As mentioned previously, I bought a pack of 8X10 “sun print” sheets. These are really just old-school cyanotype blueprint sheets, ready for exposure. I’ve done some preliminary experimenting with them, and here are the results.
The first step was to get a transparent diagram. This was stymied by the PC going down, but after some effort I was able to get my laptop to communicate with the printer. I printed onto both transparencies (which are surprisingly hard to find these days) and simple tracing paper. As it turns out, the tracing paper prints worked out substantially better than the transparencies. Bonus: the tracing paper prints are themselves rather nifty bits of art, while the transparencies… aren’t.
A major part of the process is washing the print in water. This has obvious consequences as far as the texture of the paper. But with a minimum of “pressing” between the pages of a book, this has been substantially mitigated. The end result is something that looks rather a lot like an actual vintage blueprint.
Of course, these are just 8X10, which is pretty small as blueprints go. However, I sent a message to “Tedco Toys,” the seller of these sheets, asking if larger sheets (such as 24X36) are available. A reply has come in wanting to know if I want just those sheets.. or a whole roll. I haven’t found the pricing yet for larger sheets or whole rolls, but I’d expect there’d be some serious expense here. So, before I spend more on this… would there be interest in larger-scale blueprints of things such as the B-29 or Dyna Soar?
UPDATE: I got word back that they can sell a 36″ X 25′ roll for $180. That would make the cost of the paper for a 36″X24″ blueprint $14.40. So… maybe $30 for a 36X24 blueprint? $15 for an 18X24? Assuming there was market enough to buy the roll…