In our last episode, I posted about an alternative source to Campbell's for scale corrugated metal sheets, as well as a couple of DIY ideas for making the stuff.
Well, based on what I saw here:
Rather than the rather primitive use of one's fingers to impress the aluminum foil, I built a little rig, using the handles of two cheap (Chinese) jeweler's screwdrivers as crimping rollers. See a sketch of the rig here:
Still a work in progress
- I tried to find the heavy aluminum foil but no luck yet. Note to those interested in trying this: I bought some foil that was labeled "heavy duty", but it turned out to be about as thin as the regular stuff. Definitely too flimsy to use on structures, since it's so easy to crinkle and really hard to handle. I'm looking for the stuff that's about halfway between regular tinfoil and the aluminum sheet used in throwaway pie tins, etc. Anyone know where to get this stuff? I'm going to widen my search to other supermarkets.
- My screwdrivers are pretty small. It would be better to use larger-diameter ones. These screwdrivers can be bought in sets for a buck at dollar stores, so I'm looking for a better set. The larger ones would probably also be longer, making it possible to make wider sheets. My rig makes sheets a little less than 2" wide, which is actually fine for most HO scale uses.