flak or bullet holes

[dean spirkoff]

I am making a b-25 in repair with flak and some bullet holes that need to be patched. I searched the tools n tips arhives and could not find anything that would help does anyone have any tips or tricks they use. to help

thanks for any ideas

dean

[huntermountain]

How did you get this topic posted here. Took me some time to figure out why I saw your topic on the forum home page, but couldn't find it in the tips 'n trick forum.

Anyway, I've never done anything like that myself, but I remember seeing a few builds with battle damage. It seems these guys all thinned the plastic from the inside until it was paper thin. At that point it seems it's easier to punch through and shape the holes you want to make.

[Crusader nut]

I recall seeing something about someone cutting panels off of the aircraft and replacing them with a piece of lead foil from a wine bottle. It's stiffer than aluminum foil, but still thin enough to better look the part than the plastic does. And, you can conform it to any shape. It's also easy to punch holes in, and if done carefully, the "skin" will push in the way it would when being shot through on a real plane. You can make it jagged, blown in, or in the case of an explosion, blown out even. I have not tried it myself, but I seem to remember that the results were pretty cool looking.

Here's an example, the torn off wing on this 109 shows the wing skin torn up and loose. That is the lead foil I am talking about. It sure looks realistic as twisted, torn metal skin.

http://modelingmadness.com/review/axis/luft/109/vdhg2.htm

Here's another example using the same thing:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/tm_bdamage.htm

Edited April 3, 2016 by Crusader nut