Profil 0,25 x 1,5 mm

A 0.25 by 1.5 mm strip for planking

The same quarter-millimeter thickness as the finest strips, but twice as wide. An aspect ratio of one to six makes it a flat strap rather than a bar, and that is exactly how it is used: laid flat on a surface where it is to suggest a plank, a plate or a reinforcing band, without standing away from the part.

Ship builders reach for it most often for deck planks and the planking of the sides, vehicle modelers for the load beds of flatbeds, the boarding of cargo bodies and wooden floors, diorama builders for fence rails, footbridges and scaffolding. It also serves as a flat strap joining sheet metal parts, or as a trim that hides an unsuccessful joint between two fuselage halves.

Useful methods

To turn smooth plastic into wood, run a sharp point or a wire brush along its length. At this greater width the texture comes out beautifully and, after painting and a brown oil glaze, it looks like growth rings. For planking, glue the strips tight against one another and merely suggest the seam between them with a fine point.

To cut a series of identical parts, glue a stop onto your board and cut against it; that saves measuring and all the planks come out the same. Make the joints with liquid cement drawn along the edge. Because the strip is wider it holds its shape better, but it bends into small curves less willingly; there, warm it over steam first.

One more note on painting wooden surfaces: do not spray them in a single color. Lay down a light base, then vary the individual planks with several shades of brown and gray, so that no two neighboring ones come out the same. Only that irregularity gives a deck or the boarding of a cargo body the real look of wood.