Scratchbuilding wings...Help!

Howdy All,

I was wondering if anyone here could point me in the right direction for some help regarding scratchbuilding wings, including {if possible} some suggestions on simulating the wing ribs.
I did stumble across one place that had an example of this being done, but my young daughter accidentally closed the browser I was using before I could bookmark the site...I have a pretty decent handle on the fuselage portion of the build, but the wings are creating a bit more steam out of the ears for me.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Tread.

[Old Man]

http://www.wwimodeler.com/harry/woodman.html

Favorite techniques will depend to some degree on scale and temperament, of course.

I work in 1/72, and prefer to make wings from blanks of thick sheet, shaped to the airfoil by filing for convex surfaces, and by scraping with the edge of a curved blade for concave ones. For rib detail I use a combination of scraping slight channels between the ribs, and thinck paint applied on the rib line before the finish coat is applied. But I like to whittle....

[Mr_Flibble]

What I have seen done with wooden wings on larger scales is tying metal wire around the wing at the required intervals for the ribs and then sanding over the surface. After removing the wire you're left with what looks like ribs.

A guy on our Dutch Modeling Board was using this technique to build his own 1/32 scale Horsa Glider.
There are some pictures in this Topic


It will probably also work with wings made of plasticard

I hope that helps.


Rick

[Milorg]

Hello

I would go for the method in the link from "Old Man", it worked great for me on my 1/32 scale Roland project.

Cheers
Per Olav

Howdy fellas,

Many thx for taking the time to reply to my cry for help, your posts are very much appreciated.
I suppose I should have been a wee bit more clear about my needs; I am really a 'large-scale' guy, not usually working in the Braille scales. I just simply find it easier to work in 1/48th and larger for both the detail, and these old eyes of mine {not to mention the gentle onset of Arthritis }
Anyway, I was hoping for some type of 'miracle' technique that involved a super nifty jig of some kind that streamlined the whole scratchbuilding process into a single eveniing's worth of work, but....{O.K., just kidding }

I guess I will have to come up with something myself for this..being an Architect by trade I do have some engineering background. I just need to think about it a while.............

I appreciated your description of your whittling talents Old Man, and can see where you could utilize them in that scale, but in the bigger scales that would be quite the undertaking. The gentle scrapping with a curved blade has appeal as well.
I also appreciated your mentioned use of the metal wire for rib creation Mr Flibble. And have tried to think that one through. It sounds like it would work, but I have already been working on a somewhat similar method on my scratchbuilt LZ 38 Zeppelin project.

I think I will have to hash this one out, and publish my methods so that maybe you can all critique them, and point out my potential shortcomings....

Thx again fellas.

Any more input?

Tread.