Natural Aluminum Finish

[barry]

It looks very impressive Gil

[B-Manic]

It look mighty fine to me Gil.

[Gil]

Thanks for the plaudits. I promise to endeavor to become better at this once I know what it is that's supposed to become better. . . ,

"Some Guy" got carried away and sprayed the really shiny result with a clear acrylic medium matte darkened with Tamiya flat black in an attempt to give the piece a "wash". That "Guy" needs to know what he's doing first before "that" happens again. . . ,

All in all, though, it came out Ok. The ball tip needle does work well as a line scribe. Also as a single rivet punch against a glass pane but that's getting into details. Engraving (more like embossing?) aluminum foil on paper is an adventure which, for some strange reason, I'm actually beginning to enjoy. I was afraid that I'd have to use a thicker foil in the extra heavy duty category (which I will try eventually) but it appears that standard grade is able to stand up to the abuse.

I think card modelers will like the way this stuff works. It has the feel of a much thicker foil for some reason. Much stiffer than either the card or foil individually. It's a pleasure to work with.

I've also given some thought to the Klik'N'Kut die cutting machine. It die cuts foiled card stock and will also engrave and/or emboss. But that's another story thread altogether but an interesting subject to give thought to. . . ,

I'm looking into the Hobby Model Mig-17F category for a full trial build. . . ,

+Gil

[Art Deco]

Wow, really impressive results! Looks like a very promising technique!

[Gil]

A sheet of 100% cotton vellum tracing paper was laminated to a sheet of aluminum foil. The 2.5 mm diameter tube below was rolled from it. . . ,

+Gil

[Gil]

Went back and resurrected a left over mold from a prior experiment on forming paper shells. Aluminum card segments were cut out, laid in, and overlapped to form the forward fuselage half of a BD-5. A butt edge trial is next I guess. . . ,

+Gil

[redhorse]

This looks quite nice! You're building a BD-5? I love that little plane, do please continue!

[Gil]

No it's not a build. Just a test using odds and ends from other experiments to see how it looks. The mold was made to lay-up paper to make a monocoque fuselage shell shown below.

+Gil

[B-Manic]

Very impressive Gil, are you still using kitchen foil glued to card stock? If so, have you had any trouble with the foil deforming, shredding, tearing etc when you cut out the parts?

[Gil]

The method used to bond the foil to the card stock is strong enough to keep tearouts to a minimum. I do use an Olfa wheel to trim the sheet out of the larger aluminum base, a sharp pair of Fiskars scissors to cut out the pieces.

I've tried Reynolds Heavy Duty foil now and it is somewhat better than the standard thickness foil. I'm looking around for a roll of Reynolds Extra Heavy Duty foil but you need to buy at least 500 feet at a price of just over $50 U.S. Of all the foils on the market Reynolds seems to offer the thickest foils consistently. Standard is is around 17 microns (0.017 mm) with the heavy duty at 21 microns (0.021 mm). The extra heavy is around 36 microns (0.036 mm). BBQ people use the extra heavy duty for a number of different duties including lining the pit.

I've found that the heavier the foil the better it works for card modeling applications. Embossing the surface is still a learning process. Prepping the surface with neatsfoot oil keeps the tool from "grabbing" and tearing the aluminum foil. Another neat trick is to rub a little bees wax on the surface and then polish it into the surface with 0000 steel wool, it really "chromes up" the aluminum.

+Gil