Scratchbuilding 55 gallon drums or other fuel barrels?

I'd spend the $5 bucks and buy a set of Tamiya's or Italeri's.  They also come with fuel cans and some buckets too. 

Good luck making ones that look convincing. 

Hey, why waste money on matches when you can rub two sticks together?

You can also buy one piece resin ones by Bayardi. These have open tops and alos come intact or damaged.

They are available from http://www.michtoy.coml

He doesn't want to drop the bucks for a kit, he wants to scratch them. Low budget.

Ian, first of all, you need dimensions, not something most folks have off hand. Second, you need good photos or line drawings, again......ditto. You're not going to find much information available when there are so many kits around that suit this need. Save your money and your time.

I think his idea isn't too bad... sure there are tons(?) of aftermarket items you could buy but it seems he wants to make his own...

first thing comes to my mind if make one using epoxy/polly putty or just burrow one and make the resin casting...

sure this will cost way more than simply buying the aftermarket items but then you can have any shape and size of drums you want - also depends on the moulding he should be able to pop out reasonable number of casting.

I actually found a 3/4 inch or so 4 foot metal rod in my basement.  My idea is to cut these into 1 inch (or whatever is scale, ill look that up first)  I will use either some tiny O-rings or wire to make the ribs and the cap could be made of almost anything.  Even if its not scale to a 55 gallon drum, kit will probably be close to something or elses, and if it isnt, it will be close enough that, i mean who will know but me?  If they turn out  poorly, I might just buy a set.  Thanks for the advice, Ill post my progress over the next couple days.

I loved your advice too Steve, very cost effective, which is exaclty what Im going for, Ill definately give that a try.

The soda can method is easy and cheap--railroaders have used this for years

Take piece of tile or wood and carve the ridges into it. lay your precut sodacan pieces on top and emboss with a ballpoint pen. the jig insures that they are all the same size.

I made 50 gallon drums in HO scale, but it would be fairly simple to make them the same way in any other scale.

I put sort of a 'how to' on my Fotki page.
http://public.fotki.com/DaveInTheHat/how-i-make-stuff/50-gallon-drum/

Feel free to leave comments and sign my guest book.
Thanks!