My race car hauler in 1/25th scale I need some suggestions

[vincep]

I've gotten back to working on my project. I'm having issues with getting diamond plate right angles to look correct. Only thing I have to work with is Don Mills plastic diamond plate sheet. Glueing two pieces together leaves not so fantastic results. Is there any photo etch brass sheets in the correct scale that I can bend to 90 degrees? The under cab fuel tanks and bed/rear panel are real problem areas.

[vincep]

this is the fuel tank

[vincep]

here's a progress picture

[Ray Dunakin]

Vince, I was looking for 1/24th scale diamond plate late last year, the Don Mills stuff was the only thing I found.

Have you tried mitering the corner joints?

[Barney]

KFS (Kit Form Services) offer a good range of 1/24th -1/25 truck goodies and have Photo Etch diamond / chequer plates in chrome or brass in various sizes - they offer an excellent mail order service and have a good catalogue of parts on their website -- www.kitformservices.com --
Barney

[Gordon Ferguson]

KFS are good, but the site is not the most user friendly, to save you some time chequer plate is about half way down this page

http://kitformservices.com/photoetch.html

[vincep]

I've looked @ Kit Form Services before, KFS make great products and Howard is great to deal with, unfortunately the sheets aren't big enough, approx 4"x5". For the bed I'd need one piece at about 8" preferably 10-1/2 long.  A friend was telling me about JTT Architectural Model Parts. http://www.jttmicroscale.com/services.asp?page=ArchModelingServices.htm  they make some styrene sheets http://www.jttmicroscale.com/viewcategory.asp that may be thin enough to bend but I don't know what the pattern looks like. Website problems I've thought about getting some brass etched, I'd hate spending hours scaling the drawing only to find something that's readily available.

[Gordon Ferguson]

OK you could try these people
http://www.ema-models.co.uk/index.php/

They a selection of tread-plates, vacuum formed so don't know how detailed they are, they 290 mm x 170 mm  (11.25 " x 6.25")

They have them in stock but web site does not show a picture, I will find my hard copy of their catalogue and post details of the various designs.

Lion Roar do some nice stuff but think its only about 6" long

[marc_reusser]

For the bed I'd need one piece at about 8" preferably 10-1/2 long.

Just curious...thats a roughly a scale sized piece of 16' x 21'....that seems a bit large for stock industry standard sizes. Would the bed actually be a single piece of that size?

I recently used some Plastruct 1/48 scale diamond plate material for a step bumper on my 1/24 scale build....wasn't super pleased with their product...but it did come in an 8x10 sheet, and is thin enough to bend (and works fine for my limited application)

ABER, Eduard, and Lion-Roar all make a wide variety brass/PE tread plates....I know they do 1/72-1/35...and some of it is scale interchangeable....not sure if they do a larger scale...but seeing as some armor kits are 1/16 scale, I think they likely do make at least a limited range.


Sorry about the attached pic quality...it's the best I could do w/ what I had on my HD.

[Gordon Ferguson]

Not found that catalogue yet , but forgot the obvious supplier

https://slatersplastikard.com/plastikard/embossed.php

Various designs available and more than meet your size requirements ........... as per the top of the page on the link you can access on-line catalogue to see pictures .

IMO certainly for plastic sheet of tread plate its worth considering going down in scale i.e 1/50 for 1/24 as I think the "scale" sheets" are slightly too coarse ............. although your one in real life looks like its using real H/D stuff anyway.

[Carlo]

Couldn't you just find a good pattern in plastic sheet, and use it as a form to emboss a thin metal shim stock sheet?
That way, you could make it any size/shape you want.
Carlo

[vincep]

Thanks for the help guys.  I've got some ideas and options now. With no local hobby shops around to touch and feel I have to rely on the experiences of myfriends.

Vince