Profil 2,0 x 6,3 mm

A beam for large structures and industrial scenes

Six and a quarter millimeters wide at two millimeters thick is a respectable beam in modeling scale. Converted to 1:35 it corresponds to a section of roughly seventy by two hundred and twenty millimeters, that is a girder of the kind used under a ramp, a bridge deck or in the roof truss of a hall.

That is exactly why builders of dioramas with a factory setting, gantry cranes, scaffolding or wooden ties reach for this size. It also finds use inside large fuselages as a spine around which the rest of the structure is built. Because the material is solid, an edge can be chamfered into a bevel and so imitate worked timber.

Overview

• Section 2.0 x 6.3 mm
• Length 35 cm, one profile per piece
• The largest of the bars commonly used for frameworks
• The edges can be chamfered and the surface roughened to imitate wood
• The joints are held by liquid cement for plastic models

If you want to turn cold white plastic into believable wood, run coarse sandpaper or a wire brush along the length of the surface and only then apply the paint. The grooves catch the wash and it stays in them, so a grain pattern appears. Never start with the painting, and do not make the texture across the piece, because transverse scratches look like damage rather than grain.

With long beams there is a risk that the assembly will bow once dry. It helps to glue it in sections, to let the solvent flash off between the individual joints and to weigh the whole down on a flat board while it hardens.