puerto rico

[lizzienewell]

The Alaskan headed to Puerto Rico for Christmass. I took along my models to photograph them on the beach. Weird. I know. Anybody else take their toys to the beach?
Here is the results. The wave was going to be coming into the picture with the boat still high, but whoops I misjudged. It wasn't too badly damaged. I grabbed it and dried off the salt water. I need to figure out how to make these things waterproof.

[zathros]

That is a really nice model. Is it scratch built?. I used to make row boat models and would pour liquid crazy glue on the hulls and paint it on really quick. This stiffened the hulls and after I would paint them. There has to be a better way though as that glue is way too toxic to use that way. I found a page I thought you might find interesting. The boats are called Aerosledge AS-2's. Here's the link:

http://www.tupolev.ru/English/Show.asp?SectionID=79

[lizzienewell]

Zathros,

That is way cool. I'd love to make a model of it. Come to think of it the Russians were the first to do snow vehicals. I've seen photos of the automobiles right before the Russian Revolution that were rigged with skis.

I'd like to see that airsledge shifted more in an ekronaplan direction in hopes that it could handle bigger waves, compression ridges, and larger chunks of ice.

Since I'm a Nordic skiier I'm very interested in things that go over snow. I started thinking about ekranoplans while trying to imagine a machine that would work better on snow. In skiing I love the awareness of minute differences in friction and balance.

My model is scratch built. I've been thinking of how ekranoplans could be used for fisheries enforcement and so decided to model the type of boat that is currently in use for this kind of work.

[zathros]

Have you ever considered making some of your work available? It is really top notch, even if you did it on a limited basis. At least that way you could know who has it. I recently downloaded all the movies off of "The Wig Page". There are many videos of the early Russian Ekranoplans cruising over snow. I didn't know if you had checked them out. There are quite a few and they are incredible interesting. Here's the link:

http://www.se-technology.com/wig/index.php

Go into (on left hand side) "Overview of Wig craft"/ "List WIG movies" scroll down to get to the "next pages". The videos of the German X114 are incredible with it's extended out of ground effect flights. It is the best single source of Ekranoplan movies I have ever seen.

[hpept]

Lizzie,
if you want to make your paper models waterproof, try spraying them with transparent acryilc lacquer. Try not to go heavy at first hands, just quick passes and let dry (this avoids smearing of ink and deformation of the model in case it's soaked). When the ink is sealed below a first layer of lacquer thoroughly dried, you can go heavier and lay a uniform coat of spray. It works.

[Rick Thomson]

Melted paraffin wax brushed on might work.

[clarklfarris]

Lizzie,

Just read a thread on another group. Try spray shellac. Should put on 2-3 coats. Spray outside. This stuff dries fast and you can paint over it. Or if the material is already printed the colors should be okay. Hope this helps.