Years ago I had the pleasure of getting to know an Air Guard C-124 Cargo Master pilot who had flown P-40’s in the South Pacific during WWII. He said he really liked the A/C except for one thing—that @%#@** engine coolant pressure relief valve. He explained that , with the hot weather where they were operating, they had to get airborne reaaaall fast after starting engines. They needed air speed and at least a little altitude to prevent engine over-heat. He discribed how a pilot would take a little bit too long getting onto the runway, and have Old Faithful’s cousin pop to life in front of the windscreen.
How would you model the shooting coolant? How about some ideas?
[8-]
hehe this might be a good idea for an f3h diorama…
would the p-40 be taking off?
I don’t know how you’d recreate that, but if anyone would it would have to be model railroaders. You might want to check one of their forums or a railroad model shop.
Yeah maybe a gander in the micromark catalog at the model railroad fake water stuff… appears to be some kinda silicon. Maybe that would work for ya.
I’m not sure of what the effect should look like (coolent overflow spray) but you might use cotton strands (from cotton balls) to represent a steam spray effect, or thin dried silicon (clear RTV) to represent a fluid stream effect.
T.Young [8-]
Tom’s idea sounds the best for the stream of coolant.
You could tint it the color of the coolant and add the “steam” effect to boot.
A little Future with food coloring on the windscreen would add to the look.
Don
Yep, Tom, your idea is a good place to start. After mulling this over a little more, I think a good place to start would be to locate the specific spot of the pop valve and approximate the size. Then cut a short section of tubing tthat will slide into the hole that we’d drill into that spot. The section of tube would become the " pot " for our " flower " of coolant. Comb out some cotton strands from a cotton ball and cut a bunch for use. Twist the ends of as many as you can get to fit into the tubing and glue that end into the tubing. After the glue set, attach the bunch UPSIDEDOWN to a temporary fixture and comb out the cotton again. Spray the cotton with hairspray, comb it, spray it, comb it, spray it, etc until the material becomes stiff. While combing, it should be shaped into a funnel with the tubing piece as the point. After it’s shaped and the hairspray has fully dried, making the cotton strands stiff; use an airbrush or spray can containing clear, flat acrilyic lacquar. Use 2 or 3 very light coats then let everything dry/cure thouroughly. Lastly, use an airbrush or a spray can of the appropriate color/ colors and fog a little onto the stiffened material to give just a HINT of color. So-called transparent paint should be used for the hint of color. After " funnel " has dried for a couple of days, detach it from the holding fixture, flip it over, and insert the tubing end of the funnel into the hole we drilled in place of the pop-off valve. Adjust and trim as necessary and BINGO! there’s the blowing fountain of hot coolant. ( we hope ) [swg][^]
For the 72nd scale, use a piece of heavy cotton thread instead of material from a cotton ball and forget the tubing because it’d be easier to get the thread into the hole in the model’s body. Un-ravel the thread and proceed as described above.