Any suggestions on making good looking stacks , i am building a 64" size plane and I hate the stick on stacks ?

LDM, you can make your own, honest. I use a product called alumalite that is sold with mold making material. You would make One stack from balsa, just the way you want it to look and cast it, over n over untill you have what you need. The casting process is pretty quick, only about 10 minutes between each cast. It's not the cheapest way to go because you will be buying the kit that contains all the stuff. I don't remember what I paid but it was in the $50-60 range. For that price you can do a fair amount of castings. Any way just something to think about. BobH.

I just recently did this to make exhaust stacks for a Top Flite P-40. I carved a stack out of balsa and then used a blue two part molding compound to make a mold. I cast the exhaust stacks using an epoxy/micro balloon mix. The biggest problem I had was to keep air bubbles to a minimum. If you're interested in brand names I can get those tonight.

These are my 80" 109F/G ports.

Plug was made from styrene plastic then molded with RTV silicone. All molding materials from Smooth-on .com

I've seen some pretty good looking ones made out of steel automotive brake lines. One of the local warbird guys at the field had them on his P-51 but they were round. If you wanted the curved tube, I'm sure you could crimp the ends for the scale P-40 look. My 2 cents.

wow! are you saying you can cast aluminum alloy at home with $50 worth of equipment?

Scalecrafts' stacks are probably resin cast, not aluminum alloy. Although you can cast low melting temp. metals in most RTV rubber or silicone molds. Alumilite also sells very fine powders that you brush into the molds before pouring resin. The cast piece's surface takes on the look of what you surfaced the mold with. This can be aluminum, bronze, silver, etc. You can paint the molds also, so that the finished piece is already painted.
Scalecraft, are those two piece molds? Is each stack cast in halves and glued together? Beautiful paint work. Love how the exhaust residue gets stronger as we work our way aft.
Here a a couple of pics of some serious resin casting I've recently done.

oh, guess not.

I thought it was some sort of aluminum alloy because of it's name.

I guess it is some sort of resin then?

Thanks

SD they are one peice urethane resin out of RTV silicone molds. I guess if I were to run a gas engine someday I could make operational ones

Hi,

That are some very nice exhaust you made there.

Regards
Tom

Thanks guys the responce is aweosome , I will try the $50 dollar idea and see waht I can drum up . I am going to get the stuff and hoprfully post pictures

What size (scale) p40 are your stacks for? Wanta sell a set? :-)

mine are for a 65" P40 , I ma in the market so I wont be selling , just making or buying

SDCrashmaster - How tuff is this stuff? I see you've used it to make some exquisite landing gear, but how will they hold up to the harder than normal landing?