Hi, Chip. The FedExTomahawk is a real hoot! On Monday one will grace my wife's deskand another, mine. The long body tube was a bit of a chellenge,but . . .hey. John (10/29/01)

Should have put a Domino's Pizza Logo on the cruise missile -With the slogan - If your don't get the first one in 30 minutes - The next one's free :) ...(Keith 11-5)

Matt, when building your hilarious FedEx Express Tomahawk, I tooka small paper circle and cut a slit. I then preformed it intoa cone, then unrolled it slightly. I precurled the petals andbegan gluing the tips side by side on top of the circle, theirtips touching the center. As I continued, the nose gradually tookshape and the slittled circle also took on a slight conical appearance(don't glue over the slit until the end). After I was finished,the petals were all secured at the tips, and I could then concentrateon joining the remainder of the seams. I admitted cheating a bit and using superglue to stiffenthe nose and then applying paint to cover some mistakes, but Ineeded a solid nose. With just a little nose weight (and anotherlayer of paper laminated in the wings to give more strength, thelarge 1:16 scale cruise missile actually glides fairly well ifyou give it enough of a toss. The nose has withstood multiple"impacts", which is more than I can say about the realthing. ;-) The kids at the IPMS/Northrop meeting loved playingwith it until one of the tail fins broke (I've reinforced thejoints now), while the adults had a good laugh at the FedEx markings.It will take to the skies once more next week at the IPMS/OrangeCounty meeting, and then go to a deserving youngster. Right now,it's getting its share of "grins and giggles" at mylocal hobby shop.Thanks for a wonderful model, Matt. David T. Okamura(11-5)

I just love the cruise missile in Fed Ex Livery. Of course theimmediate temptation is to "address" it to Osma binLaden, Kabul, Afghanistan. D. Rorer (11/8/01)

This nose is the same, basically, as the MesserschmittSwallow.. These are from the ME-262 page..

After having filled a waste paper basket with partiallybuilt models, I just finished 2 Fiddler's Green, ME262's thatare now part of my collection. One is WSAM scale and the otheris an HO scale model.They are both really fantastic. The way theengines build up is really ingenious. I found that the trick tobuilding this model, is to make the center section of the model,which has tabs on both ends, oversize. In HOscale, I made thefuselage section about 1/16 of an inch oversize and on the 1/60scale model, it is about 1/8 inch oversize. The HO scale modelis so cool, that I immediately started work on a Texan in thesame scale. How cool is it? Its so cute that my 13 year old daughteroffered to take it and make it the first model in her own paperplane collection. Roger Cousineau, 3/14/01

RE: forming the rounded nose ...I am no expert ( as I haveonly built 1 paper model ! ) but this is the method I adopted. Take some tissue ( toilet roll , around 1/2 a sheet ) and soakit in dilute PVA glue ( around 50/50 )then form it into the shapeyou want for the nose. Coat the inside of the nose with PVA andpush the tissue shape into the nose. From the outside put a smallamount of PVA (to trying to avoid the ink running ) on the nosepetals and wait for the paper/card to soften then gently formit down onto the tissue till you get the desired shape.I did findit a help to stick the nose to the next section of the body thismakes the nose easier to hold/handle. Yes I was very sceptical of the method , especially as at themoment I use paper and not card for my models but it works. Probably a good idea to print out a few noses i.e Me262 or Me163and try them to get the hang of it. I am sure someone with more skill/experience than me will add/correctthis for you.

Forming noses are a pain, The last model I designed had a big one and I had to make it againand again and again. I hated it.But I found a trick that madeit easy and I got pretty good at it. First I had been doing itby forming them around a ball of tissue paper with some glue onit, very messy but it works if you are careful.

I was sitting at my desk and on it was a track-ballmouse. This is one of those logitech track balls with the controlball sitting in a cup shaped holder on top of the mouse. I removedthe ball and looked in the hole. it was a spherical shaped depressionin the top of the mouse. It occured to me the hole was also justa little bigger diameter then the cruise missle nose. I cut outa cruise missle nose and formed it into a ring and let that dry.I put some glue on the insides of the petals. Then I took thering, petals downward and pushed it into the hole on the mouse.

The curved sides of the hole formed the petals togethersmoothly. I was able to hold the ring in the hole (all petalsformed together with just two fingers.) Then with the other handI took a small swatch of tissue and pressed it over the back ofthe petals and held it for a few seconds while the glue set intothe tissue. I pulled the nose back out and voila a perfect nose.

Since then I have been looking for items with similarshaped depressions (spherical) but with different diameters. Ifound a couple that will work (shot glasses) I will just keepcollecting an assortment of shapes and keep them in a box tilneeded. Matthew Sparks