Profil 0,25 x 4,0 mm

A flat strip a quarter of a millimeter thick

A flat profile of white polystyrene with a cross section of 0.25 by 4.0 millimeters and a length of 35 centimeters. It is the thinnest thickness normally made, so the strip is springy and can be wrapped even around a smaller diameter without being warmed. The goods are sold as individual pieces.

Typical use

A width of four millimeters corresponds, in the usual modeling scales, to a strap, a tank band, a fender lip or a cover strip over a seam. On buildings and dioramas it serves as a formwork plank, on ship models as a strip above the deck. Because the material is thin, it lies even over a rounded surface and once glued it faithfully follows the shape beneath it.

Cutting and gluing

The strip is best shortened with one pass of a sharp knife against a metal ruler on a cutting mat; scissors would squash the edge and make it wavy. It is glued with a thin cement for polystyrene, applied to the edge of a part already laid in place, from where it is drawn underneath by itself. The joint holds within a few tens of seconds and once dry it sands like the surrounding plastic, so the transition can be leveled completely.

What to watch out for

• The strip is so thin that it tears under heavy pressure from the knife, so use lighter passes
• When wrapping it around a curve, tack it down at the ends first, otherwise it lifts
• An excess of glue bends material of such a small thickness, so dose it drop by drop

Anyone who needs the same size with greater stiffness should reach for a greater thickness in the same width; that one, however, no longer lies so readily over a rounded surface.