Paper/Card Models

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still have the url? i love that place. saw it when i was a kid. got to pee in one of mad ludy'd johns.

I use either white glue (for most joints) or gel CA for joints where I want a quick set (ones I have to hold together). I find the most challenging task rolling stock into a tube for cylinders. I never can seem to get a round cylinder. I doubt if you will have many of those in either the castle or a stock car. Also, I keep both scissors and X- acto knife handy. Each is better for certain types of cuts than the other.

=== For cylinders I start with a 3/4 or 1 inch dowel then go to a 1/2 inch and finally to a 1/4 inch dowel. I hold it fast with a rubber band for a few hours and then apply "rubber cement" to the two contact points and hold it with a pair or mini, really mini, clothes pins (they measure about 1/2 to

3/4 inch long). For other curves, like hoods and roofs(spelling?), I place the card stock on a piece of felt cloth and make the curve with a table spoon or a teaspoon. This last technique I figured out thinking of the tools we used in shop making sheet copper graphics, and from one of the Orange County Choppers shows where Jr. was making a gas tank for a custom bike. Of course, there Jr. was using an electric hammer with a piece of leather under the piece of gas tank.

My two cents for the hobby.

Ray ===

You're a virtuoso, Peter...I particularly like you ships. Fine stuff!

If you hold card stock between a board and something flat and narrow (like a ruler on edge) and gently pull the card through and slightly up, the card ends up with a curl it didn't have before. Doesn't make the proper cylinder inevitable, but it helps, and it avoids creasing.

Thanks Rufus...... nice too hear from you again.

P.Crow

Yeah, I do that, and also tried to form around a dowel (though one smaller than ID). I still end up with an ellipse or oval. Maybe I should be making internal formers like I do with vacuform models.

=== Here's another solution to the oval cylinders. Once the cylinder is made, cut out three circles of the same diameter and insert one in the middle of the cylinder and one at each end. That should remedy the oval effect. I found this one out while putting together King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle, the instructions on page 5 show the circles already attached to the tower, but I made the circles for the towers that did not bring them attached, and the towers were pretty well cylindrical.

Ray ===

I would think you could also use a draftman's circle template to hold the roll circular as you glue it up - like a guide. Two together could be used as a stand/rest while the glue dries.

Many thanks to all who responded, very good advice on the glues. And like always, got my fingers glued with the CA gel, it never fails.

Again, thanks.

Ray ===