Sooner Boomer
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Growing up in a small town, the hobby shops lasted maybe three years before they packed it in for lack of business. This was back in the day pre-CA glue. When Hot Stuff came out we thought we were in heaven. We couldn't buy a lot of the stuff we read about in the model making mags. Here are some of the tricks I learned:
We made our own sanding sealer by mixing baby powder with clear (or thinned out white) dope (the *paint*, not the drugs...).
I usually had three bottles of yellow glue (Franklin brand or SIGbond); fresh newly opened and very thin, a bottle that had been opened for a while and had started to thicken, and a third bottle that was very thick and had to be dug out with a piece of straw or bamboo skewer. Each viscosity has its uses. The thin stuff was applied and rubbed into fin roots, and where the fins would attach to the body. By forcing the thin glue down into the pores of the wood, the joints became stronger than the wood. We would use the slightly thicker glue to do most of the glue-ups - it doesn't run as bad as thin/new glue, and the joints were prepped w/thin glue. The thick-as-molasses glue was perfect for fillets. We made the fillets to blend shapes together, not as much for strength - if we didn't have the thicker glue, we might mix the thinner glue with baby powder.
We discovered that by rubbing "Plastic Wood" putty into a balsa nosecone until it crumbled (the putty, not the nc), lightly sanding, and repeating, we could end up with a surface that was smooth as glass. It seemed as though it turned the surface of the balsa into plastic. This was MANY years before "Fill n Finish" came along.
We made our own decals. We would take gummed packing tape (the kind that you wet with water) and paint on a couple of layers of clear dope. If we needed something bigger than packing tape size, we would use a sheet of heavy typing paper and coat it with several layers of muscilage (glue) and after that had dried (thoroughly!) paint on the clear dope. When the dope had dried thoroughly, we could then paint on the design of the decal. You can draw the design in pencil on the tape first, before painting on the clear dope. You can use either dope (lacquer) or enamel for the design, but you can't paint dope (or lacquer) over enamel. Clear Krylon spray did not work. Let your design dry thoroughly (see a pattern here?), and cut around design. You now have a custom water-slide decal. The glue from the tape (or the mucilage) would transfer to the back of the clear dope base layer and glue the decal in place.
Where we needed a sharp edge between colors when we spray (or brush) painted, we would mask off with tape. But when we wanted to blend (transition) two colors when spray painting, we would use a stiff piece of cardboard, and hold it away from the surface. This creates a "soft" edge; the further away the cardboard is from the surface, the greater the blending effect.
Now you kids get offa my lawn (and go launch a rocket)...
We made our own sanding sealer by mixing baby powder with clear (or thinned out white) dope (the *paint*, not the drugs...).
I usually had three bottles of yellow glue (Franklin brand or SIGbond); fresh newly opened and very thin, a bottle that had been opened for a while and had started to thicken, and a third bottle that was very thick and had to be dug out with a piece of straw or bamboo skewer. Each viscosity has its uses. The thin stuff was applied and rubbed into fin roots, and where the fins would attach to the body. By forcing the thin glue down into the pores of the wood, the joints became stronger than the wood. We would use the slightly thicker glue to do most of the glue-ups - it doesn't run as bad as thin/new glue, and the joints were prepped w/thin glue. The thick-as-molasses glue was perfect for fillets. We made the fillets to blend shapes together, not as much for strength - if we didn't have the thicker glue, we might mix the thinner glue with baby powder.
We discovered that by rubbing "Plastic Wood" putty into a balsa nosecone until it crumbled (the putty, not the nc), lightly sanding, and repeating, we could end up with a surface that was smooth as glass. It seemed as though it turned the surface of the balsa into plastic. This was MANY years before "Fill n Finish" came along.
We made our own decals. We would take gummed packing tape (the kind that you wet with water) and paint on a couple of layers of clear dope. If we needed something bigger than packing tape size, we would use a sheet of heavy typing paper and coat it with several layers of muscilage (glue) and after that had dried (thoroughly!) paint on the clear dope. When the dope had dried thoroughly, we could then paint on the design of the decal. You can draw the design in pencil on the tape first, before painting on the clear dope. You can use either dope (lacquer) or enamel for the design, but you can't paint dope (or lacquer) over enamel. Clear Krylon spray did not work. Let your design dry thoroughly (see a pattern here?), and cut around design. You now have a custom water-slide decal. The glue from the tape (or the mucilage) would transfer to the back of the clear dope base layer and glue the decal in place.
Where we needed a sharp edge between colors when we spray (or brush) painted, we would mask off with tape. But when we wanted to blend (transition) two colors when spray painting, we would use a stiff piece of cardboard, and hold it away from the surface. This creates a "soft" edge; the further away the cardboard is from the surface, the greater the blending effect.
Now you kids get offa my lawn (and go launch a rocket)...
