Straight Drain Pipes (and other bits) Made from Twigs
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 10:42 pm
Here’s a post just explaining how I made some convincing drainpipes from not much more than straightened twigs. I imagine this technique might be useful for many other things, and is much much cheaper than using plastruct (Also I think these are less likely to snap than plastic).
Having accidentally thrown away the drain pipe pieces for a Peco goods shed kit after forgetting to cut them from the sprue, I had to improvise.
I found some relatively straight looking twigs from the garden (not sure what kind of plant they were from). Covering them in poly cement allows them to be reshaped without them snapping until the glue dries, so I used this to straighten them by simply massaged them into shape easily. I don’t know what kind of twigs this will work for, but it worked really well with whatever I was using.
To make bends in the drain pipes I simply bent the straightened twig and covered the bent part in superglue to retain the shape.
Here are some photos showing the twigs before and after straightening, the unpainted and painted drain pipes, and the drain pipes on the final model.
Having accidentally thrown away the drain pipe pieces for a Peco goods shed kit after forgetting to cut them from the sprue, I had to improvise.
I found some relatively straight looking twigs from the garden (not sure what kind of plant they were from). Covering them in poly cement allows them to be reshaped without them snapping until the glue dries, so I used this to straighten them by simply massaged them into shape easily. I don’t know what kind of twigs this will work for, but it worked really well with whatever I was using.
To make bends in the drain pipes I simply bent the straightened twig and covered the bent part in superglue to retain the shape.
Here are some photos showing the twigs before and after straightening, the unpainted and painted drain pipes, and the drain pipes on the final model.