Scratchbuilding - WW-1 and Between the Wars wings in 1/32

[flightline]

Hi Guys

 

Does anyone have a reasonably quick and reliable solution to achieving a convincing rag wing with limited waste

 

I mention waste because the "Woodman method"  and it's various iterations and close relations can see a significant amount of precision work lost and wasted if the material, used to cover the core is misaligned - Very frustrating - then there is the business of getting a sharp trailing edge without solvent glue warping the the very thin plastic or epoxy or super-glue turning the trailing edge into a mess of goopy squeeze out which then gets stuck to the work board !!

 

Ken Henderson advocates solid (bass) wood shape which is then finished in epoxy over which you lay strips of thin tape to emulate rib tapes which ion turn then get enclosed in a final coat of epoxy - That works for really well for a lot of projects and it certainly gives a very positive "key" for strut attachment points, but that method still sometimes falls a bit short of getting the prominent leading edge rib and false rib protrusions you might want to see on, say, something like a Gloster Gamecock. Getting the deeper scoops at the leading edge lined up with the rib lines towrd the mid and trailing sections of the wing is well nigh impossible  

 

I guess short of actually doing a fully ribbed structure, ( George Lee's Keystone bomber and his Corsair which we see in " Scratchbuilt !" shows the terrific effect which can be achieved using this approach, but is is terribly labour-intensive ), the bottom line is that one method won't fit all

 

Does any one have a favorite method for making rag wings they care to share ?

 

 

[wunwinglow]

No pain, no gain!!!

 

Sorry, that comes across badly!! Bottom line, they will all work, I would consider material waste to be the VERY LEAST of your worries, time is the enemy, so pick a method that you are confident you can do, and perfect it with practice. In the end it is going to be covered in paint, so whatever floats your boat is good.

 

Me? I would CAD it and CNC a mould, then vacform it. But that's just me.......

Edited February 16, 2017 by wunwinglow

[Hubert Boillot]

When working on a scratchbuilt Aichi Hansa (a Hispano-powered, licence-built in Japan version of the HB-W29) I used a method I lifted form paper-modelling. Btw the Hansa was started before WnW ever existed, and long before they released and sold-out their W29. It is still un-finished on my SoD, after one of my cats decided on an impromptu flight trial for it ... One day I will come back to it.

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=23373&hl=

 

The idea is based on Woodman's wooden-core wing. I then glued on the wood-core Evergreeen plastic strips to represent the ribs. I chose at the time 0.5 x 0.5 mm strips (20 x 20 thou) but with hindsight would rather advice 10 x 20 thou or 15 x 20 thou strips, the lesser dimension being the height to achieve a more restrained sagging of the "fabric".

 

I then glued-on a wing "fabric" made of ordinary 80 gr A4 white paper, soaked in diluted white glue (make sure the wood core is already saturated with dried white glue to ensure good adherence and the sagging effect, and that the wooden core does not soa-up toot quickly the diluted white gluie). The assembly was maintained under pressure between two hard-cardboard "planks" - I needed them to have the undercamber of the W-29 wing - with soft foam lining on the wing side. The pressure was achieved by using metal paper-blocks clamps.

 

After drying at least overnight, the paper cover should have adhered to the core-and-strips wing and appropriately sagged around the ribs. It is also very strong and stiff when the diluted white glue has dried, the trailing edges are ... paper-thin and can be trimmed easily. It will also take primer and paint without any fuzziness linked to the paper material. You can experiment with the strips height and the type of paper.

 

Hope the explantion is clear enough and will help

 

Hubert

[Tnarg]

Way, way back in the day, the Renwall kits came with those preformed wing ribs and spars from injection molded material. You were supposed to cover the structure with pre-printed material that was already finished in the appropriate color. Did anyone actually build those successfully?

 

I am toying with the idea of laser cutting some ribs from thin acrylic (1 mm if possible) and then running a steel wire for the leading edge with tubing spacers to build up the size to space the ribs correctly and look like a nice leading edge. I haven't had the ribs laser cut yet, but have a place to try that soon. The spars would also need cutting and have a notch matching a similar matching notch on the ribs to interlock. I may use a hole at the trailing edge and run a thin wire for that edge also, leaving it flexible to create the scallop shapes.

 

This all sounds OK to build the frame, just as you are thinking about, but do I cover that with transparent covering as per the flying models? That glued paper solution might work...

 

I have tried the Harry Woodman method and made the wing from basswood and was reasonably successful with covering the shape. It isn't easy, but not much is when you are trying to "get it right". I like the stick and tissue type of construction if I can get it to work, since a translucent wing will look very nice.

 

Sorry, not enough answers, just more questions.

 

Tnarg

[wunwinglow]

Just a thought.... Have you tried working with tooling board? Also called chemical wood and a whole load of trade names. It comes in a huge variety of densities, works like wood but is pretty stable. It sticks with superglues and epoxies, you can drill, cut, tap, file, paint, etc etc without the worry of it warping or splitting. Well worth searching out!

[Ironwing]

I could be misunderstanding...Forgive me if I am, but creating a ribbed structure can be done by embossing the ribs onto suitably thin (.005/.010) ABS sheet stock using a ball point pen.

 

The card is put face down on a soft surface (news papers..Paper pad..Flat piece of rubber). The rib pattern is drawn on or embossed on the exposed surface with the ball point used with sufficient pressure to leave an indentation.

 

The sheet is then laid over whatever structure you build.

 

The under structure need only be spanwise longerons. No ribs are required. You only need something for the overlay to rest upon.

 

The thin sheet stock will also yield a The that can be thinned by sanding if need be.

 

HTH

 

Geoff

[flightline]

Ironwing

 

I actually hadn't thought of that ...

 

You now have me thinking about a solution for something that has bothered me for a very long time

 

Thanks for the inspiration

 

David