Re: single sided vacu wings- what do you do ?

Allan Wright (AEW@unh.edu)
Wed, 6 Dec 1995 11:52:22 -0500 (EST)

> I've just started on a nice 1/72 Scaleplanes dH 5, vacu kit.
> Nice kit, with simple cockpit detail, brass detail for instruments,
> and white metal whhels, airscrew, vickers, and rotary.
>
> Now I need a bit of advice:
> After sanding down the single sided wings they look sort of like this:
>
> =================
> === ========
> === =======
> ... ........
>
>
> What do you do then? Do you round the leading edge just on the underside, or
> also on the upper side of the leading edge. And do you then
> try to score rib detail on the underside, ignore it, glue on hsp, glue
> on a 5 thou plastic sheet with rib detail scored on the inside ? or what?

This thread got discussed early in the creation of this list. Here's some
of the mail that was part of the discussion:

Bill Shatzer commented:

> Generally speaking, you do *nothing* on the single piece
> vacuform wings in 1/72. Most WWI wing under surfaces are more
> or less *flat* (look carefully at the photos-rib details on the
> undersurfaces is almost never apparent.)
>
> The convential wisdom is that the single surface vacuform wings are
> the most accurate - the trailing edge is (or can be made) suitably
> thin and the wing itself is scale thickness. If you've got
> "negative" ribs on the undersurface, you've probably got to fill
> them flat (green putty, milliput, streached sprue, etc., etc.)
> but with most aircraft, undersurface wing detail isn't required.

And John Roll added:

> I haven't done it personally, but I have a very good friend (and coach) who has.
> He is Steve Hustad who won the Mike Fritz memorial award at the IPMS Nationals
> in Omaha. Believe it or not, he does not represent the ribs
> three-dimensionally. What Steve does is draw lines on with 'plastic lead'. It
> can be found in Art supply stores. Architects (like Steve) use it for drawing
> on clear mylar film. Steve usually removes most of the rib detail on the tops
> of wings as well and draws it in, too. On aircraft equipped with rib tapes of a
> different color or pattern, he will usually just highlight the edges of the
> tapes lightly. I have no clue whether such a technique would work on 1/48th
> scale or larger, but the effect is fantastic on Steve's stuff...

I got this information by using the searchable index on the archive. Neato
thing that.....

Hope this helps.
-Al

===============================================================================
Allan Wright Jr. | I'm not left handed either! - The Man in Black
University of New Hampshire+---------------------------------------------------
Research Computing Center | WWI Modeling mailing list: wwi@pease1.sr.unh.edu
Internet: aew@unh.edu | WWI Modeling Mosaic Page: http://pease1.sr.unh.edu
===============================================================================