I wanted to share a technique I have been experimenting with to simulate the look of fabric covered flaps on aircraft. Many kits omit this detail. They simply have recessed or raised panel lines where the framing would be but none of the stretched fabric contures are molded in the plastic.
I am building a 1/72 Airfix Short Stirling. It is a older kit from the 60s. I had the kit in my stash and did not want to spend $50 on the newer Italeri offering. The kit has very little detail and the flaps have raised panel lines. So lets get started.
First I decided to sand away the raised detail and try scribing in recessed panel lines. All this did was reverse the panel line from out to in. still not the look of stretched fabric. The contures where still missing. I filled the panel lines with Mr Surfacer and sanded smooth.
I then took thin styrene strip and glued them over the panel lines.
One side done. As you can see towards the wide part of the flap, I then brushed on Mr surfacer 1000 between two strips, let dry and then sanded but it had a lot of air holes. I then decided to use thin super glue and let the glue flow on both sides of each strip.
I used accelerator to dry the super glue and proceeded to wet sand with 600 grit paper between the strips and also sanded down the surface of the strips to thin them down. I also sanded along the leading edge and trailing edge of the flap to thin down the strips.
To check the progress I shot some primer.
It was working. I now had the contures between the strips that looked like fabric stetched over framing members. The primer reveled some spots where the glue did not fill out.
I thinned down some Perfect Plastic Putty with water to a slurry consistancy so I could apply it with a brush to fill in the spots. I used PPP since it was a contrasting color to the grey primer. PPP allowed me to see if the putty had filled the hole. Had I used more super glue or Mr. Surfacer it would be hard to tell if I filled the hole.
Once the putty was dry, I took a very lightly damp cotton swab and gingerly swiped away the excess putty until all that was left was the putty in the holes. I shot primer again and the results are very encouraging.
I will do a final wet sand with 4000 or 6000 paper to get rid of the grainy texure of the primer since it was cheap primer out of a spray can and this flap should be ready for paint. Now I have the look of stretched fabric. I hope this helps add a little extra touch to your next build and if anyone has any suggestions to improve on this please post.