Hallo freunde,
Thank you for such nice comments and warm welcome. I am so happy to see all those friendly faces on those small avatars again I have updated my pic also, because the previous one was 3 years old 8).
Jorg, Martin: Thank you Pics are OK now.
pawell: Thanks for nice greetings to Lithuania Yes, this is quite a difficult model with some complex forms. A real headache will be eliptical wings and their attachement to fuselage - probably the most complex place of a model. Greenhouse will be another challenge also, but I will show it later. I will start from tail.
cmelak: Thank you for expalantion about this. Now it's getting clearer
Tino: I have analyzed your model's every dot in your photos. I was surfing all forums for the pics and yours were the best. I have learned many things. Your model is really good. I wish I could achieve such level =D>
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Now I want to make a little introduction into this build. I advice to read this topic to every amateur, that is going to the higher level (since I'm just an amateur, trying to get higher, this topic is very important for me).
So I would call this message:
"Changes and new discoveries"
First of all - what is the deal? I haven't discussed with many modellers about this, but I have talked to my fellow modeler Donatas (he's like my teacher) and ex-modeler - my fathe. For example, Donatas can be proud of his cardplanes collection. He has more than 30 precisely made models. And what about me? I was building "Lightning" allmost for two years (offcourse, I had a break, because I was finishing school; final exams; etc.). And if I don't change such tendency, after 5 years I will have two more models in my collection. That's not good. So, the time has come when I have to limit myself and make some changes. Ok, I totally agree, that everyone must push himself to the limits of perfectness. But let's take an example: without limiting yourself, you can build model for ten years. But this gives you more minuses than pluses. Simple - even if the model is super-detailed and accurate, but on the other hand you will have only ONE model. That precious time will be gone forever (life's short), and you will add only one model to your collection. Besides, there are more bad sides. As we work with paper, it has a bad feature to decay. Plane's nose will be rotten after ten years, when you will be finishing tail... It is common to varnish the model after it is finished. So during that decade, your not-varnished nose will decay.
To sum up, I want to make model FAST. I want to have large collection of models, that are quality too.
So, this time I am not going to pursue that "unreachable" perfectness. I'm going to put all my knowledge and skill in making the model of the "Lightning's" quality, but several times faster. And thanks to all those online forums and their members who helped me to gain this knowledge.
I have defined quite a tough schedule for this model, but I'm not telling it here, because I may not make it on time. Also I have some thoughts to make some articles about basic paper modelling, and advanced aircraft modelling from A to Z (the article would focus on this He-111). But this is quite misty, because I haven't even finished this model Maybe in the future. It will depend on the final result of He-111 and my free time. I will write it in Lithuanian, and then translate it into English.
Thats all. I think this is an important topic, because it becomes sad, when you think what will happen if you are not increasing speed. Besides, it adds some difficulty, because you must make it faster while retaining the quality.
So for today I will show two photos with plenty of things, that will help reaching my goals.
What's new?
[Blocked Image: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c236/Mindauxx/IMGP8064.jpg]
Some untraditional items to paper-modeler.
1. Miraculous glue - "Moment". You should know it, because they are universal yellow glue (see, german label), that have quite a smell and no WATER in composition, that moists paper and makes us go mad.. You can glue frame parts on cardboard, do other works and your paper will never get wrinkly. They dry much faster than common white PVA. But you must be careful with it, because you can easily make ugly stains on your model.
2. Foam. Similar foam is used for fishing. Various floats (for fishing poles, nets and "live" catchers with crucians). It is NOT sea foam. It is similar to filler "Macroflex", that is sprayed out and dried. Offcourse you get additional work with the foam, but it makes model much stronger (oh, I haven't mentioned, that I use it fill voids in wings, fuselage - to make model more rigid). This is a rare material. Mostly stolen from USSR.. offcourse I'm kidding. Oh you don't know what was going on in USSR. Stealing was common. Once L. Brezhnev said, that if a man needs something, he can allways steal it. Fortunately I was just a kid then. I grew up in independant country, so I am not spoiled :]. But when I run out of this foam, I will try "Macroflex".
3. We call it "aviation scaleboard". But to make things clearer I will call it a thin (1mm) plywood. It is much better than cardboard. It does not DEFORM. The toughness of the wooden framework is some times tougher than cardboard framework. Besides, when you have very sharp and thin parts, this plywood retains rigid and strong, while card begins to crack and so on... Also it is much easier to work with it. Easy to sand. Again, thanks for Donatas that gave me such rare materials (foam is also from him). But I'm running out of this plywood also. We need some alternatives. I heard that Poland's model shops have a wide choice of such plywood, so maybe you will have them also, but, here in Lithuania, we have none. I was thinking about plastic PVC sheets. You know them? They are white sheets of plastic, there are various thichnesses. Our food containers (like margarine) are made from very thin PVC plastic. Fortunately we have such materials in our country. Oh, I have seen such things in Belgian model shop in Hasselt (i think it is called "Broux"). So these are materials, that are alternative (but better) than cardboard.
4. Stick Glue. You can easily glue frame parts to cardboard, plywood or some other material. Very fast and waterless way. But they are mostly suitable only for thickening parts
5. Bison Wood glue. They help, when working with wood. These glue are based on common white PVA, but they are more advanced. Faster drying time, stronger joins.
6. Watercolours. Very comfortable paint, toxic-less. It is very easy to mix colors, easy to paint. Very easy to clean palette, bottles and mostly IMPORTANT - brushes. You save so much time! You don't need whitespirit or other toxic stuff. Again, you do everything faster because you don't need to bother with difficult brush cleaning (just put under the tap - and thats all), you don't have to ventilate rooms from fumes and so on. Everything is clean and fast. Oh, I suggest to use not dry or liquid aquarelle, but the viscous one. Then you can make it a little stiffer, what helps you in modelling. As you know, the stiff aquarelle paint are not a good idea in painting. Painters make up to fifty layers with aquarell. This is not a good idea if you want to save time in modelling As an alternative I see acrylic, gouache and tempera. But I am a friend of aquarelle, because I use it in university and for painting (I do it sometimes).
7. Natural hair brush. Perfect coverin, but you should know, that they are only suitable for aquarelle. You will kill them if you use them with enamels or other toxic paints. There syntetic or bristle brushes should be used.
8. Oil pastels. For edge colouring. This idea was given by our lithuanian forum's admin. He has the whole collection of them, but I think that you don't need them all (unless you draw with them, but I, personally, don't like oil pastels). So I advice to everone, who want to try pastels - take your paper magazine, go to art shop and try to find similar colour (I give 90% that you will find the suitable color, because it is a very wide choice of oil pastels). But ask only for TOP quality. Like these "Van Gogh". And that way you will save money, because you don't have to throw away a bunch of money at once for the whole set of oil pastels. And don't mix oil pastels with soft pastels (also known as chalk). These are different things. Soft pastels are mostly used in plastic modelling, mostly for making exaust stains and other weathering.
I haven't met the faster way to paint edges. Maybe felt-tip pencils. But I do not advice them, because color changes (and it may change from nearly red to green) in time and spoils the whole model. Also I should say, that after painting with oil pastel, you have to rub paint with your finger and be careful of pastel's excess. You can easily smear the part. After finishing painting edges, you have to wash hands. And at last, I must say that oil pastels are thinned with turpentine (if somebody need it).:)
As you see, I have mentioned word fast five times. I hope, that this will help me to make things faster and retaining the same quality:)
[Blocked Image: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c236/Mindauxx/IMGP8062.jpg]
What's that? These are things, that I don't need anymore. Toxic paint. They consume much time, during which I could build a bomb or two
As you see, I am more and more using "non-sport" technologies (they are so-called in Lithuania, Russia, Poland..). Less pure paper, more other materials. Some of you can blame me for that. But I can still call my models - paper, because they are based on virgin polish magazines, not scratched from wood, plastic or other material.
As our model shopkeeper, during our community meet, said: "Models are fraud. Every model is lie, because we will never make a "model". Except 1:1 copies. But they are still just copies.. Just look - we don't cover SR-71 with titanium, we don't put radars into model ships that track planes ad so on. Besides, we have scale, and some things are impossible. We do not build parts, that are 1cm size on real plane. In model they would be microscopic.. We just make models for our pleasure, so why I should be limited only to paper (oh, we are allowed to use wire and clear plastic :D, so why I cannot use wood, plastic or even tin).
Resuming to "Non-sport" building. Unreinforced model won't live long. It is easy to say for plastic modellers, because their models are made from durable material. But.. we're kartonists. As all know, paper is not a very durable material... Just look at your bookshelf and see the books that are older than 20 years. How do they look like?
However. This is not adaptable to every model. Tanks, vehicles and small planes do not have such problems, because they are small, they don't have large areas or high stress areas. If they are well varnished, they will live for ages (hehe, but tankers have other problems, that we, aviators, don't have). But I love LARGE models. Imagine the huge GPM's B-52 made ONLY according to instructions. After a year or two, his wings will sag, large areas will have dimples. Model will be destroyed. So we must reinforce it if we want to rejoice afer 5 or more years
So much the philosophy. I think that this post will be interesting to many of you. I am eagerly waiting for feedback and comments. if you have questions - feel free to ask here.
Good luck!
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P.S. The idea of this message is not to increase the time, dedicated for model (in account of your studies, work and family), but to do more during the same time.