Making your own "visible" fuselage halves?

to make the the halve the same size, you need to first great a mold of the inside fuselage. A 'blank' I think it's called. You then vacumform over that.

I don't think that would work, though.  Most fuelages have different interior and exterior detail (at least with WWII fighters, anyway).

For instance, the B-17 has all the internal ribbing and molded on detail like O2 tanks and hoses and some wiring - things that wouldn't be on the outside.  Same with the Me-262.  Most kits have molded on cockpit sidewalls and such.  The outside might have panel lines, scoops, vents, sensor arrays - all kind of surface mounted detail that you wouldn't get from molding the inside.

-Fred

 

 Gigatron, HI; You need to follow the proffessionals here. The thing to do is cut windows? in the areas you want visible.You then can put clear inside or outside the windows. When you do the windows make sure they DO NOT have regular edges(no smooth holes here) Rough edges thinned to scale and painted either red or white, to offset everything inside.Check out the many models that graced the cover of this great mag. That should help you along.NOTE: the builders DID NOT put clear plastic in their windows.I do to keep dust out.    tankerbuilder

Just FYI, What Tankbuilder is talking about is a "Cutaway"...

Gigatron wrote:

...I'd vacform over the existing fuselage, but would that, effectively, enlarge the fuselage half?  How would I go about maintaining the correct size?...

 

Yes.  By the thickness of the material you are forming with.  The next step would be to vac form a new fuselage half inside the one just created and that would get you back to the original size.

Hey Hans, it took me a day or two before it dawned on me.  at first, I couldn't imagine why there would be irregularly shaped windows

EasyMike, is it possible to vac form into a negative space like that?

-Fred

 

yes it is possible. i believe they call that a "female".  there is some info on doing that available.