Has anyone made their own turbo prop conversions?

[Guest]

Hello to everyone who, like me have a thing for military turbo prop planes.

I have several 1/72nd aircraft that I want to convert to turbo prop power, and with the exception of my P-2 Neptune and my F-84 converts, these aircraft I want to convert are leaving me scratching my head as to how I can go about a conversion.

The planes I want to do are a Nord Atlas, AC-119k and a s-2 Tracker. I have traced a conversion kit to a place in Chile for the S-2, but I dont really trust the means of payment that they accept as they don't use paypal.

I have a turbo conversion kit for my P-2 and was wondering if it was possible somehow to copy these engines. They are resin wondered if they could be copied by making moulds of them.

Any advice will be helpful as I want to get these planes done as quick as I can.

Cheers.

Chris.

[wonwinglo]

Chris,a simple moulding technique for making Turboprop engines is the use of ordinary florists Oasis as a mould,simple obtain two small blocks and sink one half of the pattern nacelle into the Oasis,next place two small pieces of dowel into two corners fixing these with a dab of epoxy,these simply act as register locators for the mould,next place the other block over the other half of the pattern and press the two together firmly,you now have the basis for your engines,next mix up some quick drying car filler such as Davids P38 which comes in two parts ie filler and hardener,apply with a spatula into each half of the nacelle mould,now quickly press together and allow to cure for the respective time,best to remove from the mould when still slightly soft,by doing this you can easily trim up the parts,finally allow overnight to really harden and the next day sand them up with a Permagrit block or similar sanding tool,give a coat of primer and attach to your model.

[Guest]

Cheers for that, I was wondering what the detail would be like when the finished product is made. Would I have to re-etch the details and panel lines into them. I was thinking of using some sort of pourable silicone for the mould, and some sort of two part resin for the part itself. Has anyone here done this?

I will give your suggestion a go first though Barry as it sounds the cheapest, and least prone to disaster!!

Thanks again.

Chris.