Fiddlers Green

Was oh so delicately cutting a "Lep scale" (i.e. microscopic) two-ply gear leg to shape when the blade snagged on an embedded molecule of extra hard paper pulp and tore most of the thin skin of the color layer off the leg; kind of a frayed delamination. The glue joint of the plys was sound; it was the paper itself that split.

This sort of thing has happened before: the paper gets stressed, by a crease too sharp for its thickness, by a knife blade that's overdue for changing, by an excess of glue, and it tears apart like delaminating plywood.

I was already unhappy with the mediocre stiffness of the two-ply leg (which couldn't be made any thicker without making the leg's thickness disproportionate to the scale of the model); the abrupt tear compounded my frustration. How many fragmented gear legs would it take before I managed to obtain two pristine ones out of the paper carnage?

Then the plywood metaphor hit home. The problem wasn't that the paper was acting like badly glued plywood, it was that the paper wasn't plywood-like enough! That is to say, the two-plys of cardstock to achieve strength and proper thickness were the right idea, but the wrong material.

I got some old Jepp approach plates, made from an extremely lightweight paper about half the thickness of typing paper, and glued up a 12-ply plank equal in thickness to the two-ply cardstock, but about 10 times stronger and stiffer. I cut a perfect matched pair of gear legs on the first try.

Now I realize many modelers would've gone with shaved toothpicks or matchsticks, or bits of wire, but for the purists like me who take a special pride in making models that are 100% paper, this was a satisfying discovery. Super-thin paper glued up in planks of marine-grade-like plywood for small parts that need to be stiff, strong, and resistant to tearing. Perfect.

Hello

Awesome idea, never thought about that approach, but it makes perfect sense. Another option would be to glue the layers to each other but with the grain of each sheet perpendicular to the next one. Super strong and eve more resistant to tearing.

Niki

yeah...kinda like real plywood...... ...but in this case PLYPAPER

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Laterz
Possm_23
Never say anything you wouldnt think out loud!
Take your time leavin.....but hurry back!!!!
Every tub has to sit on its own bottom!!!!

Paper IS wood! What you've made is scale-model plywood! You finally got to building something! What? What?

Lep
BTW, I don't have the micro thing to myself...Texman made a 1/144 biplane the other day.

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"TANSTAAFL !" "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!" Lazarus Long AKA Robert A. Heinlein

Currently working on: FG Wippet 1/72
Recently Completed: FG FT-17 Dio 1/38

I've done something similar to this with regular typing paper. But that was only because I ran out of card stock.

And Lep- you're right. That thing was insane! It may have even beaten your variety of insanity

where is texmans post at???????

_________________
Laterz
Possm_23
Never say anything you wouldnt think out loud!
Take your time leavin.....but hurry back!!!!
Every tub has to sit on its own bottom!!!!

Well, I'm building all the time, just not much FG lately - I'm getting all my duplicate hard copy models put together - Maly, ModelCard, Wilhelmshaven, etc. These gear legs were for a 1/100 scale Rumpler C1/5A2 air limousine from the JSC Lufthansa collection. I'll put up a picture when it's complete. On the workbench I've got a Maly Lysander, a JSC Heinkel, a Maly river paddle steamer called the Krakus, and several other Maly models I got more than one of when buying them by the batch off the Polish version of eBay (www.Allegro.pl). Meanwhile I delivered about five recently completed models to a friend in San Francisco for his office ceiling (an FW190, a Dornier Do27, a Dornier WAL, the FG Duck, and a Maly DH Mosquito). Except for the Lockheed Electra (see the Look What I Built thread), which I photographed at every step of construction (more than 300 shots!), I don't take many pictures - too busy getting the little critters assembled!

Possum,
On Zealot, in Aircraft and Aviation.
Lep

_________________
"TANSTAAFL !" "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!" Lazarus Long AKA Robert A. Heinlein

Currently working on: FG Wippet 1/72
Recently Completed: FG FT-17 Dio 1/38

Also on papermodelers: http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/avia ... v-1-a.html

an excellent idea! I'l 'ave t' try it next time I build a micro model

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Currently working on: Brewster F2A Buffalo, NA BT-9
Recently completed: P-38 Lightning in 1:172