Hey all,
Some progress to share. As my brother has been sorting out the engineering aspects of rendering and printing this plane as a viable model, I've been experimenting with assembly, wing-covering and painting.
Most of the body segments are in a presentable proof state, and are starting to resemble an actual airplane when pieced together. Because the plastic is delicate and the parts small, we're using wire pins (these are made from size 8 guitar strings) to give strength. For the center section, which must bear the load of the wings and the floats, my brother rigged a hole running the length of each strut to allow the guitar string to be inserted all the way through. These were placed after the print phase but before the curing phase, to lock them in tight. Maybe overkill, but so far it's successful. In the second image you can see these wires running through the nacelle's vertical struts prior to removal from the support sprues. Image three shows the center section attached with the wires trimmed. The nacelle body still has support sprues attached that need to be trimmed:
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Meanwhile, I've had some hits an misses experimenting further with the grey-toned translucent vellum paper intended to simulate canvas. Reached some dead ends attempting to pre-score the rib lines (ultimately unneccessary and unrealistic). I also tried pre-staining the paper by soaking it in a brew of black tea to give it a linen color (complete waste of time and of a proper cup of PG Tips). Third, I tried pre-painting the paper with Tamiya paint... this, again for my amateur hands at least, came out to grainy and splotchy. I've since switched to MRP lacquer which I prefer much better. The good news is, even with paint covering both sides of the rudder surface below, natural light still easily shines through. Down side - no room for mistakes! One simple tiny paint drop effectively ruined the finish on one.
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But I still believe the concept of applying wing fabric in 1/72 is viable. Here are two images with lamplight shining through the painted center section and the non-painted wings. The tweezers give a sense of scale. The wings aren't glued; rather, they're temporarily attached by two guitar-string pins at each joint. Best of all - no warping! The third image presents a new problem... even after a light lacquer spray the wing ribs can still somewhat be seen from
above (without light shining through), which would not be normal in real life. Possible solutions are using a tan-colored resin or pre-painting the wings a lighter color (though this may affect surface adhesion). Still more experimenting ahead!
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