10 Superdetailing, PDF
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chapter
T E N
S u p e r d e t a i l i n g
B
ASIC
M
ATERIALS
Most superdetails can be constructed
f rom sev e ral materials: Everg re e n ,P l a s t r u c t
and Squadron have styrene strips in sizes
f rom as small as .010 x .020 inches to .125 x
.250 inches, and styrene plastic rods are ava i l-
able from .010 to .125 inches.You can cre a t e
your own round plastic rod by stretching the
l e f t over sprues or trees that the kit parts are
molded on over a candle. B rass wire is ava i l-
able from Detail Associates and K&S in
.006 to .052-inch diameters. Sprue stre t c h i n g
is a basic superdetailing technique that can
yield wisps of plastic as fine as .005 inches
or tapered ro d s . It is excellent for making
radio antennae and similar tapered dev i c e s .
To heat the sprue, use two-inch round candles
so the candle wo n ’t tip ov e r. Cut a six-inch-
long piece of sprue and hold the extre m e
ends tightly in your fingers. Hold the sprue
just above the uppermost tip of the flame
and slowly rotate it while you pull on the
e n d s . When you feel the ends begin to mov e
a p a r t , immediately lift the sprue from the
flame and continue to pull. The harder and
faster you pull, the longer and thinner the
h e a t - s t retched sprue will be. With pra c t i c e ,
you can do a slow and gentle pull that can
p roduce a 1/16-inch rod or, with a quick pull,
you can produce a foot-long piece of plastic
almost as thin as a human hair. Keep a pan
of water re a dy to drop the plastic sprue into
if it accidentally catches fire . Plastic cement
will dissolve the thinner stretched sprue and
the heat from Instant Plastic Adhesive or
cement can melt it, so you may have to use
an acrylic cement like Testor #3515 Clear Pa r t s
Cement to attach the stretched sprue or the
finer plastic ro d s .
10-1 Doug DeCounter’s Italeri M24 Chaffee carries
the supplies for a tank at war including Italeri jerry
cans, AEF Designs 50 caliber machine gun shells,
and a folded-up orange I.D. panel made from facial
tissue. The decals are from Tamiya.
T
INY
D
ETAILS
M
AKE THE
D
IFFERENCE
When you look at a photograph of a
m o d e l , it is often a lack of the tiniest details
that makes it look unre a l .E v e ry airc raft and
ev e ry armored vehicle has hundreds of tiny
details that can be added to a model of that
m a c h i n e . It is not necessary to duplicate ev e ry
tiny visible part,just do enough to suggest
the presence of more such details.
It is now possible to buy superdetail parts
rather than make your own.Va c u u m - f o r m e d
c a n o p i e s ,t i res with the bottoms flattened and
bulged to show weight,cast resin interiors,
etched metal interior parts, b ra c k e t s ,g u n s
and details are available from Fine Details,
True Details, A c a d e my, A . E . F. D e s i g n s ,K a s t e n ,
Collectors Bra s s , Ve r l i n d e n ,A c c u rate A r m o r,
Scale Model A c c e s s o r i e s , Hudson and A l l e n ,
Kendall Model, E d u a rd Model A c c e s s o r i e s ,
D ra g o n , and other firms that advertise in
Finescale Modeler
and other enthusiast
m a g a z i n e s . It is still possible, h o w ev e r, t o
make most of those details yo u r s e l f .
Facial tissue makes an excellent substitute
for canvas or almost any cloth. For canva s ,
soak it in plastic cement and shape it as yo u
w i s h . If you want to simulate cloth upholstery
on 1/48-scale or larger models, coat the seat
with Testor #3520 Liquid Plastic Cement and
press a single layer of facial tissue into the
wet cement.When it dries,trim away the
excess tissue.
B
ASIC
S
UPERDETAILING
T
OOLS
When you attach any thin plastic, do not
use any type of plastic cement because it
will dissolve the thin plastic. Use the Model
Master #8874 Instant Plastic Adhesive followed
by the #8875 Adhesive A c c e l e rator to attach
small plastic parts, etched metal details or
interior bracing from thin strips of styre n e .
To open up instrument faces, e x h a u s t
p i p e s , gun ports or to provide mounting
holes for control cables or antennae, use a
drilling tool called a pin vise. The pin vise is
designed to be held in one hand, and it has
i n t e rchangeable chucks that will hold drill
bits from a size 80 (.0135 ) to 1/8 (.125) inches.
With pra c t i c e , you can drill straight and true
holes in the relatively soft plastic or re s i n
used in model kits with a pin vise.
C
OCKPIT
D
ETAILING
The canopies in virtually all of the plastic
model airc raft kits are too thick for re a l i s m .
This is not readily apparent unless you wa n t
to model a cockpit with an open canopy.
S q u a d ron and others make va c u u m - f o r m e d
canopies that are only about .010 inch thick
and are direct replacements for the canopies
in specific 1/72 and 1/48-scale kits.
You can also make your own thin plastic
canopy by stretching Squadron’s butyrate
h e a t - s t retching thermal plastic over the
original kit’s canopy. Fill the kit’s canopy
with modeling clay and mount it on a six-
inch-long piece of pencil. Clamp the pencil
in a vise or to the edge of the workbench.
Light a small two-inch candle and hold the
sheet plastic three or four inches above the
c a n d l e until it sags, then immediately mov e
the plastic over the canopy and pull down
evenly and quickly. The canopy should cap-
t u re all of the detail and shape of the original.
If not, l e ave the plastic over the candle just a
m o m e n t l o n g e r, but have a pan of wa t e r
re a dy to drop the plastic into should it catch
f i re . Mark a line with felt tip pen to indicate
the edge of the canopy and trim it to shape
with scissors.
Simulate tinted canopies with an airbrushed
application of nine parts Gloss Clear #2017 to
one part Willow Green #2028 or True Blue #2030.
Even the cast resin cockpit interiors can
be superdetailed or you can add these touches
to your own cockpits.Make interior cables
with copper wire strands and control levers
f rom stretched sprue. After the seats are
c o m p l e t e , make seatbelts and harnesses
from masking tape – a single la yer for 1/72
scale and sticky-face-to-sticky-face double
l ayers for 1/48 or 1/32 scale. Make buckles
f rom pieces of clear plastic tape painted with
Aluminum #1781 and cut the tape to about
the thickness of a piece of thre a d .
The coil spring-style guitar strings can
be used to simulate oxygen hoses in 1/72 a n d
1/48-scale airc ra f t . The strings are ava i l a b l e i n
s ev e ral sizes.The strings can also be used for
conduit on 1/48-scale or larger armored vehicles.
Apply drops of Model Master #8876 Clear
Parts Cement to the instrument panel gauges
after the decals are in place to simulate glass
f a c e s . For colored indicator lights, mix a dro p
of orange or red paint in a puddle of Clear
Parts Cement and apply it with a toothpick.
Simulate rivets and small knobs with drops
of aluminum paint applied with a sharp
toothpick.Add Waldron or a similar brand
of replacement decals.
For ultimate re a l i s m , build a new instrument
panel from sheet styrene using Wa l d ron hole
punches for the instrument locations, then add
Wa l d ro n ’s etched bezels and decal instrument
faces to create a more realistic instrument panel.
10-2 An Italeri M24 Chaffee superdetailed by
Doug DeCounter to match photos of identical tanks
in battle. The model has been upgraded with etched
brass parts from On the Mark including fender
guard supports, light guards, tie-downs, the turret
vane sight and latches.
I
NTERIOR
D
ETAILS
Your re s e a rch should produce some
p h o t o g raphs of the interior of the airc raft or
armor you are modeling. If not, s t u dy similar
a i rc raft or armor, to fill in some of the are a s
not visible in the photographs of the pro t o-
type for your model. The 1/48-scale and larg e r
a i rc raft usually include interiors that can
p rovide a guide to what parts are necessary
to include and which can be ignore d ,e s p e-
cially when you duplicate a similar interior
in smaller-scale airc ra f t .
A number of firms offer instrument panels
designed for specific airc raft in specific scales.
Other firms offer complete cast resin interiors.
If you’re new to the hobby, you might want
to buy one of these instrument kits and an
a p p ropriate cast resin interior, if only to see
whether you want to build your own for the
next airc raft you model.
O
PEN
E
XHAUSTS
,
I
NTAKES AND
G
UN
B
ARRELS
To open up gun barre l s , round air intakes,
or exhausts,start with a drill bit about half
the diameter of the final opening. It is easier
to find the center of the part with the smaller
b i t .N o w, drill the hole larger with a bit thre e -
fourths the size of the hole. Finish with the
final-size bit. If the three-fourths size hole
is a bit off center, use a jew e l e r ’s file to finish
the hole. If the hole is too small for a jew e l e r ’s
f i l e , use the drill bit as a file by moving it in
and out of the hole with a rubbing action.
K&S makes brass and aluminum tubing
f rom 1/16 to 1/2-inch diameter.You can make
this tube look like scale-size exhaust pipes,
gun barrels or carburetor intakes by ro t a t i n g
a hobby knife in the open end to chamfer
the thick edges to a sharp edge.
If you can find a piece of tubing to match
the size of the gun, replace the gun with the
t u b e .
Model Master Tube Glue Nozzles #8805
a re one sourc e . Some hobby stores sell a va r i e t y
of sizes of hypodermic-type miniature tubes
and other hardwa re . For guns, c a n n o n s ,
intake or exhaust tubes 1/16 inch or larg e r,
use K&S brass or aluminum tube.
Open the vent holes in wings or the
small triangular fillets in landing gears by
drilling into the center of the opening with a
1/16-inch drill bit, then enlarge the opening
to size with round,square,knife-edged,or
triangular jew e l e r ’s files. Etched brass gun-
sights and cooling grids are available for both
a i rc raft and armor. Cut them with fingernail
nippers or sprue cutters and attach with
Instant Plastic A d h e s i v e .
E
NGINE
D
ETAILS
T h e re is no need to detail more than the
portion of the engine that is visible thro u g h
its openings unless, of course, you are modeling
an early era airc raft with an exposed engine.
For a diorama, you might want to build an
engine or modify an existing kit engine, a n d
install it with an open access panel. The access
panel can be made by heat-stretching Squadro n ’s
bu t y rate heat-stretching thermal plastic
over the engine area of the kit’s fuselage
as described earlier for making canopies.
R e m ove the engine cover from the kit with
a razor saw during the assembly pro c e s s
and substitute the heat-formed cover in an
open position.
For a variety in the sizes of cables and pipes
on jet airc raft engines, select sev e ral differe n t
sizes of the smallest plastic ro d s ,s t retch some
plastic sprue for even finer pipes and use both
thin solder and single strands of copper wire .
Match the proportions of the different sizes
to photographs of the prototype engine.
Add spark plug wires using single stra n d s
of 14 gauge household lamp cord stra n d e d
copper wire , inserted into holes drilled with a
pin vise. Add pushrod tubes to radial engines
using stretched sprue or plastic ro d . Use a
half-dozen strands of copper wire to simulate
wiring harnesses. For exhausts or air intakes
that are supposed to be metal pipes, drill into
the “ o p e n ” end of the exhaust with a drill bit
about half the exhaust diameter, then twirling
the end of a hobby knife blade into the hole
to chamfer or taper the edges so they appear
to be a pipe. Replace any molded-in scre e n
or mesh grills with etched brass parts fro m
a f t e r-market companies that specialize
in such pro d u c t s. For less expensive mesh
e f f e c t s , paint the areas flat black, then dry
To make superdetailed tire s ,c a refully fill any
seams on two-piece tires and sand them so
t h e re ’s no trace of the joint. Cut new
t reads with a razor saw. Use a household
iron,covered with a double layer of waxed
paper, to soften the bottom of the tire so it
can be made to appear slightly flat and
bulged from the weight of the airc raft or
armor. If you’d prefer, True Details makes
cast resin tires for most 1/72 and 1/48-scale
a i rc raft that have full tread and are flattened
and bulged to look as though they wer e
supporting the weight of the real airc ra f t .
M
OVABLE
A
IRCRAFT
C
ONTROL
S
URFACES
“ M ova b l e ”c o n t rol surfaces can add much
to the realism of the model. T h ey must,
h o w ev e r, be cut during the initial kit-assembly
p ro c e s s .M ovable control surfaces can be
simulated by cutting the flaps from the model
with a razor saw. If the shape of the hinged
joint is complex or includes protruding hinges,
it may be necessary to use a jew e l e r ’s saw
( available from hobby shops) to re m ove the
f l a p s . On some models, you can simply slice
th rough the molded-in seam by making
s ev e ral dozen passes with a hobby knife.
A ny of these methods will leave an unre a l i s t i c
gap between the control surface and the wing,
ru d d e r, or stabilizer. On 1/72-scale models,
these gaps can sometimes be filled with a
single bead of Instant Adhesive or five-minute
e p o x y. On large-scale models, a strip of .010-
inch-thick Evergreen sheet styrene may be
added to the flap to replace the material
re m oved by cutting.
10-3 To open the barrel of a gun, mark the center
of the hole with a compass point, then drill the hole
using a pin vise.
brush the screen area so that only the scre e n
is colore d .
D
ETAILING
L
ANDING
G
EAR
B
AYS
H o p e f u l l y, you will have located photogra p h s
of the interior of the wheel wells for the type
of airc raft your are modeling. Most airc ra f t
m o d e l s , even in 1/32 scale, lack complete
interior detail in the wheel wells. On the
l / 7 2 -scale models,there is often no detail
at all.The wheel well doors are usually
too thick. Use the heat-stretching pro c e s s
described for making new canopies earlier in
this chapter to make duplicates of the wheel
well doors in thin clear plastic. You can make
them in two l ayers if the kit includes interior
details and, if not, build up the details with
strips of styrene to match your photogra p h s
of the pro t o t y p e .
To accent the details on landing gear struts,
use three or four colors of Metalizer or shades
of color, each slightly lighter than the next.
On telescopic landing gear struts, paint the
s h i ny telescoping portion with Stainless
Steel Metalizer #1402 and polish with a
cotton swa b.
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