Making smaller tubes

[Retired_for_now]

Medved,
Try some of Jon Leslie's simple rockets for your buddy (just don't tell him they're from the kid's section). It's important to have some success with the first build.

Yogi

[Thomas Meek]

My Esteemed Colleague medved;

Thanks for the flattery in your post referring to me an an "expert" just because I know one thing that you did not know.

I am actually just a glue fingered manufacturer of expensive cat bait. However, your comment has made my day.

I am grateful for any opportunity to contribute in any small way to this community and the true experts (and fellow glue-fingers) from whom I have learned and continue to learn so much.

[medved]

@Retired_for_now not a bad idea - but it's gonna take wild horses to get him to try a 2nd time I think... Will have to try & sneak it up on him.

@Thomas Meek given I am just about to sink the knife into model #5, you are I think, way ahead of me!
Cat-bait - LOL - yep cats sure do love to sit on paper / in boxes - that could present some major problems to the art

This community is a very valuable resource, I appreciate everyones input & I hope my posts may help others in some way.

[Zakopious]

The spars and gun barrels on the Rigby armed merchantman are made from grass stems.
The recoil tube on the PTA Priest howitzer is also made from a grass stem.
The correct shape for the machine gun barrel on the Priest was made by slipping a small grass stem inside a larger grass stem.

The grass stems must be painted to get the correct color and they can be made stronger with superglue.
Now is the time to go out in the fields and collect some grass stems before they are covered by snow.
The grass stems with the grass seeds at the tip are about three feet long.

I store my grass stems in the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels.
My grass stems are less than one mm at the tip of the stem to about three mm at the base.
Chemically, grass stems are similar to paper so they work well with paper models and they are free.

[2Kamser]

i just wonder re techniques described
isn't it possible to combine the techs, first do the roll with buttending, then with lighter paper do a support roll that fits inside the outer tube?

[medved]

Grass-stems - nice idea - who can now say modeling can't be 'Green'???

[Clashster]

Great idea.... Of course, if snow covers the grass here in the sub tropics, I have more issues than making the proper tube!

[Thomas Meek]

Thank you Zakopious, that's a super idea!

And yes, this is the time to go out and gather a bunch of different sizes and bring them into shelter. Outside, they tend to dry out and get brittle as Nature has her way with them.

[lehcyfer]

As for butt joining small tubes, I've shown the my version of the process here

Now I'd like to translate an extremely interesting method for making long tubes of VERY varying diameter. The original post (in Polish) can be found here.

The method is explained on the photos. It was a bull to replace Polish texts, but I'm sure you'll be happy to read it.







I admire Syzyf's work on Polish forums

[OldTroll]

Thank you for this very valuable tutorial!