Hi there,
Just wanted to share my little experience in making circular air vents for choppers in 1/35.
Nothing fancy, but I thought it might be interesting for someone who willing to add some extra detail on his helo.
These round little things are located in every helo cockpit for example here is the pic of BH and Cobra’s cockpits.
So…..here is how I make those suckers (ooops!) blowers…well, vents))))))
All you need is – candle, wire, piece of sprue and exacto knife
Heat the sprue on fire (don’t let it burn though) and pull it sideways to make it thinner (about 2 mm) . (Why not to use the Evergreen rods? – Cos they don’t melt – they burn)))))
Cut it in few pieces, then slowly melt the ends of each piece like shown on pic 4. If you’ll do it from top of the flame it is harder to control the melting process.
As you can see – I used the clear plastic sprue piece here – its an old method of making lenses for missiles and searchlights. Vent making method is pretty much the same exept that you are using grey plastic.
When the “head” gains half-spherical shape – cut it off and make next one from same piece of sprue.
After you done with all of them – drill a hole in the center of each vent like on pic #6
Take a wire and roll it on rod. Cut the rings like on pic #8-9
Glue rings on top of vents so that they match the holes you drilled before. If you don’t like Super Glue – you can use Future, it will just take longer for them to dry.
It took me about 20 minutes to make 10 vents – enough for 3-4 helos)))))))))
HTH
Andy