It helps. Balsa grain expands quite a lot when wet. Here is a picture of your C01 corvette sub-deck being bent to initial shape. I have held the part of the balsa sheet which was outside of the bend under a hot tap for 10 seconds or so to soak that side, then propped it up as shown. Expanding one side of a piece of balsa makes it bend towards the other side.... If held in that position, once dry it stays in a nice even bend.

Note that you do not aim to get the bend fitting exactly - there will be some requirement to hold it in position with clamps/rubber bands/pins while gluing.

If you use pins, you will get lots of holes in the balsa. These just vanish if you put a drop of water on them and swell the grain around the hole... like magic! You can also remove small dents this way. Works best on soft, open grain balsa - less well on dense hard wood.

Hi Guys,
I know this may sound like a silly question but when bending Balsa wood around a curved surface do you have to soak it first ?
As you guys probably know I mainly work with recycled plastic materials so working with Balsa wood is a bit of a new thing for me.
I did work with Balsa many many years ago and as my memory is not that good now I will probably have to ask a few more silly questions.

Martin555.

Thanks Red,
I am starting to look forward to working with Balsa wood after so many years.

Martin555.

Hi Martin - the Elvers all balsa - including liteply - you could follow what I try - or not if it does not work.......... Found some sanding sealer at the hardware shop (not dope based) - going to try that for sealing the interior after rejigging the bulkheads.
One of the great things about balsa is you can add bits easily if parts are undersize and its so easy to sand .........

Thanks JB.

Martin555.

Thanks Cashrc for the information.
I appreciate it.

Martin555.

If you are having trouble finding dope, try full sized aircraft supplies. They may sell it in bulk, and as previously mentioned I buy US stuff by the quart can, (a lot cheaper than hobby shops) and lasts for years if well sealed (thin with acetone if it gets too thick, - or the proper thinners)
JB

Hi Cash,
You might have an issue if you get mixed up between model and baby Chief 😮😁
Your balsa experience mirrors mine, back to the dark ages when I was 11!
Tempus fugit - on delta wings!
Dope is almost impossible to find here (Germany) now, damn EU rules n regs!
So I use diluted varnish or water based EzeKote resin instead.
Painting is the part that causes me the most heartache and takes the most time as well!
Main ingredient is Patience, Buckets of it!!
All the best to you and your newly appointed Commodore other half.
Cheers, Doug 😎

I like to mix baby powder into my epoxy. I’ve used that on roughened up abs and haven’t had an issue yet. That I know of, that is.

Balsa!!! Luv me some balsa! For most of my modeling life, dating back to when I was 11 or so, I’ve built airplanes. Got pretty good at working with the stuff. About 1/2 of the planes I built over the years are considered old timers, or vintage. Learned to build light and strong.
There are different grades of balsa and different weights. A grain is the softest and most flexible, while C grain is the least flexible, and within those grain types you can have varying weight between very light to something resembling basswood or light pine.
If you find it hard to find aircraft dope, there’s a place online by the name of Brodak manufacturing. Their main trade is control line aircraft and parts, with a bit of free flight and rc thrown in. They have their own line of dope and it works well.
There are a lot of tips and tricks out there for working with balsa, do a little googling and you’ll find a ton of info. I like to take 2 pieces of light thin stiff balsa and laminate them together crossgrain to make a lite ply, then cut bulkheads and formers from that. You can also cut a crossgrain slit in a piece of thin sheet, then slide thin carbon fiber in the slit and CA it in place, sand it smooth and it’s stronger than you would imagine.
Building boats is little different skill set, especially working with fiberglass and abs, or resin fittings. Wish I’d paid more attention to detail painting plastic models when I was very young, would have paid off now. But, life’s a learning process, ain’t it?
Night y’all
Cash

Exactamente Mark!
"Oldies but Goldies!"😁
(Like us!🤔)
😎
(PS I'm back! Keep the cheers down lads n lass, I'm trying to listen to the radio!😁)

Oh Doug ,the old ones are the best.😏

Use Baby Powder Martin,
Guaranteed "smooth as a baby's ***" 😊

Well I could try it and if it doesn't work at least it will smell nice LOL!

Martin555.

I guess so Martin, especially if you want that wonderful Scandinavian Finnish 😉
Use the waterproof type of PVA white glue.
Goin' Off Duty now Commander, gotta go shopping🤔
CU later, 😎

PS
Customer to bandy legged chemist-
"I'd like some talcum powder please."
Chemist-
"Certainly sir, just walk this way please."
Customer-
"If I could walk that way I wouldn't need the talcum powder!"
😁

Thanks Doug, sorry Admiral.
As you know I do a lot of forward planning before I start something.
And I don't have a budget for this project / any project.
So I was wondering could I use something like white wood glue and talcum power for a filling and to give me a smooth Finnish for painting.?

Martin555.

Absolutely JB👍
Martin, soon you'll tell the hard from the soft by just looking at it. Hard is closer grained with a more compact surface.
In the 'old days' they used to colour code on the ends; green for soft, red for hard.
Or was it t'other way round? 🙄 Do they still do that?
If you don't like the pong of dope (smells like Pear Drops) you can use diluted (with water) EzeKote. That's what I did on the balsa block I used to repair the stern of my ancient fish cutter. Makes the blocks harder and easy to sculpt for filling in awkward curves at bow and stern.

Cutting: the softer the balsa the thinner and sharper the knife (scalpel) or razor saw.
Don't press too hard or you'll squash it like a cheesecake😋
Doug 😎

Thank you JB,
As you know I mainly use recycled plastic for my model making and have done for many years.
I think I was still at school the last time I used Balsa.
I have a small bundle of Balsa that I have had hanging around for years so I am going to have a go at making a boat with it.

Martin555.

Nothing wrong with balsa at all Martin. Great for planking, coamings, anything really. The hulls of all my boats are either balsa planked and glassed or sealed and painted. When buying balsa, the best thing to do is go through the stack and select the hardness you require, eg, soft/medium for bending, planking, medium/firm for coamings and firm for decks (if not using thin ply- as I do) You can feel the weight of each piece, ie light will be soft, heavy will be harder, - you get the feel for it with use, and will pick it the moment you touch it.
If you are cutting ports etc, when you are almost finished trimming, harden the edges with some thin cyno or dope,- this will stop you over sanding/filing and make a nice clean edge. Dope is your friend with balsa and mixed with talc makes a good grain sealer (plaster it on-sands easily). You can spray acryic or enamel over doped balsa with no probs. Thick, medium or thin cyno are good to use and I use tons of balsa glue everywhere when building.
PVA glue is great as well for inside work and can be doped over to waterproof it. balsa does dent easily but unless you drop the model it won't suffer too much damage and if fiberglassed will be almost unbreakable. You can also strengthen balsa by doping on silk, tissue, old soft handkerchief material, Sig Koverall etc and painting. Millions of things to use it on, if you get stuck, give me a yell, sure I'll be able to help.
JB