Bughunter

Today I can show a part which has developed into some kind of trademark of my builds: an airscrew made from real wood.

It all began years ago, when I couldn’t manage to paint plastic propellers in such a way that they looked good enough to me to pass for multi-layered wood. So I tried real wood and now it is a big part of fun in every build for me.

The rule is simple: remove anything that isn’t part of the propeller. 🤣

The teaser photo 1 shows the result of this update.

Pic2 The journey starts with cutting veneer strips on a small Proxxon circular saw.

Pic 3 For a more interesting look I like to mix different veneers. As wood is a product of nature even the same kind of wood looks different.

Pic 4 The veneer is glued to a block using wood glue. Depending on the intended look it is possible to mix some paint (e.g. brown) into the glue. But here I don't use paint.

Pic 5 Now the main task is sanding! Here are the used tools: diamond sanders, violin-making plane (the brass thing on top left), sanding heads with electric sander and a template from the kit.

Pic 6 I always use the vacuum cleaner on the lowest setting. As the airscrew nears the end, it may start to spin.

Pic 7 That is my result after a clear wood primer. The front side.

Pic 8 The back side.

Pic 9 In the side view, you can count the layers and get an idea of just how thin the blades are.

=> after final sanding and some paints like Gunze Clear Yellow and Clear Orange that is the result of the teaser photo.

Pic 10 The main task of this project: masking! More will come in the next update.

And a word about the wood: In the UK, there was no shortage of suitable timber, particularly mahogany. Consequently, these propellers tend to be fairly uniform in appearance. The Germans were subject to an embargo, so they mixed these timbers with native species. This explains the typical alternating light and dark appearance of the propellers on German aircraft.

So now we’re back on track – no more déjà vu. That was the last lost update due to that outage. The next update will show new content!