Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Brittle Plastikard

 

Digging out some brick Plastikard for a project a couple of weeks ago, I noticed it didn't behave as normal. Cutting it wasn't smooth, and when bent, it shattered. Horrible stuff to try and use. Fortunatly, I managed to cobble to gether enough good stuff for the model, but it was tight. 

At the G1 birthday event, I was pleased to see Hobby Holidays, and proceeded to re-stock my supplies. Explaining the problem to the proprieter, I bent a sheet, and it shattered in the same way! Fortunatly, he accepted this was faulty and I bought a pile of normal sheets. 

This isn't a problem I've enounterted before - and I've used a lot of Platikard over the years. My guess is a rare bad batch, it wasn't old, or suffered exposure to sunlight. Hopefully, it's all fine now, but do check when buying. 

3 comments:

James Finister said...

I've had it a few times, and it leaves you feeling like an idiot. Other than being a bad patch my guess is it is exposure to sunlight or the chemicals in our modelling environments.

The last time I moved studio ( a task I have to do yet again soon) I couldn't believe how much some of the storage boxes smelt when I opened them, with no obvious source other than supposedly sealed bottles...

Phil Parker said...

Some chemicals seem to escape from bottles even with the lids screwed down. Usually, the ones you want, only to discover the empty container!

Christopher said...

This always happens to me with Slater’s Mek Pak, and to a lesser extent with Plastic Weld! (Butanone doesn’t seem so volatile.) I once had an unused bottle of Mek Pak that was completely empty when I needed to use it… :-( I now keep my solvent bottles inside old sealed marmalade jars in a cool and dark cupboard in the hope that it will reduce the solvent escape.

I do not store my Plastikard with the solvent, and thankfully I have not yet encountered this brittleness. (Apart from in plastic kits!)