1. General approach - and the start of the cockpit
Jan Müller's DH88 Comet is an excellent model for anybody who would like to try their hands on producing a regular museum-size model from an ordinary paper model. The Comet comes as a pdf download from the author when you buy it. Enlarging the kit you can go basically two different ways:
You can import the pdf file into a vector-based programme (such as Adobe Illustrator). In many ways, this is to be recommended in this case (if you have access to such a programme), since that is the way the model was designed, and you will get the same thickness of lines, in spite of more than doubling the scale (from its original 1/33).
Or you can import the pdf file into a pixel-based programme (such as Adobe Photoshop). This might be the way to go if you are set to improve on the texture of the printing (which is not detailed at all when it comes to shading, weathering and that sort of thing).
I went the vector road, and since it was the first time ever I used a vector-based programme, I had to do some quick learning on how to use the various selection tools in order to be able to rearrange parts and create new printing sheets.
If you wish to follow this experiment in practice, the first thing you should probably do is to explore the possibilities you have for printing larger (longer in particular) sheets than the standard A4 size. (See the thread on this site, "How to make larger prints in an ordinary printer")
Next, you will have to learn at least the basic ways of moving parts and rearranging them in your own graphic programme, in order to create suitable longer printing sheets. This work will take some time, but it is rather fun, and you will feel mightily pleased with yourself when you have created your own kit in 1/16 scale, almost as if you had taken part in the design process of the kit.
Building in 1/16 scale is easier - in fact much easier - than in the ordinary 1/33 scale (not to mention still smaller scales!). Instead of your ordinary paper, you find and cut suitably long sheets of thick, e.g. 270 g, glossy paper. For 1 mm cardstock, substitute 2 mm, etc. Otherwise everything is the same, just easier to cut and handle all those small details.
This is how the first part of the build may look after a little preliminary work:
[Photo 1 below]
Here, I have built the basic structure, mounted the chairs and control columns. Other small details such as the compasses, throttles, and instrument panels have been prefabricated. The trim wheel has been wound with coarse thread and the spokes painted light grey. The compasses have been made by the ordinary thick paper, except for the compass roses which were printed on ordinary thin copying paper, covered by a layer of transparent OH film - for a very special purpose which we will come to later.
The inner shell has not yet been glued in place; it's just sitting there for a preliminary test-fitting. To the left, you'll see one of the luxuries that modelling in larger scales will offer to even relative beginners in card modelling like myself. I have printed extra copies of the inner framework (not modelled in the original, just drawn), doubled them onto 1 mm card, cut them out and edge-coloured them carefully. They will go in eventually, but let's devote the next installment to how some of the small subassemblies were made.
To end this introduction, let me just say that I will attempt to build this model without using anything but water-soluble material, i.e. white glue, water-colour pencils for edge-colouring, acrylic paints for touching up, and matt acrylic varnish for general surface treatment.
The only exception is that I spray each sheet immediately after printing with a thin layer of a weak fixative, and the spray glue used for doubling large sheets onto 2 mm cardstock. (Both of these applicants smell rather agressively, and I'll have to go into the attic of our apartment house to do this spraying.)
Leif