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Old 05-22-2012, 08:18 AM
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Rubenandres77 Rubenandres77 is offline
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Well my friends, thanks a lot for your words.

The original file that Salvador offers is at scale 1/72, and can be printed using ordinary copy paper. That allows to make all the frame one single piece.

But I printed on thick cardstock (0.25mm) and I laminated using the same cardstock until getting a thickness of around 1mm to 1.25 mm. That measure is approximately the good one for a scale of 1:33 in the wood longerons. Maybe not exact, but it looks fine to the eye.

Because 1.25mm is too thick to be folded easily, I decided to separate the sides as complete parts, and the upper and bottom sticks as separate parts too.

I printed using laser, and for the last layer I also used a laser-printed page with a wooden texture all over it. That's why the backing of each longeron also has wooden texture.

I glued the pages together using generic white PVA glue, and put them under a lot of pressure (ten volumes of a heavy encyclopedia) for two days before cutting.

Cutting is the key to get a nice finish: the blades need to be very sharp, and the cuts need to be very vertical. That way I got a very nice fit of parts. The rest is proper use of cyanoacrilate and big doses of patience to glue each small stick.

The markers I’m using to color the edges are water-based. The result is very nice (slightly different to an alcohol-based ink).

In the following days when I add the other structural parts (bulkheads) of the fuselage I will see if I cut right the parts and if the thickness of the lamination is the appropriate. We will know soon!
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