Best material for carving a canopy mold?

wing_nut wrote:

Can someone tell me, or direct me to an online tutorial, for making a canopy mold, or blank, or buck, or whatever is called.  I want to convert a Polikarpov I-16 type 10 to a type 5.  This involves making a full canopy instead of the just a windscreen for an open cockpit.  So my questions include what is the best material for “carving” the new canopy? Whatever it is can it be vacuformed directly or will I need to make a resin mold or something like that.   Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Matthew Usher wrote:

My low-tech, old-school answer would be basswood. It's easy to carve and is fine-grained. A little sealer and you'd have a nice smooth pattern. I'm interested to hear what everyone else has to suggest. Matt @ FSM

Hmmm? I've seen your photo... you don't look as old as me.  And I originally came up with the same old school idea. But it has a life time ago since I sealed the balsa and silk span of my .049 powered 'Lil Jumpin’ Bean ukie with dope and talcum powder.  What’s the best sealer to use these days?

Basswood is great for carving and building models.  I use the material extensively in my scratchbuild models.  The only place I use plastic is when something clear is required.

Any wood sealer will work well.  I personally use Minwax Sanding Sealer.  Read the instructions on the can and away you go.  Sand the wood down nicely, don't really need more than around 200 grit, then apply sanding sealer.  Once dry, sand as smooth as you want.  You can get a nice, smooth, surface using this type of product.  I have found the Minwax products to be reliable for wood.  Anything they sell is about as good as you can get.

 I also use sanding sealer on silkspan on my WWI models.  Does a nice job of sealing the fabric and works a lot like dope.

Ken

Ken... thanks for the info. I am about to enter a new pahse of modeling... wood carving

Steve... have alook here

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_dope

Hey Wing _Nut,

Sounds like your modelling career started like mine, with balsa, silk span, an.049 and bloody knuckles!  I flew u-control,hand launch gliders and free-flight.  I did build some solid wood models (Strombecker) and they may have been bass wood.  I never had a sharp enough knife to do them justice though.  I have used bass wood for cowl molds and it worked well.

Nice chatting with you

Jerry (In Toms River)

Thanks, WN. I guess I couldv'e done that research myself. It just sounds odd and vague to me when I see it at the Hobby Lobby, and a clerk would only laugh at my question. Does it provide the same basic purpose for a scale model? I'll have to buy some dope and do some experimenting (oldest joke in modeling, I'm sure).

Grampa, I'll be up your way in less than a month. First Cape May, then up to Manahawkin (LBI) for a week. Any hobby shops up 'bere worth the 45 min. drive?

Steve 

HEY JERSEY...  welcome to the boards Jerry.  Always nice the have someone from The Garden State in here.

Steve...

Can't beat a Jersey shore vacation.  Not sure if there is an application in plastic scale modeling for dope.  Its purpose is to make the light weight fabric skin of an aircraft... model or real... hard and sort of rigid.  It not the fabric will flutter in the air stream and I don’t think that will be a good thing for lift

Marc, you can get a vac-formed Type 5 canopy made by Falcon Industries from Roll Models.

Try carving your "buck" from a bath-size bar of soap.  When finished, use a wet finger to smooth the surface or maybe a Q-tip dipped in water.  

Another idea would be to pour a cube of plaster and carve it.  Kinda like Leanardo carved marble blocks.  Plaster would be easier to seal than soap.

Don't laugh 'til you try it.  After all, this is the "Scratch Building" thread.   

ModelNerd wrote:

Marc, you can get a vac-formed Type 5 canopy made by Falcon Industries from Roll Models.

WHOA  I almost missed this one.  Great... thnaks for that info 

20 minute casting plaster. you can sand it with durite sheets, and wet cloth for a fine smooth finish. If you remove too much off, you can add more to the mold.

 once the mold is finished the plaster needs to be sealed or REALLY dry. Easied way to seal it would be a tube of ambroid cement {old school wood model glue} or any other varnish.

heat the plastic and have at it

Dan 

wing_nut wrote:

ModelNerd wrote: Marc, you can get a vac-formed Type 5 canopy made by Falcon Industries from Roll Models.     WHOA  I almost missed this one.  Great... thnaks for that info

P.S. - Squadron also has them (part no. 9636, Type 5 and Type 10 in one set).

tankerbuilder wrote:

You do need to remember to allow for the scale size of the canopy so, make the mold a little smaller , unless you are using.010 or thinner , which by the way I do not recommend .

Just found this thread and am in the learning process for making canopies. I've been under the impression that the commonly accepted thickness for canopy-making is .010. What thickness do you recommend?