Scratchbuilding 1/72 WWI wings

[Ray S]

Hello all, I would like to ask for some advice from the BM Massif please!

 

I have recently been given a book about T O M Sopwith and his aircraft, and it is full of 1/72 scale plans, and one in particular has caught my attention, and as there is no kit available, I would like to scratchbuild it. I am quite okay with most of the aircraft and how to build it, but not the wings. I have googled scratchbuilding this scale and found 'immersing 30 thou card in a 4" pipe into boiling water' and 'gently bending' 30 thou card, along with ways that are not really applicable to this scale (balsa coring then skinning with 5 thou card).

 

My initial thought was to wrap some card around the outside of a cylinder and pop that into boiling water

 

Can anyone give me any more advice please on how to produce the wings? I do not need control surfaces as this type was a wing-warping job so I have a slightly easier task. 

 

This is what I would like to attempt, the Sopwith 3-seater tractor biplane

 

https://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25672.htm

 

Many thank for reading this, and hopefully for some useful replies.

 

Ray

[Roger Holden]

My favoured technique is to carve a wooden (male) former to the camber of the wing lower surface and then use that to vacform (or push-mould) your 30 thou plasticard wing.

That will give the correct under camber, so you then need to grind down the leading and trailing edges on top to produce the upper surface shape. Kind of the inverse of the way in which WW1 wings are usually produced in vacform kits (and much better).

[Ray S]

@Roger Holden, thanks for that idea, I will keep researching and see how it goes. That is a technique I have very rarely tried in the past but would be a good one to learn.

 

All the best and thanks again,

 

Ray

 

 

[dragonlanceHR]

http://web.archive.org/web/20080122044909/www.wwimodeler.com/harry/woodman.html

[Ray S]

@dragonlanceHR, thanks for that link, it is very useful. I have his Vacform modelling book and respect very much his techniques.

 

All the best, and thanks again,

 

Ray