Hi Guys
Here’s one problem to dissolve. I’m glad if you can give me some tips about the technique to use. Going thru the Datafiles on several Sopwith´s I found that they were treat the bare aluminium cowlings with an ornamental burnish. As a modeller this is not to just poor silverpaint on it. No,no.Just to solve this problem, the Sopwith project can be that real good one for this year.
You find pics of this in Datafile no 34 S. 1½ Strutter page 1 and S. camel No 26 page 1
Is there someone who had gone there before me?

Cheers
Lars
Ps Thanks Stephen for wakening me up

Greetings Lars:

A friend of mine wrote about this recently another fellow asking a similar question. I 'll post it for you here.

"... engine turning, which was used as an anti-corrosion treatment on aluminum. Even though it looks like you would be able to feel the engine turning, it is actually smooth to the touch. Aluminum sheet was engine turned while still flat, and then formed into panels, cowls, etc with what is called an English wheel in English (imagine that). How you duplicate that finish on a model, I leave to the modelers. Fokker Dr.Is used engine turned sheet aluminum on the cowl and removable aluminum top and bottom panels, but all production Dr.I panels were painted so it is difficult to tell. On the Eindeckers, the panels were left unpainted, so it is easy to see. A recent thread described how to duplicate the engine turned look on Eindecker panels. The first two Fokker Triplanes V.4 WN 1661 and V.5 WN 1697/F.I 101/17 had unpainted, engine turned cowls and removable panels..."

Another modeler wrote.
"... If you are modelling a turned Sopwith cowl which had a quite evenly spaced turning pattern, you could try Alclad for this effect. Prime your cowling as usual with a gloss black, and then where you want the turning pattern to show, paint small gloss white dots evenly as in the Sopwith Pattern. Then cover with Alclad as usual. When you polish it the white dots will show up as the turned pattern..."

Another modeler I know uses a pencil eraser and twists it over the metalizer painted surface.

Hi Stephen
Yes, I´ve tryed that one with white paint, and the difficulty was to get get the even lines and the dots similar in diameter.

That one with a eraser should work if you can get the rigth diameter on the eraser. i will test on Bare metal foil tonight, mabye I send in a pics of that test. The problem is to get them straight and even

Lars