easixpedro Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 OK folks, I've been a lurker here for years. Some of the epic builds gave me the urge to build my own LSP. Short story is I started building a 1/48th Prowler and thought I could tackle a bigger one. The entire build has been posted over at Zone Five, and has been going on for over a year. It's located here: http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=26249 I'll attempt to update the build as I can, (unfortunately I can't access LSP at work). To give you an idea of the size, here she is next to the 1/48th Kinetic Prowler: Thanks to all of you, this build has pushed the limits of my modeling ability (to include vacu-forming). I'm still working on the canopy and have moved onto the cockpit for now. Here's my first pull with the vacu-form machine I built: My second pull ended up having horrible bubbles, so back to the drawing board: And here's where she sits now as I start work on the aft cockpit; Thanks for the motivation, and I look forward to your comments/criticisms! -Peter Zero77, Harold, Out2gtcha and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Welcome aboard Peter! What an ambitious project! Looking forward to seeing it develop. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Welcome Peter...and thanks for sharing your work here. She's a beaut! Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy 1 VX 4 Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Peter Nice work on you ambitious project For the Canopy what type of plastic are you using? Did it smoke when you heat it up? are you in an area with a high moisture level? I use PETG sheet plastic that smokes a little when you preheat it, Then I bring it closer to the heat source slowly. I let it droop quit a bit. Then draw it over the master. But if I heat it up to fast with a high moisture level, It will do what you had happen!!!! Cheers SCRATCH BUILDER 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackerjazz Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Very cool, easixpedro! Grabbin' a seat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark64 Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 wow. oh boy. I want to see more of this for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbetty Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 been following your build on zone-five, very nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitali Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Welcome to LSP. Your Prowler looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunwinglow Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 We put our clear plastic sheet for vacforming in a low oven, about 40 C, for a few hours before we pull it. This seems to help drive off some of the moisture which can cause these bubbles. Might help. Great project by the way! Tim Harold 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 OK all, thanks for the great welcome (and figured some of you had been following along over there as there's not that many members and I seem to be wracking up the page views). Should have gotten an account here sooner! Thanks for all the tips, it'll be a great help as I muck through the build. Peter Nice work on you ambitious project For the Canopy what type of plastic are you using? Did it smoke when you heat it up? are you in an area with a high moisture level? I use PETG sheet plastic that smokes a little when you preheat it, Then I bring it closer to the heat source slowly. I let it droop quit a bit. Then draw it over the master. But if I heat it up to fast with a high moisture level, It will do what you had happen!!!! Cheers OK, that's great information! The second pull definately heated up quicker than the first, so I suspect that may have been my issue. Will keep toying with it--it's much tougher starting with clear as it has to be perfect. We put our clear plastic sheet for vacforming in a low oven, about 40 C, for a few hours before we pull it. This seems to help drive off some of the moisture which can cause these bubbles. Might help. Great project by the way! Tim Thanks Tim! Again, good info. I totally rushed both these pulls as I was so excited about a) building a vac machine seeing if it'd actually work c) the endless possibilities of what I could make w/ said vac machine. -Peter Harold and Lee White 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Welcome to the party ... and what a project !! Looking forward to more of your work and I might use some of your tips for my own purpose :popcorn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 Welcome to the party ... and what a project !! Looking forward to more of your work and I might use some of your tips for my own purpose :popcorn: Thanks Loic, Your build and mine are strikingly similar thus far. I've used bulkheads and stringers with a second and third layer like you have. I think you're moving along at a much faster pace though! And much neater too... -Peter Harold 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Thanks for the kind words. I have been through all the pages of your build, in detail, yesterday evening and this is some great work !! I also found that our methods are amazingly similar Looking forward to what's next Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Stellar scratchbuilding skills! Looking forward to seeing this one come together Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 To add on what Tim said, it depends on the material you are trying to vacform (acrylic, PMMA, PVC, PS, etc...). PMMA (perspex) and acrylic trap moisture in them. The recommendation is a temp between 40° and 70° C for three hours to get rid of the trapped moisture. The bublles are water bubbling when you heat the sheet before vacforming. Hubert Harold 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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