How I Build a 1/100 Model

[Vinalssergio155]

Excellent tutorial Garry, very educational and with this you learn a lot. Until here I do not notice many differences in your techniques with what at least I try to build a 1 / 100. The biggest difference is the skill that you possess, like many others And that several of us will not be able to achieve.

[Rata]

Thanks Kevin, Rob and Sergio.
Apologies Rob- I assumed the brand name Blu Tack was a worldwide thing so thanks Rick for clearing that up.
And Sergio, skill is mostly the result of practice and sticking with it. Your wonderful creations are increasingly testament to that.

[Brent]

Great thread Garry! Everything you say you don't do on a build, I do. Fantastic tutorial.

Brent

[Rata]

Cheers Brent!

[Rata]

The wings, being much bigger than the tail surfaces I use the fold-back trailing edge tabs as drawn and of course score these before cutting wings out. But like the fin, I leave the tips till last. On most wings the upper surfaces have the most curvature so I pre-curve over a bigger marker pen handle or similar. I always do as much wing construction on the flat bench top- trying to get things straight and true in mid-air is asking for all sorts of unsightly things like warps and bowed or wavy edges.

The lower wings on this model are designed joined at the centre. I usually cut down the centre and build each wing separately for two reasons: it's easier doing one wing at a time plus it greatly increases the chance of getting that ALL IMPORTANT dihedral angle right. I'm sure you all know what this is but for those who don't, it's the upward sweep of each wing when viewed from the front or rear. It's largely a stability aid and most planes have it at varying degrees. This is why you don't see it much on designed-for-the-purpose aerobatic types. I've seen so many otherwise nicely made models having flat wings or worse, wings with the tips pointing up to the heavens. BTW, downward sweep is called anhedral, like on a Harrier.

Fold back the wing gently holding down the leading edge at each end with thumb and forefinger. When satisfied the trailing edge lines up, hold IT down with other hand while gently sliding finger back and forth along the leading edge to make a sharper and more permanent bend. Again while holding down the leading edge, one dob of glue to secure the trailing edge at the root; another near the tip; then brush a thin film of adhesive along the rest gently smoothing it flat back and forth with finger tip. If you can get into the habit of pulling off the foregoing while holding wing flat on the building board, you'll end up with a pretty good success rate of straight, warp free wings.

Bruno provides partial wing spars with most of his monoplane models. Use them! They'll gaurantee correct and realistic wing thickness. I laminate them to make them thicker, then after scoring the bend lines, make a bend against the edge of a metal rule to assist getting it sharp and neat.
I only tack glue the spars near the root, pushing them in 2mm or so in case the upper wing root needs trimming. Not a good idea to press down on the outside of either wing surface with a sweaty finger to get the spar to stick, I lay something flat with a bit of weight in it across the wing while the glue dries.

Try and do as much as a dry fit as possible to get an idea if the dihedral angle is right (the Ki-27 has a bigger angle than most). My decision to separate the wings earlier paid off and I ended up wth a small gap along the centre-line which I can live with.

Again, small tack-glue's at a time, smoothing out lower trailing edge root fairings, nudging the front roots in and then brushing a thin bead of PVA all around the joints.
Comparison with the scale plans show things to pretty close.

Wing root fairings will be covered next post and thanks again for viewing.

[papermodelfan]

Thanks, Rick. Another great tip and tool

[Mike1158]

Thanks for tips, very much appreciated.

[Don Boose]

This is a most valuable tutorial. I am saving the entire document in my "Paper Modelers' Vade Mecum.

It inspires me to give the failed 1/100 Kyushu J1K6 another try this weekend (and perhaps to have another go at Nobi's 1/48 Ki-27s that I attempted a years or so ago).

Many thanks for this excellent instruction.

Don

[Rata]

Thanks for the endorsement Don. Even though I've tried as much as possible to let the pictures explain, I still need to lay out in the text what I'm trying to show. I just hope it's not too long-winded or confusing.

The dreaded wing-root fairings. A bit like bi-plane rigging: difficult to attach (or can be) yet too important to leave off.
The important thing to remember is the 'double curvature' rule on paper models. You can't break that rule so you have to find ways to work around it. And when it comes to wing root fairings in 1/100 I've found the best way to achieve this is to make or cut down to the absolute minimum while still retaining a convincing appearance.

You can see in the first photo that the fairings for this kit are quite large. This may be scale but on the full size it can be difficult determining visually where the fairing 'starts and finishes'; especially on old and grainy b&w Ki-27 photos!. But that's the idea: they're smoothed out and shaped for reasons of aerodynamic efficiency not aesthetics. A bit like wheel fairings on this and other period types; they certainly look cool but that's not why they're on there!

As is , I'm going to struggle to get that fairing to a concave shape and then persuade it to smoothly go all the way from the rear to the front of the wing. So cut it down I say! On our little 1/100 tiddler doing so is not going to get you in trouble with the Scale Accuracy Police. I do it all the time and if anyone in this forum has noticed, then they've been polite enough not to say anything. Besides, on this particular model it's a case of NEEDING to cut it down as it would have partially obscured that fuselage stripe. Of course the 'proper' way to deal with that would be to draw the obscured part of said stripe onto the fairing at the repaint stage. Nah. Absolute scale accuracy: 0, laziness: 1.

My fairings rarely go further forward than about 1/3 of the chord back from the leading edge.

Before attaching the fairings, roll them along they're length getting them pre-shaped as much as possible. The fiddly bit is holding them in place while trying to get tack-glue points done. I've found it best to glue the point of the fairing at the wing trailing edge first, then smoothing it in gently, small tack glue at the rearmost point at the fuselage. Allow to dry then, with a tooth pick or similar, gently persuade the front point of the fairing into the fuselage/wing junction onto the third and final glue point. Yep, that's right. If careful, I usually get away with each fairing staying down with just three small glue points

When dry and if needed, smooth the rearmost parts of the upper and lower fairings with a round brush handle or similar.

Just re-iterating, the foregoing is how I deal with this part of the model. At the end of the day we do things our own way and if any members have a different and just as effective method then please share with us!

You may have noticed at this point the wing tips are still open. I always do them last and will look at them tomorrow. Thanks again for looking.

Garry G

[wireandpaper]

Well, you have another endorsement. It is always nice to see how fellow members build their models.