1:48 Plywood - Birch

An imitation of birch plywood in 1:48 scale

A printed sheet with the grain of birch plywood. It is a flat sheet from which you cut parts out according to a template of your own. It is not a set of parts for a particular aircraft type but a material you adapt to whatever you are building at the time.

What it is suited to

Plywood was a common structural material on aircraft of the First World War period: it covered fuselages and formed cockpit floors, bulkheads and propeller blades. Painting its grain with a brush is work for several evenings and the result tends to be uneven. A printed sheet gives a uniform grain across the whole area and manages transitions over curves as well. It also comes into its own with interwar machines and with wooden interior parts.

How to apply the sheet

• Make a paper template of the part and cut a piece of the sheet out to it with a small overlap.
• Coat the base with gloss varnish, because on a matte surface air is trapped under the decal and the area goes dull.
• Soak the cut piece in lukewarm water and let it rest until the film releases from the paper.
• On curves and edges use a softener, so that the grain seats without folds.
• Watch the direction of the wood grain; on neighboring parts it has to run on, otherwise the area looks glued together from random pieces.
• Once dry, go over the area with varnish so that the edges of the decal disappear.

Who the sheet is for

For modelers who build wooden structures and want a faithful grain without hand painting. Cutting out to a template calls for patience, while the application itself is ordinary decal work.

The package holds the printed sheet. The model, the paints, the varnish and the softener are not included, unless stated otherwise.