1/144 AH-1 Cobra Super Detailed

[nothing]

i wish i could build the big scale models as good as you. thats some mad skills you got there!!

[KCStephens]

Holy cow Ray that's awesome
Can't wait to see it in person in October

[Don Boose]

Sorry to be weighing in late on this superbly-detailed Cobra, Flyboy.

This has to be one of your best (among a lot of extraordinary models).

I hope you can bring it to Sterling in October.

Dogface

[ashevilleangler]

Ray, that is just sick dude! I'd be very lucky to build one like it done in my lifetime.

Curt

[Bionic Modeler]

are you blind yet? My eyes glaze over at 1:72

[willygoat]

Originally Posted by dhanners

Where'd you get that over-size quarter? That has to be some prop piece because the model can't really be that small...

He must have had Aaron Murphy rig that one up. It goes well with Aaron's huge #11 blade model.


That's some super great work Ray. Wowsers!

[TLUN]

I was surprised when I was watching the photos, I never expect it can be so detail...please forgive me for using your picture since my english is not as well as I want to, and ...

Would you mind to tell me how do you make those parts with paper?It is like you know magic and just make a real Cobra become smaller... I mean, how do you even cut the parts...they are so small...

TLUN

[Texman]

WOW! I cannot thank you all enough for your generosity in your comments and your time in viewing my build!

@ Kevin, Dogface - Yup, it will be there.

@ TLUN - I use a 3.5 or 3.75 pair of reading glasses for most work. Occasionally I do have to put the
opti-visor on top of the glasses to see what I am really doing, as seen in post #23 of this thread

1/87 pta mt-lb

Most parts are printed on 65lb cover stock. I use a multitude of tools, depending on what
needs to be done. For the marked area on the tail vertical stabilizer, I used a leather
embossing tool to form it into a "bowl" shape before gluing it on.

Some parts, such as the horizontal wings on the tail boom, the weapons pylons and wings,
the rotor blades, etc, I actually thin the trailing edge of the paper with sanding sticks,
to keep it from looking like two pieces of card glued together.

To roll my parts, I have a collection of about twenty four different size knitting needles,
and a few wooden dowels that let me roll just about anything. I usually start with a couple of
sizes larger than needed, then just roll the part until it becomes slightly smaller than needed.
This allows the paper to "force" itself into a roll without me having to hold it. I almost always
remove the built in glue tabs, and replace them with glue strips to eliminate the step that
occurs with the tab method. The glue seam is then held in place by tweezers until it dries.

The main rotor blades were treated almost exactly the same. The trailing edge of each
blade was thinned and then glued. The rotor head, this one was a bit more involved. Before
cutting out the part, the inside pieces were carefully removed. I did this by inserting the
tip of my knife blade into a corner, and instead of pulling the blade towards me, reversed it
and pushed it toward the center of my cut. Then, rotating the part, did the same thing to the
opposite side of the cut, working my way around the inside of the part. When I had this cut out,
I applied a CA glue (super glue) to the part, and hit it with an accelerator to set it. This stiffens the paper to give it some support.

I hope this maybe answers some of the questions you wanted to know. If you have any more questions, just ask!

[bankww2]

at first I think that it is plastic!!!! amazing work!!!!!!!!!!

[Don Boose]

An excellent disquisition on technique, Ray. I have added it to my Paper Modeler's Vade Mecum.