Making your own wooden prop?

[Bozothenutter]

Seeing these beautiful hand made wooden props on Scalemates and coming across a Polish (?) site that makes 1:1 replica's, I'm looking for another black hole to dive into. 

What woods would be best?

 

No expert, but I'm assuming high density long straight grain to get a 1/32 scale effect?

A light and a darker type (stain?) for visual interest.

 

And what type of glue?

PVA wood glue, or something more professional (animal based even?)

 

Anyone done this before?

 

Using paper!

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=8688.0

[Bozothenutter]

🤣🤣 But ofcourse there is a dedicated product! 🤣🤣

 

https://shop.espen.de/en/accessories/Consumables/adhesive-rhenocoll-propellerleim-3w-4b-cold-wood-glue-500g-7250.html

[Troy Smith]

22 minutes ago, Bozothenutter said:

What woods would be best?

 

No expert, but I'm assuming high density long straight grain to get a 1/32 scale effect?

A light and a darker type (stain?) for visual interest.

What people use is wood sold for marquetry or veneering.   They are very thin already, but you may need to thin them more.

   

You won't need to stain if you pick the right woods. 

 

An example, an ebay seller who has different types

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154783794151

 

this seller has an offcut pack

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161575334409

 

I know this is in the UK, but there will be places that sell this in The Netherlands,   if you have a timber merchant nearby you might want to ask what they have, and see them in person.  Another place would be somewhere that restores furniture.  

I suggest this as it is the sort of specialist question  that if you ask the right person, someone who know about wood types in detail,  what you want it for they might find it a different enough request that you could get a very comprehensive answer.

 

You may wish to edit your heading to something like "best wood types for 1/32nd prop carving"  or search in one of the specialist WW1 sites and see what they use.

 

HTH   

 

 

[Mattlow]

I have done a couple of props in 1/32. As Troy says, wood used for veneering furniture is perfect, it is thin and you can get a variety/sample pack that'll last for years.

 

I glue the layers of wood with superglue. The advantage is that this penetrates the structure of the wood and strengthens it, important if you are trying to get thin trailing edges.

 

In my experience, the thing to look out for is making sure the wood has a dense structure. Some woods have quite large 'pores' and in 1/32 scale they do show up and look a bit weird.

 

The other material to consider is paper. I cannot recall who it was, but someone, possibly on this site, has produced some very good looking props using that method, after all, paper is thin sheets of re-constituted wood... I recall they also used superglue to bond and strengthen the laminations.

 

In Blue Peter style, 'here's one I made earlier'.. . I think the grain is probably too much on this one... partly where paper may have an edge..?

 

Prop 9 by Matt Low, on Flickr

 

Prop 8 by Matt Low, on Flickr

 

Matt

Edited January 8, 2023 by Mattlow
Add photos

[Work In Progress]

I make laminated props from balsa and bass (the wood of the lime tree), sometimes mahogany for flying scale models in the 1/12 to 1/24 range. The choice of adhesive is fairly crucial. What you don't want is a rubbery PVA kind of glue as it will not file or sand cleanly. Cyanoacrylate (superglue type of adhesive) is good with harder woods as it sands very cleanly: however it is also very hard and can make life difficuly in conjunction with a softer wood like balsa or bass. Great with mahogany and other woods of similar hardness though.

For smaller / softer projects don't overlook traditional cellulose-based balsa cement, which is very quick-drying and easy-sanding

 

[DaddyO]

I've made a large number of balsa/hardwood props for flying models and I used to use Polycell wallpaper adhesive as the glue. Bung it in the drying cupboard for a few days and Bob's your near relative -no glue lines. 😄

 

Made a few 72nd scale ones using plywood sanded down to get the correct number of laminations and in the smaller scale the cross grain isn't a problem. I used Evostick exterior wood glue (PVA, but dries hard'ish') and superglue on different occasions; didn't have any issues with either. 

 

Here are the first couple of attempts at Fokker props. You'll notice the tip of the third one along snapped off when I was finishing it off 😣

 

Other picture is one of my recent Nieuport 17 builds with a prop made in the same way using plywood laminations

 

Paul

 

[Work In Progress]

Very cute! 1/72 would be too tiny for me to pull that off