Detailing with Lead Foil

[cdavenport]

In conjunction with my Voroshilovets beta build, I want to demonstrate the technique for forming lead foil using a buck.

1. Lead is poisonous, work in a well-ventilated area and wash your hands before touching your face or handling anything. I purchased several pounds of lead sheet for a project over a decade ago. The sheet is .025" thick. To use as a modeling material, it needs to be much thinner. I roll the sheet to a constant thickness of .005". The stuff is expensive if you buy it in bulk. I have a limited supply cut into 8 x 10 sheets that I will sell at $6/sheet plus shipping. One sheet will last through quite a few models when you consider that rolling a 1" square section to .005" yields a surface area roughly four times as large.

2. For the Voroshilovets, I am making a female buck which means that I will be forcing the lead through the holes cut into .5mm card from the back. The louvers that will be visible will be on the reverse side of the card.

3. Tape a section of .005" lead foil in place and burnish it with your finger to get the initial impression.

4. Using a Duncan #411 Stylus (Brickyard Ceramics & Crafts Tools - Duncan, $2.40 plus shipping) and a dry transfer burnisher (check EBay or Google using the key words, around $6), I carefully work the lead into the slots that represent the engine exhaust louvers on the Voroshilovets. Before I remove the lead from the buck, I carefully cut the lower edge of the louver.

5. Once I have burnished the lower edge of the louver flat, the exhaust looks like this.

You can also easily burnish lead over a male buck. For that matter, you can substitute whole parts with lead foil. My intention is to make the fenders from lead so that I can realistically bend and dent them.

[hawkman67]

Awsome Idea there! To make louvers that way, will make them stand out and add a cool detail to the model.
When I did Airframe repair in the Army we had some aluminium sheet that was temperless and had the same working properties of lead foil or old toothpaste tubes, we called it "O" metal, and we would use it to make one off parts or to make a test piece that could be hardened up when the forming was done. wonder if it is to be had by the general public..
Jeff

[wag]

What is the stuff they wrap the top of wine bottles with? I've seen it called lead foil but I can't imagine they would use lead for food products. Anyway that might be a source for foil with similar properties that people might already have in their home.
Wayne

[D-H]

As to bottle top foil in these parts the march of the screw-top wine bottle has all but seen such wonderful materials off. I'll keep buying and drinking wine in the hope some turns up.

D

[paperairforce]

Originally Posted by wag

What is the stuff they wrap the top of wine bottles with? I've seen it called lead foil but I can't imagine they would use lead for food products. Anyway that might be a source for foil with similar properties that people might already have in their home.
Wayne

nice technique! I think the wine foil might used to have been lead, but it changed about 15 years back to some plasticky material that doesnt scrunch anymore - I think for the health concern

[cdavenport]

Wine bottles did have lead foil wrap, but I hardly see it anymore.

I've heard of the temperless aluminum and it goes by another name that escapes me. But, tin foil is readily available and is more malleable and ductile than aluminum.

[scon10]

This is an intersting idea. I saw in the DIY store the other day roof repair material that looked like lead. I have been thinking to make engine cowlings with this technique, somehow. But I haven't figured out how to proceed. Anybody with experience on this?

[ct ertz]

Awesome idea. So here is a thought. Can the foil be worked into good looking cannon tubes for 1/250 scale ironclads? I have played around with lead and pewter castings before but never lead foil. I may need to try some.
CT

[cdavenport]

Scon 10, I wouldn't fool around with that hardware stuff unless you have a way of rolling it thinner; it's much too thick.

CT: Are you talking about wrapping the foil as you would paper or melting and pouring it? If the latter, let me know and I'll work with you on developing some simple molds.

[scon10]

OK, so rolling it to a smaller thickness is not easy.
You mentioned earlier, that you rolled it to a thickness of .005 inch, which would be like 0.13 mm, which is copying paper sheet thickness. Isn't that a bit thin for making various parts? I would imagine that a thickness of 0.33 mm, which compares to thin card, would be more handier to make things like carb air inlets on radial engines or cowlings.
How, for that matter, do you roll this material to such thinness? Do you have a rolling machine? It is very intriguing, this subject.