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Transferring shapes from plans to plastic card. How?


cmatthewbacon

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Hi, all.. any ideas on the best method(s) for transferring shapes from plans to card to be cut out? I need to build a locomotive cab, and I have pretty good scale plans. Pricking through with a needle? Cutting out a template and gluing it on with say copydex, then peeling it off? Also, obviously a vertical top down view of a curved cab roof won't give me the shape that needs cutting out, just what it looks like after being curved. If its a single curvature, I guess I need to "stretch" the plan shape a little...?

Any help much appreciated!

bestest,

M.

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For simple sides I photocopy the plans. Cover a piece of plastic card in paper masking tape. I use Prittstik to stick the photo copy of the plans to the masking paper and cut through all layers.

A side elevation will give you the length of one side of the cab roof, and an end elev will give you the length of another side [measure through the curve] ; translate that to a simple oblong on the plans/plastic card.

PS; I allow for the thickness of the plasticard I'll be using when I photocopy and cut out the bits of plans.

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If I have electronic copies of the plans, I print them on adhesive paper and stick this directly onto the plastic. The same job con be done with a copier, but with copiers there's the risk of the two sides not being copied at the very same scale. A test with graph paper will tell you.

If the roof is curved, the best solution would be to draw your own part by checking the dimensions on the plan and deriving the actual length of the curved part. Stretching the plan a bit would solve the problem, at least if the curvature is constant along the length of the roof, however you would have to go through trial and error to get the right size.

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  • 1 year later...

The toner used in laser printers and commercial copiers is actually powdered plastic. You can make a B/W printout or a copy with one of these, then use liquid plastic cement to transfer the image to plastic card. Paint the front of the paper with plastic cement, then glue the paper to a sheet of plastic card. Allow to dry a bit, then peel the paper away from the plastic. Some of the black toner should be adhered to the plastic, and you have a pattern to cut out on the sheet. Takes a bit of practice, but once mastered, it's very precise.

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