Best In Scale

摘要

Some years ago I built a 65" span model of the little known American aircraft the Alexander Bullet. The numerous louvres that were in the engine cowling panels were a most distinctive feature of the aircraft. The problem of how to make them troubled me for some time before I decided to follow full-size practice and punch them into the panels. Lithoplate is a soft aluminium material and I reasoned that I could do the punching with the minimum of tooling. Punching using a hammer was dismissed early in the proceedings and I started to favour the idea of using a fly-press. There was one big problem - I didn't have access to a fly-press. Searching for a solution I then had a little bit of inspiration, would my small pillar drill work as a punch? The answer was yes but there was another problem, how could I stop the drill shaft rotating. I did this by lashing a strip of spruce through the taper shank hole with rubber strip and rotating the shaft until the wood was in contact with the pillar of the drill. With the piece of wood in contact with the pillar of the drill any rotating movement was restricted. On recent occasions I have managed to punch louvres without this 'Heath Robinson' attachment but it is best to try and restrict the movement of the drill shaft.