How to display a plane "in flight"

[Ollie]

Oh, ok.

 

[Radish]

What about spinning props?
 

[Mike Wren]

apparently the tiny motors used in mobile phones (for vibrating, Radish   ) ) can be used.

I saw a set of motorised toy cars that kids are supposed to build themselves in Toys R Us a month or 2 back containing a couple of these motors for about £5, although I'd imagine somewhere like Maplin stocks them  

One of the chaps in the convertiplane GB on ARC has motorised his Rotodyne

scroll to the bottom of the page

[Nick]

Some guy at my club does spinning props on his Spits etc, I think he got his motors from either a specialist website or out of an old Playstation. Will email around to see what he did.

Nick B)  

[Aircav]

I saw an ad for a 1/72 radio controlled Tiger tank, small or what            

[Nick]

If it's the one with a handset in a fake German handgrenade, then I've seen it and it's pretty cool!

Nick B)  

[Aircav]

This is the site Nick

http://www.remote-control-toys.co.uk/remot...trol-tanks.html

[Weaver]

Did some research with respect to a question asked on another thread, and thought it should be in the general tips section too.

Some modellers like to simulate spinning props with clear plastic discs, marked in various ways. I'm sure there used to be a company who made these professionally and that I've seen them in boxes of old bits at shows, but I can't recall the name and can't see any sign of them on the net.

Here are some tutorials I found on various different ways of making them:

https://oikofuge.com/how-to-model-rotating-propeller-discs/
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=753.0
http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/lt-alex-scribe-armatas-cona-f-18s/page/35/ (scroll down)
http://fillnsand.blogspot.com/2011/06/prop-blur-discs.html

Here's a set of downloadable PDF prop disc patterns: http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/other/For-Designers/Props.htm

Please feel free to add any info you have.

I had a go at this myself for a wooden mobile I made for a friend's baby. In order to make it kiddy-safe, I cut the disc from very thick plastic and chamfered the edge:

b by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[zenrat]

I have decided that clear discs without anything added look good enough for me.
MItsubishi Mu2 - 9 of 9 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

It even has a hint of forward sweep in that pic, even though it's an illusion caused by the anhedral. 

And the props look great like that, and it seems they're spinning VERY fast! 

[Dizzyfugu]

Such simple, clear discs work very well on small scales (e.g. 1:144 airliners), but the MU-2 is tiny enough, too. Looks very good, IMHO, less is more. I had some mild success with additional translucent propeller blade blurs added, created with Tamiya "Smoke" (applied with a brush) - very similar to weaver's wooden mobilé solution.

[Old Wombat]

The really hard part seems to be getting the blur right.

I don't/wouldn't bother. It's a snapshot in time, taken at a much greater speed than most cameras can achieve.

[Dizzyfugu]

The really hard part seems to be getting the blur right.

Yup. That's why the blank disc is IMHO the safe(r) route.

[zenrat]

Such simple, clear discs work very well on small scales (e.g. 1:144 airliners), but the MU-2 is tiny enough, too...

I have a 1/72 Jug I want to build in flight which I am going to put a clear disc on.  That should be a good test of a bigger prop.