How to make a pilot bust

[Fraazen]

Hallo again!

After you have your set of drawings printed out, you can switch off your PC and we can move to the building board.

First of all, you will need the stick glue, the one used by our kids at school. Any brand will be just fine.

Then you can cut around each shape and have it glued on the balsa sheet (or other material of your choice). I did this not only to save material (by the way, you can also use scrap balsa!), but also to change the fibre orientation so that there will be less warping on your build later on.

After the glue is cured (which will take few minutes, anyhow), you can take your scalpel (I suggest a blade no.10) and cut along the lines. This, mind you, is going to take some time, let say a full evening. In my case, I cut precisely along the curved lines and in approximate way where there was a more finer detail; these ones had been refined with a small file later on.

The benefit of having the paper glued on top of balsa are three: first, it's more easy to follow the lines, then you keep the numbering for staking the parts together and finally the paper is providing some extra strength to your build.

[Engine Doctor]

Heres the old fashioned way from an old magazine , possibly RCM&E ?

[Fraazen]

Now, it's time to build your pilot bust and transform the mess of balsa pieces into something with more sense!

For my first trial, as I said, I followed a very simple way: I hand cut the parts and I didn't use any reference dowel, just like many of you will do, and although imperfect, the result is good enough!

To glue, you may use the glue of your choice. I opted for the Super 'Phatic resin from Deluxe Materials, which cure in few minutes and it's easy to sand.

After you have glued together all the parts, your pilot should look (something) like this:

Recognizable, but not finished yes... unless, of course, you like a "Picasso style" pilot!

To improve it, I used some putty in order to fill the steps between the layers and obtain a more continuous shape. I used a type of putty with very low shrinking ratio and that contain fiberglass fibers that provide extra strength, a characteristic very desirable when sanding to avoid the putty to fall off as a result of your efforts!

Here is the putty I used:

[Fraazen]

So, I does my pilot looks at this stage?

More or less like a mummy!

[Fraazen]

I suggest to apply a first layer of putty using a spatula, and a second one using your fingers, as the latter are more useful to follow the complex contour of a human body.

After few minutes of works I put the bust aside to let the putty cure and becoming workable with file and sand paper. The shape is now much, much better!

As you may see, having not used any dowel as reference during the assembly stage resulted in a shape that is a little bit torn rather than straight. This error can be (at least partially) corrected by adding some more putty on a single side only.

Regards,

Francesco

Edited By Fraazen on 01/02/2015 11:52:12

[Fraazen]

After the putty is hardened, you can start you job of smoothing it off. I used a combination of sanding paper and fine files, tracing the basic contours of the figure using a black pencil, just as a reference. I've also printed out a copy of the original 3D model to use as a guidance during the "sculpting process".

After you are satisfied with the shape, you can take acrylics colors and fine brushes to give your pilot a better, more realistic color. The finished job you can see here (ok, there is still some painting to be done...).

Ok, guys, I think the idea is clear enough and the process is not as complicate as it seems. I'm quite happy with the result that gave the opportunity to develop some different skills!

Hope you will get inspired by this idea!

Francesco