I’ve been tinkering with vellum. I’ve found to my serious annoyance that the most available vellum, that produced by Clearprint, is damn near water repellant; getting the cyanotyping fluid to soak in has proven to be a challenge that I have so far failed to adequately succeed at. The results are, when I work really, really hard and expend a lot of the fluid, at best “meh.” Another brand, Pacific Arc, which seems to be available solely through Hobby Lobby, is substantially more receptive to the fluid. About half the time, the results are “fricken’ awesome.”  Half the time, “meh.”

Today I finally took delivery of large format transparencies. Included are the masks for the 1/72 Saturn V and Ib diagrams, several V-2 diagrams (an engine diagram for 18X24 and a layout w/profiles for 18X24, and a very large V-2 cutaway), a large NERVA diagram, and a large bit of NERVA artwork that I have doubts about. I’ve successfully made 18X24 cyanotpyes on vellum for the two V-2 diagrams… and all goes well, tomorrow, two trials of the nearly 6-foot-long Saturn V.

Back in the day, cyanotyping was apparently a straightforward process, with machines that would make sure that results were good an uniform and cost effective. I’m still working on trying to obtain uniformity, but I’m getting closer.  Vellum is a lot more challenging in that respect than watercolor paper, but when it all works right, the results can be spectacular.

Those of you who contributed to the “Space Station V/new computer project,” guess what’s coming…