How to build a paper airplane model - tips based on a 1/33 Il-2 Stormovik - FINISHED AT LAST!!

Chad, DM - thanks a lot for your kind words, they mean a lot to me!

Pawel

I almost missed this. Super job.

That's an absolutely awesome project!

That Il-2 looks amazing!!

Pawel; 

    Heey ! The Lilla Is my personal Yacht. We ain't going to the museum with that Beauty! What fun Model to build! That one is now underway in plastic as well. I just loved the design so much!

     Now I will let you know I think we Capitolists "Missed the Boat" After I saw the High Speed ferries from the old " Motherland" Those waterborne Rockets were gorgeous! I guess I will have to find a Complete "Alte Liebe" ! She seems like she will fit okay and look good doing it!

    "Stash" ? Oh those four filing Cabinets full of Card Models. Yeah! Like plastic , kind got away from me. half were given. I will not stand by and let folks throw them away. A hobby shop in Austin,Tx. Closed some years back. The person doing the selloff was putting Card models in the trash. I asked him "Why"? He replied" No one that I know here in the States builds these silly things,and I mean, C'Mon Paper?" Well, I cleaned them out.He was trying to " Give Away " the bigger ones.

      I went to the Model Show with 5 Cases of Plastic Models and left with four Bankers Boxes full of paper. Models that is!

Hello Gil!

Thanks a lot for your comment and for your kind words. If you find something you like or can be useful to you, then writing this up made sense!

They say that the paper modelling is a perfect primer for scratchbuilding - I think so, too!

And yes, the stash fits quite nice on the book shelf, like they say, ask me how I know :-)

As for the scale I can only speculate, but I believe the answer lies somewhere in the fifties of XX century when Maly Modelarz started to appear in Poland. They used something comparable to "box scale" like the early plastic models did and I imagine they had 1:100 plans of diverse things, so for tanks they took 1:25 (magnify the plans four times), for small aircraft 1:33 (magnify three times), big planes 1:50, small ships also 1:50 or 1:100, and big ships 1:300. And once you have a few models built, you want to have a collection - prefrably in similar scale to do size comparisons (boys like to do that) - and the scale stuck at first for small aircraft and when the socialism crumbled and there was no more problems of getting enough of the right paper to print on, you started seeing monsters like the 1:33 B-52 (check it out on the net!).

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel,

Sorry I missed this and thanks for taking the time to share this build log. Truly amazing work and I appreciate you showing us just how great a paper model can look. Also your creative solutions and techniques for the details can be aplied to just about any kind of model one would choose to build.

It occurs to me that in the paper modeling world one could have an impressive "stash" of unbuilt kits in a very small space Not that any of us would ever have stashes

I am curious do you have any idea how 1/33 became the popular scale?

Again thanks for sharing this interesting and informative build!

Hello TB!

You know that the favourite scale for paper planes is 1/33 right? I'm not sure if in this scale C-46 or DC-6 would be reasonable sized - anyhow I didn't find any paper models of them availalble. C-46 was too exotic in Europe and DC-6 was a capitalist machine - polish airlines used Il-18 instead. But if you wanted a C-47, there's a paper model of it in 1:33:

As this googled photo shows, it's a nice big machine - not a weekend build, neither.

As for that cruise ship - here you could find something but closer to 1:400:

OK, you can rescale this to 1:160 - then it will be 2,1 m long - you don't have this much space on your layout, right?

How about this baby - it's in 1:100 and it would be closer to 300mm long if you rescale it to 1:160:

I have also found this thing in 1:200:

It's been build by the East Germans - I'm not sure if you can convert it to something American? But it starts getting big, anyhow.

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Well,Yeah!

 I will be asking soon,Maybe in the next month or so. Need a reasonable sized model or the C-46 or D.C.6 in civilian livery. Yes, Pawel it can be a Polish carrier! Also Can you put me on to a close to 1/160 scale, small! Cruise ship for the Museum layout?

TB - Thanks a lot for your kind words!

And if you need help with selecting or buying that aircraft model, you know I'll help you, right?

Thanks again and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel;

       I may just do that .The Rio is a complicated son of a gun. But also part is my fault because I saw ways to " Improve" an already complicated kit. The Andrea Doria and Stockholm Boats are done now so I can put finished on that project! That Sturm is beautiful . Great Job!! 

Hello TB!

When you are done with the Rio, you should try a nice and easy aircraft, then... It can be done a lot faster than a ship, too! It has a few more railings, for example :-)

For the last 20 years Mały Modelarz is reissuing a very nice Messerschmitt 109 in various paint schemes, you should try it, once I have built the first one of these while on a business trip in Germany :-)

As for the bubble - I got the whole process figured out, from carving to vac-forming, some time I'll show you a photo of my Maly Modelarz Typhoon with a canopy made this way.

And now, my dear friends - I'm done with the Stormovik!!!

Here are the pictures:

The antenna is made out of stretched sprue (heated lightly to be tightened), the insulators are white glue (painted).

Thanks a lot for staying with me to the end - and traditionally, have a nice day!

Paweł

Well Now;

       That Proves my point! I haven't done but one airplane in paper. It still flys proudly I believe in the Rec center of the Martinex,Ca. V.A. Facility! I did a complete cockpit and the clear glass in the pit windows.

     It was a larger airliner kit put out by Schreiber in Metal toned paper! I think It was a K.L.M.Airliner. I know I bought it because I liked the Livery! But as you have done, I like the offices even in paper. Vac-Formed canopies can be used on Paper fighters that have " Bubble" canopies too!

Thanks a lot TB! Nice to hear that!

And I'm trying to wrap this one up finally...

I have built the elevators:

On the left you can see the elevator skin. The other side is already cut out and shaped. Each elevator has a cardboard rib, spar and a reinforcement. They are glued together and sanded after thay had a chance to dry. Such inner structure is the checked for a proper fit and if it fits it's glued inside the skin.

Long time ago I have also made the propeller blades:

They are quite nice in this kit, printed to look like the black was sloppily oversprayed with green. I left the installation of the blades for later in order to avoid damage to a model that I started on a business trip so I anticipated a lot of unwanted handling - hence the blades stayed in the box. Each blade has a cre that I made out of a matchstick. You round one end of the matchstick to go to the base of the blade - it can be seen in the photo above. It's then handy for attaching the blades to the propeller hub. The other end of the matchstick is sanded to form a long slim wedge that ends a few mm short of the blade tip. Don't sand the phosphorus!!! :-) This core allows each blade to hold a nice pronounced airfoil and you can make many blades that are consistent this way. The edges are touched up with right color - that makes them look a lot better, too.

One more detail is the carburetor air intake:

As you can see it has a nice printed representation of a metal mesh and it demanded some care to make the slightly rounded front edge.

And finally the gun that I finally built allowed me to install the canopy. Here's what it looks like now:

I managed to make the funny "sights" by burning them out with a laser carver on a separate sheet of clear plastic and then glueing them on the inside of the canopy - now it's really a little "armored glass". I have also made the radio antenna mast by tapering a piece of wire by filing and then I fitted the kit part around my wire core.

Not a lot left to do now... I hope to have the finished pics soon - please stay tuned and have a nice day

Paweł

Well Shoot; We missed ya Pawel! At least I did anyway!

Hello Doc!

Dislocating a hip? Definitely OUCH!! I hope you get well soon!

Thanks a lot for your kind words and good luck on the Rio, have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel!

     Hey! it's good to hear from you! I am still struggling along on the RIO. Like you I have had to scratch build parts because the paper components wouldn't stop sagging where there spaces. So, Balsa and Plastic Parts were built and partially installed. I just had to get away from her for awhile. It was and is harder than the Andrea Doria and Stockholm together!

       That Gun-Now that looks great my friend. The RIO also got slowed down by Life jumping on me and letting me know I am an OLD Human. Who da Thunk? Dislocating a hip while sleeping? All I can say is OUCH ! ! !

Hello Greg, everybody!

Thanks a lot for your kind words - and it's been almost exactly a year ago since I wrote here so Im sorry for letting you wait so long...

The last year has not been easy for many of us, and I was also a bit stuck with one detail of this model here - the rear gun. While this model has more than one weak spot I think the gun is most seriously effed up and if you know me you know I had a hard time living with that - I just had to fix it. As you will se it meant almost building the gun from scratch.

So here's what the gun is supposed to look like:

We're talking Berezin UB 12,7mm machine gun here - and I tell you it's pretty hard to get a good picture of that mount, and of course there are variations - the early guns were cocked manually and the later guns had a compressed air cylinder to do that (U in UB stands for universal meaning the gun can be mounted in wings or in a flexible mount).

The UB is said to have a big punch but being a relatively crude, throw-away weapon. It is therefore surprising for me to find out the rear mount in an Il-2 had a reflex sight for the rear gunner (I expected something more along the lines of two pieces of metal welded on to be lined up)

OK, so the model gives you a paper box to start with and you are supposed to make the barrel and the gas tube out of rolled paper. That doesn't work so well for small tubes. If you want to stick with paper you have to roll the tubes out of much thinner paper, but I just made the parts out of wire:

Then I started adding parts and correcting the kit's errors:

There's the gun mount made out of kit parts, but soon after I started researching I had to scrap it and make my own. In real life there's a curved rail along the edge of the opening where the gunner sits and a small bogey moves along the rail - and the gun itself is flexibly mounted to the bogey. This gives the gunner a lot better field of fire and an ability to shoot straight to the rear without hitting the tail, or to hit ground targets under the aircraft.

On the photo below I fabricated the rail and the bogey out of paper and I have added parts for the ammo feed and gun mount with the reflex sight. You can also see the kit supplied ammo box, which is basically OK, but the ammo chute has to be attached to it differently than the kit instructions say. As you see I started painting the parts:

And fast forward to yesterday when I took my man up pills and like Johnny Cash said "well up to then my plan went all right till we tried to put it all together one night". Here's the result:

I hope you like it and the biggest burden is now off my chest - so I hope I can finish this model this year :-)

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

This is amazing.

No idea how I've missed this over such a long period of time. I've always been curious about paper models. Thank you for a really informative (if not a bit mind-boggling) thread, Pawel.

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comments and TB - sorry you had to wait so long for my reply... What can I say... Life sometimes gets in the way in really pesky ways!

I even thought I've already replied to your posting from may - I guess it must have got lost somewhere along the way from my brain to the net..

My cutting mat has a line every centimeter, that is 10 mm for those of you who are inch fans (1 inch = 25,4mm). Seven and half squares would be 75mm or 7,5cm.

UMBUM - my first reflex was to say I've never heard of them, but then I checked the 'net and now I remember I have seen a stock of their models many years ago in a shopping mall on a small stand selling "smart toys". Those models came from Russia or one of the former soviet republics. The name of the brand comes from Russian, Umnyy = smart, Bumaga = paper. Looks like the company doesn't operate anymore, so if you want to buy it's probably your last chance. Their models are die cut in such a way as to enable assembly without glue, and so you don't have to cut neither. That's why those babies are probably too simple for you - but they are elaborately printed and make surprisingly good looking models - from what I remember they tended to concentrate on railway topics. Chances are the scale was 1/87, but I can't say for sure.

Here's a video you might like:

Mongoose - Thanks a lot! Good to have you on my thread here. Now for a beginner I'd probably recommend a small building (architectural model), or maybe a simple aircraft (single engine fighter or something like that). It's important to choose a "kit" of good design and quality, otherwise even a simple model might be frustrating. Vehicles tend to be hard when it comes to building wheels or tracks, and ships have big hulls with complicated curves on the bottom - but even so I wouldn't rule them out as first models if the fresh modeller is strongly comitted to a subject. With paper models, even if you waste a kit you can mostly buy another one cheaply and start over using the first attempt for spare parts! After narrowing your choice down, it would be good to ask around about the possible candidates about their design, fit and quality.

Hope it helps, if you have questions please don't hesitate to ask - good luck and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel your a great paper model salesman! You've got so much detail here i feel like I was building it woth you. One of the guys in our local club has switched completely to paper. seeing them in person it amazes me how good they look. Knowing you've built different types what do you think the best would be for a beginner, ships or planes or something else by chance?

You Know:

 I would just once like to be able to go back to the continent, starting in Neustadt, Austria! That's where my forebears are from. Just think a paper model search from there to Normandy!

 Bet I could find lots. Oh! there's a British Training Model that's come up on the web now. Originally it was a training aid for British Merchant Marine officers . It's about  7 feet long when you put the three sections together!. And It is made from File Stock.

 I believe between buildings and trains and planes and ships that I'd get blown away! Plus, there's larger scale construction equipment you don't see here. One more comment on the SD14 ( The British Model) You have to build it just like the real ship. No kidding! Double Bottoms and all.

  I have to agree with you on the German kits. I have many times modified the construction to get a better curve or joint, than what they had you do. On the Bomb Spinners. I have some little washers like that .They are only1/8 of an inch across. I got them from a Flatscreen T.V. I salvaged! I count 7-1/2 squares on your mat. Is that inches or M.Ms Long? 

P.S. The Microflota "Edmond Fitzgerald" looks a little better in some ways than the one available from a company here in the States!

 P.P.S. Since I wrote this I stumbled on a sie that advertised UMBUM paper models. Have you ever heard of them? They have quite a bit of Armor stuff. Didn't notice the scale though.

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comments!

TB - I've been in Poland for some time now and I'm judging the popularity of paper models by the traffic I see on the 'net. Also by the availability of kits and their level of difficulty.

Sometimes the German paper ships from Hamburg annoy me a little because I see them use certain solutions that I know are unpractical, having tackled a few paper ships before.

Thanks for your kind words on the bombs. I think they'll look nice under the Ilyushin. As for the arming propellers - they are "teensier" than any lock washer I've seen so far. Trust me - if not for the laser engraver that is a fine tool for stuff like that I would probably make them by etching - and that would be going much further taht I'd like on this one.

I really have to photograph and post my rescue boat here - I'm really proud of it and I don't have any good photos! I have to fix that, it's just that the boat sits in a display case at my parents' house - so I have to visit them (not so natural nowadays) to take the pictures.

AT6 - thank you very much, you're just too kind! It's almost finished now, I just have an awful lot of work lately, otherwise I think I could finish it in two-three days of work.

Thanks again and have a nice day

Paweł

Looks as good as any plastic model could look in that scale. You're a great paper modeler and it will be a blessing to see the finished kit.

Hi Pawel;

    This is a late reply. Since the Stay-In orders from our Mayor and Governor took effect( They are easing now) I got involved in a Paper fishing boat model. Holy cow. Can you say. Complicated little rails? I tackled them anyway because there is an American Product that was the same way. The ( Two or Three) Friends tug from Florida. The actual boat was owned by Flagler who developed a lot of Florida.

 Anyway it's ( the Tug) all in white. The real tug burned clean Coal and the white color was to prove it feasible. Flagler made a bundle on that too! But the ships and boats in (Card or Paper) are simply to many to list and more are being added. 

Hey! Pawel! 

 Where you been? Paper models are popular outside of Poland. I have had model ship builders( Normally plastic freaks)ask how good are the Card models from Poland! I can't brag on them enough. I love mine. If I was about thirty years younger I would order paper models from all over the place and re-establish the likes of PaperModels International out of Beaverton ,oregon.

 I will say this much, your folks in Poland and Germany and the Czech republic are sure easier to deal with than most folks think, and Honest too! Plus ya'll have an understanding of what it really takes to be a modeler. If you can build anything out of paper, You can build anything out of anything!

       Just think, The things we learned about curling paper as kids in art class can come in handy. Fold paper and you can fold any P.E. If you can create a dome out of worked paper then metal or plastic will be a walk in the park.

 By the way. Was Richie valens thinking of those when he sang La Bomba? Those boomy thngies are the Cat's meow! In the future look into electronic parts. The spinning wheels look just teensy lock type washers for micro electronics. That's why I salvage any of that stuff.  You never know when you can use it! 

Hello Greg!

Thanks a lot for your kind words, they mean a lot to me!

Well, I'm trying my best to advertise for paper models - sure would like to see them more popular outside Poland, too. So dear readers - if you would like something inexpensive and at the same time building your scratchbuilding and general modelling skill - please try paper models!

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Paweł

Pawel:

It's a continuing pleasure to follow along with this wonderful build. It's a true master's class tutorial on the art of paper models...and a continuing source of real inspiration.

It's really a shame more of us can't be persuaded to make the leap and give paper models a try. There are so many options that the plastic manufacturers won't touch.

Keep up the good work!

Greg

Hello!

This time I'd like to write about building bombs and rockets for my "storm bird". From what I read the bombs and rockets might have been the scariest things that the Il-2s carried, but their effectivity was very limited because the aircraft actually had no sight for neither bombs nor rockets (other than the white lines painted on the nose), so getting a hit was largely a matter of luck. The rockets were also said to generally have an unstable flight path...

Anyhow I started with the bombs. The kit gives you two old pattern FAB-250 bombs. You start each bomb with a cylinder made out of a rectangular piece of paper with two circular reinforced bulkheads. Of course you have to check them for fit before glueing them in place. The nose cone of each bomb is composed of several cones that you have to mate. I used about four thin strips of paper glued "radially". Luckily the cones fit nicely:

Each bomb has two fuses that are armed with a small propeller wheel. The kit would like you to cut out such wheels - well, I don't know how I could cut something like that b yhand and make it look good - so I scanned them wheels, processed them on my PC and then I put them out to my laser carver:

After that I had the wheels ready for glueing. I soaked them in CA to make them more resistent to handling.

Next step was to add the fins, the edges of the fins were touched up with dark grey, so that they looked purtier:

Last thing to add were the bomb racks:

I have holes in the wings where the bombs go, I already dry fitted them - they fir really nice and stay on without glue!

I also wanted to write about the rockets. The kit gives you four launch rails and parts for four rockets. I tried to build one, but it was disappointing. A little research showed that there were two families of rockets: RS-82 and RS-132. What was in the kit had the diameter of RS-82 (or less) but the length of RS-132. I decided to scratchbuild four of the RS-132. I started with a 4mm styrene rod that I turned using a power drill that grabbed the rod instead of a drill bit. I traced the outline of the fins on the cardboard using a laser carver, then cut them out traditionally. You can see the kit supplied rocket body in the photo below - compared to RS-132 rockets:

The rockets were painted using Humbrols and then put on launch rails (kit supplied, reinforced with thick cardboard):

Next thing I would like to work on would be all the small air inlets around the engine.

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

I have recently tackled the flaps - the kit gives you the option of building them extended, but the insides of the flaps aren't very detailed. I decided I'm going to add some reinforcement ribs, just to make the flaps appear more "busy" and not so empty. In the photo below you can see the kit supplied flap interior (top right) and the remaining ones are already modified by me. I took a strip of cardboard, painted it grey and cut pieces of equal length. Then each piece was cut diagonally giving me two ribs that were then glued to the flap interior:

And on the photo below you can see the flap interiors installed. I kinda regret that I didn't install the flap interiors earlier - because now they had the tendency to warp as the glue was setting. You can also see the interior of the oil cooler mentioned earlier:

That would be it for now - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł