Cardstock and Strathmore® A closer look at these materials/Bob Walker
W
e like to think of ourselves as thrifty or frugal, to loved ones in particular, when it comes to describing our hobby spending habits. Some of my cronies are so cheap they complain about free stuff, while some of the others spend money like drunk- en sailors. That is a particularly good analogy, as some of my good friends used to be sailors. I’ve seen them in ac- tion! I shant name names (you know who you are). I like to think of myself as thrifty, but, to be honest, I have been known to spent too much (WAAAY too much) on occasion. So I guess I land somewhere in the middle of the cheap- ness spectrum, tending to go to ex- tremes in both directions. I’m the guy that makes models from things I find in the trash, and own 32 pin vices. I get no help whatsoever in the thrift department from my wife of 37 years. She has the “You earned it-you spend it” attitude that is not much help in resisting that new brass 2-8-2. She seems to ignore the fact that she earned some of that 2-8-2 money, too. When it comes to cheap, I’m on my own. Howev- er, I try to maintain a more economical attitude when it comes to your money. I try not to advise spending too much of it (other than last month’s table saw.) or in foolish ways. One of the many reasons to build from scratch is to save money. I don’t think Bill Gates reads this column, so all but a few have to watch over their hobby dollars.
All that being said, you get what you
pay for, and cheap is not always the way to go, particularly where tools are con- cerned. I had better get back on track here... I’m starting to wander off! Of all the materials we use to create
our models, the least expensive has to be cardstock. Even if you actually had to (shudder) buy it, it is not all that expen- sive, even for the high end Strathmore sold at art supply stores. For that high end Strathmore, I recommend Dick Blick Art Supply (
www.dickblick.com) where you can get 20 sheets of good quality Bristol board 9″×12″ for nine bucks. Be warned, there are a lot of items of interest to scratchbuilders like us on that website, so you may want to budget a little extra (time and coin-of- the-realm) to the endeavor. That $9.00 gets you over 2,000 square inches of stock. That’s a lot of buildings. I have a good supply of several thicknesses (ply) of good Bristol board, chipboard, and
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Scratchbuilder’s Corner
foam-core. Bottom line: any good craft or art supply store will do. I have also been known to butcher whatever card- board box I had on hand for a project. You know, old kit boxes (like Walthers Cornerstone) which are large enough to accommodate some really big walls. Don’t tell anyone, but I do buy kits now and again.
Unlike styrene, cardstock is hygro-
scopic (which is a fancy scientific word for “sucks water out of the air”), and likes to warp and deform in highly ob- jectionable ways. In my mostly mis- spent youth, some of my early attempts
at using this material were poorly (¹/₈″×¹/₈″ basswood) braced. The Walker basement was more than a little damp, and the results were (in hindsight) quite comical.
Now I combat this tendency in two
ways: paint and braces. The paint (not water based) does a good job of sealing the walls against moisture, and the bracing avoids that sagging look we mostly strive to avoid. I like to cut out the walls to the correct size, brace them appropriately, then paint the whole shebang (everywhere) with a rattle can. Being lazy, the spray can is easier than all the rigmarole of setting up and cleaning the airbrush. I also tend to use the cheaper spray colors from Walmart for this task. Look to whatever is on the sale rack for proj- ects where color is not a consideration. Come to think of it, Krylon and its com-
The Strathmore and other cardstock materials tend to absorb moisture out of the air. This causes warping. Be sure to paint the surfaces and use thick bracing to keep the wall straight.
OCTOBER 2013
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