Hi, I'm new here. I was told this was the best place in the web to find some help for my project.
I need to sort of vacuum form something, without a vacuum form table
I have heard of sintra, but then found out it was to thick for what I need. Then I was told Styrene was probably the right thing. Feel free to correct me
I need to build a diorama of a city. For that, I need many cars to fill the streets with. I need the 1/18 size scale. I probably need about 200-300 cars. That would get very expensive. So my idea it to buy like 10 differen models and some how use them as vacuum form molds and make shell replicas of them. They do need to have all the features like opening doors and etc that a diecast model do. Empty plastic shells, similar to thos radio control cars use will do the job. They just need to look like the cars.They will just stand there still. I can paint them and I have what I need. If the plastic I use to form is clear even better. So I have clear windows.
So my question is, can I do that with thin Styrene? Like heat it up and set it over the diecast car(the body only, without wheels etc) and it would melt down over it taking it's shape? Would it work that way? Is there a better way of doing this?
Also, diecast are metal, but I'm assuming it wouldn't work if I used a plastic kit model as the mold because of the heat?
All I need are empty light plastic(or the cheapest way) shells which look like cars. As I said, the clear plastic shells you cab buy for radio control is a perfect example. I just can't buy them in the right models of cars and the right scale. Any help is greatly appreciated. I know that's not Star Wras related, but I was told this place is the best for info on molding plastics.Thanks for your help.
I need to sort of vacuum form something, without a vacuum form table

I have heard of sintra, but then found out it was to thick for what I need. Then I was told Styrene was probably the right thing. Feel free to correct me

I need to build a diorama of a city. For that, I need many cars to fill the streets with. I need the 1/18 size scale. I probably need about 200-300 cars. That would get very expensive. So my idea it to buy like 10 differen models and some how use them as vacuum form molds and make shell replicas of them. They do need to have all the features like opening doors and etc that a diecast model do. Empty plastic shells, similar to thos radio control cars use will do the job. They just need to look like the cars.They will just stand there still. I can paint them and I have what I need. If the plastic I use to form is clear even better. So I have clear windows.
So my question is, can I do that with thin Styrene? Like heat it up and set it over the diecast car(the body only, without wheels etc) and it would melt down over it taking it's shape? Would it work that way? Is there a better way of doing this?
Also, diecast are metal, but I'm assuming it wouldn't work if I used a plastic kit model as the mold because of the heat?
All I need are empty light plastic(or the cheapest way) shells which look like cars. As I said, the clear plastic shells you cab buy for radio control is a perfect example. I just can't buy them in the right models of cars and the right scale. Any help is greatly appreciated. I know that's not Star Wras related, but I was told this place is the best for info on molding plastics.Thanks for your help.