I want the backscenes to mask the corners of the APA box. A smooth curve at each corner would be ideal.

Most materials wont bend to give a very small radius curve… and that’s what is needed here. However some modellers use plasticard to create small radius curves on backscenes and this seemed to be a good idea.

I found some A0 sized (33 × 47 inch) sheets of 1mm (40 thou) plasticard on line. These are almost long enough to do the whole backscene, but not quite. To complete the job I would need to use a second piece of plasticard and there would be a join in the backscene. The second disadvantage was one piece of A0 plasticard cost £40. It was more than I wanted to pay.

Then I found 4 sheets of A3 sized (12 × 16.5 inch) 0.75mm (30 thou) plasticard for £8. More than enough to do the job, but 3 joins would be required. It seemed a good compromise to make for the price.

The plasticard was cut into 100mm wide strips and fixed in place with “No More Nails” adhesive. Regular readers will know I’m a little sceptical about ‘posh’ glues but this proved to be very good. Easy to use, a working time of a few seconds, and a really strong bond.

The thin plasticard gave very nice curves at the corners of the box.

Here’s the bare backscene with some filler to hide the joins.

So far so good.

I almost painted the backscenes, but decided not to do it. There’s a lot of scenic work to do and I might damage the backscene by accident.

The paint can wait until later.