Has anyone attempted to build a custom vehicle? I don't have access to a 3D Printer (yet). I was looking at building the shell out of styrene and things like chairs/control panels I would harvest from other vehicles and playsets.

Was just wondering if anyone had attempted it and what all they used for materials. I want it to be built sturdy enough to survive being played with. I wasn't sure how hard sytrene was to cut into shapes. I've seen different thinknesses in the hobby shop. Will an x-acto knife suffice?

Thanks!

There are a few different ways. What you are talking about is scratch-building. You can use styrene sheets which you can get in various thicknesses from most hobby shops (I get mine locally from Hobby Town USA, Evergreen Plastics brand, but I think there are cheaper ways) or you can use things like Garage Sale signs (cheaper, but tend to be thinner). Sheets cut pretty easily depending on thickness, and they make special glues for bonding them. I haven't done much scratch building, but here's my most successful.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=28303&view=next
My preferred method is kitbashing, where you chop pieces off of one vehicle and glue them to another, ala this
http://www.joecustoms.com/customs/custo ... a=R&id=811
Styrene is still good to have on hand to patch holes when kitbashing.

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Didn't Keenan scratch build stuff? Don't remember seeing him post in a while though.

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You want to talk to Dremel or Blood Brigade. Those guys do scratch builds and vehicle mash ups in their sleep.

We have a really basic overview for working with styrene plastic. You are going to need to know that stuff before diving headfirst into a scratch build. Essentially you just asked, "Hey, how do you do one of the most difficult and time consuming forms of customizing?"

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http://www.starshipmodeler.com

This is a pretty decent site for scratchbuilding info. They tend to focus on smaller scales, but the principles still apply.

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Well, I work better from a plan. (Such as the blue-print style Diorama plans at NiubNiub's dio site). I am going to draw out the pieces that I need ahead of time and how they will fit together. The ship I have planned is boxy enough that the main shell should be relatively simple to build. I will definitely go through the basics on styrene. I haven't worked with it before. I will probably kitbash the greeblies and some of the other items.

Thanks for the responses.

I'm Fb buddies with him, and he's moved on to 12" figures (boo, hiss...). But I know he's got a wealth of info to share from his APC scratchbuild.

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Here's his Photobucket account with a LOT of his great builds and such...
http://s1069.photobucket.com/user/keena ... t=3&page=1

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If you have the patience for it, that is often the best way.... Build your Vehicle out of paper 1st... paper is easy to cut, and re-cut, and is much cheaper than Styrene... once you have it how you like it in paper, you can then use the paper parts as stencils and cut exactly what styrene parts you need.

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Yeah, that sounds like the best course for sure. Even stiff paper is going to be cheap. There's a guy on Rebelscum building Jabba's Sailbarge out of Sytrene and I was surprised how solid and clean a look he was able to get from it.

Thanks again for the responses