Douglas Bader's Spitfire 1/33

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Hi friends, I tried and changed the gear doors, which went well and looks so much better. Thank you for the advice, Lorenzo. And Erik, here too is proof I added the antenna and aerial. I used the thinnest metal wire I had; I always find thread is too fluffy for this job. I tried pulling thin wire from sprues but I guess I have the wrong type of plastic, it just snaps and is too rubbery when melting.
So, thanks for the advice and, of course, for all the kind words!

[Erik Zwaan]

Great Paper Kosmonaut! Thin steel wire works perfectly, it's flexible but also stays straight and tight, hence ideal for aerials.

Cheers,
Erik

[Rubenandres77]

Very nicely done!
What a pleasure to see models like this.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thanks! I still am looking for thinner wire; I know there is elastic wire model makers use when making the tension wires for biplanes, but perhaps that too is thick.

I can imagine the real aerial wires are really thin. They often are hardly visible on photos. But for now this will do.

[Rubenandres77]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

Thanks! I still am looking for thinner wire; I know there is elastic wire model makers use when making the tension wires for biplanes, but perhaps that too is thick.

I can imagine the real aerial wires are really thin. They often are hardly visible on photos. But for now this will do.

Or you can use a hair. Those are wonderful for the antenna wires. Very useful and quite to scale.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Originally Posted by Rubenandres77

Or you can use a hair. Those are wonderful for the antenna wires. Very useful and quite to scale.

I haven't had a proper haircut since the corona-mess started so mine is perhaps long enough but it also is quite curly. I'll try anyway! Thanks!

[abhovi]

I downloaded the spitfire and engine. In the manual some parts are marked in red. That suggests that you have to glue the part on a thicker medium. But nowhere is said how thick exactly. Anybody who is familiar with this code in red?

[Skyhawk]

Originally Posted by abhovi

I downloaded the spitfire and engine. In the manual some parts are marked in red. That suggests that you have to glue the part on a thicker medium. But nowhere is said how thick exactly. Anybody who is familiar with this code in red?

Parts numbered in BLACK are printed on 160g paper
Parts numbered in RED are to be glued to cardstock 0.5 mm
Total thickness of bulkheads, consisting of 2-3 layers of 160 g paper plus cardboard to 0.8 to 1 mm thick.
Parts numbered in BLUE are to be printed on thin paper
Parts numbered in GREEN are to be printed on "sticky label" paper.

[Skyhawk]

Originally Posted by abhovi

I downloaded the spitfire and engine. In the manual some parts are marked in red. That suggests that you have to glue the part on a thicker medium. But nowhere is said how thick exactly. Anybody who is familiar with this code in red?

Download the Spitfire_Va_Cover. It contains 2 files. A picture and the general instructions.

[Erik Zwaan]

Ab, usually the numbers in black are the part numbers and the ones in red refer to other parts that need to be glued there. I don't think red means that the part concerned needs to be laminated with 0.5mm thick cardboard. It doesn't really become clear which parts need to be laminated but usually these are formers or parts of a part that shapes it. For instance part A4 (red letter/black letter) is a drum-like shape so both sections numbered A1 and A6 (both in red) need to be laminated with 0.5mm board. That's how I would interpret it. And then where it says A1 in red, part A1 needs to be glued on the white area; likewise for red A6, where A6 needs to be glued.

For the rods (diameters are indicated) I recommend plastic rods, brand Evergreen scale models. They come in various diameters, such as 0,75mm (good enough to be used for 0.8mm), 0.50mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, etcetera. I use these rods a lot and they are ideal. Available in any good hobby shop, which will likely also sell metal rods, but they are less easy to handle. The plastic rods can easily be glued to each other by plastic cement and are flexible.

It may sound a bit ridiculous, but it can make a difference: If you laminate paper, don't forget that the glue strip will also add up to the total thickness, usually something like 0.1mm (especially for acetate glue). White glue will be absorbed by the paper. Whoever said that paper modeling is no science ??

Good luck, I have downloaded the merlin as well, years ago already but never got a chance yet to start building it.

Cheers,
Erik