mgnostic

I was trolling around over at "The Aerodrome" a WWI website and saw where some folks were experimenting with home made decals to simulate plywood on plastic models. While it might not be suitable for larger models I wonder about printing tissue with a plywood pattern and doping it over a smooth planked or balsa sheeted fuselage or even filled and smoothed fiberglass. I've seem similar things done on smaller models to simulate lozenge covering. I don't have any white tissue on hand just now but it seems that one could produce panel sized sections aligning the paper grain along the wood grain of the print. I would bet that it could look pretty neat on a Fun Aero sized Albatros.

John Sohm

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About ten or fifteen years ago, I remember a prominent World War One modeler by the name of Tom Polapink using a technique that involved a light tan latex paint being applied over a fiberglassed fuselage, and then masking off each panel and then taking a paper towel folded up in a square, dipping it in minwax light oak stain, and wiping it over the latex paint lightly to create a "woodgrain" effect. I tried it on a small section to see how easy it was to duplicate and I was impressed at how well it worked. It only needed to be clear coated with a fuel proof paint and it was good to go. I think this is a better method than some form of decal or tissue. However, you might want to look at a product that FibreGlast markets and I could be wrong. Check this stuff out, it's called Chromaveil and it's applied like fiberglass. It's not cheap by any means but then again, what the heck is these days. $40 for a gallon of 10% nitro fuel!!! Crazy!!!

http://www.fibreglast.com/showproduc...aveil-190.html

mgnostic

Hmmm. It looks like it has possibilites. The site seems to indicate that it should be laid down into a female mold, maybe afer a clear gell coat and than followed by the fiberglass. I've seen wood graining done before usually on the dashboards of cars from the 40's and now that you bring it up I do vaguely remember something about Tom P doing a wood grained fuselage. What I was thinking about with the printed tissue is relative ease of application and low cost. I would however like to avoid the look of cheap shelf paper. An advantage is that you could scale the wood grain to the size of the panel or if one were really ambitious match a distinctive pattern on a particular aircraft.

ZoomZoom-RCU

If you wait for the stills at the end of this video, you will see a technique that I used to accomplish what you are talking about, with paint not decals. The fuse is first sprayed beige, then a wiping of yellow water based paint, then light brown are each in turn lightly brushed on then wiped off, both to mix them together, and create the wooden appearance. After the appearanc is correct, you overcoat it with clear poly and it looks really good. Panel lines are apparent by taping the edges of each panel and allowing darker build up to remain there.

ZZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsJGw5Zj9hs

abufletcher

This stuff, that I picked up at the $1 (100 yen) shop, looks promising. The packaging says "wood paper" but it looks pretty darn close to actual wood grain. It doesn't have a sticky back so it would have to be applied with glue of some kind. I'm sure there must be something like this in the US.

I think I'll experiment with this to see whether it takes stain or whether it can be other wise darkened.