Posts by Ricleite

Thanks, Zoli The colours are a welcome change from Modelik's more common red and black...
On a different note, I confirmed that the girl in your avatar is Yoko Tsuno, a character created by Roger Leloup. Your avatar was taken from one of Yoko's adventures - L'or du Rhin. A good one, if you ask me, where a train is always present

Hello, Zoli
This model is high on my wish list for the next Christmas. You'll have an interested viewer
I see you are already well into the kit! Is it as good as previous, recent, Modelik kits?

Thank you all for the comments
@ Zaphod - that's what I call a coincidence! Do you know if the kit will be available at moduni, or GPM? I'm pretty interested =)
@ Norm - quite amazing I'd never think of doing it that way! Well, the lower wingspan of the Knoller is very small but, nevertheless...

... and the last ones.

Walking around, at ground level...

Well, the model is complete Let's go to the pictures...

@ Norm - I looked again, more carefully, to your construction pictures and yes, I have no doubt that 'your' wings are solid You didn't use the parts provided in the kit and may well have been a very good choice! Just another question - did you leave a place on main card part for a bit of wire? I guess that the two half wings are linked that way.
The Knoller wing structure is not unlike the lower wing / floaters structure on the Brandenburg W12. With this solution, there is no need for wing bracing! I very much like Brandenburg floatplanes. Maybe sometime a kit pops up of the W-29. I'd be a ready buyer, if the kit is good...

@ frettchen - I should be able to post pictures of the completed model tomorrow or Friday...

@ Sergey - To paint the edges, I always use pens. Usually ABT dual brush pens because they have a huge set of colours. They are quite expensive but, to paint the edges and not a lot more, they last for a long time :). It is often adequate to paint with a neutral grey, instead of a seemingly more appropriate colour. A bright colour will tend to pop up the edge, instead of concealing it

@ Norm - I did press a bit on the paper, particularly close to the leading edge. It is just noticeable there. Frankly, I was a bit afraid of pressing the paper more firmly as there could be an accident. You managed to do a lot more on the Knoller and it surely looks more realistic. Answers paper is less thick than GPMs and that may help but I guess you used other tricks a lot of white glue to soften the paper, maybe? This is something I have to try on another model, with spare paper.
Anyway, it is all too easy to overdo the effect. It is usually significant near the leading edge, where the streamwise curvature is greater. The leading edge itself was often reinforced with a wood part that locally eliminates the effect.
On another note, the resulting wing structure on the model is very unsound! Think of a main spar cut down to pieces, hardly glued together, and fixed to a wrinkled upper skin. I bet that, with time, the whole thing will tend to deform. I enclose a picture of a model built in 1997. The wing structure is made of rather thin paper boxes, glued to the skin, with just a bit of thick wire in the middle, to fix the dihedral. The sewing thread rigging has never been adjusted since then and I see no sign of it getting loose.
That said, this problem should not appear in your Knoller because the triangular structure between the wings is made of struts that can work both in tension and compression. Together with the wings, the struts form a very stiff beam. The model structure works the same way. Cable stabilized structures in the real world, when modelled, tend to have a completely different behaviour. The cables are just for show and the beam is inside each wing. Much slender and with a very tiny fraction of the stiffness

It looks very promising If the part 41 slips with a bit of pressure, it may well hold the cowling in place quite neatly. It is 'just' a matter of testing

To assemble the upper wing in the correct position, GPM provides card templates that are very useful. For the struts, I put a bit of wire inside every one. The wire tips enter small holes on the connection points.
The last picture shows the radiator and the airspeed indicator. I guess this one could only be used by pilots with above average eyesight!...

Great work, g force!!! A real joy to follow 8o. If Im not mistaken, you made the engine cowling detachable. Is that part of the kit or is it an extra?

You are surely right about scanning, correcting and printing again, Eric. The fact is that I am all too lazy to modify kits to that extent However, I often add (hidden) parts to ease assembly. That was the case in the nose and the engine cowling. There was virtually no place to put glue on
The laminated airscrew is an interesting idea but, again, the thick paper doesn't help. Each slice has front and back and gets very thick. I'd very much prefer to have single slices (not arranged in pairs) to get a smoother finish. The drawback to have to paint the rear face would not be a real problem as it is already necessary to paint the many edges...

@ Eric - You got exactly to my point! It looks much better this way, doesnt it? By the way, I think that this method also models better the real shape of the wing tip because the fabric, being in tension, tends to get straight between wing formers. Near the leading edge, the more marked streamwise curvature adds a nice 3D effect to the fabric shape but I guess that it can only be reasonably modelled by deforming the paper
Your Morane looks great I particularly like the rigging and the airscrew but the whole model is a beauty. I enclose a couple of pictures of your Moranes German brother, the Pfalz E.I. It is a scratchbuild, too

@ Tallyho - Oh dear! Thanks a lot for taking your time for translation
The wing structure is interesting but Im not completely happy because, spanwise, it is not very stiff. It fits very, very tightly inside the skin, too. I had to remove a bit, in order to put it all inside the skin. Another not very good solution is the large cut on the upper surface, near the wingtip. It allows the paper to be curved to simulate double curvature but wouldnt it be possible to design the parts with cuts exactly along the structure lines? That way, the cuts would be reasonably hidden. This is definitely not the case here :(. Mr GPM, please think about it for your next projects

You know how to interest me, John
It is a 'one off' for ID, isnt it? I have already assembled quite a few models from them, I have a few more waiting (but not this one) and it is the first time that I see this printed detail! Thanks for showing

Hello Stephan, greetings from Portugal
@ Tallyho - Well, my German has improved from a big bold zero to a slightly slimmer and smaller zero. Anyway, I got most of the history and let me thank you for taking your time to put it here. Regarding the Hiero engine, there it is I'll deal with the exhausts latter on, after gluing the engine to the fuselage.

Hello John,
I suspect that the broader tab at the top does a better job not because it overlaps the previous tab but because, being broader, gives a better gluing surface and makes assembly easier. We all know that an easy assembly has a better chance to be properly made than a difficult one. Something that the kit designers should always have in mind ;). In this case, as the dome is not pointed, the tabs near the top remain almost flat and there is no real problem in overlapping them. No doubt, you made the best choice

@ Michael - thanks
@ Zweispeer - please take a look here: [Fertig] BAC Lightning - Fly Model (1:33)
It is where I started using rolled paper strips for the tyres. Please feel free to ask for details, if you want
@ Norm - well, well, it would be a good companion to your Knoller =)

The tail assembly is just a piece of cake. I used slim paper strips for the rudder actuator, instead of thread. It comes out straight more easily...

John, why did you choose to replicate the shape of the printed tabs on the dome? I'd rather make them broader at the base, in order to get a bigger gluing surface. At the top, that would not be convenient because the tabs would overlap. In theory, the tab width at any point should, at most, be a bit less than slice width at that point. Half of it would glue under the previous slice and the other half under the following slice. With this geometry, the tabs would not overlap but, near the top, the assembly gets trickier. Well, thats just theory. What really counts is the practice and you got a perfect dome
The left/right print on the slices is interesting! I see that the graphic quality is well up to ID standard. Just delicious =)

The kit proposes to put a bit of wire inside all four legs of the landing gear. I decided to use a single, U-shaped, wire for the front two legs, in order to eliminate some degrees of freedom. Hopefully, the assembly will be sturdier. For the tyres, I used the usual rolled paper strips.

The fuselage tail is well drawn. The solution to fix the rear landing gear is simple and effective.
There will be a bit of wire to support the horizontal tail. The hole for the wire is well marked on the fuselage parts but not on the laser cut structure. However, I noticed that the card is quite easy to make a hole in...

Great choice, John =). I' m sure that support will be required in strategic places to keep everything firmly and accurately in place
As you say, it looks challenging...

@ Royaloakmin - well, I am a good client from several publishers The stock of models to build keeps growing but the good thing is to have a lot to choose from

The cockpit gave no problems. The cockpit cover was a bit trickier because the only places to put glue are the front and back formers. There is nothing in between. Fortunately, the dark strips (part 17) help to hide the misery...

Thank you for the support, frettchen
As the wing formers look very complicated to cut, I bought the laser cut parts from GPM. Some of them are used in the first assembly - the cockpit.

My next build will be GPM's most recent WWI subject - the Phönix D.IIa. The kit is in the same mould of previous GPM WWI models - Nice colours, excellent instructions and some design choices that I find somewhat dubious but, hopefully, manageable
Well, let's start with the usual pictures of the kit...

@Yu - Ahhh, now I see what you mean. Yes, in theory it would be fine but I guess a special tool would be needed to cut properly at 45º and get a regular edge. Surely not feasible with my little trusty knife
A thin paper part that extends over the underlying card and over the card thickness of the other, perpendicular, paper covered part, seems a better approach. Modelik uses it on some assemblies on this model and I like it

Thank you all for the comments
@ Wolfgang - the track is very small and the distance between the axles is very small, too. Without shock absorbers (just springs...), I guess than a less than perfect track would result in a rather bumpy ride =)
@ Michael - Me, Rosy ? Well, the colour is almost there
@ Royaloakmin - Modelik seems to have spotted a market niche! They have come out with 4 new train subjects!!! All will be part of my next shopping spree, along with the Jupiter. This last one is not just beautiful, it is colourful as well!
@ Bruno - 0,2mm? Oh dear! I guess that disqualifies me to work as 'Rosy'
@ Yu - well, I bet we share the same taste for the way to build paper models. We are not alone (John, are you there? ) The short answer to your question is no. However, I almost always pass the nail over the edges. It softens the edges and helps to hide some fuzz that may occur while cutting. Is that what you mean?
@ John - our best friend, John, our best friend ;). The 'our' can be extended to the forum community
@ Dalibor -
@ Tino - The picture layout is not completely random It is not completely planned, either. First, I take the pictures. They come up with romantic names like P0010001.jpg. Then I correct the lightness, contrast and so on. Then, I put decent names on them. A certain order emerges and it comes out when posting the pictures...

And a couple of details, to finish with. For the statistics, the model has something close to 740 parts and I added exactly 1088 rivets 8)

Some more...

Some lateral views...

@Yu - you know, perfection is just a matter of scale To find flaws, you just have to look closer
And that is it The model was very enjoyable to build and a big improvement over the T2-71 that I assembled back in 2005. It is so good that I plan to build another train in the near future!
Well, let's go to the pictures...

Hello Bruno, nice to here from you
As a general rule, I fold after cutting half thickness, along the fold line and on the outside. The fold quality depends a lot on paper thickness and quality. Modelik's paper is a bit too thick for my taste but the quality is fair. Anyway, I always smooth out the folds by pressing them with a nail. Passing the nail before painting the edge is good because the paper gets less ink and do so more uniformly along the fold line.
Well, that is the rule but there are exceptions. When the fold angle is small, I sometimes don't half-cut first. A table edge serves to mark the fold. When I have double thickness paper, I can half-cut the inner sheet and completely cut the outer one. Another possibility is to half-cut the outer sheet and remove a tiny (something close to paper thickness) bit of the inner sheet. The objective is always the same: reduce the stress on the paper so that it doesn't tear apart in some irregular and unwanted pattern while folding. Be a friend of your paper and it will reward you
Well, on to the last construction pictures

For the plumbing, I used paper coated wire. It proved quite easy to bend, because the diameter is not too big.

Assembling the cabin was a piece of cake. I didn't yet glue the back, in order to keep an easy access to the cabin. There is still a lot of plumbing to do!

Thanks a lot for your comments, John and Andy
Today's pictures show the second (and last!) big bunch of rivets. Most of them are black and, by using black card, I didn't have to paint the edges 8)

Without the scenery, it would be impossible to see that you reduced the scale, John
The second matriosca style picture is so cute

Some more pictures, with small and nice details...

The last of today's pictures deserves a comment because Modelik grossly exaggerated the track!!! Fortunately, I noticed the fact before assembly and solved it by cutting a wide strip on the base plate and on all the sleepers.
The fault is not problematic but it is very surprising because broadly the same parts appear on older Modelik train subjects!...

Big thanks for the pictures, Royaloakmin
The engine looks so nice! There are some slight differences to the kit, namely the brighter green and the doors, but yes, it is the same and it is a beauty
The couplings look almost too big but I see they are well modelled as well.

@ Royaloakmin - please, post the pictures. I'll be glad to see them
The engine is still operating ? For tourism?
The bolts glued (with white glue) to anther sheet of paper are reasonably sturdy. I guess they don't delaminate as easily as card
Well, moving on the upper part of the train...