Model Making Materials

Foamed PVC 'Palight' or Foamex is a specialist rigid sheet material.

Sheet size 301 x 603mm - smaller A4 sheets available below.

Various thicknesses available (see drop down box).

It has numerous properties that lends itself to model making applications:

• It is very strong and durable without being excessively heavy.
• It is considerably lighter than sheet styrene yet more robust than foamboard.
• It is waterproof and more warp-resistant than foamboard.
• 1 & 2mm Palight can be easily cut with a scalpel, 3mm is a little trickier to cut.
• It can be sanded or carved and can also be inscribed or even embossed to create different surface textures (see our Modelmaking Guide).
• Palight can be painted without any danger of warping (though it will usually require priming first).
• It is not affected by heat (within reason) from strong lights making it an ideal material to make larger scale sets for stop motion animation.

Palight is best glued with superglue, which gives it a very strong bond.

We recommend Zap-a-gap (or the medium equivalent) which is thin enough to spread on the surface and not create a gap when sandwiched. It also has the benefit of filling the gaps (if any) when adding detailing strip etc.

Applications include: Stop motion animation sets, theatre design modelling, architectural model detail, scratch building RC body shells and wargaming scenery.

Our information sheet 'Working with foamed PVC' by David Neat, details 3 projects using Palight (see our Modelmaking guides).