MENG 1/32 Fokker DR1

[Grant]

Wow Harry that's very kind of you, I would most gratefully appreciate those brass items!!!


All send you a PM with my address, that work for you?

[GazzaS]

That engine looks fab!  Keep rocking!

[pietro]

Grant, yes.that works just fine
Harry

[Grant]

PM sent Harry

[Gutzer]

Looking great Grant, lovely work on the cockpit! 

[RAGIII]

Your engine is looking great! Your build is tempting Me to look for another Meng DR1 
RAGIII

[Grant]

Thanks everyone for the kind words, been a blast to build.

[KiwiZac]

Grant, that engine is beautiful! Congratulations - it looks ready to be mounted on a test stand and run in!

[Grant]

Harry,


Did you get my PM which has my mailing address?


Thanks again for the gift for my Fokker!

[pietro]

Yes, Grant, 'just mailed it this morning. Retirement has slowed things down. I highly reccomend it to anyone who can afford it. Please enjoy the stuff. I'm looking forward to your progress on this one.
Harry

[pietro]

WOW! I just re-read this. Are you doing the 1/32 scale Dr1? I am truly losing it here.
Harry

[Grant]

Yes, 1/32 scale.

[Grant]

Started working on away to paint on a fabric look instead of using decals. I was out in my shop a I remembered that I had some Sig Koverall fabric left from an RC build and thought, what if I spray through the fabric, would that leave a realistic look on the model?

The next issue was how to get the fabric shrunk tight and be able to hold onto the model for spraying. What I came up with is this setup. I made a balsa frame that I attached the Sig Koverall to using "Sig Stick it" this is a heat activated glue, that once dry you can apply heat with a model covering iron and it will bond the fabric to the balsa. Koverall is a fabric designed for covering scale radio control models and it is made out of the same material that full scale aircraft use but just in a miniature scale. Sig Koverall is pretty cheap at $6.84 for a 60" x 36" piece. Now that the fabric is attached to the frame work I will heat shrink it to a tight condition and this will open up the fabric just enough to allow paint to go through it.
The fabric is heated and shrunk to a tight condition, keeping the weave strait during this process is crucial, otherwise you will end up with the fabric running at angles on your model. As you can see the fabric is bending the balsa once it was shrunk. I will make a jig out of metal to prevent this from happening.



This is a test piece of plastic painted red that is under the fabric. I will paint on various colors until I find one that looks real, I hope!
I tried multiple colors and achieved the best results with flat black.



The fabric works pretty well leaving a nice fabric look on the plastic sheet.
I compared this to my Aviattic fabric decal set, looks pretty darn close to the decals. Next will be a test on the actual wing part and see what it looks like after weathering detail is applied.




Any thoughts on this? Has anyone else tried this and what was your results, would like to know before I move forward with this project.

Thanks!

Grant

[Alexis]

Well now that is different , are you planning on sealing the fabric ? seems to have a ruff texture in this scale . But it is a neat idea .


Alexis

[Grant]

There is no fabric on the model, I just used the fabric to paint over to give the paint a fabric look.
Hope that makes since.