Ideal customizing starter kit for 1/24 -1/25 scale cars?

[epi4561]

Ok, this is a question for all of you seasoned customizers out there.

If you were to put together a plasti-struct/evergreen starter kit for an up and coming customizer, what would your kit have in it?

[PowerPlant]

This very much depends on what you want to achieve, but I assume you are talking about body modifications, wide wheel arches, hood scoops and such...

I find sheet styrene best... I prefer it to be thinner, so it conforms better to curved areas...

Apart from styrene, you'll also need some kind of two part epoxy compound... My preference is Tamiya's epoxy putty.

[epi4561]

I was referring to the sizes/types of plastic. strips,tubing,channel, etc.. Say for scratch building a frame, or a roll cage. What would you guys consider essential?

[Blown03SVT]

For a cage probably .060 or .080 round rod. I just did a cage in .080 and it was my first time and it turned out pretty good after some trial and error. Scales out to 2" tubing. I am getting into scratch building more and most of the items you will need are based on what you are trying to accomplish. Reference photos, a caliper, super glue, plastic welder (ambroid, tenax) and a miter box with a saw is a good place to start IMO. The plastic, aluminum, brass, etc. are the easy items.

[ScaleDale]

What Eric said.

Most frames and roll cages are 1 5/8 chrome moly tubing and that scales down to around 1.6 or 2 mm styrene rod. 1.6 mm is 1/16 inch, I think. I find metrics easier to work with on this small a scale

Get a small digital caliper. Mine cost around $20 and is always close at hand. I have a small heat gun for frames and roll cages but it's tricky to use on the thin stuff. It goes all weird really easy. Get a variety pack of sheet styrene. You want to stick to accurate scale sizes of tube and rod for looks, but structural strength needs to be taken into consideration, too. A 1/4 inch sheet aluminum floor panel is pretty strong 1:1 but scale it down and it's 0.01 inch of plastic. That's like, paper, dude! So I cheat on the scale thickness with sheet in favor of strength. A delicate chassis on a strong sub floor works out well and looks good, too.

Good luck on the scratch building thing. It really frees you from the box.

Dale

Edited June 21, 2013 by ScaleDale

[Tom Geiger]

A good place to start is a pack Evergreen calls 9002 Odds & Ends. It's an 8 oz pack of misc samples of different sheets, strips, rounds and even square tubes. It's a really good selection for around $7-8. I bought two of them and it's great when you need a little piece when scratch building, and you didn't have to buy a whole pack to get that one piece.

Stuff I find valuable for making stuff is the white plastic sheets in several different thicknesses, round strips and half circle strips for making things like drip rails and body trim. For chassis, the square tube or C channels in the larger sizes would be the way to go.

The packs of strips are usually around $3 at hobby shops, so whenever I'm shopping I'll try to pick up a couple different bits that I don't have. Like if I'm buying some glue and putty, I'll round up my purchase to $20 by adding two packs of strips. That way I'll eventually have them all. The packs do last forever, I have some that have $1.75 price tags on them.

Oh, and note that with Plastruct, it comes two ways. The white is styrene and the dark gray is ABS. I prefer to work with styrene, it's just easier to work with. The ABS needs it's own special glue.

Hope this helps.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Tom Geiger