Profil 2,5 x 2,5 mm

Square bar 2.5 x 2.5 mm

The same measurement in both axes means that the profile looks identical from every side and that during building you do not have to watch which face is lying on the bench. Two and a half millimeters a side is a size you can build real structures from, not just suggested details. The strip is thirty-five centimeters long.

Where the bar fits in

• The posts of fences, enclosures and railings by buildings and platforms
• The vertical uprights of scaffolding, shelters and wooden sheds
• Rafters, purlins and the corner posts of half-timbered buildings
• An internal skeleton under larger structures, which is then skinned

To imitate wood, the edges are sanded lightly into a rounded shape and the surface is then drawn over with a stiff wire brush, or growth rings are scribed into it with a point. After a thinned brown coat and dry brushing the difference from a real piece of timber practically disappears.

A knife will manage the cut only on thin walls; on this section a fine saw and a square cut in a simple jig are safer. The ends are then simply trued with a sanding block. It is glued with liquid cement for polystyrene, and on a skeleton under a large structure the joint holds better if a triangular gusset is added in the corner.

The material is white polystyrene, which takes acrylic and synthetic paints with no primer. It is supplied as a single piece. Store the strip lying flat on a level surface; leaning against a wall it bows in time, and on vertical posts every deviation from true is conspicuous.