Revell 1/48th Spirit of St. Louis

Very nice build !

I find your explanation about the engine turned aluminum very interesting.

Thanks for the post.

Now I want the kit.

BTW...I have a floor tile monster.

Lost an off white piece of plastic on a white vinyl tile floor.

I'll be on the floor with a flashlight looking for that one for a while..

Very creative and again, excellent job.

Buckeye

Very nice build!  What did you use to get the finish on the cowling and spinner?  It came out great.

I took a regular #2 pencil, and cut the eraser diameter down so it would fit in a small circle template.  I traced the outline of the existing decals to determine how much foil I would need, then marked off that area on the foil, leaving some extra space for muck-ups.  I set the circle template down on the foil, pushed the eraser head through the template, onto the foil and gave it a couple of quick spins.  I then moved the template forward a bit, allowing for some overlap of the eraser over the mark previously-made, pressed the eraser through the the template and gave it a little spin.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  I used a straight edge to run the template down to keep things kind of straight.  When I reached the end of my work area, I moved the template over a bit to start another row, again, allowing for some overlap, and then realigned the straight edge against the side of the template so I could slide it down the straight edge as I worked.  I think I used like a 3/16" circle for the work.  Too big, and it looked odd, too small, and you really couldn't see much.  It's a little out of scale, compared to the real engine turning, but still allows one to see the effect okay. 

Yes it took a while.  I worked until my thumb and fingers hurt, rested a bit then started again.  I believe I got the inspiration and technique, perhaps with some modification based on what I had available, from this forum.  The above technique is basically what I did, though. 

I then took my tracings of the decals mentioned above, and use that to cut out the individual pieces.  I laid the pieces down as you would normally lay down foil.  I laid down the bottom part first, then the top part, and then the sides, as that looked like the way the cowl panels are arranged on the real Spirit. 

I then put the decals on, with some setting solution.  After that,  I dipped the cowling and spinner in Future and let that set.  I then added little dots of aluminum silver enamel via the tip of a toothpick, to emulate Dzus fasteners along the edges of the panels, as on the real plane.  They look okay under magnification, but not very visible in the photos. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Great job Gene,,,,   Very nice indeed.             You did the kit justice for sure!

Mostly               thanks for sharing

Bill

Very nice build!  What did you use to get the finish on the cowling and spinner?  It came out great.

Thanks, all.  And it is a nice kit.  Not a lot of parts, comes with a seated or standing Charles Lindberg (one head, so you have to choose your body of choice), which I didn't do.  The kit goes together well.  Easy, fun work, unless you loose parts, like I did.

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Very cool! 

I've seen this one quite a bit at various hobby shops and always thought about picking it up and now I just might have to.  Really like how the foil turned out!

Very nice!  Your cowl and spinner came out really great.

That kit is very nice.  I have built the model and was pleased by the kit. I did use the decals for the engine turning, and did have some trouble but was able to piece together enough from the alternate decal sheet to fill the gaps.