Stiffening card

[Last Hussar]

Use superglue to stiffen card.  I bought an 8 pack of 3g tubes from the Poundshop, so 12.5p each.  Its not as strong as major brands- you can get your fingers apart- but its ideal for soaking into card. 

For instance my 'achtung minefield' posts are rigid, and support their own weight, especially at the fold to make the 'foot'.

For my 28mm '7TV' game I am making interior walls for the Evil Dr Nefarious' underground lair.  So I can rearrange them I am using the technique of folding back to make a support at each end.  I am using mounting board 5cm high strips.  I score, fold, then dribble the superglue along the score into the exposed fibers.  Hold at 90' while it sets, and the bend will stay in that position. When I lay out the interior, I nest the meeting flaps inside each other.

I've made wire fences from the netting from fruit, which is stretchy.  I glue 6cm strips in the middle and at each end with pva, then a few drops of S-G- S-G is set by water, and PVA is water based.  Allowing the posts to soak up some glue keeps them stiff against the pull of the netting.  I bend back the bottom to make a foot - again using S-G in the score to stiffen the fibers.   The netting will try to twist the post on this bend, but the S-G keeps it stiff and upright.  When I glue the foot onto the basing strip I put PVA on the base and S-G in the card.

I've also made some boxed - supports for over head walkways (no guard rail, of course), and a security box for the gate.  These are both one piece of card, scored 3 times to make a four piece.  After gluing closed I again stiffen the corner scores with S-G, meaning I dint have to try and put awkward internal bracing in.

[Ithoriel]

Hadn't thought of using superglue for stiffening lighter card - neat idea.

For solid stuff I tend to use grey board - used for hard-back covers and to stiffen clip-boards. Used to get it from work back in the days I was a librarian as it came in as stiffening for batches of book jackets and was just thrown away. These days I'm reduced to buying it 

[WeeWars]

For solid stuff I tend to use grey board - used for hard-back covers and to stiffen clip-boards. Used to get it from work back in the days I was a librarian as it came in as stiffening for batches of book jackets and was just thrown away. These days I'm reduced to buying it 

Luckily, I've still got enough offcuts from the library days. 

[Last Hussar]

I'm using it on mounting board.  It's stiff, but when you fold it it is very weak- its only the covering that is stiff. A few drops on the exposed white fibers work a treat