Hips board (or another version of plasticard)

peterbunce

1880's Colorado Narrow gauge on 45mm track
<p><font size="3">Hi, </font></p><p><font size="3">Has anyone experience of using HIPS board and would know a location near Manchester where it may be bought direct please?</font></p><p><font size="3">HIPS = High Impact Polystyrene Sheet</font></p><p><font size="3">Yours Peter.</font></p>
 
<p>Its not quite the same as plasticard but its a lot cheaper and readily available in decent sized sheets. I bought a trade pack of 3'X 2' 2mm sheets from Saffron Plastics - something like 20 sheets for 80 quid a few years ago. The trouble is they may have gone out of business. I did get some once from a vacuum formers, who sold me a few sheets from stock.</p><p>One thing to watch though, the High Impact bit is rubber added to the Polystyrene, so it doesent bond quite as readily as Plasticard - you just need to wet the mating faces to get a bit of a melt before joining and running the joint. I've had better results with the EMEA solvent than MekPak. </p><p>Having said all that, I need large, but simple, buildings to fill the layout space and its great for that</p>
 
If you just want large sheets of styrene building nmaterials, I believe Eileen's Emporium supply sheets approx 30 x 20 inches with thicknesses up to 60 or 80 thou. A bit large to post but can be collected from them at a show.

Giles
 
Just try a Google search on HIPS Plastic, I got loads of suppliers. You may be lucky and find one round the corner to you. Let us know if you have any luck with getting some this way.
JonD
 
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