A Couple of Scratch Building Questions

[One of One-Sixty]

Question 1)
I want to scratch build a couple of building, but all the styrene I found at my LHS is very flimsy, and obviously would work well for use as walls and floors as such.

So my question is, what would be the desired thickness for styrene sheets to make sturdy walls as well as the base for the building.

Question 2)
I am toying with the idea of building a powered chasis out of styrene to revamp my PCC trolleys so they can sit lower as well as add some other features.  Does anybody have any tips or sugesstions with this project?

[3rdrail]

What kind of building are you proposing to build, and what is the exterior of the building; stone, brick, wood siding, etc.? I have used .020" sheet styrene on a frame of 1/8" square basswood or even balsa, then put the sheet of siding over that. You don't need a joist evey 16" like a real house, but you get the idea. For the roof, I'd use something a little thicker, like .040".

You'll have to ask Randgust about the underframe. He's been doing a lot of them with his "critters" lately!

[SAH]

Depends to some degree on how large the structure will be.  I like .040" with interior bracing as necessary to keep everything square.  Lots of exterior facings are available in this thickness.  You can use plain .020" as a base, creating openings using the "score and snap" method popularized by the NEB&W guys some years ago and then laminate it with a .020" sheet of the final exterior surface (brick, clapboard, whatever).  Many different ways and materials to go about it.

Can't help with the chassis Q.

Steve

[One of One-Sixty]

One of the structures I want to build is a restuarant about 7.25" x 6.25" and about 2.5" high, the exterior is a mixture of wood siding and bricks and there will be some awnings.

The other is a huge station, still scaling it down to N scale, but it will be slightly bigger than the Walthers Union Station, in both length, width and height.  The exterior will be stone weatherd adn painted to look like marble and sandstone.

The last build will be a bunch of different dumpsters kinda like what Waste Mangement and other companies use.

Thanks for the info on Randust, I knew somebody did it but could not remember who.

[SAH]

One of the structures I want to build is a restuarant about 7.25" x 6.25" and about 2.5" high, the exterior is a mixture of wood siding and bricks and there will be some awnings.

The other is a huge station, still scaling it down to N scale, but it will be slightly bigger than the Walthers Union Station, in both length, width and height.  The exterior will be stone weatherd adn painted to look like marble and sandstone.

The last build will be a bunch of different dumpsters kinda like what Waste Mangement and other companies use.

Thanks for the info on Randust, I knew somebody did it but could not remember who.

A .020" base with the different facings laminated on top is probably the way to go for the restaurant.  You'll still likely need to brace it to prevent the walls from bowing. 

I've never built a real large structure (RR Station scale) from scratch but I'd be tempted to try some alternative material as a base and laminate the finished side over it.  Fome board, gator board or something like that.

[engineshop]

I only have experience from my container crane. Styrene that would be thick enough to support the wall is to thick to be cut easily in shape. I would build a house the way it is done in real world with supporting beams and thinner wall sections.

[wm3798]

I used two laminations of brick sheet to both get the relief of the brickwork, and to strengthen the walls.  There is also some .20 x .30 strip stock glued to the interior to keep things straight and square.



Lee

[One of One-Sixty]

Thank you all, I picked up the book on Styrene by Evergreen as well as a small sheet of Evergreen .60 blanks (all they had in stock at the time).  I will play around with this sheet right now and see what I can do for a chasis and various other small stuff.

Will now try to find a LHS that sales Plastruct now.