Hey ho all. I had a bit of an idea while struggling with the spinner spiral decal on my Macchi 205. I messed it up for the umpteenth time, so i decided to spray it on to pretty reasonable results. Heres how i did it. It may be of interest to some of you, maybe not.
1st. Spray the spinner mat black (Or the colour of the finished spiral)
2nd. Using the thinnest tape you can lay your hands on, or cut a really thin strip from tamiya tape or similar, tape the line of the spiral around the spinner, starting at the bottom.
3rd. Space another piece the rightish distance aprart to the top again. If you use really thin tape it doesnt wrinkle to bad and conforms to the spinner shape.
4th. Fill in any gaps between the 2 strips with another piece, then spray the lot the spinners colour, in this case white,
5th. Peel off the tape and admire your handywork.
From now on ill never struggle with a spinner decal again. Thank God
Great idea, Lufty. How thin are we talking here? How did you get yours that thin?
Bioya, the prop spinners weren’t really just European. Check out the P-51 Mustang, or any other in-line engine. Even a few radials had them. The P-61 comes to mind, here. I’m no expert, but I imagine they helped clean up the aerodynamic profile of the plane. Better a nice rounded cone than a flat prop/nose. The reason most radials didn’t have them is because they needed all the air they could get to flow over the cylinder heads.
Fine work Guy - I must give your technique a try, though I’m a lot more ham-fisted than you!
As to cutting really thin strips of masking tape, all it needs is a new #11 or 10a blade, a steel ruler, practice, and the acceptance of the fact that you may not get it right first time. that’s how I did the Doctor’s pinstripes:
Good idea for spinners. Another option to get the thin cut first time is to firmly tape two new 11 blades together. The bevels on the two blades will leave a very narrow gap between their points. Place the steel ruler, press down with the two blades and in a single pass you should get two cuts exactly the same distance apart over the length you want.
If I may add, the Buffalo, Dauntless and SB2C Helldiver all had spinners on one mark or the other, of various sizes. One P-36 airframe was modified to enclose the radial altogether, with a spinner faired into the profile. And if I remember correctly, there was an SBD modified with a large spinner, with a fan mounted behind it, similar to the one Focke-Wulf used, but the attempt was abandoned.
You’re right, the intention was to improve aerodynamics, but I think in each case, the issues with cooling outweighed any improvement in performance.
Have also read that German pilots thought the spinner spiral confused bomber gunners. Nice idea as your way probably gives a better spiral as my way with one thick strip. mines always a little fuzzy.
