Raygunning for cheapskates?

[Womble]

Hi all,

I'm having lots of fun taking dollar store water pistols, and repainting them.

But, I'd like to go beyond green putty and bondo. Specifically, I'm looking for a way to add things like fins and other major elements, but on the cheap. (So, this rules out the packs of styrene sheets sold by Evergreen!)

Q. Has anyone had success using card stock for this kind of thing? Is it viable to glue/coat the card stock to give it sufficient strength?

Thanks for any help.

 

[robn1]

Those "For Sale" signs are a good source of cheap plastic, though many are cardboard these days. Look in hardware stores for them. Almost anything made of plastic can be cut up for building stock, check the dollar store for storage boxes and stuff like that.

Also a local sign shop may have plastic sheets a lot cheaper than the hobby shop.

 

[LORDXBLACKWOOD]

maybe some craft foam or balsa wood?

 

[Canobi]

You could do what the pepacura guys do and paint cardstock with thinned resin. It soaks into the card and is very firm when cured.

 

[Womble]

Thank you all for your help.

I'm in Australia, and so far I haven't been able to find craft foam (blue, pink extruded polystyrene I think it is) anywhere for cheap.

Same goes for cheap sources of styrene (e.g. garage sale signs). I'm still looking in dollar/junk stores though, for cheap plastic.

(I was told that plastic ice cream containers were a good, cheap source, but the one's I've come across aren't affected by liquid cement, and won't bond.)

I'll give the resined card stock approach a go. I want to get in to resin anyway.

Cheers.

 

[megazone27]

Have you thought of building parts in air-drying clay and then attaching them? The stuff is $6 per Kilo in Canada.

 

[BAK55]

Cardstock (Not to be confused with corrugated cardboard) is an excellent choice for what you're attempting. It's availabla in art suppy shops or you can recycle cardstock package boxes that you commonly see around which can be layered to any desired thickness.

I have used a mixure of white glue and water (Inexpensive and user friendly, healthwise) painted onto the cardstock to strengthen it and I have used Minwax Wood Hardener (More expensive and not so user friendly, healthwise)with very good results.

You can also spray on a few coats of polyurethane to give the parts you create a more plastic look to seem more consistant with the plastic body of the watergun.

 

[NormanF]

Another source is the thick heavy paper on the back of a lot of note and legal pads. They are not very rigid so you would definitely need to treat it with something.

 

[SChristides]

Id give the cardstock+casting resin a go.

Out of interest which state you in?

FYI I looked for plastics on the yellowpages site near me and tried ringing around.

 

[Mr. Nagata]

I think you'd end up spending more on a container of casting resin than you would on a sheet of styrene plastic :lol