"Golden Age American Aircraft in 1/285 Scale" Topic

Shapeways designer Carlos 2k10 offers some nice new models of U.S. airplanes from between the wars. They're in WSF (white, strong, and flexible) material, which means they're relatively inexpensive and quite sturdy. You'll find them at link They include the Douglas B-18 and B-23 bombers, the Keystone Panther, Consolidated P2Y flying boat, Martin MB-2 and T4M bombers, and the Loening OL-8 floatplane. They're quite accurate and have good surface detail.

Wow, he offers a lot of cool aircraft … including some interesting post-WW2 stuff.

Mark

A LOT of aircraft…I was just on his ship the other day.

I wish he offered frosted ultra detail, while more expensive the surface is ready for priming. One has to prep the surface of WSF as it is very grainy and porous. Several coats of white glue thinned with water (about a 50/50 mix) should do the trick, otherwise if you just jump in and paint, you may fine your paint soaking into the aircraft, and/or you'll plane will look bumpy, like this:

I have a flight each of his B-18 and B-18A. Finger-lickin' good!

Frosted ultra detail might raise the price to a point where nobody could afford the models. In addition to thinned white glue, two coats of acrylic floor sealer seem to work well.

Hi TMP Folks,

Carlos2k10 here, thanks Fred for the introduction,

@Buckeye, sometimes on customer's request we have activated the detail materials in some models (as the B-18s and the H-13 Sioux), but the usual feedback we get is that the price tag is outrageous, something that is completely out of our control.

Also we make people aware that the models made for WSF
have a lower detail level as the material itself has low resolution and does not capture details very well.

We need to exaggerate details a bit in order to make them noticeable in the final models.

We have a couple of models in FUD that were actually designed to take advantage of the possibilities of the material, and the difference is noticeable (also the price tag).

The models are the XP-56 Black Bullet and the P-66 Vanguard.

On the surface finish, you got a good example in that particular picture, although I need to raise a few points:

First my camera is not really good for macro shots, I need to get a macro lens to get better pictures.

Second the model is painted as received, no surface preparation was performed apart of painting a few layers of Tamiya's XF-16 (4 or 5).

The reason behind is that I wanted to show how the model looks like with no surface preparation, between my customers there are people with different modelling skill levels so I wanted to show how it looks just painted over for those that won't be able to give the model
proper surface preparation.

I have to admit that it might not be the best idea from the sales
point of view :)

Third Metallic colours are really unforgiving in WSF
they highlight all the roughness of the surface

Anyway thank for your interest and feedback :)
Glad you like the B-18s Mr Zippy :)

Hi Carlos – I picked up some of your 1/600 FUD a/c a while ago, really liked it – any chance that more of the 1/285 aircraft could be converted over to that scale and material? I can send a wishlist if that helps.

I use 1/600 for interwar up to ultramodern, 1/285 is for my WWI project.

Hi Mr wundyrx,

Definitely, we keep a list of all the customer requests
and we already have a few requests in 1/600.

So do not hesitate and drop me an email it might
push some conversions ahead of schedule :)

Regards

Hi – many of these aircraft are already available in 1/300th pewter – no issues with breakage or pebbly finishes. See luftwaffe1946.com. Already out are the B-10 (2 versions), B-18A, B-17C/D, P-26 Peashooter, Seversky P-35, Curtis Hawk III, and the WW2 USA x-aircraft such as the Ascender and Bat.

I have been working in a way to get a better finish to the models and I have had some success with acrylic nail polish clear coat (gloss)

The process is XF-16 Base coat, clear acrylic gloss nail polish coat layer and another XF-16 layer on top the nail polish

The results are not bad, what do you think about it?