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

Hello!

It's been some time and though it wasn't easy, I was working on this one, so let me post some updates. The first one will be the construction of the oil cooler - the only part that had to be repaired on a 1:1 aircraft after a wheels-up landing...

The construction starts with two flat sides made of two layers of paper and the insides:

This part is a maybe little more "boxy" than in real life, but it's really easy to build this way. One thing to look for is the fit of the lower rear cooler (top left on the photo above) to the lower surface of the model - do it right now and you won't have to bother with it when fitting the cooler to the model.

On the photo below you see the cooler with two bits that provide a little streamlining between round fuselage and a square cooler. As always you have to check everything for fit often, but in this case the fit was OK:

And here's the cooler after fitting it to the model. White glue really is helpful here, gives you time for fine adjustments after the whole coooler is attached to the rest of the model:

One more look down the cooler - it's the one closer to the hull where it helped to look for the right fit:

That would be it for now - thanks for looking, stay healthy and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comment! In 1/33 the model is about 350mm long and has a span of about 440mm. It's not so easy to find a display space for it any more...

If you like nice, big models and don't want to spand big bucks, paper models can be something for you. Plus, you can get a 1:33 B-52, C-130 or H-53!

Looks like the Polish model publishers thought of you:

OK, it could be more detailed - but at about 3$ you've got a lot of budget to add some more detail, right?

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

GreySnake, UnwaryPaladin - thanks a lot for your kind words and sorry it took me so long to reply here - like they say, life! It's kinda obvious, but I'd just love to talk you into trying a nice paper model yourselves...

And it's high time I posted an update here, and I've got, among other things, the landing gear done.

First I had to finish the doors. When I started doing that I noticed that the inner and outer shells of the landing gear nacelles are mismatched - I mean the outer shell marked P (meaning right) matches a lot better to the inner skin marked L (for left). That means the nacelles would probably benefit from such a switch too - too late to try it out now. One has to watch for things like this constantly - it happens! - like Foorest Gump would say. Here are the parts:

And here's how I got around to building them: I have first glued the inner skin parts together using a strip of thin paper. At this point I have also tried to create the correct shape of the part. Then I glued the outer skin to it - and the additional layer of glue and paper has nicely strenghtened the doors and fixed their shape:

Then I have assembled everything watching for correct geometry. I have also touched up the edges of many parts in this area:

The landing gear is now complete - moving on to other detail.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Watching with interest. Really can't believe it is a paper kit, just amazing.

Coming along nicley. 

Hello Doc!

Those older warship models from Maly Modelarz are nice - they have enough detail to keep you busy, but not so much as to drive you crazy or discourage you. But of course on can always go bananas and use modern modelling techniques like adding PE railings and so on to make them more accurate.

The most modern Maly Modelarz ships have parts so fine, that you start wondering how in the world are you ever going to cut them out... IMO it starts taking the fun out of building something like that.

Thanks a lot for your comment and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel!

   Thank You sir! It is indeed the ORP Grom! As I said I couldn't remember the proper name . Very intricate but satisfying model! And yes, Modelik are great too! My greatest group are the Wilhelmshaven Products followed by Schreiber and MALY Modelarz

Hello! Thanks a lot for your comments!

GraySnake - I'm glad you like my results! Many years ago I got to build a Guillows balsa aircraft and some of the parts there were supposed to be made out of cardboard, so I believe I understand what you are saying. And paper models and balsa models are a bit like a big scratchbuilding project, maybe with an exception that the kit gives you the basic dimensions to work with.

Greg - thanks a lot for your kind words. I agree with you about the wholly new skill set - that's why I recommend kits lkie this to plastic modellers - after building one their other models will get better, that's how I feel it.

As for my recommendations - the GPM company makes good models, they also sell vacu canopies for them. If you wish you can also get laser-cut bulkheads for most paper models. I can also recommend other companies like "Mały modelarz" (a veteran - older models are more simple), "Kartonowy arsenał/Haliński", "Modelik", "WAK". There are also others and if you're looking for a specific model, most of the time you can look at the parts and instructions on the internet and decide for yourself if they look good to you. If you need help with translation from Polish please let me know - I'll see what I can do.

And I've been working on the landing gear. On the photo below you can see how I used ice cream sticks for jigs to get the right stance on the landing gear struts:

That was a dry fit to see if everything fits - after that I have removed the landing gear and I have tried to re-create at least some of the internal structure of the nacelles and some hydraulic cylinders for lowering and raising the landing gear:

Next step will be to install the gear and it's doors. Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel, I'm very impressed with your work on the Stormovik. This type of modeling requires a whole other set of skills and I'm looking forward to seeing more progress. I followed the link you posted earlier in the thread and it appears there are a huge number of paper kits available, including many types we'd never see produced in plastic in the larger scales. Do you have any recommendations on who makes the best kits? Also, where can the vac canopies be found?

Hello everybody!

Today I'd like to start writing about building the landing gear vor my Il-2. I've already shown you this one - how I started building the wheels by glueing together several cardboard disks and sanding them until they started looking like wheels with tires:

I also started making the struts by bending some 1mm steel wire. I have also rolled some thin paper to shape the struts. A package of biscuits served as a cheap source of silver foil that will make excellent oleos:

The parts of the landing gear from the kit look like on the photo below:

The 67P and 67L will be replaced with my tubes rolled from the thin paper like shown on the photo below:

I have also cut thin strips from the thin paper and made some rings to make the struts more detailed. After this was done I painted the struts light grey. I have also made the diagonal braces using mostly the kit parts. They will have to be touched up with the grey paint as well:

I will have to put some work to make the part of the landing gear that is hidden in the nacelles - the kit is pretty vague here... But you can see this is taking shape, right? Hope you like it, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello TB!

ORP Maly sounds very unlikely... The wartime destroyers taken over from the British were ORP Piorun (N-Class) and ORP Garland (G-Class) - both published by "Maly Modelarz" in the late eighties. Maly modelarz also did ORP Błyskawica, ORP Burza and ORP Grom, beginning from the sixties. So I still wonder what could it be...?

Have a nice day

Paweł

Hello GreySnake!

   The Eddie Fitz did create a stir back in the day. I got her because when I was little I touched her( The Real One) when she visited Buffalo, New York. The color and finish on the model are darned near dead on.  

Hi Pawel.

      To be honest with you I am not sure I do know it sounded like ORP Maly? She appeared to be a take-off on a British Tribal class.

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comments, I'm glad somebody is reading this and I'm even more glad you like it!

TB - I would like to convince people to try paper models - as you alredy know they can be great if you want some unusual subject not kitted in plastic or just like BIG models that won't take your whole paycheck to buy. Plus, they are great developing your scratchbuilding skill!

Say, what Polish destroyer did you get? Maybe I have built it many years ago? I remember doing the ORP Piorun back in 1988 when it came out.

And those days I thought Maly Modelarz kits are amazing - huge, detailed, accurate. One problem I noted back then was you never knew what paper you're going to get, or if your copy will be printed right (in register). Now I know those babies weren't all that great, but still thay can be hard to beat for their fun/cost factor!

Good luck with your ships - looking forward to seeing those promised photos!

Mopar Madness - thanks a lot!

GreySnake - thank you very much! I'd like to show the modellers outside of Poland that a paper model, in most cases is no baby toy, but a full blooded model!

And I'm movin' on with the build - recently I have ordered a vacuum-formed canopy for my Il-2 - and that's the cool thing, for most paper models needing one they can be ordered and they don't cost much, I have paid about 2$ plus postage for this one:

There's also the option of making your own vacuum formed parts - I'd be glad to show you how, but it's a stuff for a separate thread. In older aircraft you could also build the paper canopy framing and then just glue individual flat or slightly curved windows from the inside (this could work here).

Thare are also paper parts in the model for the canopy:

Those blue parts are for people who don't feel like building a detailed cockpit. In my case they will be cut out. Now on the inside I wouldn't want the parts to be white, so I have painted everything dark grey:

Now the hard part is to fit the paper parts to the vacuum formed part, and the first one is critical:

As you can see I had to adjust the windshield a little and it needs now to be touched-up where the colour doesn't match. I have also painted the edges of the cut-outs so that they aren't white - the model looks much better this way:

I have also cut away the rails for the sliding part - that will help aligning the part on the model, and there are still a few edges to touch up.

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

Paweł

That is seriously impressive! 

Oh My:

 See? That's why people are surprised at paper ( Card ) models!  If I didn't know your work I would swear it was plastic! I just recently( in the last two days,)ordered two ships from overseas. Hey, What did you think of the old Maly Modelarz kits anyway?

    I got three, a German Destroyer and the Polish one and a Freighter. I started on the Polish one and am totaly enjoying the experience. A little more detailed with tiny parts than a lot of them! Catchya Later-T.B.       Gotta P.S. here. I noticed the rivet patterns on the plane. Did you know about using a pounce wheel on the inside lightly will make them more noticeable?

Hello TB!

Congratulations on your new position - and I hope you're feeling all right health-wise. Thanks a lot for your comment - I've been missing any comments in this thread since I have resumed building of my baby here - I wasn't sure if anybody is even reading this.

It sure would be great to see some pictures of your builds.

I don't think I've heard about PMI before - I'm going to have to look it up...

Paper aircraft are cool, aren't they? Building aircraft models this way is a bit closer to the way most of real aircraft are constructed than plastic models...

And today I wanted to show you the way I solve one problem common to almost all aircraft models - how to do the wheels?

Now the instructions of old "Maly Modelarz" models if you know that old Polish brand, tell you to re-use some toy wheels - no need to say that this isn't the best way to do it... My take is to glue several cardboard disks together, then sand them, soak with CA and paint. If you put some creativity in it, you can get quite good aircraft wheels this way. This is the way my wheels looked before painting:

As you can see, for the main wheels I've done an imitation of bulging tire wall - this is done by cutting out the centers of the outer cardboard disks and sanding them on the inside before glueing the disks together. It's also good to drill a center hole in every disk (with the exception of the ones I mentioned before), to make the wheels straight and true while glueing them.

Let me proceed with the tail wheel - I'll build the main landing gear later. I have painted the tire dark grey and installe dthe wheel on a strut I have made out of 0,8mm copper wire. The wire is hidden between two paper parts of the "fork" near the wheel itself, and in a tube made out of thin paper in the remainder of the tail wheel strut:

It's better to make such parts out of thin paper, rather than the cardboard the model comes printed on, because thin paper can be rolled ito tight tubes better. I have redesigned the tail wheel assembly, too, because what comes in the GPM model doesn't really resemble the real thing. The tail wheel also needed one additional wire part that I have made myself. After adding it the time came to carefully check the fit of the new part to the rest of the model.

After I was sure everything fits like it should, I proceeded to paint the tail wheel strut grey:

Now it was only  a question of fixing the part in place - here's what it looks like now:

I hope you liked it - thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hi Pawel:

    As you can see, It's been a while for me. Health issues and other things. I recently got elected President of the Board for our Rail Museum. Gees, I hope I do a good job! Anyway as you can see I found some things that piqued my interest.( The two Ships I mentioned )

 Now that I have a new Camera I might get this picture thing sorted out. Then Maybe you will be able to see what I've been up to. Card models under construction are as Follows. Edmund Fitzgerald. Confederate Ironclad and the AngelBurg Refrigerator Ship. My Foil Covered Airliner still resides in it's envelope.

    I built one quite a few years back when PMI was still in Business. That one went hanging off the ceiling of the Martinez Veterans Hospital Rec Room. I am sure it is not there now.

 That was my second aircraft and it was the same as the Foil Covered one ,except I didn't know about the foil one till later. My first was a very small F-4-J that I don't believe was more than four inches long. I will be back. T.B.

Hello!

Today I'd like to show my progress on the undercarriage fairings - parts pretty special to the Il-2. Let's satart with the parts:

We've got the outer skin (blue), inner skin (grey), the front of the fairing (the round parts) and three frames/bulkheads. The iner and outer skin both contain the undercarriage doors that have to be cut out if you'd like to pose the undercarriage down, like I intend to do. You could theoretically cut those out before or after glueing the fairing. I will cut the doors out before glueing the fairings, hoping for a cleaner cut. Some people would go for cutting the doors out after glueing, hoping for a better shape of the doors. The first check for fit at one showed, that the bulkheads are too big for the skins - this happens very often in may paper models so it really pays off to check that often:

I have sanded the bulkheads until they fit, then I have cut out the undercarriage doors and using strips of paper sandwiched between the outer and inner skin bits I have put one fairing together. Of course I had to repeat everything for the second time, for the other side of the aircraft:

Fitting a finished fairing to the wing doesn't have to be easy, so on the left side of the aircraft I have constructed the fairing a bit differently - I have fitted the front and therear of the fairing to the wing first, and just then I have installed the sides - this gives better fit to the lower wing surface, but the trade off is worse fit of the sides - oh well... The photos below show the construction of the rounded front parts of the fairing. Here the bulkhead is also too big  for the skin, but it's OK - you have to sand the side of the bulkhead to be conicaland then glue it so that it sticks out a little - the side of the bulkhead is the glueing surface where two parts of the fairing meet. I have used short strips of paper to help joining the fairing parts together:

Below are the photos of the finished undercarriage fairings:

And another photo of the compound fronts of the fairings. I have already mixed some acrylic paint to re-touch the edges of the parts, as can be seen in the photos above and below:

Now I'm working on the undercarriage itself - thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

This would be more comfortably done right after installing the horizontal stabilizers, but somehow I have missed it, so let me do it today, before it gets even more uncomfortable - installation of the horizontal stabilizer roots.

As usual everything starts with some printed parts:

As you can see the root for each stabilizer is printed in two parts - that makes it more complicated but I reckon the intent of the author was to give you a part with a fancy curve more closely following the real thing. After cutting the parts for one side out (L for left, P for right) I have shaped them and tested for fit, and then I decided to glue the together first:

After even more test-fitting I started installing the stabilizer root. I have started at the color partition line - that's about the only way to make sure this line will be where I want it to be:

Then, adding some glue step by step, I have finished the top and then the bottom. Then I just had to repeat it on the other side. Here's how the finished part turned out:

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

In order to comfortably work on the undercarriage, the wings should have the final geometry, that's why I'm joining the outer wings with the remainder of the model today. The inner and outer wings end with a rib. Those ribs should be identical, so there's no "step" at the joint. That's why before those ribs are installed, they are sanded together (on their edge). Now after adding the wing skin it is good to sand the faces of the ribs, to ensure nice fit. Then those sanded faces are covered with glue and joined - but those joints will remain soft for some time - this is both good and bad. Good because it gives you time for adjustments - and bad because without control the geometry of the model can become something we don't want. That's why it's important to put the model in some kind of improvised jig that holds the desired geometry while the glue dries. Here's what I have built:

Now the dihedral of the wing might be a bit much - but that's the way the model was designed. I've already decreased the dihedral as much as the fuselage spar would allow. Changing it further might be challenging, because it would involve also redesigning everything under the wing - undercarriage, it's nacelles and so on. There's of course the question - how much dihedral should it really have?

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

Paweł

Hello!

Moving on with the wing - today the wingtips.

Here are the parts of the wingtips before cutting them out. I mean the parts 63P (top) and 63aP (bottom). A little remark - on Polish models they often use the letter P (as in polish "prawy") to indicate parts that go to the right side of the model (looking of course toward the fron of the model). Corresponding left parts are marked with L:

Again, after cutting them out the parts must be properly shaped before checking them for proper fit. Here I'm using a little trick - I'm rounding the edges of the parts by embossing them with a tip of a paintbrush handle. This works better on sligtly soft work surface - in this case I have used some broadcloth:

The outer wing has some "teeth" prepared for the wingtip to attach to:

I started with glueing the top part for the wingtip to the "teeth", of course after careful checking for fit. After a few minutes I have checked the bottom, adjusted the bends a little and then I have also glued the bottom part of the wingtip. The fit was very nice:

As I wrote before, I'll mix some paint and I'll paint over the white edges later, that will help the looks of the model a lot.

Next thing to do will be joining the inner and outer wings together. Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

Today I'd like to write a little about building the wing root on paper airplanes. Let me start with cutting the part out and shaping it:

As with many parts on paper models, it's important to properly shape the part efore even thinking about glueing it. Sometimes you need a sharp edge, sometimes, like here, an edge would be undesirable - for this part you need smooth bends that can be obtained by rolling the part around various objects like pencils, drill bits and stuff like that - or by running the part around a suitable edge, like the egde of scissors or the edge of the workbench - but with care, so that the part isn't "broken", just bent a little, this needs some feeling. Then you have to make some test fitting:

As you see the fuselage, the engine and the iner wings are already put together. Now especially with parts like the wing root you need just the right glue to do it. I'm using white glue here, but one that is used for bookbinding - this glue dries transparent, can be wiped from the model surface to avoid ugly marks. This glue gives enough time to adjust the parts before seting but doesn't contain too much water, so as not to "soak" the parts and make them too soft and to distort their shape.

After I'm sure the shape of the part is OK, with all the right bends where they are needed, I gradually apply glue and work my way along the part, from the rear towards the fron of the wing root:

As you can see the colours around the white fuselage bands don't quite match. This happens on paper models from time to time, that's why it's good to mix some paint matching the colours of the kit and then you can do some re-touching. It's also good to paint up the white paper edges - I'll do that later. Here's a close-up of the problematic spot - other than the colouring it doesn't look too bad:

Here's the underside of the model and the front-most portion of the wing root:

Using the same procedure I have also tackled the other side:

The yellow arrow on the photo below shows a spot for an air vent that I didn't attach yet - if I did, it would cause a problem for me to build that wing root - just goes to show how important the planning of the build sequence can be. Some colour mismatch is also visible here - looks a bit like a faulty kit design, but not really a big deal.

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

Paweł

Hello everybody!

I have just completed the first phase of my move to a new apartment. In this new apartment I have set up a new workbench (more about it here: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/tools_techniques_and_reference_materials/f/23/t/183808.aspx) and I decided that the best way to gradually break it in would be to finish that Stormovik - it's been sitting in a box way too long.

So first, let me post the photos from 1,5 years ago - that's when I built the wings for the Stormovik. Here's how it went:

First step is to prepare the inner structure of the wing. In this case it consists of two segments each - the inner wing and the outer wing. Both are reinforced with 1mm cardboard, carefully cut out - many times it's good to take a knife for it rather than scissors, to avoid bending the ribs - and the edges are sanded to make them smooth and to give you more glueing surface.

Thing is the mating ribs, where the inner wing meets the outer wing have to be identical to match nicely - the trick here is to hold them together tightly and sand them together - after that they are pretty close!

I have prepared the outer skin for the wing by carefully bending it - using the bench edge is one of the tricks here. It's important not to create any sharp bends where they aren't needed - and in older aircraft the leading edge of the wing was nice, round. I have also reinforced the skin from the inside with thin cardboard to make it a little stronger and to keep the ribs from showing through - that didn't quite work out though. I still recommend doing that on most larger parts. Checking for the right fit is very important at every step!

It's important to constantly keep checking the fit of the parts. Any problems spotted early enough can mostly be corrected, for example by sanding the ribs. Here, the ribs have already been fixed to the top of the wing skin, the bottom can still be adjusted some. You can also see I have decided to take the option this model gives - to make the flaps extended.

Here you can see the inner wings closed up. As I said, not everything went as planned - the wing beam shows through the skin a little - I could have probably sanded it down a little more, maybe I have used a little too much glue - now I'll have to live with it!

I hope to give you more progress shots soon - I hope you'll like it, have a nice day

Paweł

Yeah tackle this monster!