January, 2009

Bows and bends

21 January, 2009

The foamboard I ordered arrived, very quickly. In fact I was a bit amazed at the speed. Unfortunately it is bowed. All twenty-five pieces have about a 2 degree bend, which means they are effectively usless. The size that must be dead flat is 36 by 24 inches and I need three final sections that size.

I contacted the people I purchased it from and am waiting until tomorrow morning to see if the stuff flattened itself out. If not they will send me another 25 pieces. In the meantime I will be printing out the master for shaping on my new Epson printer. It prints edge to edge so I should get a good template for cutting - after patching together around 27 pieces of A4 paper (that ought be fun).

The other thing I have been looking for is anthracite coal in sizeable pieces. I live within the London boroughs and it is illegal to sell this type of coal because of the smoke laws. So I have to go outside London to find some. Once I have a few good chunks, I can get to grips with doing a whole lot of moulds for cliff faces. I find it interesting that years ago I did this, gave the moulds to someone who then passed them on again. I checked out Woodland Scenics site. What do I see? The results of some of those moulds. Somehow WS got hold of them and used them as masters for a couple of the RTV moulds they sell. Amazing how stuff gets spread around in this hobby.