Combining Laser Cutting and Die Cutting for buildings

[ozthedog]

For the last year I have been using  the Silhouette Portrait die cutter to construct buildings for my model of Wallingford station and goods yard.  The walls are built of  embossed Plastikard backed with 0.75mm plain card.  This is fine for enclosed buildings but for the goods shed I wanted something closer to a scale double wall thickness as with an open structure the walls are seen in cross section at openings.  A double layer of bricks would be about 9 inches deep or 3mm in 4mm scale. I decided to use 2mm MDF with a skin of Plastikard embossed brickwork on top.

 

The Silhouette will not cut 2mm so I decided to have a go at laser cutting the building carcase and then detailing this with components, eg. the windows, cut with the Silhouette.  This allows the same Inkscape drawings to be used for both which ensures everything fits together.

 

This post is to show the outcome of the laser cutting which worked very well.  I had my drawings cut at 4D Modelshop in London.  The components fitted together well and after glueing with wood glue produced a building with 90degree corners that sits perfectly flat.

I shall add to this post when I have made progress with the detailing.

 

Keith

Edited May 2, 2017 by ozthedog