Scratchbuilding Aeroplanes

[Aethelwulf]

Does anyone know of a good tutorial on how to scratchbuild small scale Biplanes?

[Fitz]

I did a BE2 some time ago (2014), and started posting some stuff about it on my blog at
http://mojobob.blogspot.com/2014/03/madness-sheer-madness.html, http://mojobob.blogspot.com/2014/03/1300-be2c-progress.html, http://mojobob.blogspot.com/2014/04/1300-scale-be2c-wip.html.

More posts followed in May: http://mojobob.blogspot.com/2014/05/ — not tutorials as such, but maybe you can get some useful information from them.

Something I've discovered since then is that if you do use card for the wings and things, if you soak it in liquid cyanoacrylate (superglue) before cutting out, it plasticizes it and makes it very stiff and hard-wearing.

[Aethelwulf]

Thanks that will definitely help.

[carlos marighela]

Technically speaking, plasticizing something does the exact opposite to hardening it but we know what you mean and that's an excellent tip.

[Aethelwulf]

Would it work to carve the main body of the aeroplane out of sprue?
 I'm not to keen on this way, as I sliced the fingerprint off my left index finger carving down a sprue for a ballista limb.

[gweirda]

Would it work to carve the main body of the aeroplane out of sprue?

I use strip styrene (Evergreen is one source) for stock pieces.  The large amount of sizes available makes starting with something "pretty close" easy.  Because of the softness of the material, small sanding blocks/boards do the shaping work without the need to get out a knife.
Using a beam caliper to scribe target dimensions/lines helps to keep things from getting out of hand.

[Traveler Man]

Looks neat! I've toyed with the idea of building a Vickers Vernon and an FE2b, possibly 1/48th scale, so the links will be useful.

[Fitz]

Would it work to carve the main body of the aeroplane out of sprue?
 I'm not to keen on this way, as I sliced the fingerprint off my left index finger carving down a sprue for a ballista limb.

Rather than carving with a blade, I found that I got better results using needle files and sanding sticks. Some 1200 grit wet-&-dry stuck to a shaped popsicle stick will give you a very good surface, and the hard stick helps to ensure that facets on the model remain sharp.