Basswood vs Balsa wood

[rogerhensley]

Primarily styrene now, but basswood in the past and for a few details. I have never used balsa as it is too soft and frizzy. As for a 'wood look', nothing is as good as wood to look like wood. :-)

[dehusman]

All 3.

Dave H.

[Fergmiester]

Bass Wood is by far a superior material and I perfer it over styrene as it looks and feels like real wood (DUH) when painted. To me it gives that added touch of realism to buildings that you can't get with styrene.

[BentnoseWillie]

Basswood and styrene. I don't use a lot of balsa - I find that basswood is a better wood for modelling projects.

[tutaenui]

I use Styrene pretty much exclusively these days, as stripwood is increasingly difficult to obtain. However there is something "organic" about using card and stripwood even if it is slower.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Basswood and styrene, and even plexiglass for me. No balsa.

[Anonymous]

Use all three, balsa the least. Basswood and styrene about equally though some large basswood structures are on the drawing board. Also use toothpicks, both round and flat for rustic N scale buildings. Also use gathered twigs of various species for timber trestles, etc. (Prefer birch for the light color wood and the dark color bark on young branches.

Guess I'd have voted "all of the above and then some."

Wayne

[cjcrescent]

I use all three. As in the brass vs plastic thread, one poster stated there is no versus. Same here. Each one is used depending on the situation.

[Anonymous]

I'm in Architecture school and all the scratch built models have to be in Basswood, so that carries over to my model railroading.