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"It will be worth waiting to see your next build. And any details you'd care to share about the techniques you used on this one, and any in-progress photos you may have will, I am sure, have a rapt audience."-Don Boose
Thanks, Don. This was the first aircraft I have done in this scale and I thought it enough to just get the thing built without making a thread. Anyhow, it would have been embarassing to start a thread and then have to say that I had to give up and eat it for breakfast.
The cowl was made from Southworth 100% cotton 32 lb "Exceptional Resume Paper" It is horribly expensive and I question its effectiveness in finding jobs but it has exceptional wet strength and can take a lot of punishment while being formed damp. A little goes a long way too. I'd like a smoother surface but I guess can't have everything.
For the compound curves I used the rounded end of a stainless steel forming tool I got from Shrike but the end of a pen would work too. Slightly damp, pressed against a mousepad, just a little at a time.
Individual segments were partially formed before joining them together. Sprayed the paper very lightly with water before forming to loosen the fibers a little. When the curves looked good I let them dry and butt-glued them together, then formed them some more to smooth out the joints.
I also tried using a little detergent in the water but unfortunately it caused the Elmer's Glue I was using to soften and release. Not good. I almost ate that one but fortunately let it dry out and was able to salvage it. It looked pretty rough by that time so I painted it with black acrylic.
To make a cowling with aluminum clad paper which I hope to do one day will take a lot more practice but I am sure it will be done, thanks to Gil and his wonderful pioneering work with aluminum-paper combinations.
You mentioned the rigging. Thanks! the rigging was probably the scariest part. After all that work to build the model it would be so easy to spoil it while rigging...
I got some of the monofilament thread that RedHorse used on his excellent Caudron but it was hard to handle and hard to glue also. He's really good at rigging.
I also have some steel recording wire that is perfectly to scale at .004", looks absolutely stunning and is completely unforgiving. Hard to glue, too. I dream of using it on something but that's going to take big improvements in technique. I do think it can be done, though just not by me. Yet. I have about ten miles of the stuff though, enough to deck out a lot of little biplanes if I ever learn how.
Ended up using white cotton thread sold by Gutermann (CA02776). It's made for quilting, measures .008", too large for scale but it is very forgiving, glues well and is not hairy at all.
I drew it between a silver "Sharpie" and a piece of paper four times and hung a weight on it to dry. It came out a little bit stiff but not kinky. I poked little holes in the paper with a needle, got a tiny gob of glue on the end of each thread and poked it into the hole, holding it for a little while till the glue set. I anchored the inboard ends of all the lines first then let them dry and cure overnight before tightening them while gluing the outboard ends around and through the struts. When all were dry I took a brush full of water and painted all the lines. As they dried the shrinkage tightened them up a bit.
Have a wonderful day.
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