Simulating Duct Tape

Digital Cowboy questioned:

You really mean "to secure the base of the stick into the cockpit"? or are your refering to the boot/dirt/debris seal around the base of the stick? Are you sure that you are not looking at a tape patch over the boot joint?

Trying to simulate duct tape in 1/72nd scale is a waste of time except for a coat of paint. Look at a piece of duct tape and visualize it at 1/72 of the size you are seeing. You can't cut tape that small in thickness and it is tough to match the width (2, 3 or 4 inch actual width normally)

Rick Clark

Digital Cowboy intoned:

No URL...

Rick

Yep, that is duct tape securing the boot to the floor, not the stick to the floor. Normally the boot around the control column is secured to the floor by a flange or screws with grommets. In this case it appears that either the flange has been lost or the boot has worn out at the flange connection.

This is probably the only place on an SR-71 that 100 knot tape would work :-)

I'd probably try to simulate it with a little metallic grey/gray paint. In 72nd scale, I wouldn't try to simulate the wrinkles in the tape, etc. To make it look "authenic", maybe an irregular mask for the outer border?

Rick MFE War Story Time Let me tell you about the time a 2nd Lt B-57 pilot dropped his ASH Receiver ( an empty rubber cement bottle) down inside the boot and restricted the control column movement (Aileron) from side to side. The Group C/O was highly pissed, no smoking in the a/c rule. His Navigator was more highly pissed due to the emergency landing and thought of using the emergency exit....All because the boot was not properly sealed and allowed the bottle to fall into an unaccessible space (inflight that is)...End of war story...:-)

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m03.aol.com, OXMORON1 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 5/21/04 11:31 AM:

I have a sheet of metallic silver/aluminum decal that, when cut into the proper size strips, should work. I think SupereScale marketed it but there are probable others.

MB

No such thing as "just a medic". The military had good (most)medics, a few good doctors, a greater number of good nurses and a bunch of quacks playing doctor. When the flight surgeon's desire in life was to retire and go to work for the VA I avoided him. Our flight surgeon got out and became a very good plastic surgeon.

Rick

That is a good solution.

Milton, go look at the URL. Someone applied the duct tape while head down in the cockpit, a lot of tape but a good seal, pretty large amount of wrinkles.

Rick

Actually, that was an A-12 variant designated the M-21. It was the launch aircraft for the D-21 drone. Two aircraft were built, and one was destroyed in a failed test launch. The other M-21 is in a museum. The D-21s were later launched from B-52 bombers, with solid boosters to get them up to the speed necessary for the ramjet engne to work. Tom Dougherty ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com)

This doesn't look like duct tape but aluminum tape similar to the one used to fix AC ducts; it's much stronger and sitcks a lot better. Regular duct tape is a big NO-NO with the FAA. Get caught using it in anything that flies and your next job at any airplane facility will be cutting grass and mulching... if they allow you at all again in the airport!. Jose.

in article G2trc.89934$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyc.rr.com, Digital Cowboy at snipped-for-privacy@nobody.com wrote on 5/21/04 2:48 PM:

Saw the pic. Sure would like to have seen the poor sap that got the duty to stick the boot flange back to the floor! Probably had to have someone pull him out of the "black hole."

MB

Do a search on "Mach 3 tape" and "Mary Shafer" in rec.aviation.military on Google Groups.

As for replicating what is pictured in scale 1/72, which I probably wouldn't bother with myself (I hate doing interiors), but if, then I'd use a thick (for texture) mix of Humbrol Gun Metal and Aluminium, and hand paint narrow stripes (2" ~= 0.7 mm) with a 00 or finer brush.

BTW, I would have thought that the FAA doesn't have much to say about military aviation?

-Lasse

Doubt you'll see duct tape in a cockpit. It looks like aluminum "speed tape" or something similar. It appears to be sealing the gap around the stick boot to keep debris from falling thru to the underfloor area. In 1/72 scale, I would suggest aluminum foil. You can buy adhesive-backed foil or just glue a smal square of household foil to the floor, then attach the stick (with the boot), or attach the stick and add strips of foil. Curt

Which one? Television or the computer? Cheers,

The Keeper (of too much crap)

If you don't like the paint option I'd go with Bare Metal foil.

I don't think you'll have any luck finding Superscale on the web. Try

The Keeper (of too much crap)