P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[P5se Camelback]

While waiting for the next ten rows of Campbell’s Profile Shingles to dry on the roof of Packaged Product Shipping, I thought I’d add a couple “faux toes” of the next building to be addressed on the property of the Lehighton, Penna. GERN facility.

As this is to be a sizeable manufacturing plant, it will have its own Power Generation capabilities and that will happen in this next building. The walls came from Walthers’ Champion Packing. (Remember … I have raided a number of different kits for walls, windows, doors, and all sorts of detail parts.) The subject of this initial image is what I consider to be a major part of the secret to square corners on my structures. It is a block of Plexiglas® that came from a scrap piece of 1” sheet. I chucked it up on the bed of the vertical mill and milled all the edges, chamfering the corners (so they don’t get glued in as part of the model.) It’s an invaluable tool!


A steel square is used in conjunction with the Plexiglas® inside corner block to insure that that the corners are square!


This last image in the current posting illustrates the first step in making the joints between two pieces of plastic (styrene) disappear. I have mentioned this before, but the initial task in making joints disappear is to soften the two mating surfaces. This is easily done with Plastruct Plastic Weld or Toluol (lacquer thinner … a less expensive alternative.) I have tried Plastruct’s "Bondene" and Tenax 7R but although they are both excellent solvents and each has it proper application … this is not it … they both evaporate too quickly and will only frustrate your efforts to soften the mating surfaces.

Two, maybe three applications of the solvent floated onto the surfaces to be joined together should do the trick, making them appropriately soft. One more generous application and then quickly mate the two pieces with a medium amount of pressure. In a second or four, I sometimes run another application along the inside of the joint, maintaining the pressure between the two pieces. If done properly, a small amount of soft styrene oozes out the edge. This is what is desired. When totally cured (hard) the joint can be scraped, or lines scribed through (as on brickwork) but the end result is … the joint disappears!

This close-up shows the result of this first step, if you look very closely.


If I can get a better close-up, I’ll post it with the next steps in “Making Joints Disappear.”