Howdy and HELP!

[MOACCUB]

OK so here is the deal, I LOVE SteamPunk but have the artistic ability of a crowbar.  Zero, none, non-existent. 

I am an engineer, builder, and (most relevant to this post) a pilot.  I'm building an airplane, a Super Legend Cub XP MOAC edition.  (https://legend.aero/american-legend-al18-super-legend-xp/)

The beauty of building my own airplane is that I can basically do whatever I want in terms of design.  What I want to do is give it a Steam Punk flare; however, as mentioned above, Im no artist.  So I would like to respectfully request assistance, guidance, ideas.

The best I have come up with is; painting the control stick and tubing with copper paint.  Not a great start, if I'm honest. 

So do ya'll have some ideas or designs you can impart??

[SeVeNeVeS]

First of all  Welcome aboard the forum.

Uuummm, short of buying an air ship or sopwith camel, I can't really think of anything right now.

One of our Mods has some kind of qualification in aeronautical design I believe........J. Wilhelm



I do rather like the yellow............ External paint job could be the key to Steampunking this baby,



Please do keep us updated with photos as you progress.

[James Harrison]

Welcome!- what SeVeNeS said.  Not being an aeronautical engineer I wouldn't want to inadvertantly suggest anything that proves detrimental to it's flying characteristics. 

What materials is it built of, by the way?- is it a timber airframe or metal? And is the covering linen or plastic or?  If we're talking about the sorts of materials that can be traced back to the Great War era or earlier, one way to go might be to give them a period finish- ie polished brightwork, varnished wood and creamish-yellow linen. 

[SeVeNeVeS]

vinyl wrap the outside? Would a wrap affect the performance, I'm out of my depth here.  


Google    steampunk vinyl wrap

Ok, it's a car but this is the kinda thing I had in mind.

[mizzarrogh]

I was about to suggest that too, You can probably do some stencil motives, if You can't draw Your self (and honestly i am realy bad at painting motives my self) You can stich together a lot of immages to a large photo collage i think, at least that's what i often do for concept art for my own use.

If You are using water or spirit based based paints You can wipe it off if it does not come out as expected until You are pleased with the result.

[Sorontar]

Welcome! I imagine you could do a lot with the texture and ornaments, especially with the interior, but I am wondering

1) would adding things to the outside, like "pipes" and knobs (non-functional though) be detrimental to the efficiency of the craft due to ruining the flow of air across the surface?
2) would adding too much extra add a lot to the weight of the craft?

In a perfect world you could add functional bits and bots, but I imagine the main priority is building some thing that can fly and is legal.

Sorontar

[J. Wilhelm]

Oh, dear!  

Well, I'm thinking you're merely thinking of aesthetics. Then there's absolutely no limitations,as long as you keep any of the aircraft insignia visible. I used to have a couple of friends who had their own airplanes.

One of them wanted to build a flying boat. The other one built by himself a composite experimental aircraft, single engine. As long as you build 60% of the airframe yourself, basically you assume all liability, as far as the FAA is concerned, and thus you're freed from a great deal of FAR regulations, from what I understand. It's one of the wonderful legacies we have in the US to promote innovation in aircraft.

Unless you're looking for aircraft resizing or configuration, I'm going to assume you're just looking for aesthetic changes. And your biggest canvas is the skin of the plane; there you have an infinite set of options.

Steampunk doesn't necessarily involve copper pipes or gears, the reason being that aircraft are such an old technology that they literally overlap with the Victorian Era - Think about the Wright Brothers. So one easy way to find your aesthetic is just to look at historical pictures!! You're already flying a very classic configuration, an early type of high wing monoplane. So that helps a lot.

Steampunk:

Von Richtoffen's Flying Circus comes to mind. You can imitate the look of canvas over wood by drawing dark lines where the ribs and spar of the wing would be. You already have a "round" vertical stabilizer, making it look like the tail of a WWI Era Fokker DR 1 plane! The high wing helps by looking anachronistic too. Paint the trailing edge with curves to make it look like the canvas is stretched between the ribs. The plastic windshield, not so steamy, but you can't do anything about it, and won't be as visible if you use strong colours.

https://www.starduststudios.com/manfred-von-richthofen.html

Dieselpunk:

Your fuselage has flat surfaces!! So 1930s .Paint it all aluminum gray/silver. No "artistic" skills necessary here. Paint dark horizontal lines to imitate the corrugated aluminum fuselage of Inter War Era monoplanes. Think of logotypes, such as old company names. Like the Junkers aircraft. Again, the high wing helps a lot with the look. Paint lots of rivets. Don't forget to paint the engine cowl black.

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/19568/why-did-the-junkers-ju-52-have-corrugated-external-surfaces

A "war prize" (below). This plane started life as a German Junkers Ju 52 in service with Lufthansa Südamerika for Andes service. After passing hands many times it was confiscated by Peru and acquired by the American USAAF in 1941, and retrofitted with Pratt and Whitney engines and 3 blade propellers

[J. Wilhelm]

vinyl wrap the outside? Would a wrap affect the performance, I'm out of my depth here.  


Google    steampunk vinyl wrap

Ok, it's a car but this is the kinda thing I had in mind.

Vinyl wrap will not affect performance, other than a little added weight, assuming that you're avoiding any sensors, inlets or outlets (eg Pitot tube, NACA air inle, etc), or trying to wrap around sharp features and corners. The issue would be durability of the wrap under normal conditions and whether or not the film can be properly attached to the skin of the fuselage. To be honest, before today I hadn't thought much of the film for aeronautical applications outside of a documentary I saw on TV many years ago (I think that that was the original use of the film before jumping to automotive application). But a quick search yields this:

https://aviationwraps.com/

I don't know how expensive it'll be, though.

[von Corax]

I keep imagining a single iconic gear as a roundel on the tail and wings.

[Gregor]

Nice!

I had a few friends that built airkraft from kits and scratch even.  One of my wife's friends dad had a gyro-copter he kit-built in his basement.  They rightly kept that a secret from me until he passed
away and they were able to offload it to someone out of state.

Like you I am not artistic, but still somewhat creative (as I am sure you are, being an engineer) some small ideal:

Classical steampunk era suggestions for some details like spoked wheel hubs, or the disc-flattened-cone covers, wooden propeller with brass bolts, rivets, and whatever brass they had on their Piper restore.
Fake bullet holes to make it battle scarred, or perhaps some fake rips where that airkraken almost dined. . .

If you go the more metal look like the Junkers, think also Spirit of Saint Louis, or even the sea-plane look of the first Indian Jones movie.   Oh? are you going to get floats?

Just some suggestions, but PLEASSSSssse,       keep us posted

-gregor