Second world war German fighters are a popular subject. They all seem to have spirals on their spinners.
Why do decal manufacturers only put one example of each spinner spiral on their sheets? Why? Why? Why would they *do* that? Why?
You're gonna screw the first one up, so why not give us at least two? Maybe three.
ARGHHHH!
please do not abuse our walls.
Take two asprin and don't call me in the morning oh and put a wrap on your head keeps the swelling down
...a spiral wrap?..
and what is the purpose of the spiral? can't be seen when in flight....seems a rather pointless thing for the Germans to do... yet we have Enzo here, tearing down his house with his head....
Craig
...well...I know that the point of the spiral on a modern GE CFM-56 is to make the spinner appear to "pulsate" in an attempt to keep prevent bird strike/ingestion...
...but I'd be more likely to wager that in the German's case it's just there to look cool enough to be a major PITA for Enzo...who is probably at present out damaging more allied infrastructure with his fore-noggin than any Luft '46 project will ever lay claim to.
The only time I've seen it looking as though it is spinning relatively slowly albeit due to the shutter effect of the camera was some footage IIRC taken from the port side waist gunner position of a B-17 with a pair of Me109s making a level pass.
Maybe their ground crews were a bit simple and kept walking into the rotating props at turnover speed? :-)
As simple as it may sound, possibly because they look cool. I do agree that there ought to be more of them on a sheet. Who wants to buy multiple copies just for the spirals? Aside from the decal companies, that is. ;)
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
A recent scale modeling magazine (I'll post it when I find it) showed a new decal sheet of nothing but spinner spirals.
Tom
I seem to remember reading that the idea was that the "pulsating" effect would hopefully distract gunners in bombers. Don't know whether it worked or not though. Seems a bit like the alledged reason that some WWII Polish aircraft had the upper wing markings placed asymmetrically; I think the operative word here would be "hopefully"!
Regards
Pat Macguire
on 5/18/2008 1:48 PM Enzo Matrix said the following:
There are a lot of decals that require spares. Some vehicle number decals come with a background only and then a lot of individual numbers that have to be placed on the background requiring that each number has to be precisely placed, one at a time, and allowing drying time between numbers. They should include a couple of complete number decals for those of us that are not rivet counters and are just interested in the model itself, rather than a particular unit vehicle.
The only suggestion I would have for you is to make the spinner spirals from masking tape, if you can remember what they looked like, or are lucky enough to have an undamaged one left to use as a pattern. Paint the whole spinner the color of the spirals. When dry, put the pieces of tape on, then paint the spinner the base color. Remove the tape pieces. Save the template for the next model.
At least you didn't make my mistake...I put them on my Airfix He-177's spinners...unfortunately I have them painted in such a way that they are going in reverse when the props are spinning (i.e. instead of looking like they are drilling through the air, they look like they are screws being withdrawn from it.) Painting quality on those spirals varied wildly between individual aircraft; apparently the actual aircraft painters had as much trouble applying them by hand as modelers do.
Pat
sounds similar to the people who demand perfect lines on invasion stripes when they were often just slapped on with brushes and mops, etc... given the 1000's of planes that had to be painted, they couldn't all be perfect. maybe the Germans had some lowly private forced to hold a brush to the spinner while the engine was turned over to get the desired effect..
Craig
Well, I wasn't aware of decals for the spirals, but in the past I have been able to make it look pretty good by holding a #11 blade to the spinner while slowly turning the spinner all the way to the base. Take a second pass parallel to the first and then cover the area not to be painted with liquid mask. Only tried it in 1/72nd, but it turned out pretty well. If you mess it up, just sand it down and try again.
T2
PS, I can't imagine trying to get decals to lay down on a 1/72nd spinner.
Ever see the crude and wavy-edged black anti-glare panels spray painted on Russian jets ahead of the cockpit? It's completely accurate to do one that way; it looks like you can't even paint straight to do one that way on a model.
Pat
Airfix Bf-109G worked great.
Pat
There's a very fine line that modellers walk sometimes. We know that temporary markings like these were less than perfect, but just how far do we go to portray them accurately? In many cases, an accurate portrayal will just look like bad workmanship.
Quite a number of years ago, I built a Heller Messerchmitt Bf-109K. I had found an interesting colour scheme in Scale Models magazine which showed an aircraft with a very sparse mottle on the fuselage sides and a hand-painted code number of 206 aft of the fuselage Balkenkreuze. I faithfully replicated the crooked hand-painted numbering style and was very pleased with the result. Unfortunately, when I displayed it at the next meeting of my modelling club, it caused some raised eyebrows. I was taken to one side by the club guru (the club was on an RAF station, so the guru was *always* right simply because he was a squadron leader) who asked me in a very patronising manner "Couldn't you have found some suitable decals? That's really not the standard we aim for here."
Railway modellers have similar problems. Have a look at photographs of some steam locomotives. Sometimes you will see them with cabs that are so out-of-true that they look like ricketty garden sheds! I once tried replicating this, again working from a photo, but the result looked so dreadful that I pulled the cab apart and rebuilt it using a set-square!
On May 20, 2:37=A0am, "Enzo Matrix" wrote:>
snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net wrote:> > On May 19, 10:14 am, Pat Flannery wrote:> >> Enzo Matrix wrote:> >>> Second world war German fighters are a popular subject. They all> >>> seem to have spirals on their spinners.> > >>> Why do decal manufacturers only put one example of each spinner> >>> spiral on their sheets? Why? Why? Why would they *do* that? Why?> > >>> You're gonna screw the first one up, so why not give us at least> >>> two? Maybe three.> > >>> ARGHHHH!
my mistake...I put them on my Airfix> >> He-177's spinners...unfortunately I have them painted in such a way> >> that they are going in reverse when the props are spinning (i.e.> >>
instead of looking like they are drilling through the air, they look>
on those spirals varied wildly between individual> >> aircraft; apparently the actual aircraft painters had as much trouble> >>
applying them by hand as modelers do.> > >> Pat> > > sounds similar to the people who demand perfect lines on invasion> > stripes when they were often just slapped on with brushes and mops,> > etc... given the
1000's of planes that had to be painted, they> > couldn't all =A0be perfect.> >There's a very fine line that modellers walk sometimes. We know that>
temporary markings like these were less than perfect, but just how far do we> go to portray them accurately? =A0In many cases, an accurate portrayal will> just look like bad workmanship.> > Quite a number of years ago, I built a Heller Messerchmitt Bf-109K. I had> found an interesting colour scheme in Scale Models magazine which showed an>
aircraft with a very sparse mottle on the fuselage sides and a hand- painted> code number of 206 aft of the fuselage Balkenkreuze. =A0I faithfully> replicated the crooked hand-painted numbering style and was very pleased> with the result. Unfortunately, when I displayed it at the next meeting of> my modelling club, it caused some raised eyebrows. I was taken to one side> by the club guru (the club was on an RAF station, so the guru was *always*> right simply because he was a squadron leader) who asked me in a very> patronising manner "Couldn't you have found some suitable decals? =A0That's> really not the standard we aim for here."> > Railway modellers have similar problems. Have a look at photographs of some> steam locomotives. =A0Sometimes you will see them with cabs that are so> out-of-true that they look like ricketty garden sheds! =A0I once tried> replicating this, again working from a photo, but the result looked so> dreadful that I pulled the cab apart and rebuilt it using a set-square!> > --> Enzo> > I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.- Hide quoted text -> > - Show quoted text
-I always accompany models entered in a contest with photo evidence. Never color of b/w drawings as they are always the artist's interpretation of what he/she sees.Tom
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