I’ve seen some really nice work by people who make those clear styrene disks that look exactly like spinning propellers. I want to try this at least once in my life. [:D]
Anybody have any tips, advice, things I should look out for, how-to’s? Example pictures would be great.
“It’s a good thing” - Martha Stewart on going to the clink
I work with turbo prop training aircraft, so I see spinning props every working day.
From most angles, all you see is a distorted disc of air, in real life that is. On film/TV
you may well see blurred blades, this is due to the number of frames per second being shown.
So, the easy way to model a spinning prop is as follows;
Get hold of an OLFA circle cutter. This has a pin at one end and an adjustable blade at the other end of an arm, so you can cut different diameters.
Figure out the diameter of your model prop, and cut a circle from clear plastic card.
You now need to fill the holes in the spinner that the blades should fill. Make sure the spinner is smooth & then paint it.
Find the diameter of the spinner, at the point where your ‘prop’ will sit, and cut or drill/file
a hole in the center of your ‘spinning prop’. ideally, if you’ve done everything to the right size, you’ll have a fairly realistic ‘spinning prop’.
if you have a minidrill, before you cut the center hole, use a small nut & bolt to chuck the disc onto the drill. TAKE ALL USUAL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS! and at a slow speed switch on. You can now apply wetndry paper lightly to the spinning disc, especially the edge, this will blur things a bit & give an impression of a turning prop. Take care to keep the disc ‘see through’, a very light sand is all you need.
These ‘props’ look good on a pylon mounted ‘desktop model’, certainly better than just
three or four stationary blades.
Good Luck
Pete
HEY,
There was an article in FSM some time this year about doing that. Not sure which one though.
Randy
Paul Boyer had a wonderful how-to article in the October 2003 issue about giving life to propellers called 'Spinning Propellers: If you can’t turn 'em, paint ‘em.’ If you don’t still have your copy of that issue, you could purchase it by clicking on the ‘Back Issues’ selection in the left navigation bar.
I’ve never tried this, but the question got me to thinking and I came up with an idea.
Paint your prop normally. Put it on a scanner and scan it (yes, most scanners can scan real-life object just fine)
Take the image into something like Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro (my personal choice) and use a “Motion Blur” filter to put a very heavy motion blur to it. You might also have to use another filter to get everything going in a circle.
Print the image as a decal using one of the decaling kits.
Put the decal on a piece of clear styrene and mount it on the model.
It sounds feasible but lots of things do until they are actually tried [:)]
Check this out.
It may just be what you’re looking for.
http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/ISL/Prop_Blur/review1.48/PropBlur_review.htm
Randie [C):-)]
I’ve tried contacting them in the past via email and the website listed…no luck. Doens’t look like they’re in business anymore…unless anybody knows otherwise?
Dang! That’s too bad. They look really interesting. [sigh]
Randie [C):-)]
I haven’t checked the forum in a couple days. Thanks for the responses and ideas.
The chucked/spun/sanded disk is a great idea.
The PSP(also my favorite image editor)/decal is also a great idea.
Photoetch part is something that I would have never thought and another great idea.
I don’t have the Oct 03 FSM - bummer I’ll see about getting it.
I asked and you all delivered. Now I’m off to the workbench.
[signature with catchphrase goes here]
-PJ