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Someone asked me about the technique used to achieve the dishing effect on this November;
So here's the quick and dirty solution. Start with the sonar dome that you want to create. In this case its the front end of an Albacore - not because it actually has a dished sonar dome but because its the next thing that I'm going to build and its to hand.
Tape over the area of the sonar dome and cut to the outline of the dome.
Peel off the tape and stick it to some thin sheet brass.
Cut out the brass at this stage if you like or leave it as a sheet and go to the next step.
Take your handy French curve and find a nice curve that runs parallel with the bottom edge of the brass cut out. Draw some lines at your chosen spacing.
Stick the thing down and choose a reference point for the vertical lines. In this case its the white cross between 21 and 22 on the ruler. Draw some more lines. Once you're happy with your linework, go over it with a pointed tool to produce indents in the brass. Turn the brass over and voila, there it is - a dished sonar dome.
I usually do this and stick it to the plug before taking a mould off it. This means that the final product is made of epoxy and has the sonar dome moulded in. If you have to fix it to an existing model I'd suggest that you smear the back of the brass with epoxy before fixing it so that the subtle indentations don't get flattened with use.
You can use the same technique to prodice dished sails, dished hull sections, dished control surfaces etc., etc.
So here's the quick and dirty solution. Start with the sonar dome that you want to create. In this case its the front end of an Albacore - not because it actually has a dished sonar dome but because its the next thing that I'm going to build and its to hand.
Tape over the area of the sonar dome and cut to the outline of the dome.
Peel off the tape and stick it to some thin sheet brass.
Cut out the brass at this stage if you like or leave it as a sheet and go to the next step.
Take your handy French curve and find a nice curve that runs parallel with the bottom edge of the brass cut out. Draw some lines at your chosen spacing.
Stick the thing down and choose a reference point for the vertical lines. In this case its the white cross between 21 and 22 on the ruler. Draw some more lines. Once you're happy with your linework, go over it with a pointed tool to produce indents in the brass. Turn the brass over and voila, there it is - a dished sonar dome.
I usually do this and stick it to the plug before taking a mould off it. This means that the final product is made of epoxy and has the sonar dome moulded in. If you have to fix it to an existing model I'd suggest that you smear the back of the brass with epoxy before fixing it so that the subtle indentations don't get flattened with use.
You can use the same technique to prodice dished sails, dished hull sections, dished control surfaces etc., etc.
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