FOILED LIGHTNING - FineScale Modeler

1 How to finish your planewith aluminum foilStory and photos by Bucky SheftallFOILED LIGHTNINGLike other incurable perfectionists in our hobby, I was discouragedby modeling natural-metal finishes. Metallic paints never seemedconvincing on anything much larger than a 1/48 scale landinggear a year ago, I saw pictures of an aluminum-foil covered B-58 Hustler, and I was enthralled. I just had to try aluminum are two ways to apply an aluminum foil finish. The easiermethod is to use a commercial adhesive foil product, such as Bare-Metal Foil (see sidebar on page 29).

2 The more difficult way is to usehousehold aluminum foil and apply adhesive yourself. This not onlytakes more time, but it creates more problems: applying the rightamount of glue, keeping dust and dirt out of the glue,and so either case, the application of foil is achallenging task, but the effect is worththe use household aluminum foiland apply Microscale s MicroMetal Foil Adhesive with abrush. I will concentrate on basicfoiling techniques in this article,especially the foiling of com-pound curved surfaces asurface curving in more than onedirection (a sphere is a perfectcompound curve).

3 The P-38 hasplenty of compound Sheftall s 1/48 scale HasegawaP-38J LIGHTNING is covered with aluminumfoil. The markings for Si Si Se or camefrom AeroMaster sheet No. ScaleGetting around harsh real-ity of foiling is that you are trying toapply a two-dimensional material to athree-dimensional object. Householdfoil has almost no stretchiness, and canbe torn or wrinkled if forced around asharp compound curve. Bare-Metal Foilstretches better over it is desirable to minimizejoints by using large pieces of foil onlarge, flat areas, such as wings or controlsurfaces, small curved items should becovered in small pieces to avoid my example, I m going to foil overthe teardrop-shaped P-38 150-gallon fueltank first.

4 There are plenty of curves here;it has a round cross-section, a blunt nose,and a radically tapered tail. Sweat beadsbegin to form on my brow just looking atthe drop tank!Ready .. set .. foil! The first stepis to sand away all imperfections from theparts. Foil is not going to cover seams orirregularities it s only going to makethem look worse!Once you have smoothed the item,wash it with soapy water so oils don treduce adhesion of the foil. Remove anylint or sanding dust anywhere that couldbe conspicuously trapped by the you are using Bare-Metal Foil, youcan skip this next step.

5 When usinghousehold foil, cut a suitably sized pieceand lay it on a clean work surface with thefoil s matte side facing up. The fluidadhesive spreads better on the matte t worry about the overly shiny side ofthe foil; you ll be taking care of that 1 4" of one end over on itself to serveas a list either Bare-Metal Foil (regular chrome is best) or the thinnest aluminum foil you can find Microscale Metal Foil Adhesive a couple of flat artist s brushes,maybe (about 1 2") wide glass, Plexiglas, or coated, lint-free cardboard work surface scissors sharp hobby knife blades or razor blades fine steel wool (0000)

6 Cotton swabs round toothpicks rubbing alcohol facial tissuesJuly 27 Apply Micro Metal Foil Adhesivewith a flat brush. Keep brush strokesroughly parallel, pushing away from thehandle to spread the liquid in a thin, evenlayer,1. Be careful not to let any dust geton the foil, especially while the adhesive isdrying. When the milky liquid dries to aneven Scotch-tape-like clear matte appear-ance, the pressure-activated adhesive isready, and the foil can be applied to piece at a a strip offoil slightly longer than the tank and awidth (varying with the shape of the tank)maybe one-sixth of the fraction is not important, just try tokeep the edges straight along the axis ofthe tank.

7 Lightly press the strip onto thetank at the midpoint, and adjust the posi-tion,2. As you can see in the photo,wrinkles are already evident and will like-ly get worse as you work the foil the strip onto the tank with acotton swab,3. Increasing the pressurewill activate the adhesive. The wrinkleson my tank weren t as bad as I thoughtthey would be, and they were easy to rubout with toothpicks and steel sand the edges of the stripwith 1,000-grit sandpaper or an ultra-fine sanding stick.

8 Sand perpendicular tothe edge and push away from the edge ofthe foil strip. This will feather the edge,reducing the cliff and allowing theoverlap of the next foil segment tobecome nearly laying strips,4, until theentire tank is covered,5. Thin (1 8"-wide)strips can be burnished over the promi-nent raised fuel tank the rub down(front to back) with 0000 steel wool givesa grain or patina to the too-shiny foiland makes it look more like real aircraftskin. The steel wool also helps obscurethe fine edges of the foil segments, the tank and its pylon are com-pletely FOILED , wash it with warm soapywater to remove finger oils (which canoxidize on the foil and leave dark grayfingerprints) and remove the grains ofaluminum dust generated by the sandpa-per and steel wool.

9 It is essential toremove this dust before the next s the basic technique for foiling,which is repeated over and over, withslight variations according to the shapesof the parts,7through 10. Larger or flat-ter parts are easier to for better foil-ing a wing or stabilizer, wrap thetop-surface foil over the leading edge,11,Nothing looks more like aluminum than aluminum. Adhesive-backed aluminum foil isavailable in many hobby shops, or you can add adhesive to household you aren t using Bare-Metal Foil, you ll need to brush Micro Metal Foil Adhesiveon the matte side of household aluminum foil.

10 The folded-over edge on the foil sheetserves as a foil to compound curves, such as those of this P-38 drop tank, is the mostdifficult part of the process. Here s how to start: Cut a thin strip of foil and lightly pressit onto the tank along the ModelerJuly 2002so the seam is on the under-surface whereit is less conspicuous, foil over raised or recessedpanel lines, and use those lines as trimpoints between pieces of foil. Use only asharp blade to cut the foil along the panellines. The adjacent piece of foil overlapsthe panel line and should be trimmed inthe same cover small intake scoops such asthe one on the side of the P-38 enginecowl, make a slit along the leading edge ofthe scoop before burnishing the foil.