Quote:
Originally Posted by deltapike
Has anyone successfully replicated the corrugated metal surfaces of certain aircraft as found on the Ford Trimotor, Douglas TBD Devastator, Junkers Ju-52, etc...?
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There are some problems in trying to achieve a realistic and scale representation of the original subject.
However, you can try several approaches.
If you're not satisfied with the printed textures, then embossing the paper is an option.
Tigertony already linked above an example.
Another option is to try real metal.
Consider what metal embossing crafters do, and the tools they use:
(source of image:
MercArt: The Metal Embosser )
You will need to learn how to work metal (/pewter, aluminum, etc), and the proper tools to do it.
Needless to say, you'll need some time to learn the technique.
To achieve something similar to what Gil showed in the photo he posted,
you will need to tray some sort of grooved surface to use as die
and press the metal against it.
With current CNC technology you may be able to order dies
engraved with grooves at the proper scale to achieve the desired effect.
However, that would increase the budget by several orders of magnitude,
as you will probably need more than just one die for the different parts of the aircraft you wish to build.
I can think of even yet another option, much cheaper and faster:
Layering the corrugation just by using strips of the same paper.
As in the following photo:
This is part of a personal project I'm developing (not a scale airplane).
But I came across the same problem: replicating a corrugated surface.
To speed up the process I found layering long strips works rather nicely.
Is not an exact realistic scale duplicate of the original subject.
But I never intended it to be: I just wanted to make a visually similar object
that the people can recognize as being close to the original subject when they see it.
The big plus of this technique is that it is faster and cheaper.
And also, the paper suffers less distortion and keeps its strength.
In the case of airplane skins like the ones you mentioned,
you may try this "layered strips" approach, using grey-colored cardsctock,
or spraying metallic paint over the white paper.
But I imagine it will need lots of time and patience to make it right.
Regards,