Profil 1,0 x 1,5 mm

A Fine 1.0 x 1.5 mm Strip

Thin gauges get used up the fastest, because the jobs they do are small and there are many of them. A cross-section of one millimeter by one and a half is exactly the size you reach for when a feature should be visible on a model without pushing itself into the foreground. The difference between the two sides is also small enough that the strip can be laid flat or on edge as needed and still look convincing either way.

Typical jobs include window and door frames on buildings, battens under a sheet-metal roof, the rims of crates, guide rails in cockpits, ribs on canvas coverings, or dividers in a display case. For figure dioramas, it becomes bench backs, ladder rungs and picket fences. Scaled up to 1:35, it corresponds to a wooden batten of roughly three and a half by five centimeters.

Working with this gauge is quick. Plastic scissors or side cutters are enough, the strip parts with one squeeze, and the end is squared up with two strokes of a file. When you need many pieces of the same length, glue a stop made from an offcut to your work surface and measure against it. This thin cross-section can also be bent around a gentle curve; hold the glued end in place, and press the rest down gradually.

It is better stored upright in a tube or lying flat in a shallow box, since a bowed strip is hard to straighten and will show as a wave in a frame. The rod is 35 centimeters long, sold by the piece, and consumption at this size is often surprisingly high, so a spare pair will not go to waste.