Working with Balsa
I was looking to see if I could make my own rulers and attitude indicators out of balsa wood. Being I have not actually worked with balsa before (beyond the balsa airplanes), I could use a few tips as to how to go about it. Does anyone give me a hand with some of the basics?
I would use basswood instead of balsa. It is usually sold alongside Balsa in hobby stores. I find it sturdier than balsa. I believe the Anchorage rulers and indicators are made of basswood.Originally Posted by ChyronDave
Good to know. I'll have to take a look for that. I may still pick up balsa to practice with before I tackle the real thing.
I have gotten a few pieces of basswood to work with (along with an odds set, mostly to practice on), but I found my first attempt at cutting went a little rough. What is the best way to cut basswood affordably (I know a laser cutter would do it, but that's a bit more than I want to spend on this project).
A power scroll saw is usually used to cut out shaped items. It sounds like you just have hand tools? If you don't already have the proper tools it would much more cost effective to just buy attitude indicators. Rulers could probably be made easy enough if all you have to do is cut them off at the correct length with a miter box. Take a look at this site to get an idea of hobby tools:
http://www.micromark.com/
Here is a hand tool you might use instead of a scroll saw:
http://www.micromark.com/jewelers-saw,6747.html
Last edited by Coog; 07-19-2014 at 23:40.
Thanks for the links. I'll have to check my FLGS Sunday to see if they have the miter box/saw combo and the jewelers saw as well. You are probably right about the attitude indicators, but I still want to give it a go just to see if I can do it. If anything, I might get a few wooden rulers out of it.
Picked up a few tools at my FLGS and took a step toward trying to make an attitude indicator.
This is my first attempt at the basic shapes.
Looks good.
Not bad at all. I only have the most basic of hand tools so I'll not get results like this. Fortunately, I've got the Accessories store to fall back on. Cheers!
That was done only with a hobby saw for the straight cuts and a jeweler's saw for the curves. I am not the handiest of people, and I was able to do this.
Surprisingly, the ruler turned out to be a bit more difficult than the parts for the attitude indicator.
I moved onto the next stage of my attitude indicator: staining and painting. Staining is the easy part since it's just an all over coat. Painting, however, has proved a bit tricky for me. At the moment, I'm still letting things dry, but I hope to have picks tomorrow of the painted pieces and, possibly, the final assembly.
Hopefully I can learn from what I did with this one to make the next one better.
Are you painting directly onto flat surfaces, or did you score any form of grooves?
Looking forward to seeing your finished components.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato
At the moment, I'm waiting for the glue to set on the first piece that I made. I still need practice with painting (I'm thinking of using a stencil on the next one).
The last picture is just a wood "treasure chest" that I picked up a while ago when I was doing photo stories with G.I. Joes and I finally got around to staining. It can use a third coat.
The chest looks like it could hold some maneuver cards or other game components?
Possibly, I haven't tried anything yet. It is on the small side, so I'm thinking if anything, it would only hold maybe markers.
Maybe I might think of some sort of Privateer mission there that marks the seizing of goods or something.
David, would you consider running a straight edge groove along the painted portions' edges, and then use a different color in those edges? I think that would set the color portions off nicely.
Keep up the good work.
Looking forward to seeing your next round of pictures.
This weekend, I picked up a paintbrush and started painting models, in earnest, for the first time since the mid-70s. I tried a few 1:4800 Tumbling Dice ships a bit ago, but this time I can actually see what I am trying to paint - SE5as and Fokker D VIIs. I must admit it is more enjoyable than I expected. I have collected so much this past year to paint, that I should be busy for the rest of the year. Fun times ahead.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato
Sounds like a good idea. I am working on a second one, so I may try it on that. I might have to get some more tools, though.
If the wood is soft enough, you might be able to use a straightedge and most anything to press down while tracing. I believe someone used a marker or ink to do some of the coloring work, so that might work well in the grooves.
Nice cutting of the wood, by the way.
On the bottom piece, I would try one side with stain and then paint, and on the other side, paint and then stain to see the different effects. I have been meaning to hit some rulers with linseed oil to see how that affects the coloring. This week, I will try one and post a picture.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato
When I started painting, I messed up on one side. Applying the particular stair I picked tends to wash out the paint so you can't see it anymore
Working on the third attitude indicator.
On this one, I worked a little on the base, carving in some grooves. I use masking tape for the (mostly) straight lines. I still kept things simple in the actual arm, just doing a simple groove on each side with gold paint in it, then using black paint for the back part of the arm.
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