The General builds a fighta

[General_Lee]

After getting a squadron kommander, I decided to build some fightas to go with it. the concept is based on the Lightning fighter planes that i've always loved. spare time today has gone into building a balsa mould for a vacuform. Tomorrow morning I'll add the WIP so far. i've finished one side and need to add shape to wings and tail, add after burners, gun mounts and smooth off the nose.

[bugbait_nz]

PLEASE show some pics of your vac setup and how you used it, something I have always been interested in but thought would be too hard to setup.
Is it a home brew setup using a fridge compressor?
Also tips on how you heat the plastic, temps used etc.

Bugbait out

[General_Lee]

No problems bugbait, vacuform how to coming up as soon as i've tested the rig. no point telling you how to do it if i don't know if it works yet

[General_Lee]

Here's the work in progress for the form


basic shaping


advanced shaping

top view

nose



one side completed

top view


riveting with panel pins is fantastically easy. The wings and tail need some shape and the cockpit needs some detail.

build time 5hrs and counting

[AdrianG]

Ooooh you're a clever one...

I shall be watching

[timewizard]

I'll be watching as well! Looks very interesting.
Maybe we can coax General_Lee into saving the pics and doing a vacuform tutorial for the new site.
What do ya think General? Game for it?

TW

[General_Lee]

sure, always happy to pass on the results of experimentation. what did you mean by saving the pics?

[timewizard]

sure, always happy to pass on the results of experimentation. what did you mean by saving the pics?

The ones you posted so far are in a gallery. I just wanted to be sure you saved any others so that they could be included (or parsed) for a tutorial.

[Spack]

And if you feel inclined to create a tutorial, you never know what might happen (hint, we'll be looking for articles on the new site, and there will be some sort of reward )

[General_Lee]

The first successful moldings have come off the vacuform.




I've done a video how to (which needs editing) and I'll do a text write up as well for the new site now that i know i can make it work. stay tuned for further updates and the completed model

[timewizard]

Coming along nicely General!
Looking forward to seeing the video and the finished product.

TW

[mattjgilbert]

This looks great General_Lee

[General_Lee]

I've glued the first one together. in hindsight i needed to take a litte more time cutting it out so theres some filling to be done. I'll be off to the model shop this afternoon for more plasticard and some filler
photos below





also here is the video tutorial. let me know what you think. I'll be adding a written one with illustrations soon for actually building the vacuform table.

[General_Lee]

I've done the preliminary colours on my fighta, added bombs and big shootas. I've also scratch built a flying base. 2mm perspex slotted together. I'll put the patern in my gallery tomorrow




Vacuform how to

[Socaddict]

Looks good, except for one thing - rivets.

Might I suggest you get yourself a rotary leather hole punch (something like http://media.photobucket.com/image/rotary%20leather%20punch/qarawol/Leather%20Work/LeatherPunchTool.jpg) and punch rivets out of plasticard? They would look far better, as it would produce small discs rather than the bumps you have for rivets now.