How To Foil A B-17G Silver Dollar Style

[Silver Dollar]

Since a number of builders expressed a bit of hesitation when it comes to the routine use of foil, I decided to put together a tutorial showing the technique I've been using to foil my 1/32 scale B-17G.  There are a number of other foiling tutorials that I've gotten a lot of info from and I use some of that info in my own style.  I'm not trying in any way to steal any info, to correct anything they've done or prove any technique wrong.  I'm just showing how I do it.  For other techniques, feel free to search the site and enjoy like I did.  

 

FOIL 

 

The picture below shows the types of foil I usually use.  They rank from the thinnest on the left to the thickest on the right.  How do you tell the thicknesses of a particular product?  You don't.  I assumed the cheapest stuff has the least amount of aluminum (aluminum for our across the pond folks)  and is therefore the thinnest.  The Reynolds Wrap is the thickest and can even be bought in extra heavy thickness.

 

TOOLS

 

Here are the basic tools I use for foiling.  The only thing I left out is the scissor for cutting the foil off the roll.  You'll see how each tool is used when its step comes up.  I took an extra picture of the rivet cutting wheels I use after the foil is in place.  The one on the right is the smallest not that Excel makes.  The other one is home made using an old clock gear.  If you want to know how to make on, let me know.  It's not difficult at all and real cheap.

 

 

 

PROCEDURE

 

Normally, I foil only one or two panels at a time.  This helps to better control the foil especially over curved surfaces and gives you that individual panel effect.  First, I cut a piece of foil a bit bigger than the size of the panel. I use a glass slab to flatten the foil against.  You can use any size piece of glass and can get one from an old picture frame you don't need anymore.  I found that particular piece at Lowe's Hardware in the bathroom tile section.

 

 

  I use my index finger in one direction to flatten the foil while holding the back of the piece stable. The oval marks where your other finger goes. Turn the foil if you need to and smooth the back half.  The picture shows what it will look like.

 

 

 

 

[Silver Dollar]

Continued

Next, you're going to apply the adhesive on the model piece and not the foil.  This was suggested to me by marauderdriver and it works for me a lot better.  I use Microscale foil adhesive.  Unfortunately, I don't know of any other adhesive that works the same way.  It's applied and then dried.  It will stay tacky until you put the foil on it. Regular white glue doesn't seem to do this and it takes way too long to set under the foil.  You'll see in the tool picture that I use 3 different sizes of brushes depending on the area to be foiled. This is a medium brush.  I'm demonstrating foiling the engine cowl because it has a complex surface which is more difficult to foil than a flat piece.  I brush the glue onto the part and thin it out the best I can.

 

 

 

 You can see the glue accumulation and the dust where the arrow are.

 

 

 You need to smooth that out with the brush and blow away the dust so the part looks like this. 

 

Take your foil and apply it to the flattest portion of the part and work it in one direction until you get to the curve.  The foil will start to wrinkle here.

 

 

Press the foil lightly in place but don't squash out the wrinkles yet. You really don't want to fold the wrinkles down yet.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Continued

 

 

 

Using the nail care stick which I smoothed with some fine sandpaper, push the wrinkle down from its center squashing it rather than folding it.  Use a rolling motion in the direction of the wrinkle.

 

 

  No matter now hard you try though, the wrinkle will fold in places and your piece will look like this This is absolutely normal.  Wrinkles are inevitable.  The only other way to minimize them is to make slits where the foil starts to bunch up and overlap some of the pieces.  After the foil is finished correctly and weathered or painted, the wrinkles will virtually disappear. 

 

 

For those pesky wrinkles, you can gently sand them out with 2000 grit automotive wet/dry sandpaper used wet or dry BEFORE you trim the panel. I got the paper at WalMart.  Try not to go through the foil.  If you do, no problem.  Peel off the foil and start over or if the hole is small enough, add a patch of foil or touch up the area with Modelmaster Chrome Silver enamel. The sanded foil looks like this.

 

 

[Silver Dollar]

Continued

 

 

Now, you take a pinch of 4000 grit foil and rub gently to grain the foil.  Do this BEFORE you trim your panel as with the sandpaper.  It will prevent you from messing up the surrounding plastic or other foiled parts.  Here's the result. 

 

 

Now you can trim the foil with the sharp #11 blade.  Here's what it looks like from the front and along side a fully foiled cowl.

 

 

 

4. 

[Silver Dollar]

Continued--last part

 

4. The next series shows how to do a flat piece where there are a ton of rivets.  

5. 
   

 

1. Apply your adhesive the same way you did on the cowl.  Apply the foil from the center and work your way out like the arrows show.  Once you're satisfied with the piece, rub it down with the wood stick or a hard Q tip.  Use the tip of your wood stick in the rivet rows to bring out the rivet rows.  The picture shows about half the rivets so you can see the difference between the marked and unmarked foil. 
2. 
   
3. Finally, trim your foil with the #11 blade running it the panel line carefully  and remove the excess.  Take your rivet wheel and run it down the lines  gently and you'll get a nice effect.  Don't worry about perfectly straight lines.  When you're my age, none of them will ever be straight.  
4. 
   

Here's the picture series.  

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/hot-ford-coupe/media/DSCN1478_zps59335b3d.jpg.html]

 

Now sometimes, you may need to pull up a panel or two for whatever reason comes up.  Don't try to scrape it off because you run the risk of damaging your plastic surface.  Take a really sticky piece of plastic packing tape like the 3M tape, apply it over the panel you want to remove and gently pull up.  It usually works very well.  If anyone out there needs any more help with this technique, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll be happy to work with you.  This technique requires practice so don't give up.  Try it on one of those models you know you won't finish and foil away.  When you feel more comfortable, foil a good model.  Good luck to you all.  

 

[LSP_K2]

I just took the liberty of deleting the duplicate thread.

[Silver Dollar]

Uh oh, I didn't realize I posted a duplicate thread somewhere.  Dang computer.  Please sir, I beg mercy. Don't cane me.      

[Out2gtcha]

Cool, great tut!

 

Ever thought about spraying the BM foil glue as apposed to brushing?

[Ads]

Yes this shows how it is worth it for the time and patience once you get the knack of it!  

 

Great stuff

Ads

[Silver Dollar]

Thanks Brian.  Coming from you, that's a huge compliment.  I still remember Dixie boy and how she shines like a mirror.  You were the inspiration for this finish.  

 

Yes I did consider spraying the adhesive.  I originally went looking for a spray adhesive.  My problem is I can't control it without getting that glue all over everything in my shop.  I also have cat hair to worry about which will turn my workbench into a fur coat.  Since I'm putting it on the model, I'd have to get involved with masking.  If I used my air brush, it would clog up way too quickly for me.  

 

Thanks Ads.  I really don't know if you did any foiling.  If you did and posted it, I did see it at one time or another and "pilfered" the technique.  

[marauderdriver]

Nicely Done Sir!

[Silver Dollar]

Thanks Jack.  The wrinkle removal technique you suggested to me works beautifully.  It makes me less fearful about getting wrinkles and matching up edges when you have to use multiple pieces to get around a severely complex curved surface.  

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Brian.  Coming from you, that's a huge compliment.  I still remember Dixie boy and how she shines like a mirror.  You were the inspiration for this finish.  

 

Yes I did consider spraying the adhesive.  I originally went looking for a spray adhesive.  My problem is I can't control it without getting that glue all over everything in my shop.  I also have cat hair to worry about which will turn my workbench into a fur coat.  Since I'm putting it on the model, I'd have to get involved with masking.  If I used my air brush, it would clog up way too quickly for me.  

 

Thanks Ads.  I really don't know if you did any foiling.  If you did and posted it, I did see it at one time or another and "pilfered" the technique.  

 

 

Yep, Im dealing with the same feline problem!  Big ol orange fuzzy man to contend with!

 

I found that if you use the MS foil glue thinned with plain ol tap water and shot through your air-brush at 10 - 18 PSI it works famously and really does eliminate almost all brush marks. I initially thought it would clog the you-know-what out of my brush...............exactly the opposite happened. Since it was thinned w/water, it actually never clogged at all and since it was water based, clean up was WAY easier IMHO than my normal enamel clean up routine.

 

The Reynolds Wrap "extra strength" foil works really well for stretching. For those nasty cowl sections, you can cut the sections quite a bit longer than you need, and actually get  a good hold on  them, keeping the extra strength foil taught in hand, while burnishing and it really does seem to eliminate 75 or 80% of the wrinkles. I use a similar technique for eliminating the wrinkles that do remain.

 

F8F cowl was done with the "stretching" technique and required little if any wrinkle removal  (hope you don't mind me showing a pic as I don't want to steal anything from your great tutorial) -

 

 

Edited December 10, 2013 by Out2gtcha

[Jamme]

Really nice and interesting tutorial; Silver Dollar.

Thank you for sharing.

Cheers,

Jamme

[mark31]

Thanks for this i will give it a try.

 

Mark