In the thumbnail sketch you can also see a couple of canard winglets at the front and a rear wing which is what I decided to tackle next.
First, using scrap cardboard, I tried out the wing, cutting and bending until I was happy with the general proportions. I tried it backwards, forwards and in any possible position, finally deciding that the tips swept backwards looked best as it complimented the shape made by the angle of the handle of the dustbuster.
I then made up a wooden former to heat and bend some 2mm styrene to form the wing.
The styrene is marked out from the cardboard template and clamped to the former with some welding clamps. I always leave a generous allowance of extra plastic when heating and bending as the edges can slightly curl up or warp and then the desired shape can be trimmed to size.
A sheet of metal ( in this case zinc, its what i had to hand) is used to shield the styrene that is to remain unbent from the hot air from the heat gun. A piece of flat wood is used to shield the styrene past the bend and the heat gun played across the bend area untill the styrene starts to sag, The flat piece of wood is then used to roll and flatten the softened styrene to the former. I bent another piece of styrene over the first to get the next layer in the lamination that makes up the wing.
The two bent wing laminations were then glued together with an extra strip of 2mm styrene between the two at the front giving the wing a thicker leading edge. I had to cut a dart into the top layer at the bends to get the rear to pull together at the thinner rear end. I then using more card board worked out the shape of the supports and laminated them out of three layers of 2mm styrene.
more soon...
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