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Need wood for a diorama....


bigmikevee

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Hey Gang,

I am thinking about building a small garage diorama, found some wood online, but have not found a site that makes me feel like giving them my business yet. Who do you guys buy from and what type of wood should I use? I am thinking balsa, what do you think/use?

Thanks in advance!!

Mike

Edited by bigmikevee
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i have found like these hard wooden strips of wood in a local modelstore .. works so good and you can really sand and saw it and it strong

balsa wood is soo light and fragile ..

balsa is great when you need a very light weight object and you want to give it some shape , its easy to sand in a shape and stuff ..

for real construstions like in a garage

i would choose something strong

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I think the closer grain of basswood looks better in models, for the most part. Balsa is great for model planes that fly, as it's light and cuts easy, and for hidden parts of strucures and cars.

Lately I've been saving Starbucks stir sticks for planking.

If you have a fine-furniture refinisher nearby, you can sometimes get fine-grained veneer scraps for free too.

Single-ply cardboard, illustration board (Strathmore / Bristol board), card-stock, and manila file-folders are all materials I used to use for model railroad structures.

Plastruct and Evergreen also make styrene sheets in various scales with things like stone, brick and shingle details molded in.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Basswood is a finegrained wood that is similar in color to balsa, but is not as soft. It is used a lot in woodcarving too. A good source for fractional sizes and sheets is Midwest products. If you use water based paints or stains it can warp and raise the grain. Oil based products should work fine, but always do some testing.

Edited by Chuck Doan
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