Profil 0,50 x 1,5 mm

A flat strip 0.50 x 1.5 mm

A rectangular profile half a millimeter high and one and a half millimeters wide is one of the most used sizes of the whole range. In the inch system in which the manufacturer keeps the range it is twenty and sixty thousandths of an inch. One piece is 35 cm long and the material is opaque white polystyrene, that is the same material the parts of kits are molded from.

Where the strip finds a use

An aspect ratio of roughly one to three makes the strip an ideal plank. Deck flooring, the boarding of a truck bed, the cladding of a hut wall or barn doors are built from it; the pieces are simply laid side by side and the seams between them emphasized with the edge of a knife. It serves just as well as a strip covering a joint, a hatch frame, a stiffener under a flat part or a spacer that raises a superstructure to the right height. In 1:35 scale the section matches a board measuring roughly seventeen by fifty-two millimeters, that is ordinary construction timber.

How to work with it

The strip is divided with a knife: hold the blade square, score it in one stroke and snap the piece off, and the cut stays straight. A series of parts of equal length is cut fastest against a stop made from another profile glued to a board. The thin section can be bowed into a gentle curve without heating, and a sharper shape will yield to a stream of warm air. The joint is held by a solvent cement for plastic that softens the material; sand the excess off once dry, otherwise it will show through under a light finish. On surfaces that stay in view, run the seams along a ruler so that they are parallel.