Book Review: Plastikard Handbook

Dating from 1971, this 9th Edition of Slater's booklet on Plastikard is both instruction manual and catalogue. While the prices may be useless now, there's still a lot of helpful information in the 24-page pamphlet.

Despite being a veteran Plastikard wrangler, I learn:

• Mek-Pak brushes are made from sable with a small amount of Ox Ear hair for strength. 
• Plastikard can be rendered mouldable by heating it to at least 100 degrees C. There are instructions on forming tubes for boilers and press-moudling parts. 
• Holding a lit cigarete next to a piece of Plastikard allows you to bend it around the corner of a piece of wood, forming a neat L-section. Burning a bit of string apparently works well too. 
• Slater's "Huminitures" are recognised the world over as the standard of perfection (maybe it was 1971, or maybe just the same hyperbole found throughout the book).
• Slater's make (or made) Green Flox (For Grass). This sounds like a flock powder but there was also a grass paper. 

There are mentions of other long lost products too. Plastic pipe fittings would be useful, as would the grid system of notched plastic square rods for making windows. I have some of this and it's fabulous.

Daft as it sounds, if you find one of these booklets on sale, it's well worth picking up for more than just curiosity value.