When you find yourself buying too many models and decide it’s time to cut up your credit cards, remember that you can get some neat science fiction effects from them — specifically, the security holograms on many cards make cool instrument panel screens. For instance, when I was building an old Monogram 1/32 scale SeaQuest DSV Deep Ocean Transport, I used part of an earth map hologram for the cockpit screen. The thick card stock also can be used for plastic structural elements or made thinner with a motor tool or sandpaper and cut to shape with a knife. You can find these holograms on some of the sample cards you get with junk mail, too — just in case you want to keep your present card and keep buying kits. 

Tip submitted by:
Mark DeCrewLos Angeles, Calif.