Ryan NYP

[TheLurker]

...did use a template with a short row of holes punched in, to keep the dowel twizzles in a regular-ish line.

That is an excellent idea, consider it nicked snaffled ahem adopted.

[Prosper]

Now here's something to whet your collective appetite.  Maybe.

Yup. duly whetted.

I had a big clear-out recently and had to decide what to do with some leaves of ackshual Ag silver leaf I bought years ago but never tried. It disintegrated even as I tried to separate it from its thin paper protective backing. In the bin. Good luck with the Al.

Stephen.

[TheLurker]

...had to decide what to do with some leaves of ackshual Ag silver leaf I bought years ago but never tried.

They're obviously paying you too much.  Real Ag!  Bai Eck.  Looxury! When I wur a lad...

All the tutorials say something like, "Start with a flat piece of wood...", but we're aeromodellers and how many of us started with a simple glider as recommended in all the beginners' guides?  Aye, right. Not one single one of us.  Anyway I needed to know sooner rather than later whether or not this was going to work for compound curves so I dug out one of the many, oh so many, spare nose blocks I made for my VMC MfM Camel to use as a test piece.

First up prep.  I wanted to see what the bare minimum prep. I could get away with was.  I'm lazy, so shoot me.

Sand back, fill any big dents with my usual PVA, talc & H20 "gesso", flat and prime with white (Windsor & Newton, Galeria) acrylic.  When I was picking the brains of one of the artists in our local studios about how to gild wood she suggested acrylic and even at a push emulsion as cheap & good alternatives to the proper gilder's gesso.

1 - Start
2, 3 fill & flat
4 primed

[TheLurker]

Applying the leaf.  A few mistakes made, but for a first go I'm well satisfied.

[TheLurker]

The initial result.  A bit more prep will be required if an absolutely mirror perfect surface is to be represented, but at arm's length (last snap) "bare min." prep seems to be just about enough.

Out of the box the leaf gives a very high shine, perhaps too high for a small model, but a thin film of matt varnish should deal with that if a duller finish is needed.  The usual recommendation is to seal with a varnish for real Au & Ag to prevent tarnishing as well as improve durability.

[TheLurker]

I had a quick go with a small flat test piece to see if the leaf would stand up to being "twizzled" (thank you Bill).  It does, if you're exceedingly gentle and I think the effect is going to be good enough for the NYP.  Unfortunately my camera can't cope with the glare as well as the MKI eyeball so it's not that easy to see in the pictures.

[TheLurker]

The last experiment was to see if I could represent an oxidized / weathered aluminium surface as you'd see on an much used in-service aircraft.  A very, very gentle scouring with flour paper seems to do the trick.

Conclusion.
The Al leaf "gilding" looks as though it will give a satisfactory result and allow me to at least hint at an engine turned finish even if it's not possible to get the sort of result that's possible with tinfoil. 

I also suspect, but cannot prove, that the leaf will be no heavier than two or three coats of flat Al acryic paint.  It may even be lighter.

[Prosper]

They're obviously paying you too much.  Real Ag!  Bai Eck.  Looxury! When I wur a lad...

Well the weight of silver I threw away must be miniscule. I did wonder what else it might be useful for but drew a blank.

Yest. evening I re-watched 'The Spirit of St Louis' film, (1957). As aviation films go, it's really good. There's a brief glimpse of engine-turning - see attached screenshot. The film is available to watch or download from the Internet Archive, if anyone's interested.

https://archive.org/details/the-spirit-of-st.-louis-1957

Dunno about the video quality of that particular print.

[MKelly]

Interesting work Lurk, thanks for showing the details. This makes me wonder whether the brass leaf could be successfully applied over tissue to represent the wing radiators on some 1920s and 1930s racers such as the Macchis.

Mike

[TheLurker]

... makes me wonder whether the brass leaf could be successfully applied over tissue to represent the wing radiators...

Short answer would seem to be yes.  Very quick experiment with an old spare wing shows it's possible, but there are wrinkles to be ironed out if you want first rate results.

Main problem is getting the tack time for the gilding medium right.  On a 20% by volume doped (indoor use) wing, the usual 5-10 minutes for a commonly used medium(*) is too long.  It just soaks in and dries out.  It sort of worked at 2 or 3 minutes, but you can see where I had to re-apply part of the leaf.  It may be that very, very thin dope, 5% or more dilute, would be better than gilding medium, that or a medium may work on a highly doped, less porous, wing.  A set of experiments for anyone who may be interested.

It's likely you'd need to seal the "gilding" with a thin layer of very dilute dope after it was applied to ensure some measure of durability.

Cheers,
Lurk

(*) I'm using Robertson's Ormoline Gilding Medium which is an acrylic based "instant" gilding medium.  There are lots of others out there and one or more of them may be better suited to gilding paper.  Wouldn't know, I'm only about two paragraphs ahead of you in the tutorial.