Has anyone ever built a fully deployed parachute. I have build plan that includes a 1/144 scale parachute fully deployed. I have experimented with stiffening fabric but it looks terrible.
Thanks for any of your ideas.
I have never done a parachute but I did have to make a sail that was puffed up in the wind sort of like the parachute would be after the landing when it catches the wind. What I did was to use wire as the rigging and it shaped the general curve, then before I put the sail up I diluted some white glue and painted it on one side of the material and put it on a form I made from foam and paper. When it was done the white glue was stiff enough to give it support and there was a definite curve to the sail that would have sagged if I had only used the wire or just let it hang.
The only other thing I can tell you is to use the glue on the side of the parachute that is the least visible, the glue leaves a visible shine, although the sail I was doing had no color and a parachute can be painted depending on the scene you are creating.
Thanks for the ideas.
My plan is for a L.A.P.E.S. display where the load has 3 round extraction chutes, all fully deployed. The wire idea might work well to give the parachute shape put I am not sure the lines will look good made from wire. Your idea of a form is just right, I will try that. If this works at 1/144, I will try one at 1/72.
Thanks again.
All you need to do is paint the lines the right color. The wire should be small enough diameter that you will not see any texture (or lack of it).
The key for something like that is going to be rigidity, I think - so maybe think of guitar strings, which MIGHT be small enough in 1/144 (no way to really tell without eyeballing it, I’m afraid) or perhaps piano/music wire. I’m afraid regular copper wire might have too much give or sag in the small diameter necessary.
The essence of scratchbuilding is experimentation! And this is one of those situations where you might have to try several different things to see what works best.
In that smale of scale forget using any real fabric…think outside the box…maybe cutting a ping-pong ball in half and painting some texture to it…and using stretched sprue for the lines…1/144 is awfullly small so I doubt guitar strings would be thin enough…
BAM! Add another post to my ever-increasing total…and this one might even be considered serious…
Or if your chute is going to be larger than a ping pong ball, get a balloon and blow it up to the needed diameter. Then, lay some tissue over it to look like the chute fabric. When things dry, pop the balloon and cut the paper to the proper shape. Thin guitar wire, or painted fishing line might work for the lines.
I’d use three different balloons at three different amounts of inflation, so your chutes look to be opened a bit differently. That would provide some variation, as they will rarely be deployed the exact same amount.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
Ditto… The old “Papier Mache’ over the balloon” trick… Learned it in art class back about 7th grade, IIRC… Water & White Glue-mixture, strips of papier mache’ laid over the balloon, and when dry, pop the balloon…
I’ve done a couple, but I used the drag-chute from the Monogram “T’rantula” dragster model as the basis for it… It scaled out just right (using the Mk 1 Eyeball) for a 1/48 aircrew parachute
I’d use piano wire vs guitar strings though, for the shroud-lines… It’s more rigid than guitar stings for the same guage as well…
Dunno about the actual sizes of the balloons, ping-pong balls or whatever, but the LAPES* parachutes are 15-foot diameter drogues IIRC, so if you wanna do the math, scale shouldn’t be a problem…
*(Not L.A.P.E.S., as it’s an acronymn, not an abbreiviation [;)])
The chord used between the pallet and the parachute is not round parachute chord but a flat banding type chord, usually multiples for added strength.
Riggers used a formula based on the size of chute, weight of the item being dropped, airspeed and landing zone distance to rig the item.
I remember rigging with three different sizes of chutes. Heavy loads were given one large chute or multiple smaller ones. There is also in many cases a small pilot chute used to apply tension to the load to initiate the extraction then once it has exited the aircraft the larger chutes deploy to stop the loads forward motion. This is where the riggers reputation is challenged. If the equipment fails, that load can take a great deal of time to slow down and stop with just the pilot chute to do all of the work.
For cushioning material we used stacks of empty cardboard boxes or flat sheets corrugated paper. If you didn’t do the cushioning properly…the jarring and impact destroyed the items you were attempting to deliver.
Tissue paper, white glue and fine pinstripping tape done over a light bulb of the appropriate size and shape is how I have done it.
I’ve also recently seen a photo etched brass drag chute on the market too!
Wow, lots of great feedback.
Thanks ‘Hawkeye’, the detail you provided is very useful.
My plan is partly from photos, video and partly from memory. I served in 435 Sgn CAF in 1980, I only got to see a drop from inside with the Load Master, once, the rest of the times I was up front. My plan is for 3 equally sized main chutes, with the drogue starting to deflate, I was planning for the load to be just leaving the ramp. I have calculated that my chutes should be about 2" to 2.5" in diameter. All of the ideas suggested are great. I had one that nobody suggested yet, vacuum-forming. It occurred to me that these chutes, to look right, need to be very thin. I found a tiny plastic pumpkin in a dollar store, that once cut in half presents a very interesting shape to serve as a mold, unfortunetely, not enough indentations for the number of shroud lines I would need.
I have never vacuum-formed before, anyone tried it, any comments on this application?
Hans, you are of course correct, however in my research I found too many references to LAPES as abbreviations, I was not sure if this forum would recognize the acronym, I was certainly wrong. Nice to know there are some very knowledgeable people in the forum.
Doug
Probably too late to be of help, but I would think you’d want the chute to be semi-transparent. I would use the lightbulb idea, but instead of tissue paper, cut a large piece of plastic from a 2-litre bottle, heat it and pull it over the bulb. Then mix up some green and clear paint to get the look you want.
Lots of good advice. I have embarked on the adventure using the vacuum-forming method.
I found some styrofoam balls about 2.4 inches in diameter. I pierced the centre and mounted in a vise. Then I used a small wire and gently drew it across and around the ball, from above, to form an indent of about 1-2 mm. I repeated this around the ball until I had about 35-40 indents. Then I used the end of a pen to taper the indent from small at the top of the ball to wider as I approached the centre. The result looks remarkably like a fully deployed ring parachute with about 35-40 shroud lines. I cut the ball almost in half, it is at about the 60% mark to allow some extra material for trimming. I intend to use this as my mold and pull some 0.010 clear plastic in my newly built home-made vacuum form table.
So, the only thing I have not decided on yet is how I will represent the shroud lines. I am kind of hoping for some inspiration once I get the chutes made.
Thanks to all of you for your input.
I would think that the styrofoam will melt to the hot plastic sheeting when you pull it over to suck it down to the styrofoam buck. Maybe paint your mold a couple of times and let that paint dry well before using it in the vacuum form machine?
You do realize, of course, you need to do a WIP on this project, picture-rich, on this forum? I look forward to seeing the progress. [:P]
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
Gene:
Thanks for your reply.
I had the same thought, I know that some paints will melt styrofoam, do you know of one that might work for this? I also thought that it would be better if I made a mold from my styrofoam sample and then I could make multiple blanks from a plaster or plastic and pull several chutes at once.
I have never vacuformed before and I do not know how much I will do in the future, so difficult to know how much effort to take.
I finished my vacuform table yesterday, ready for testing. So now is the time to figure out the best way to make a blank chute.
I have been keeping a photo record of my projects for years, so I have lots, I have just never shared them. I will try to include some pics.
Thanks again,
Doug
Your styrofoam master will HAVE to be surfaced, otherwise you’ll end up with all the air cells showing in the surface of the plastic. My sugestion would be to use some water based latex to fill the voids and sand between layers till you have a Smoooth surface. you may have to do the surfacing 1st and then do the shroud lines in the paint.
Reid
Isn’t Milliput water-soluable? If so, thin that and use it for a coating. You can sand it smooth afterward.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
Milliput is pretty expensive for that kind of application… Elmer’s Wood-Filler is water soluable and much cheaper…
'S ok., Mang… The “rule” is that if it’s a pronounced as a word, it’s an acronymn… LAPES (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System, for those that don’t know) is an an acronymn, while PLF (Parachute Landing Fall) is not a “Pliff”…
JMPI (Jump Master’s Personal Inspection) isn’t “Jimpy” , same as, and I’m dating m’self here, LBE (Load Bearing Equipment) isn’t “Libby”, but in the same vein, the LBE is part of the ALICE (All-purpose Light-weight Individual Carrying Equipment) system… Or for you jet-guys, “JDAM” is an acronymn, (Jay-Dam), or “Joint Direct Attack Munition”, and the armor types all know that a TOW Missile is a “Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided Missile”, and the guys that have worked in the NBCCC at the Brigade TOC (Tock) all know the acronymn, “METT-T” and the USAF types know that a MOAB is actually a FAE…
Sorry for the long-winded post… First one today, and I don’t mind typing yet… It’s also useful (and fun) to play, “Spot the Military Poser” using these things, lol…
TOW is for: Tube launched, Opticaly tracked, Wire guided[;)] Most expensive firework that I ever set off[:P]
and we all know how Uncle Sam loves a catchy name or acronym these days… sometimes they are helpful… sometimes confusing…
Whoopsie… Never fired one of them things… Always wanted to though, but weren’t in the MTOE of any unit I was ever in, 'cept the Infantry Battalion I was in, and nobody from the Company HQ ever got to fire one… Best I ever got (dating m’self again) was a few M-72A2 LAWs… (Light Anti-tank Weapons for those that don’t know)… Always got a kick outta the “Hollywood LAWs” (and RPGs, for that matter) that would “whoosh” like an Estes rocket insteada “BOOM!” like a hand grenade… Even sub-caliber LAWs made a helluva bang, lol… Guess they never considered that all the rocket engine’s fuel had to be expended in the length of the tube, eh? At any rate, all I had to shoot at was old washing machines, water heaters, and assorted car hulks anyway…
Speaking of that… I tried to sell an inert (trainer) M6 rocket for the 2.36-inch M1 bazooka on Ebay (bottom rocket in photo) a few years ago, when I was “thinning down” my “militaria” collection…
They pulled the ad (in les than a half-hour too) because they deemed it “Ammunition” and that there was no way that they could verify it as being inert… So I asked 'em back, "Did ya think that I’d have a “buy it now price” of $10.00 on one that was “ert” ?[;)]
Said they was just making sure… sigh…
“Most Expensive” military firework I ever set off? A Nuke Simulator… Specifically, “Atomic Explosion Simulator, M142”…
Self-contained unit, packed in a 55 gal fuel drum…
It’s not a big a boom as a Foo-Gas (Fougasse) though…
Foo-Gas is a non-directional flame-mine that’s basically just napalm in a 55-gal drum, WP grenade or trip-flare igniter, some det-cord for a drum-cutter, and a C-4 kicker, all going off at once, lol…
I saw a few of those nuke simulators employed… usually at NTC during the “attack” portion of the live fire lanes. Lots of fun sitting buttoned up in a track in MOPP 4 in 115* heat…
But it was a very impresive boom when you are nearby. I have a pic in my album here of the resulting “mushroom cloud”… I always wondered what the actual thing looked like. I figured it was just a few satchel charges fused in together.