| razuse | 27 Mar 2015 3:07 a.m. PST |
Hello everyone, Recently I saw a post about the availability of sign material to be used as a base material for forests, buildings or misc. terrain projects. Sadly I can not find the post. Can you help or advise what is a good affordable material that I can base projects on. Thin wood is ok but I hate the warp factor and I would rather cut something with shears if possible. Thanks! |
| Mako11 | 27 Mar 2015 4:33 a.m. PST |
Sign material = thin styrene sheeting, like various signs you can purchase at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. Cheaper, usually, than buying styrene sheeting, and made of the same material. At Walmart, the signs are found in/near the paints section. |
| razuse | 27 Mar 2015 5:02 a.m. PST |
Mako11, that is exactly what I was looking for, many thanks! |
 Extra Crispy  | 27 Mar 2015 5:09 a.m. PST |
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| ordinarybass | 27 Mar 2015 6:09 a.m. PST |
Breakfast cereal boxes are cheap and easy to shape, but fairly prone to warpage. thin Polystyrene sighs as mentioned above are a pretty good choice. If you're willing to forgo shears and use a light saw, I highly recommend buying a sheet of MDF. An 8x4 sheet is less than $10 USD and will last for a lot of projects. Most hardware stores will also cut it into a few smaller sections for free or at 50 cents a cut. As long as you paint and seal both sides it's not really at a danger for warpage. |
Rdfraf  | 27 Mar 2015 7:12 a.m. PST |
Try local store that deals in making plastic items. The one here sells styrene sheets of 4 foot by 8 feet for around $30 USD depending on the thickness. That's a lot of plastic for the money. |
| bobspruster | 27 Mar 2015 8:17 a.m. PST |
If you use a sealer, like Mod Podge, you can use card. Just seal both sides and the edges.
Bob |
 Yellow Admiral | 27 Mar 2015 10:23 a.m. PST |
I've also fashioned quite a bit of flat terrain shapes (swamps, rocky fields, forest floors, etc.) out of sheet metal flashing from the hardware store, using tin snips. You have to file down the rough corners, but the result resists warping, is about as thin as possible, and is nearly indestructible in gaming environments. There is a limit to how much sheet metal one hand can cut in a day, though… - Ix |
| nevinsrip | 27 Mar 2015 11:32 a.m. PST |
Razuse Election Day is your friend. Once the election is over, you can find all the signs you could ever want for free. I'm still using "Vote For Douglas" signs that I have left over from the 1860 election. |
| razuse | 27 Mar 2015 12:54 p.m. PST |
good idea nevinsrip! I like it. |
| Katzbalger | 27 Mar 2015 2:42 p.m. PST |
Or old free CDs. There used to be lots of them available from some company called AOL… Rob |
| JimDuncanUK | 27 Mar 2015 4:41 p.m. PST |
I use this stuff. It doesn't warp! auction |
| Early morning writer | 27 Mar 2015 6:19 p.m. PST |
MDF is heavy and if gets wet its trash. I use 1/2" plywood shaped with a jig saw and 'bull nosed' with a belt sander. Although, for a stand alone forest, I'd use underlayment. Does depend on how big you want your forest to be. |
| Extra Crispy | 27 Mar 2015 7:25 p.m. PST |
Around here election signs are no longer plastic. Now they are printed on a plastic film like a shopping bag and hung over a frame… |
| Extra Crispy | 27 Mar 2015 7:26 p.m. PST |
1/2" is mighty thick…I know people whose hills are that size! |
| John Leahy | 27 Mar 2015 9:33 p.m. PST |
I have used vinyl floor tile. Works pretty well. |
| Early morning writer | 10 Apr 2015 8:14 p.m. PST |
Thus the pointer to underlayment – it comes in at about 1/8" thick. Think of it as either a thinner plywood or a thick enough veneer (sort of a little of both). There are also thin types of craft store plywood that work pretty well. Also, to help prevent warping in thin wood, try cutting "thin" scores on the reverse side of the wood (the part in contact with the table), that will help. Most important is to always store it flat. Even the thickest wood left leaning long enough will warp – such is the nature of a 'living' material. |
