Revell 1/72 Flitzer

[Spey_Phantom]

excelent work on the canopy, you are a scratchbuilding jedi 

[NARSES2]

I am amazed, apart from your builds, from your sawing method.
How do you manage to cut plastic with a sewing thread? It's smeared with abrasive, or is a special thread? Never heard of this.

Nor have I, how on earth does it work ?

[Dizzyfugu]

Impressive craftmanship - thanks for the WiP pics of the canopy re-build 

[Captain Canada]

Woah ! Great work on the canopy ! That looks awesome ! It sure is thinner and clearer.

[MichelC]

Thank you guys, glad you like it!  

A few words of explanation about sawing (instead of sewing) with a thread. I ran into this trick many years ago on the Internet (where else?) We are talking about plain old thread, straight from the sewing kit, not some special kind of thread. Does thread cut? You bet! (Strange, but then you wouldn't expect paper to cut either and yet who has never cut his finger with a sheet of paper?) Perhaps heat has something to do with it, I'm not sure. The sure thing is that it will cut through any piece of plastic. Try and you'll see.

Besides eliminating any risk of scratching when cutting clear parts, there is something else you can do with thread, namely cut complex contours. It makes the perfect coping saw, the blade being finer than any coping saw blade.





There is a company that sells sanding belts that throws in some thread as a bonus so you can turn the sander into a saw. Goes under the name Tom's Handy Tools.

All modelers use needles, right? So why not use thread as well?  

M

[Caveman]

This definitely needs to go into the tool tips section!

[PR19_Kit]

You learn something new every day! A superb tip. 

I was expecting you tell us that the thread had to be impregnated with unobtanium filings or some such, but no. 

[loupgarou]

Thanks for the explanation, Michel.
Very useful tip. I'll try it !
From the look of the filings in your second photo I'd say that heat has definitively something to do with it.

[dogsbody]

Capital idea!

[Captain Canada]

Cool. Thanks for the tip ! How do you hold it in the coping saw ?

[MichelC]

I'm glad you find this useful!

Loupgarou, I agree with you about the filings and the heat. Must be a combination of generated heat and the abrasive quality of the thread. Remember when you were a kid, sliding down a rope and burning your hands?

Capt. Canada, I secure the thread just like a normal coping saw blade: by tightening the thumb screws.

M

[NARSES2]

You learn something new every day! A superb tip. 

I was expecting you tell us that the thread had to be impregnated with unobtanium filings or some such, but no. 

Have to agree with all of this.

Many thanks for the explanation 

[MichelC]

You learn something new every day! A superb tip. 

I was expecting you tell us that the thread had to be impregnated with unobtanium filings or some such, but no. 

Have to agree with all of this.

Many thanks for the explanation 

You're welcome! It makes me happy when I can contribute to the knowledge chest!

M

[MichelC]

OK, so here we are, back to the Flitzer, getting it done this time, yes we will!

These molds are at least 20 years old and you can feel it: all panel lines need re-scribing... Fortunately no fit problems with the wings and boom/tail assembly.

Work on the wings included: re-scribing, thinning trailing edges, attaching LG doors in the closed position, drilling out the gun ejections ports and enlarging the intakes.





Not much to show for the moment. But I thought I'd let all the Flitzer fans know that this build is back on the front burner! ... What? ... There are no Flitzer fans? ... Ah, OK.  

M

[matrixone]

Michel,
I am a BIG fan of the Flitzer (and other Focke-Wulf designs) and just spotted this thread so I will be following the progress of this build closely. Its looking great so far.


Matrixone