Fun time with the laser cutter. I had to cut the 36 repeating rib elements with the laser cutter and decided to use the opportunity to also cut out some templates for lofting the blue foam roof element.
My first attempts were with box board, however I didn't like the smokey finish and the black sooty charcoal got all over my fingers and would have dirtied the white plastic elements of the model. Adding masking take to the surface would have stopped the smokey effect on the surface, but would not have stopped the soot from getting all over my fingers and would have required me to remove the tape from both sides of 36 cardboard components. This would have been very difficult as it often will tear or remove part of the cardboard surface, and I have some fairly thin elements I didn't this would survive the process.
I decided to use 2mm MDF instead. It had the benefit of being a bit thicker and stronger as well as having a much nicer and cleaner cut face than the box board. The masking tape was easy to apply and remove and created a very clean surface with a nice two tone brown after being cut.
After and before removing the masking tape
Two-tone brown effect after cutting
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