Styrene question

Modeling Subjects Scratchbuilding
1

I’m looking for round styrene tubing at 1" - 2" diameter. Anybody see anything that large?

Steve

2

If wall thickness is not an issue, you might be better off going to a hardware store and looking at electrical conduit and PVC drain pipe. (Yes, I know it’s not exactly styrene)

3

Thanks, Phil. I’d like to keep it at 1 - 1.5 mm at most. I’ll poke around the hardware stores, see if they got anything.

4

Try the thin walled stuff if you are willing to try PVC, I think it is pretty thin!

I just looked and what I have is maybe 2 or 2.5mm??

5

what are you building, a pipeline dio?

6

Gonna start building drum kits. Hope to be able to even it off at 1/12 scale. 1/24 will be too smal to fully detail.

7

You might also try specialty electrical/electrician supply stores, or lighting wholesalers - I’ve noticed short lengths of plastic (I think) piping in there that I guess is used for ceiling fans and the like.

8

I think I’ve seen a couple of those places around… thanks for the tip.

9

Could you find maybe a medicine bottle in the correct Dia.? Not sure what kind of plastic or if it’d be big enough around, but theres all sizes. I have a doxycycline bottle about 1 3/4" wide and around 1mm thick walls. There’s all kinds of plastic bottles that might work. You could also look into plastic syringes (farm or vet supply store) they come in all sizes and are perfect cylinders(and cheap.)Hope this helps!
-------------------------------------Kevin

10

You might try USPlastics (or you might be able to find a similar local supplier):

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog_name=USPlastic&category_name=76&product_id=3034

I’ve purchased tubing and styrene sheets from them in the past.

11

Thanks for the link. I’ve tried to contact them to see if they sell off scraps. 4" is a bit much[:)]

12

Sounds fantastic! Please post some pictures! A couple of questions:

  1. What is the drum set for? A rock band diorama (that would be cool[tup])?

  2. How are you going to make the cymbals?

  3. Now, where did I put my drumsticks?[:)]

13

Hi Jim

I’m gonna build just the kits. Got four famous kits in mind that span my fascination with drums since 1980.

I used to build drumsets out of old tp rolls when I was a kid. My first modeling. I’m gonna try a far more advanced set of methods this time out. I’m not sure how I’ll do the cymbals, but I suppose it will be very much like the real way. But it will be a while before I even get a bass drum finished. We’ll see if my interest in this can last as long as my learning curve.

Steve

14

If you wanted to model drum sets by famous drummers such as Gene Crupa, Buddy Rich or Neil Peart, I was wondering if you knew that Modern Drummer just put out a special issue called “Drum Gods” that shows pictures of their sets. Of course, a lot of drummers change their set up or even the brand of drums they play over the years. (Peart has played Slingerland, Ludwig, Tama, DW and even Pearl drums, if I’m not mistaken. And that’s not even counting the electronic sets like the one he soloed on last night at the Rush concert here in Phoenix.)

I haven’t played drums myself in years. Too hard to do in an apartment![:-^] My kit was a mixture; a cobbled-together set with a Ludwig snare drum, a Rogers tom-tom, and I forget what the other drums were. Even the cymbals were a mixture of Zildjian and Paiste.

When I moved to Arizona, I gave the set away to a friend of a friend whose son wanted a drum set.

15

Hi Jim, thanks for the tip on MD. Funny you should mention Neil Peart, as the old Tama kit circa 1982 is the one I’m doing…

My biggest problem right now is that I’m unable to make the styrene cylinders for the drums themselves perfectly round. I’m working in a roughly 1/12 scale, no available tubing in the sizes I need. Even the tiny 6" concert tom is huge by the standards of Evergreen, et al the styrene manufacturers, weighing in at 1/2" for scale. I’m using .010" thickness (except the kicks; used .040 for sturdiness). I’ve tried a few approaches, but can’t get them absolutely round. There’s always a funky bow at the attachment points.

Any tips? I should probably build this kit under a WIP thread, so I can get great advice from all the scratchbuilding wizards out there.

Steve

16

You’ve probably allready looked, but I would guess some kind of dollhouse accesories would be the right size, and then you could deail them yourself.

17

Steve,

Plastruct does sell 1" dia. acrylic and butly plastic round or tube. I bought 1" acrylic tube last year. If you use the liquid cement meant for all sort of plastics you should not have any problem with dissimilar plastics being cemented together.

-Scott

18

The bottles they sell Crazy Glue in are 1 1/8 inch across, and are made of clear styrene.

19

Hi Steeve,

in case of the 1" if you have a rich (but not very rich) friend smocing cigars, tell him (or her) to collect the very thin walled screw top cigar storage tubes or whatever you call them.

George

PS Excuse my English but not my native language…

20

Perhaps consider copper tube?