Oil Canning?

[Wendall]

I really have had a serious case of modellers block lately. I'm slowly plodding on with a couple of builds but I just don't feel motivated. In order to try and inspire myself I read a lot of blogs, build threads and magazine articles.

What I have found here and everywhere else are some absolutely stunning builds. Well built, painted and weathered. When I build I sort of try to achieve 'reality in scale' and in a quest for this I have discovered this Oil Canning technique. For those of you not familiar it is the process of replicating the stress marks around rivet lines primarily on aircraft wings. It involves marking all of the rivet lines on the surface of the wing and then lightly gouging out grooves along them. You then polish it up, rescribe the panel lines and add the rivets.

Here is where I discovered it.

http://www.ratomodeling.com/finished/ki61_72/

Has anybody tried this?

Personally I think it looks really effective and adds a whole load of interest to the surface. I had a look through my very limited aircraft stash and none of them appear to be moulded with this effect. I wonder why that is?

My reason for asking is that I think I have solved my mojo problem. I have just aquired (for free) Revells 1/32 Heinkel He 111 P1 it looks awesome and I cant wait to start it but it has very big but boring wings.

I'm off to get a fresh scapel blade.

Jason

[Guest]

Wow!! I can not imagine myself trying this Jason o_O

Really, there are some talent modellers out there.....

Thanks for share it, is very interesting!!! Ahh....and hope your mojo returns soon

[stona]

Good luck Jason!

As far as I know there are no models made with this effect built in. I agree that it can look very good, but it is an exaggeration of the real 'oil canning' seen on the skins of real aircraft and maybe this, along with the technical problems achieving the effect, is why few have taken up the challenge to do it.

Having said that I think a large aeroplane like the 1/32 He 111 you have, would be a perfect subject on which to show off the technique.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

The new Airfix 1/24 Typhoon has this effect, and is of a size where it could be effective; do take care not to let your enthusiasm run away with you, though.

As an example, it's easy to find photos of modern rebuilds of Spitfires, where a lot "canning/dimpling" shows up, but, during the war, the maximum allowance for a depression was 1/10" (that's 2.5mm,) which translates into .1mm in 1/24, and, even then, was only in one (particularly small) area of the wings. "Wrinkling" anywhere else normally meant a wing replacement.

Back then, rivets were placed into pre-drilled countersunk holes, then covered by a flat block of steel, while the riveter did his/her work from inside the wing or fuselage, leaving no signs of even a slight dimple. Add in the filling, and smoothing that was done on wings' leading edges, and even less becomes visible.

Edgar

[Guest]

That does look effective but given the comments above I will use those as a excuse for never ever, ever, ever attempting it.

[Ian M]

I saw a Tamiya 1/32 scale Mustang that had had this done. Painted as a polished metal finished it did look fantastic. But as Edgar pointed out, in scale it would be hardly visible. On an Aircraft.

However on a ship or a submarine. I saw a build of a Revell U-boot that had been oil canned and as we know U-boats are both beaten by waves and crushed by the water pressure while diving.

So if you really want to give it a go, grab a sub or ship. Oh and LOTS of scalpel blades. The ones with a curved edge.

Ian M

[Guest]

It is a fantastic effort by the modler I must admit.

However in my dayjob on these things I have never seen any stress marks in the alclad skin that is so heavy as to show up in the scales we usually do.

You might get a line forming where the skin is riveted to a former, a stringer, or rib, but not nearly as heavy as that (not to take anything away from the build)

If a got a plane in looking like that I would imidiately remove the access pannels in the wings to check the spar has no cracks or bends it it !

Having said that, I have seen pix of planes in tight bank that does oilcan quite substantually, but only under heavy G loadings.

Just my 2c worth

Theuns

[Gern]

Bit late, but I've just come across this (about 4minutes in if you want to skip the start):

Gern

[Gern]

I've just watched Part 2 of this video. He went and painted all the individual rivets!!!

Gern

[stona]

That's an easier way of doing it. I've seen an article where the modeller built up the overlapping panels on a Spitfire fuselage using a variation of this technique.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

I like how the guy sprays a rattle can of primer in his front room - oh, the overspray!

[Gern]

I like how the guy sprays a rattle can of primer in his front room - oh, the overspray!

I've noticed that on a lot of these Plamo videos. All the modellers also seem to use vast amounts of paint and spray at very high pressures.

Gern