(Carving Fuselages For Dummies... pg.5)
Troubleshooting
Problem:
The cuts are ”crumbly” or you get chunks
of material coming loose.
Solutions:
Use a more acute angle in the direction of the cut;
slice away the foam. Sharpen your blade or use a
new one. Try a hack saw instead.
Problem:
Right and left side of the fuselage differ in size.
Solutions:
Use a square block and make sure you cut at 90 degrees
to the template. If hotwire cutting use one template
on each side of the block.
Problem:
The foam tears when sanding.
Solutions:
Try sanding with very little pressure in one direction
only. Use a new sandpaper if it’s worn or
creased.
Interesting
resources
Links
The Web is full of 3-views and other information
useful when building carved fuselages. Here are
but a few to get you going:
http://peanut.scale.free.fr/sommaire.htm
This site has really useful articles in French,
and many plans of foamies as well as stick and tissue
peanuts and pistachios. Well worth a visit!
http://www.aeronutz.flyer.co.uk/
What these people do with foam has to be seen to
be believed!
http://www.ualberta.ca/~khorne/homepage.html
Ken Horne’s web page “Solid scale memories”,
has some carving manuals, basic plans and also links
to other solid scale resources.
http://www.luft46.com/
As odd as they come… German WW 2 aircraft
that never came to be. 3-views.
http://blueprints.onnovanbraam.com/
Masses of 3-views
http://www.airwar.ru/index.html
Very detailed 3-views and plans
Printed
material
“Foam
Scale Models – How to build them. How to fly
them”
by David Deadman, Richard Crossley and Peter Smart
This little booklet tells you most of what you have
to know about foam models. There is also at least
one series of articles in Flying Scale Models (UK),
where the same people expand on the subject.
And finally…
I think I’ve managed to make
something quite straightforward into something very
complicated. The key to working with carved fuselages
is a lot of patience (something I very much lack)
with regards to the finish, but above all a will
to experiment and go crazy! Carving makes it possible
to very quickly make a simple, light, more or less
scale model. Or you can create a model that will
be look even better than the best stick and tissue
jobs. I hope that this guide has ignited a spark
of interest in those of you who haven’t tried
this before. Good luck and have fun!
Tribute...
This article is largely inspired
by the work of David Deadman, who
recently passed away. Foam modelers owe a great
deal to his writings in various magazines through
the years.
A hearty big thanks to Andybj, Kiwi and Smallfly
for having suffered previous versions of this text
and greatly contributing to me actually finishing
it. All oddities and flaws are however mine and
mine alone. I would also like to thank all of you
who share your builds, ideas and solutions on SFA;
you are a constant source of inspiration for me
and I’m sure many others!
Johan Wallin
2006 04 01
Not to be used for commercial purposes without explicit
permission from the author
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