't want one. THen it struk me at home depot styrene signs in large dimensions. reasonable too

My LHS in Houston actually carries the extra-long Evergreen strips and sheets, so I was able to make those 18" long cars above without any seams.  Most Evergreen/Plastruct dealers don't carry it, but you can order it online if necessary.

Aterry11, you can get the big sheets in 24" long...and can special order bigger from evergreen...shipping won't be kind though...I want some thicker stuff to do the door panels on my old 1:1 car.....2'x3'ish....x4{doors}

I'm gonna check out Home Depot....when I want something, I want it now!, not

man~ana...

For large sheets of plain, non-textured styrene, skip Evergreen and find a local plastics distributor.  You can buy 4x8 sheets of styrene in various thicknesses, or get more manageable smaller chunks like 2x4 sheets.  And the price will make you sick when you compare it to the cost of Evergreen.  Here in Denver, I purchased 2x4 sheets of .060" white styrene for about $6.25 each.  From the Evergreen website, the equivalent square footage will cost $41.70!  Just a small discount.

Now of course if you need textures like corrugated or grooved siding, then you will need to pursue the Evergreen or Plastruct varieties.  I ordered sheets of corrugated from Caboose Hobbies.  It wasn't that cheap, but it was the only alternative.

Jim

Easier said than done today unfortunately.  For many years when I lived in Charlotte there was a great plastic supplier Cadillac Plastics. When I moved away and ran low I dropped by Cadillac for a re-supply. No luck....closed up. When I got home I checked the website and found they had closed almost all their local stores and had gone to one major shop. I can't find a supplier within 300 miles now.

BTW.....before they closed I didn't buy the 4x8 sheets all the time....they had a big bin of cut offs that they charged pennies per pound.....I still have some of it. What a DEAL!!!! The good old days.

Where'd you find the plans, and how did you make the corrugated roofs? That one detail had stymied my plans to try an autorack for the longest time (I've scratchbuilt built a spine car and an Amtrak MHC from styrene in the past).

---PCJ

n Martin but both Plastruct and Evergreen have a number of different corrugated, metal siding or metal roofing that can work well. Check their sites....

In the past, to make a curved roof for anything, I'd try to make a buck to form over, then apply heat via a heat gun...slowly...then let it cool. The buck would be less in width, given the material thickness, so things lined up when done.

One other option is to laminate layers, but that takes more time - imho. 

Oh, if one needs big sheets of styrene, you should do a search for any local suppliers...you might be surprised at what you may find...or not.

That would be the "V-Groove Siding, 020" Thick (0,5 mm) Opaque White Styrene", then?

After squinting at the enlarged photo for a few seconds, it appears the grooved sheet is on the thin/flexible side, and it was fastened to/ bent around a framework to form the roofline as it goes from vertical to diagonal to horizontal and back. Is this correct?

I should mention I did my MHC's roof the tedious long-winded way...individual styrene strips glued across a peaked roof, with notches cut into the strips at the roof peak so they'd bend neatly. I worked from a combination of plans in Model Railroader and some N scale versions I had.

I'll look into this technique as pictured someday...I have enough large autoracks (close to 50), but I might be tempted to try a "traditional-size" car to run with the 36-or-so Lionel/MPC 'racks I already have, either a raised-roof version of the Lionel covered cars, or a downsized Auto-Max derived from an HO model.

---PCJ

Great artists here!!  You guys are amazing...

Alan

Here's an all-styrene 53ft NSC well car.

Styrene is a great building material!!! Great looking work!

Here is some of the stuff I make with Evergreen and Plastruk.  

 This model of the restaurant from the British TV series Pie in the Sky is entirely scratch build, even though it looks a lot like its heavily bashed from DPM or Ameritown panels.  It was an experiment about 5 years ago in if and how much easier/harder it is to scratch build rather than bash from DPM/Ameritown panels: and why I bash with panels any time I could from then on.  The result is good (you have to get about six inches or closer to tell its all hand-made, not cast as one) but it took forever.  One thing I did learn that I still do alot: cut thinner plastic sheets with scissors rather than an X-Acto, etc.

The model of Dino's restaurant (which really did exist) and 77 Sunset Strip from the TV show of the same name is entirely scratch built from Evergreen and Plastruck, overlaid on solid wooden blocks cut/carved to the correct shapes.

Like many here I do other that just model railroading.  I've been building model ships as long as I have been doing toy trains (since age 4, probably).  I think/hope I've gotten better over time - my efforts in the 1950s were mostly boards with nails pounded in them to represent guns.  This a 1/350 model of USS West Virginia, BB48, as rebuilt after Pearl Harbor.  It is my favorite battleship and as a kit wasn't available I scratch built it - it's about 21.5 inchs long.  Hull is carved/filled wood, deck, superstructure and bigger gun/turrets are scratch built from Evergreen and Plastruk - smaller ones stolen from 1/350 kits that were available.  I'm working on three scratch build WWII cruisers in the same scale right now, as a matter of fact.

Hey Lee, you mentioned model ships. My LHS, English's Model RR in Montoursville, PA has a H_U_G_E 1/200 scale model of the battleship Missouri for sale. I have never seen a ship model so BIG. (just in case you might be interested)

Thanks.  But I do model ships now in just two scales.  I have about a dozen Napoleonic warships all in HO (1:87 scale), all scratch built, and about two dozen late 19th and early 20th century warships in 1:350, kits where I can get them, about 1/3 scratch.  1:200 would be huge - the Missouri would be over 53 inches long.  Perfect for remote control but too big for me.  

My favorite tool for cutting styrene??? A paper cutter. Not he old school 'chopper' they don't cut straight often. I like the style crafters use.......

I bought this one for about $10.....you can get them for less now. It makes perfect square cuts and has built in rulers. It will cut thin stock in one pass. Stock .020 or thicker you just score the plastic and use the snap method to finish the cut. Stock of .050 or thicker may take two or three passes then snap it. GREAT tool!!!!

Wow, I gotta get one of those.  I didn't know they had a type with a blade like that.

--- 12 seconds flat -- Amazon says it will be here Friday!

Thank you.  

Next to my laser table....my favorite cutting tool.....and a LOT cheaper!!!!!!

AMCDave/Lee, who makes the above mentioned paper cutter and a stock number to make sure I order the correct one on Amazon?

Thanks,

I ordered a Fiskars 196920-1001 Portable Paper Trimmer, 12-Inch from Amazon.  Looks almost identical to AMCDave's.  $15.79.

Thanks Lee!