[VF-19]

Like many of us, I found the Peter Greggs ABBC ABetterBounceCard for Canon Flash Nikon Flash and Digital Cameras | abbc is abetterbouncecard for canon flash nikon flash and better flash photography website, and I was rather pleased with the result with such a simple thing (some paper, tape, and a bit oftime. Also, like some of us (or many), I build plastic models. Among my supplies are sheet styrene. They come in sheets that are slightly narrower and shorter than a sheet of letter paper. They also come in many thicknesses too. Also they're white.

Looking at my sheet styrene, all nice and white, and looking at my flimsy bounce card, a light went off in my head (or should I say flashbulb). What if I subsitute sheet styrene for the paper?

After a little experimentation, I have something that works pretty well.

Here's what you need:

1) Sheet styrene, as thin as you can get
2) Silver paint
3) Black paint
4) Masking tape
5) *optional* airbrush (something you'll probably have if you build models).

1) Make a cutout of your bounce card.
2) Tape the card to a wall so that you cover up your white reflecting surface.
3) Paint 1 or two layers of silver paint onto the back of the card.
4) When the layers of sliver paint dries, paint one to two layers of black paint on the card.
5) When everything has dried, simply unstick your card from the wall and use it as you would on your flash.

The idea behind the layers of silver and black paint are simple. The thin styrene is translucent, and the purpose of the silver paint is to simply throw that light that would be wasted forwards towards your subject. The black paint is there so that you don't blind everybody behind you.

Different paints will work better or worse. Tamiya paints, being acyrilic, tend to flake off at certain points where the card flexes around your flash head. Lacquers or enamels may be able to better resist the flaking. The bonus to using styrene and water based acyrilics is that you can simply wash off the paint with the proper solvent (in the case of Tamiya, windex will strip it right off), and then reuse the same piece of plastic over again.

The great part about using styrene, is that you can glue this stuff together quite easily with the proper glues, and the bond will be very strong. You can build pretty much anything you need out of it!

[Canada_Rockies]

A very neat idea! Thanks!

[VF-19]

Also, forgot to mention, usually sheet styrene comes in packs of 2-4 depending on the thickness.

I haven't tried experimenting with the different types of sheet styrene out there yet. But plain thin sheets seem to work the best.

[Ira]

The great part about using styrene, is that you can glue this stuff together quite easily with the proper glues, and the bond will be very strong.

First, I know that only very certain glues work with styrene--I think that Zap is one of them, right? And if you can't find that brand, it's not like you can find a suitable glue at your local stores.

Second, I don't understand how you're describing painting the styrene--especially when you're talking about gluing two pieces together:

Do you only paint one piece (how?) and then glue it to a clean sheet?

This interests me greatly.

[chalion]

It sounds like he's painting on the silver first, then after it dries, the black on top of it. Think of a mirror with the silver underneath the glass with the black as the backing.

[VF-19]

Chalion has it exactly right. Sorry, was a bit tired when I wrote the post. Basically what you do is you brush/spray on your layer of silver, and then when it dries, you put the black on top of it.

If you glue two pieces of styrene together, glue them first, and then on the back side, paint the silver and then the black.

Superglue works well, but it's not a solvent glue. Tenax, Tamiya Super thin, or Testors glue will actually melt a very thin layer of the plastic and allow the two pieces to "weld" together, ensuring a very strong bond.

I'll post pictures tomorrow of one of my creations.

[Ira]

Cool! I love projects like this.

Especially since it performs such a great function.

[GeneV]

I wonder how it would work to glue some Aluminum foil to the back of the styrene, rather than silver paint?

[VF-19]

I wonder how it would work to glue some Aluminum foil to the back of the styrene, rather than silver paint?

Dunno, I was thinking about that the other night actually, but I didn't have enough time to give it a try.



As promised, here's one of my recent creations. The Balsa wood stick is there to give the thin balsa some structural rigidity, as it was a good 12 inches tall. Where the superglue pulled away from the black paint, you can see the silver layer underneath it, and in the corners, you can see the front side of the card (folded back so that I could tape it to the flash head), which is still white. This card was actually two cards that I glued together and then painted up for work.

I could have skipped the balsa wood step if I had used one single, thicker card, but time was rather pressing, and all I had was some super thin styrene to use to make the bounce cards.

As a bonus, once I'm done with the cards, they go into the scrap pile for when I do plastic kits!