Years ago, when people built things, Plastruct parts were dead easy to find here locally. Recently went searching for half a dozen marble sized Plastruct half spheres (the most basic Plastruct part ever?) and cannot find them anywhere. The only Plastruct distributer in Canada seems to be Walthers. Walthers apparently charges the companies they distrubute a huge amount of money for listing things in their catalogues, which means that a bidness like Plastruct which has a huge inventory lists only a small part of their catalogue. Walther's also apparently charges model shops a lot of money for their catalogues, and converts all Plastruct's/EMA's bewildering parts numbers into their own even more bewildering Walther's parts numbers, perhaps because their business model is to not increase overheads by actually selling anything except their catalogues.
Both Plastruct in the US and EMA in England have a $20 US (now about $30 Can) or so minumum order, which is $16 more than the parts are worth, and both charge a minimum of $20 US more for shipping to Canada.
I'm growing annoyed at having to scratch-build stupid little basic shapes that the rest of the world seems able to pick up at their local hobby shops. Does anyone in Canada know of a Canadian source of Plastruct half-domes, elliptical domes, 1" to 2" tubing? - anything other than their basic strips, rods, and railroad trestles, said purveyors of which are at a total loss as how to get anything but? Thanks!
Anyone Know of a Source for Plastruct/EMA in Canada?
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starseeker
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Anyone Know of a Source for Plastruct/EMA in Canada?
Last edited by starseeker on Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:22 am, edited 4 times in total.
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starseeker
- Posts: 471
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:33 am
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starseeker
- Posts: 471
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:33 am
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starseeker
- Posts: 471
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:33 am
Anyone Know of Another Source in Canada?
Well, Model Builders Supply does stock some Plastruct, maybe about 1/3 of their catalogue. In theory. As far as plastic hemispheres go, all they have in stock are the clear ones. The solid ones are special order only. So I emailed back about how to make a special order. Three times. So far no reply to my last 3 emails. Guess it's way too difficult for them to figure out. The clear ones are, of course, much more expensive than the solid ones, and the solid ones come in multiple packs, too, at least in the Plastruct catalogue. Who knows how MBS sells them.
So MBS is a typical Canadian wash as far as a source for scratch-building bits. I'm currently making masters for vac forming all these parts. It's ridiculous, actually, but what else can you do?
Unless someone knows of another Canadian supplier of Plastruct parts?
Edit: I cut and paste the above emailed it to MBS, saying that I'd posted it here. 'Bout an hour later, Julie at MBS emailed back, saying that they had received only my initial email but none of the others. "We did experience some email issues in April, so not sure if that affected your correspondence with us."
Well, something sure did.
Will give them one more try. Fingers crossed. Save me at least finish sanding the masters and vac-forming a couple dozen little bits. Sigh.
So MBS is a typical Canadian wash as far as a source for scratch-building bits. I'm currently making masters for vac forming all these parts. It's ridiculous, actually, but what else can you do?
Unless someone knows of another Canadian supplier of Plastruct parts?
Edit: I cut and paste the above emailed it to MBS, saying that I'd posted it here. 'Bout an hour later, Julie at MBS emailed back, saying that they had received only my initial email but none of the others. "We did experience some email issues in April, so not sure if that affected your correspondence with us."
Well, something sure did.
Will give them one more try. Fingers crossed. Save me at least finish sanding the masters and vac-forming a couple dozen little bits. Sigh.
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starseeker
- Posts: 471
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:33 am
Re: Anyone Know of a Source for Plastruct/EMA in Canada?
Got my order today!
At last!!
So everyone who are always complaining about how long it takes to get garage kits or parts, take note of how much time has passed here. MBS only stocks a small portion of Plastruct catalogue. Everything else is special order and they only do special orders from the US or wherever every few months. And this is my only source for the stuff in Canada. The last of the decent model shop here has just gone belly-up and the one remaining true hobby shop really just stocks the biggest-selling model kits and flying models, very little else, virtually no sf except some new release R2 and Moebius. And this is in a city with a million people. Which gives some indication of the health of our hobby.
Vac-forming is definitely in my future.
At last!!
So everyone who are always complaining about how long it takes to get garage kits or parts, take note of how much time has passed here. MBS only stocks a small portion of Plastruct catalogue. Everything else is special order and they only do special orders from the US or wherever every few months. And this is my only source for the stuff in Canada. The last of the decent model shop here has just gone belly-up and the one remaining true hobby shop really just stocks the biggest-selling model kits and flying models, very little else, virtually no sf except some new release R2 and Moebius. And this is in a city with a million people. Which gives some indication of the health of our hobby.
Vac-forming is definitely in my future.