Kulatý profil 0,64 mm

A diameter for grab handles, antennas and hydraulics

The thinnest round rod it still makes sense to bend between your fingers. Six tenths of a millimeter corresponds in 1:35 scale to a real rod roughly 22 mm across, in 1:48 about 31 mm and in 1:72 even 46 mm. Hatch grab handles, thin hydraulic lines, antenna mounts and the cross members of small structures are exactly that thick.

The material is white polystyrene, that is the same stuff kits are molded from. The joint therefore does not come from gluing but literally from welding: the cement melts the surface and once cured it holds more firmly than cyanoacrylate glue could manage. It is best cut with a fresh razor blade by rolling it over the mat, not with side cutters, which squash such a thin section into an oval.

Cold material takes only a slight bend. A larger curve is made with heat: a piece is held briefly over steam or dipped in hot water and left to cool in the required shape. A sharp elbow is more sensibly replaced by two glued parts.

The surface accepts paint without a separate primer, it is only a good idea to wipe off the dust left from manufacturing. The profile is supplied as a long rod, so one piece yields dozens of small parts and the remnants come in handy as pins in drilled holes.

When building from such thin profiles it helps to prepare a full-size drawing on paper and to lay the parts out on it. A round rod slips easily under your fingers and the deviation is immediately visible on the finished structure. The paper also absorbs excess cement. The leftover pieces are best stored in a tube or a straw sorted by diameter, because thin rods lying loose break in a drawer before they ever come into play, and telling them apart from the neighboring size is difficult afterwards.