Re: Modeling Solar Sail Ships

Probably the easiest would be to make a model of the
design which looks like a 45 record, glue mylar to both
sides and use wire to attach the sail to the ship.  If the 45
is going to be too thick you can always use thin plastic
card to make the disk.

In Wind from the Sun (?) (By Clarke IIRC) there were
several models of solar sail described.  One looked
like a Maltese cross with 4 trapezoidal arms around
a small circular center.

Hope this helps,

--Binhan

Mark A. Siefert. wrote:

> Hello:
>	  OK, here's a tough one!
>	  I've been thinking of trying to create a fleet of solar sail
type
> vessels. (Don't ask me why, we miniature gamers like to think of such
> things.)  However, I've hit one snag:  How in the heck do I model the
> actual "sail."  First I thought of using plastic wrap glued to a frame
> of some sort, but I disarded that quickly because it was transpartent
> and it would sag and look very sloppy.  Tin foil was my next thought.
> But that's too heavy and would look horrible if wrinkled.  Mylar would
> be best if I could find a way to make it fit snuggly against the
model's
> sail frame.  Does anyone have any thoughts?
> --
> Later,
> Mark A. Siefert
>
>	  The foundation of collectivism is simple: There should be no
important
> economic differences among people. No one should be too rich. No one
> should be
> too poor. We should "close the wealth gap."  This is a very powerful
> idea.
> This is a very common idea.  This is a very bad idea.
>
>				       --P.J. O'Rourke
>					 From his speech "Closing the
Wealth Gap"
>					 Shanghai, China.  1997
>
> cthulhu@csd.uwm.edu		  
http://www.uwm.edu/~cthulhu/index.html
>
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