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World War II
Discuss WWII and the era directly before and after the war from 1935-1949.
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C-47 help
GeronimoEagle
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United Kingdom
Joined: June 27, 2013
KitMaker: 2 posts
AeroScale: 2 posts
Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2013 - 05:59 AM UTC
Hello Chaps,

I have a rather exciting project in the pipeline, something I've wanted to do since I was knee high. In a nutshell, I need to build the cargo interior of a C-47 in a D'Day configuration.

Here's the thing, it will need to accommodate 1/6th figures. I don't need the cockpit, wings or tail. Just the fuselage. Would anybody know what the best material to use would be? Any help would be most grateful!

Apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum.

Best regards
JClapp
#259
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Massachusetts, United States
Joined: October 23, 2011
KitMaker: 2,265 posts
AeroScale: 1,715 posts
Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2013 - 06:08 AM UTC
cool project. if it were me, Id first carve a solid form out of slabs of 1" pink foam, each conforming to a cross section template. Trim, fill and fair with bondo, etc. When I had a solid fuselage shape I liked, Id lay up 3 oz. fiberglass over it using ordinary polyester resin, of course applying appropriate mold release to the solid plug first. when that was cured Id carefully saw it in half lenghtwise and remove the foam plug.
if your plug is any good you can save it and use it again.

here's a drawing with a set of templates, one of dozens on the internet.

edit to add: at 1/6 scale the thing is going to be the size of a small canoe! good luck, can't wait to see pictures!
GeronimoEagle
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United Kingdom
Joined: June 27, 2013
KitMaker: 2 posts
AeroScale: 2 posts
Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2013 - 07:22 AM UTC

Quoted Text

cool project. if it were me, Id first carve a solid form out of slabs of 1" pink foam, each conforming to a cross section template. Trim, fill and fair with bondo, etc. When I had a solid fuselage shape I liked, Id lay up 3 oz. fiberglass over it using ordinary polyester resin, of course applying appropriate mold release to the solid plug first. when that was cured Id carefully saw it in half lenghtwise and remove the foam plug.
if your plug is any good you can save it and use it again.

here's a drawing with a set of templates, one of dozens on the internet.

edit to add: at 1/6 scale the thing is going to be the size of a small canoe! good luck, can't wait to see pictures!


Thanks for the reply John,

So your advising to carve the fuselage out of 1' foam? Not sure what you mean about the solid plug? Might have to break those steps down into newbie talk for me if you could

Best regards
JClapp
#259
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Massachusetts, United States
Joined: October 23, 2011
KitMaker: 2,265 posts
AeroScale: 1,715 posts
Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2013 - 08:29 AM UTC
a "plug" is a male mold. I am suggesting building a C-47 shaped plug upon which to mold fiberglass.

you would draw each cross section on the sheet of foam and cut them out with a hot-knife. then you stack them up and glue them together. Depending on how far apart the stations are you might need two or three copies of each.
here is a crude pencil sketch I hope to visualize the concept


then fill all the "steps" with joint compond to form nice smooth contours.


golfermd
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Maryland, United States
Joined: March 01, 2013
KitMaker: 152 posts
AeroScale: 98 posts
Posted: Friday, June 28, 2013 - 04:33 AM UTC
Have you thought about doing a scratch build with a cut away view?
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