Evening All,
As an inveterate scratch-builder I have been experimenting with carving props for God's Own Scale models from plastic for a long time, but I have also been carving from wood more recently and I thought that the results of some recent experiments might interest modellers who work in braille scale. Some of my results are not as good as I would like - I did say that I have been experimenting and am still in the process of refining the technique so please do not expect the standard of Lance's work.
In my first attempts to carve propellors from wood I used a tropical hardwood strip 18mm wide x 2mm thick (11/16inch x 60 thou inch) which I think is rahmin. (I am not sure because it was given to me by my late father over 30 years ago and I forgot to ask him what it was!). I can get three propellors from one length of strip - the propellors are carved along the grain. This wood is easy to work with and I can get the blades almost as thin as with plastic. When varnished the propellors look realistic enough for me at least. There is no trace of lamination of course, but these would represent propellors covered by thick tinted varnish.
These are three pieces roughly cut from a single piece of strip. The shape of the propellor is drawn on each one, including the boss which I mark out with a pair of dividers.
This shows the blank, partially carved and complete propellor.
A batch of three completed props. These are still unvarnished.
An unvarnished example showing the centre boss: this particular propellor is now on my scratch-built Ago C II(W).
I have also used beech strip of the same dimensions as above but because of the grain in the beech I found that it is not really suitable, although it is a lovely wood to work with. This propellor was coated with clear orange varnish.
The beech prop is on the left and a plastic kit prop on the right for comparison. I think that it is clear that the grain in the beech is unsuitable for a prop but it is lovely wood to carve!
I have recently tried using thin laminate available from Cornwall Model Boats. This is 3mm wide x 0.5mm thick but it is also available in 4mm widths which I think would be better because it allows the central hub to be properly carved which the 3mm strip does not. For my first attempt I used 5 pieces of Tanganyka and lime with 2 strips of lime sandwiched between three strips of the darker wood held with CA. This was a little too thick to be realistic so I then tried 4 strips, 2 light and 2 dark and lightly sanded each strip before glueing them together. It is very important to make sure that plenty of CA is used because when carving the laminates tend to part if not properly glued together. In the case of the 4 laminates the thickness of the resultant propellor was good. I varnished these props with clear orange which certainly toned down the lime but I still think that it is probably too light. I now intend to use two darker woods such as walnut and Tanganyka to see if I can get the laminate effect but one which is more realistic because the lighter bands will not be too light. One important point to note is that different woods are of different hardnesses and therefore respond to filing and sanding differently - it is important to experiment to find out exactly how the woods will behave when being worked.
The 5 laminate prop is on the left in the photos: the top photo shows that it is too deep. The 4 laminate prop had the wood lightly sanded before I glued it together. These props have been varnished with clear orange (three thinned coats).
These are the same as above with a rah min prop added on the left to enable comparison. The slightly wider rahmin prop allowed me to carve a better centre boss.
Please remember that these laminated propellors were made as a proof of concept - I may use the 4 laminate propellor on an upcoming project, but as indicated I am still experimenting and may yet come up with a better set of units.
Good luck to all who have a go at carving your own: as with all of these things it is easier than you may think. (At least it was so in my case!)
Stephen.
