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Scribing. What's that all about then?


TonyOD

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I see people talking about scribing and rescribing lines on tiny plastic planes like it's the easiest thing in the world, but have to say it's a bit of a dark art to me. How does it work? Where would I find a tool? How to you keep the lines straight? Cheers!

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It's one of those things which gets easier with practice. Part of the secret is what to do when things go wrong!

 

Tools: you can use any pointy sharp thing - a needle, or the back of a blade (e.g Swan morton no. 11). But there are also specialist tools available. The Tamiya scriber https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tamiya-74091-700-300074091-Plastic-Scriber/dp/B002KKBVTC does a good job, but as you may guess from its shape and size, it can't always reach into corners. Hasegawa make very fine scribing saws https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hasegawa-Trytool-Scriber-Professional-TP04/dp/B001HLYQDI/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=hasegawa+scribing+saw&qid=1600704468&s=kids&sr=1-2

 

Keeping a straight edge - you need something more rigid than normal masking tape - I use Dymo label making tape (cut into thin strips). Don't be tempted to free hand it! You can also get thin metal scribing templates for scribing panels, fuel caps and the like.

 

Inevitably things will go wrong and you'll gouge out plastic where you didn't want to. Superglue makes a good quick filler in this case, and can itself be scribed. Which brings me to a potential pitfall - fillers. Many putty type fillers do no respond well to scribing and will crumble at the edges. For this reason I favour superglue for small fills, and polystrrene dissolved in liquid glue (e.g. Tamiya thin) for larger fills.

 

I'm sure others have their own box of tricks.

 

The technique is pretty stratight forward - just mark the line you want to scribe with tape, and gently draw your tool of choice along it. Low pressure is best, repeating the stroke to get the required depth. I like to add a bit of tape at right angles if the scribed line needs to end at a certain point - very easy to run on too far.

 

Cheers,

 

Colin

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