hey diggers!! need help with evergreen card! wanna know how hot its got to be to bend it safely and if i can use a soldering touch to heat it? i am hoping it too soften it to drape it over the roof of a GMC 2 1/2 hard top!
the GMC is a Minichamps die-cast one using it as a mold!
as i have a new Italeri kit but it has that darn hole in it for the mg!!!! unlees you guys have any other ideas! thanks!!!

Ola Jason

Maybe it is an idea to take a thin sheet of evergreen and one of those heaters that you use to strip/burn paint of wood... It looks like a industrial hair dryer except you will not have to worry about your hair for some time if you mistakingly take it to dry your hair.
Heat the thin sheet of evergreen till you see it bending that should be enough to fold it around it.

I have made several things where bending of evergreen was required I usually have a tealight or two in my workshop and use it for bending the stuff. Below is an example of evergreen bend above a flame from a tea light... Hold it just that far that it does not catch the flame and when it gets soft enough it bends out of itself in a nice curl


Another example is this loungechair that I made for a good friend the seat and the legs were bended using heat from a tea light. The back of the seat was heated and then modeled on a Humbrol tin two times to get the round shape but also a bend in the back itself so it was leaning a bit back



I hope this helps you a bit further... I'm sorry I can't tell you exact temperatures but it is mostly a hit/miss technique. Just try it... You will find out quite quickly when you were to close to the heatsource

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

You might find that a hairdryer on "High" may be enough. I have bent hard right-angles in .030 rod with a hairdryer. You may need an extra hand to do a complex shape though.

I've tried using a heatgun on sheet. the sheet never seems to heat evenly.... I'd sugest using a Vac form approach....... heating in an oven

industraily 200 C. will cause 5 Kg. to flow every 10 Min.

Sounds like you want to use .010 sheet. Get an old canning jar if you can-it has a screw on lid with a large opening. There's almost no top to it at all. (it's a separate piece) Cut a disk of styrene the fit in the lid, and heat the whole setup in the oven. When the styrene starts to sag, pull out the jar and press your cab top into it. Iif you don't have a large canning jar handy you can use a modified mayonaisse jar.
I used this method to make a bunch of M5/9 flat halftrack fenders, and it works quite well.

wow thanks guys alot of ideas i never thought of! will send in the pics of my ww2 aussie chev hard top as soon as i'm finished! the cab is for an old LRDG i have had so long i don't even know where it came from! think its been around longer than i been into the hobby! hehe! the idea is to make a dio of Darwin set feb 19th 1942, and seing i live in Darwin its only logical! well i actually live 100m from the old ww2 Livingston air strip! always finding relics from the war! anywho love to hear more idea's thanks again!

How about boiling water?, never tried it, just a thought