RMweb Premium 47137 Posted August 13, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 13, 2015 I wanted some sheet steel piling for my layout and hit on the idea of using pencils to make the distinctive shape. I sanded off the paint on the three visible sides, then cut them into 32 mm lengths. This length made 5 sections out of a pencil without leaving much waste. In between the pieces of pencil there are strips of wood, these are 3 x 5 mm. I bought a pack of 10 unbranded pencils in a supermarket for £1, and five pencils has made 13 inches of piling. The finished size is quite good for 00 and HO. The pitch of ten pencils is 112/10 = 11.2 mm per pair of "piles" = 5.6 mm per pile 5.6 x 76 = 426 mm = 17 inches 5.6 x 87 = 487 mm = 19 inches both reasonably close to (say) PZ-27 measuring 18 inches (source of piling specifications). The piece of foam board stops about 1 mm below the top of the model, the intention is to glue in a sheet of card and then add some filler to hide the gaps. However this may take some time so I thought I'd make the post now. Sorry the pictures are a bit limited, I took some more before assembly and deleted them before getting them off the camera. - Richard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin Road Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 Nice job Richard . I will be interested how this paints and then weathers up . I will stick my anorak on and have a read at the piling specs as well - no honestly I will ! Always good to bookmark as someone will ask when sitting doing a demo at a show if I don't ! We have hundreds of pencils in our house of different widths etc so I will give this a shot as well . I may see if any of the other sizes match larger piling . Mike b Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill_J Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Some cheap pencils will split in half, especially if you let them soak in water for a while. That would give you 2 times the quantity. Many years ago I saw bic pen barrels used like this in 35mm military modelling circles. Great idea!! All best... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
naturol Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Ingenious. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRat Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 They can also be used for columns on buildings, whole or as low relief, bases for provender stores, etc etc etc...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 47137 Posted August 15, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 15, 2015 Nice job Richard . I will be interested how this paints and then weathers up . This is one job where I really don't want a "real wood grain effect" so I gave the model a coat of sanding sealer rubbed down with fine sandpaper. Then two coats of Halfords grey primer rubbed down with fine wet and dry paper, water as a lubricant. The foam board backing was a bit susceptible to water so the model spent 24 hours drying out under a heavy book. It all seems to have survived but cheap foam board and water don't mix. I shall now leave it in primer until I have done the landscape nearby, then I can wipe away any plaster spills if need be. Some cheap pencils will split in half, especially if you let them soak in water for a while. That would give you 2 times the quantity. Many years ago I saw bic pen barrels used like this in 35mm military modelling circles. Great idea!! These ones are cheap enough to split, but I've tried two pieces and they both split along the line of least resistance. This is where the wood is thinnest, so you end up with two 4-sided halves, each half having two full-width faces and two narrow faces. When you want three full-width faces. This does however give an easy way to extract lead for a clutch pencil! - - Here are a couple of progress shots. The has a very narrow fascia (a strip of aluminium angle) so the piling makes a nice way to take the modelling down to the front edge. The piling is in front of an avalanche shelter (bare sandpaper finish at the moment) and I think adds some "structural substance" to the scene too. Baseboard cross member cut away as much as I feel happy with Resting in position, with offcuts of mounting board filling the gap below I'll regard the piling as "finished" for the time being, I'll deal with the filler when I have a batch of other models to do at the same time. The difficult bit is deciding whether to make some more for the dockside edge nearby. I bought a Scalescenes download to do this. Thanks for the supportive comments. - Richard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 47137 Posted August 31, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 31, 2015 Update I have discovered, I can use pencils as a former to bend thin aluminium sheet. This is the bottom of a foil food tray. The matching "die" is four half-pencils, cut lengthwise with a saw. This is very messy and beware the graphite dust *does* stain carpet. Four pieces of pencil is enough as you can feed the material through in stages. The surface imperfections are much reduced in this next photo, and should disappear with painting. The nice thing about this is you can have the thin material on show on the top, instead of having to completely backfill or cap the piling with concrete. I tried beer can as well but it kept springing back into its original curved shape. Foil food tray is much easier to work with. - Richard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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