plastic or not to plastic

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:59 pm

Hello Guys,
My last listing went bye bye. Any way ,I know we all would like to have every piece of armor and plane that we have thought and dreamed about made by the 3 big players. 21st, Admiral and BBI. Well it probably won't happen. The only other option is to make your own. This can be done with plastic,metal or wood. Wood (balsa) is probably the easist to use. If someone were to make say a Mosquito or a Ju 88 in balsa like a R/C plane painted up right and detailed. would this be more desirable than a plastic plane made the same way?1/18 scale of course. Also the Mosquito was originaly made of wood as well as the Horten 229 and the Ta 154. What about armor ? Say a German 222 or 223 the wheels of a Hanomag will work great but a wood body will be easier to make than a plastic one when it comes to sanding and the like. Put a little sanding sealer on it and you are dountown.. Any input on this?

Post by **aferguson** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:12 pm

Our buddy Red does a lot of his custom work in wood. Look in the Customs forum to see some of his great work.

There are two other materials you didn't mention that work well for making your own models. Foam and paper.

Foam, like a styrofoam material only stronger, is one of the most common materials for ARF r/c planes these days. Very light, strong and can be shaped in any way. Painted it looks quite good with only a hint of the foam texture noticable upon close inspection. I would love to get some kind of cutting tool hooked to a computer. With that you can make any plane you wanted and to any scale. Some of the r/c guys have this set up and have made astonishing models with it. One guy made an 18 foot long B-1B, all out of foam, with working swing wings!

Paper is a good medium too, particularily for armour, ships etc....anything with mostly flat or single curve surfaces.... Properly reinforced card stock is as strong or even stronger than balsa and can be cut and shaped more easily. It also has the advantage of being able to have colours and markings printed directly on it before assembly and paper models can easily be scaled up or down to any size you wish with the push of a button. If you're laughing right now check out some of the incredible paper models here: http://kartonbau.de/wbb2/hmportal.php

Paper models are also handy for using as templates, should you wish to work in another material like plastic or wood.

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:29 pm

Hello Aferg thanks for the reply. If there was a Mosquito on e-bay that was true on scale 1/18 and done with the same detail as the XD BUT done in wood , would this be a turn off because it was not made in plastic or resin? That is if you were to buy anything off of e-bay.

Post by **aferguson** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:54 pm

no i wouldn't care what it was made of for the most part. Wood models tend to show cracks over time, particularily at the wing root glue joint. I have a few wood planes and they've all cracked a bit. It's fairly easy to fix, just a nuisance. Balsa may not do this, i don't know but it would be more fragile than plastic, particularily the tough plastic that XD type planes are made from.

Plastic is the best, without question but it's also the hardest for the individual customizer to work with.

Eventually, some smart manufacturer is going to realize that there is a demand for 1/18 airplanes and r/c foam planes and make a range of 1/18 r/c airplanes to satisfy both markets. Twin and four engine planes are an ideal size for r/c foam flyers made in 1/18 scale. So for all those wanting to see a big range of 1/18 scale, 2 and 4 engine bombers, foam flyers are the most likely way of getting them.

Rogue · Post by **Rogue** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:00 pm

I still want to do a 1:18 scale Stearman from the old Guillows kit.

I have a uncovered N2S, but the wings have warped and I would want to address that before I scratchbuilt it in 1:18.

One day ill get around to it.

jeffrowse · Post by **jeffrowse** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:50 am

aferguson wrote: If you're laughing right now check out some of the incredible paper models here: http://kartonbau.de/wbb2/hmportal.php

'Marcfro' on that link is doing/has done an F-15. Un-freaking-believable - or it would be, but he's got the pictures.

I think I'll just go back to sticking the wings back on my old Airfix kits and forget this scratchbuilding lark.

EDIT

Just finished looking 'properly' (as well as I can - I only speak/read English
and talking loudly to my monitor just gets me funny looks from my workmates) and found this... looks kinda familiar

http://kartonbau.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=4024

Jeff

"Cry 'Cheeble!' and let slip the Hamsters of Havoc!"