I was using a piece of my sheet aluminum a couple of days ago, and thought some other folks might be interested in my source. It is called roof flashing aluminum, placed undier the bottom-most roll of shingles. It is about a foot wide, very thin, and soft. It comes in two lengths, a ridiculus size, for building a house, and very expensive. However, there is also a shorter package (for repairs?). Last time I bought a package it was about seven bucks- may be more now due to inflation.
It cuts with scissors, bends easily, and is great for modeling. You can “rivet” it easily by pushing a bit on back with ballpoint pen. Practice a bit to get right pressure. You can get huge boiler rivets if you use too much pressure.
On the ‘lighter side’ of that same recommendation, I’ll put in a plug for one of my all-time favorite scratchbuilding materials, what I call ‘pie plate aluminum.’ The pie tins or foil trays you get with freezer meals, store-bought pastries, etc. It has most of the same qualities Don mentioned above – though easier to cut, with scissors, hobby knives or even razor blades – and easy to drill and work. By rolling it over convex or concave shapes, you can even impart limited compound curves.
Uses are almost limitless. Seat harness buckles and connectors. Data plates for cockpit panels, gear struts, etc. (Dab paint on, then scratch off with a needle to do borders and ‘writing.’) All sorts of cockpit stuff, like switches, covers, brackets, housings and map cases. Scale-thickness access panels, missile fins, ammo feed chutes, AOA indicators, the list goes on and on.
Super useful stuff! [:D][Y]
[dto:]
I have a stash of pieplate Al too.
I measure the pie plate aluminum yesterday. It is only 2 mil!