Tiger Moth markings

[Mozart]

I'm building the Silver Wings 1/32 scale Tiger Moth, specifically this aircraft:

 

 

since it was flown by my father in 1943 during his pilot training is S Rhodesia.  It presents a few problems for masking, most notably the chequerboard band on the rear fuselage (just visible behind the strut) and the large, rather unorthodox "35" on the fuselage.

 

To do the chequered band I wrapped some thin masking tape around the fuselage having decided that a scale 4mm was about right for each square, and there are three columns.  So the forward and rear masking tapes were 12mm apart.  The taper on the fuselage is the tricky bit because clearly the "circumference" is going to vary.  Once I'd got the positions right, I took the masking tape off and laid it on my cutting mat 12mm apart along its length.  I took a picture of it:

 

 

then imported the picture into the Silhouette software.  This gave me the wrap around shape fairly accurately.  Then I set my grid background to aid drawing to 4mm and carefully drew things out:

 

 

then cut:

 

 

 

It needed a bit of tidying up but it's ok!

 

Next the "35"!  This proved just as challenging.  I used the photograph, enlarged as much as possible, again imported into Silhouette then drew some guidelines:

 

 

which when the picture was taken away was something like this, though I've added the curves (drawing arcs is another ball game).  Here I've selected the top half of the "3" to group all the bits, then copied, flipped and pasted below to form the whole number (and also the lower part of the "5":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always work with the drawing as large as possible to ensure accuracy with lines joining up.  If you don't you'll have uncut gaps which will cause problems when you come to use the masks.

 

The end result:

 

 

Any questions or comments welcome!

Max

 

 

 

[denders]

On 11/8/2020 at 3:11 PM, Mozart said:

I always work with the drawing as large as possible to ensure accuracy with lines joining up.  If you don't you'll have uncut gaps which will cause problems when you come to use the masks.

 

 

Rather unfortunate that there isn't a way to weld the endpoints together. I've been learning this.

 

Dave

[GeneK]

On 11/8/2020 at 3:11 PM, Mozart said:

Any questions or comments welcome!

I have a comment ... fantastic explanations!, thanks I appreciate that your post took a lot of effort, not to mention the beautiful model "work".

 

Gene K

[Mozart]

Thank you Gene, there’s not a lot of feedback on this forum so your comments are especially valued and appreciated. 
Max 

[GeneK]

On 12/26/2022 at 3:58 AM, Mozart said:

 there’s not a lot of feedback on this forum ... .

Unfortunately, despite Kevin's efforts, this very useful forum hasn't gotten much visibility. Understandable, in a sense, since the number of cutting machine users is still relatively small. Also, many of the folks who do drop by to view and/or download seem to be hit and run, without so much as even "indicating" any appreciation or providing any feedback ... most of the time.

 

Thanks for being a Prime Mover here. 👍 

 

Gene K

 

 

[GeneK]

On 11/14/2020 at 7:18 PM, denders said:

Rather unfortunate that there isn't a way to weld the endpoints together. I've been learning this.

Dave,

 

It's not intuitive, but there are a couple of different ways to join endpoints, including this on compound paths.

 

Gene

 

[denders]

Thanks Gene. I don't remember where exactly, but someone pointed out that Ctrl-E will join them.

[Mozart]

12 hours ago, GeneK said:

Unfortunately, despite Kevin's efforts, this very useful forum hasn't gotten much visibility. Understandable, in a sense, since the number of cutting machine users is still relatively small. Also, many of the folks who do drop by to view and/or download seem to be hit and run, without so much as even "indicating" any appreciation or providing any feedback ... most of the time.

 

Gene K

 

 

Human nature I guess Gene, sadly. Following putting the Anson masks on here I have shared them and the forum address on both Britmodeller and iModeler, I think that’s the only way to increase awareness. I have the new Revell Hurricane and plan to make canopy masks for that too before too long, again sharing this fact across forums. 
Max 

[andylangridge]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:01 PM, GeneK said:

Dave,

 

It's not intuitive, but there are a couple of different ways to join endpoints, including this on compound paths.

 

Gene

 

Thanks for this info - i created some new swear words last night trying to join endpoints. 🙂

[Mozart]

It's a single click with some tools and a double with others but I can never remember which is which, so the occasional "oh bother" slips out! 😁