wonwinglo

For convenience and to offer encouregement here is the tutorial-

BUILDING VAC FORM MODELS.
What is a vac-form ? well to fully understand the purpose of these limited production run type of kit it is important to understand why they are made in the first place ? The larger manufacturers rely heavily on recouping the high costs of producing the master pattern or mould as it is termed,to this end they must ensure that the subject that they choose will reach high levels of sale ie the well known Spitfire's,Hurricane's,Me.109 etc are guaranteed money spinners,but what about the types of aircraft models that builders want for their collections ? well this is where the cottage industry come into force with simple vac-forming equipment capable of building adequate model kits,I use the word 'adequate' because this is what is offered,a basic set of mouldings in thin plastic sheet and sometimes you as the builder are required to scratch build undercarriages,propellers and other detail parts.But true modellers look upon these kits as a stepping stone to building those rare elusive types of aircraft and jump at the opportunity to build something very different from the usual run of kits.


This is what you get for your money,a basic sheet of plastic parts that have been hot blown over a master mould,this kit is an Airmodel Bristol Brigand which has not yet to my knowledge been made as a conventional moulded kit.

Start by drawing around the shapes with a marker pen,the reason for this is that it gives us a guide as to where we are going to sand down to,it is much easier to see the pen mark than to judge where the blade has cut into raw plastic.

The first requirement is to tape a sheet of wet & dry paper onto a piece of plate glass,this will provide a perfectly flat surface from which you can prepare the various parts to build the model,you can either tape the paper or better still tack glue the sheet to the glass with a 'cow gum' adhesive,or even use double sided tape to do the job.

To make life easier firstly seperate the pieces leaving a reasonable gap between the parts as above,this makes the parts more manageable at the initial cutting stage.

Use an Olfa cutter to scribe ( not cut through) the various parts,simply butt the blade against the plastic and pull gently towards you,a slither of plastic will be pulled from the plastic leaving a slight 'v' cut this is exactly what we want.

Next carefully snap away the parts,the pieces should break away easily.

You will then be left with a kit of parts that look like this...

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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