Building small scale aeronefs?

[Black Cavalier]

I'd like to try to build some Aeronefs in scale with Brigade's & Wessex's ships (1/1200).  I've seen lots of pretty larger scale ships projects here on LAF, but nothing much at this small scale.

Does anyone know of a good tutorial of how it's done?  Like how do you make sure the cuts on such small pieces are consistantly straight & clean?  Are there common parts that are easy to use, like like square or round rods for turrets?  I've heard plastic card is the easiest to work with, but do you layer a few really thick pieces or lots of very thin ones?

Thanks

[OSHIROmodels]

I've built a couple of small scale neffs and although I've used a laser to cut them out there's no reason why you can't use plasticard. My advice would be to make absolutely sure that the two 'halves' of the deck are symmetrical and stick with a design that's not too dissimilar to a real world one (apart from the fact that it flys  )

Here are the two that I have finished





The first one is 100mm long and the second is 70mm. Possibly a bit bigger than 1/1200 but less fiddly 

cheers

James

[Lupus]

One of the best people to chat too is dampfpanzerwagon he's done a lot of Aeronef ships ahs a lot of stuff on his blog site as well.

We've featured a few of his how to build Aeronef in The Ancible as well.  Current Issue is 6, its free to download and has how to build a aeronef squid ship in it.

If nothing else it'll give you some possible inspiration.

[Black Cavalier]

Thanks for the Dampfpanzerwagon suggeston, but everything I've seen that he's done is larger scale.  & his article in the Ancible skips over a lot of the detail & construction processes.  Beautiful stuff, & great for ideas, but I'm looking for how something 1/1200 is built.

[Haarken]

I made some 1/1200 scale Aeronef's to go with my Brigade Models miniatures, pictures of which can be found over on my blog HERE, there's no work in progress pictures unfortunately but I basically used the two methods that you described, the thick plasticard in one layer and many layers of thin plasticard.

I'll readily admit that they are not the best examples of scratchbuilt aeronef's out there but i'm pretty happy with them. From my experience I found the thicker plasticard to be a better overall option, it's harder to work with than the thin stuff but then you dont have to make as many cuts (and have the potential for as many mistakes) and there is less filling to do at the end, the biggest problem I had with both thicknesses of plasticard was keeping a straight edge, I still haven't quite conquered that one yet but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there with advice.

Alternatively you could build them like Wayswatcher built his Roro Car Carrier HERE. Hope some of that helps.

Haarken

[The_Beast]

@Haarken As soon as your talents improve, and can no longer stand your former work, you will let me know that I may relieve you of your pain. 

They are quite good, and I'd be proud to own any them!

How did you do the round turrets, by the way? Sliced plastic cylinders?  Hole punched card?

I have played with paper punches of various shapes with thin card; some work smashingly, some quite disappointing. However, even the failures give you pieces to trim and polish. Nail buffers can do wonders to ragged edges.

Doug

[warrenss2]

I have the Wessex rules and I'd like to see a scratch-build tutorial on this subject too.

...although I've used a laser to cut them out...

--- What in the world do you do that you have a laser to cut out your Aeronefs, jimbibbly?!?!? "Evil, World Dominating Genius" is the only thing that pops into mind at the moment.  

[OSHIROmodels]

--- What in the world do you do that you have a laser to cut out your Aeronefs, jimbibbly?!?!? "Evil, World Dominating Genius" is the only thing that pops into mind at the moment.  

     I have a nefarious plot to take over the world  The only problem being that the laser really isn't that portable 

cheers

James

[Haarken]

How did you do the round turrets, by the way? Sliced plastic cylinders?  Hole punched card?

Ahh... I cheated. Brigade sell a selection of turrets and other accessories, which can all be found Here.

Haarken

[The_Beast]

Ahh... I cheated. Brigade sell a selection of turrets and other accessories, which can all be found Here.

Haarken

Not a cheat, just me not including the obvious. ;->=

I left out 'bashed from toy ships', 'weird pieces of metal I found in a DIY shop', 'carved with incredibly tiny elven tools', etc. 

Every time I hear of someone individually cutting out and gluing down rivets in 28mm vehicles, I shake my head and get a bit of a quiver.

Watching someone doing the job with small bamboo shafted q-tips twists my mind in ways it just doesn't bend.

Doug

[Sangennaru]

i started doing myself a big  Aeronef using laser cuts like jim. i don't have a plotter, but there are many places on the web that could cut for you for a few bucks.

the post is here:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=25417.new;topicseen

i didn't acually made much stuff, it is just an idea =)