Small Scale Military Headquarters

I am the type of 1:18 collector that likes to hang his aircraft from the ceiling and would like the choice of the static non-spinning propeller or a simulated spinning propeller. I am not sure how the spinning propeller could be made, but I know it would look sharp to look up at my ceiling to see an actual simulated spinning propeller operated aircraft as opposed to an aircraft about to crash because their engines had frozen up!! I have read on the BC blog that BBI was shipping new aircraft with the propellers un-attached now anyway so what do you think guys? Later J

Thats a really cool idea! I doubt maufacturers would do it but there are a bunch of creative folks here so if anyone knows a good way to do this, please let us know!

Interesting idea ,.. but I don't see how this is going to take off ,..........

Without the "flick of a switch" maybe ,.. like battery powered or something.

"Hmmm" ..........

jdowd1 wrote:I am the type of 1:18 collector that likes to hang his aircraft from the ceiling and would like the choice of the static non-spinning propeller or a simulated spinning propeller. I am not sure how the spinning propeller could be made, but I know it would look sharp to look up at my ceiling to see an actual simulated spinning propeller operated aircraft as opposed to an aircraft about to crash because their engines had frozen up!! I have read on the BC blog that BBI was shipping new aircraft with the propellers un-attached now anyway so what do you think guys? Later J

I remember in the 60's some model kits that came with a clear plastic disk to simulate a spinning prop.

Ray

That's exactly what I was thinking to simulate a spinning prop. Probably could make one out of thin plastic and attach it to the nose of the plane.

OK, the clear plastic disc idea (the most obvious one) got my creative juices flowing (so to speak) and I think an interesting take on the subject might be to simulate the spinning of the propellers in PhotoShop and print the outcome in an acetate sheet or whatever your printer uses to create transparencies.

Of course, viewed from the side, the end result of attaching one clear disc to the propeller shaft is not too convincing (to put it mildly). But what if? What if you attached multiple discs together to form a simulated spinning propeller?

Here’s the idea: Repeat the same procedure until you get enough discs so that, once assembled, the depth of the discs will equate the pitch of the propeller blades, et voilà! (Must admit I don’t have a clue if this crazy concept might actually fly, if you pardon my pun, but you might as well give it a try. It’s cheap and not too labor-intensive, provided you have some basic knowledge of how PhotoShop works.)

The trickiest part is cutting the discs from the acetate sheet. The good news is this: with multiple discs, you don’t have to worry that one of them might not be as round and perfect as you would otherwise do if you were using just one disc.

Some additional considerations:

1.- Depending on the thickness of the assembled discs, you might actually have to set different levels of layer transparency in PhotoShop for your image to achieve the desired effect; so that the image of the spinning prop you print for the first (i.e. forward) disc will be more opaque/less transparent (for example, lets say 5% transparent) than the last one (for example, lets say 95% transparent), for the disc which is closest to the cowling. (This would be the level of transparency of the propeller, as the background must always be clear.)

Therefore, you’d have to decrease the level of opacity (increase the transparency) as you move from the first disc to the last one.

2.- To achieve a grearter blur or spinning visual effect maybe you could try setting the different discs at different increments, so that the clear discs are actually offset. Lets say a blade is facing up in the twelve o’clock position in the first disc. In the second one, this same blade would have to be slightly off to the left/right (depending on which direction the propeller spins: clockwise or counterclockwise). So you’d move the disc in small increments, in a way that the upward-facing blade in the second disc is pointing now at the 11:55 or the 12:05 position.

Does this make any sense to you? I'm not too good at thinking outside the box, but this is the best I could come up with.

I'd just remove the blades, anyone who has been close to a running airplane knows you can't see the blades for the most part.

A vacuformer could make caps for spinners and P-40 blades can be removed with out destroying them. I have done it.
I'm sure other models are similar.

Corsair, P-47 etc without spinner could be done in resin, like wheels are done for 1/48.

Just my 33.33333 cents.