resin & styrene
- Thread starter mapep
- Start date
I don't know about properties -- I think styrene can be glued with a dissolving glue while resin needs ACC.
I think the difference comes in manufacturing. Styrene requires industrial sized molding and casting plants while resin can be done in a home workshop, that is, with styrene you will be carving bits out of what someone else produced, while you can cast your own resin parts.
Other difference is in commercial parts. Styrene requires enough tool-and-die work that they need major production runs to pay for it. Resin kits will pay off in a shorter time so they can make models of less salable prototypes. (Note Sylvan Scale Models who make kits for a lot of Canadian cars.)
I think the difference comes in manufacturing. Styrene requires industrial sized molding and casting plants while resin can be done in a home workshop, that is, with styrene you will be carving bits out of what someone else produced, while you can cast your own resin parts.
Other difference is in commercial parts. Styrene requires enough tool-and-die work that they need major production runs to pay for it. Resin kits will pay off in a shorter time so they can make models of less salable prototypes. (Note Sylvan Scale Models who make kits for a lot of Canadian cars.)
Resin has been around a long time too. As far as I know, resin requires a catalyst or excellerator to harden and it gets very hard. Some resins can harden when exposed to air, but this takes days. The hardening process is not reversible. Styrene moldings are made by softening pellets and forcing it into the mold. It hardens with temperature and can be returned to a liquid state by adding heat.mapep said:What is the basic difference between resin and styrene? Which would be better for buildings? Which would be better for railroad rolling stock. I realize styrene has been around a while, but I know very little about resin and its uses.
Which is better for what depends on whether you have a mold to make your parts or you are going to fabricate them from sheets, strips and other forms. I was missing a stone wall from a styrene kit, and just to see if I could do it, I made a rubber mold from a different wall and used epoxy resin to cast a new wall. I cut and filed it to fit and when painted, you can't tell the difference.
Well, I can because the mold I made was not as sharp as the original, but at N scale, no one else will notice. 
I've not worked with resin, but I understand it's more prone to warping and woofing than styrene, so resin kits generally require more 'tweaking' than styrene...
kchronister said:
what kchronister says is true i built one resin kit :curse: i invented several new words
ops: before i finished it.