Flying Plastic Bottles
Flying Plastic Bottles
Over the years I have modeled with very little money and to that end I have found, used and scavenged any materials to attain an end result.
One of the latest objects I have found is the soft drink bottle, while looking at the base of a bottle and envisaging it as an engine nacelle or an engine cowl for a round motor I commenced to cut it to length and shape when I attempted to match it to the diameter of the fuselage it was so close to the diameter all I needed to do was warm it up and stretch the plastics over the edge and pin it into place. Using a hair dryer I found the bottle began to shrink in diameter … It didn’t work but later I thought about it and found if I carved a plug the shape of a canopy when forced inside the bottle and packed it from underneath so that the plug was tight on one side of the bottle and the packing was no greater in width than the base of the canopy, when the heat was applied the bottle shrunk and pulled down over the plug and gave a perfect reproduction of the plug, all that was needed was a trim around the base.
Later I found if the complete front of a glider from the wing cradle forward was carved several soft drink or cooking oil bottles with their necks and bases cut off could be slid over the plug and heated, as each bottle shrunk the next was slid into place with an over lap of 3/16 “ each segment would locate on each other, when all were heated and locked onto the plug a cut with a box knife from end to end underneath, the parts could be sprung off the plug reassembly by clipping each together and a strip of thin ply the length of the knife cut fixed to each of the segments. I used a staple gun, which shot through the plastic and into the ply. The ply was used to mount the radio gear and to fix the front section to the fuselage, the plastic forward of the radio will remain in place if just clipped on and dispense with the ply backbone as this will break if you hit hard enough. A nose shape was carved from a piece of pine and forced down the first plastic segment and fixed in place by the staple gun. I found that the plastic bottle fuselage was more durably than the other material used as it would bend and buckle on impact but would pop back out again ready for use. Oh! I haven’t spent much time honing my flying skills so my planes need to be resilient, Try breaking a soft drink bottle there is not a lot of selection in colours but if painted the plastic looks good. I can post picture of the method if you are interested