Making Styrene Sails

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Bluemaxone

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May 10, 2021
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I devised a quick method for making sails using a wooden frame, some fine wire, sheet styrene, and a vacuum forming machine. Please see pictures...
 
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I only use the heating element of the vaccum forming machine, letting the styrene sag, then remove the frame to let cool. I don't use the vacuum control at all.
 
This is a 1:300 model of the Magenta, French ironclad, 1878 I think.

I simply wound the wire around the frame to make the shapes I needed. I made sure the wire on the back of the frame was far enough away from the shaping wires that the styrene would not sag into that back set of wires when the styrene was melting. A half inch of spacing or so worked fine. The vertical stick of wood was interposed between the wires for that purpose. The shaping wires leave nice sharp lines for cutting the sails out with fingernail scissors.

I was very pleased with the result. I found that white styrene was easier to paint than clear styrene.
 
Also, you can add a "furl line" to make a pretty nice furled sail. Use a separate piece of wire, and when the styrene is cooling, if you want you can press some folds in with a rounded wooden dowel. You have to be quick because the styrene cools very quickly.

If the model is small enough, any leftover scrap after cutting out the square sails can be used for the jib and spanker sails. I bent some of these shapes around a dowel until they looked realistic and fit nicely to the bowsprit and the mizzen mast.
 
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