I'm trying to get my act together enough to write something up and
take some photos (you don't want to use my line drawings) on the prop
blocks that I've been using for build up props.
Basically I'm cut out blocks from rigid foam (currently cut from
largish sheets using a table saw). I use a little hot melt glue to
glue on some brass strings to act as cutting guides to get the shape
to the block. I then use a hot wire to cut to foam to shape using the
guides. Be careful of the fumes, some say they can be lethal, and they
certainly can't be good for you.
I then lightly sand the surface with bit of sandpaper to smooth it out
and then using white glue, I glue 1/32 sheet balsa onto the
surface. The balsa comes from a batch of wood that I got from a hobby
shop. It's too heavy with irregular grain for building indoor models.
I'm going to have to try Bill's idea of using paper on the surface, I
never thought of that since I had the balsa just laying around.
I once tried one of the blocks with sheet props and they work pretty
well, but you need to build in some sort of spacer for the camber, and
you can't really bake the block. I suppose you could figure out just
the right combinaiton of temperature and time to really bake the
balsa, but without melting the block, but after a couple of tries, I
gave up.
These blocks are quick and easy to make, so I've got a couple (LPP,
F1M, F1D).
Marty Sasaki
Received on Tue May 15 2007 - 15:52:58 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:45 CET