A few Johan Scherft birds

**Erik Zwaan** · #1 12-26-2020, 02:12 PM

Hello everyone,

First of all, I hope you had a very merry Christmas and enjoyed the time with family and/or friends. This year's Christmas is a strange one in The Netherlands, with lockdown rules that limit the number of people one can invite to a maximum of three. Well, that's still better than none at all. I pity my parents though, the old folks home where they stay got a Covid-case just before Christmas and now the entire community is quarantained, with no visitors allowed or to go outside, for 12 days. Then you realize, they're really trapped....

Anyway, a few days off and I decided to build a few wonderful Johan Scherft birds. Starting with the Collared Flycatcher, which I have on my e-pile for some four years already. It's a cute little black and white fellow with its spreaded wings in downward position. Kevin WS built this model as well in 2019 and there's an excellent tutorial of his build on this site, which I used as reference.

I printed the two model sheets on 120 grams paper and enlarged the prints to 106% in order to have the scale line at exactly 10cm, as indicated. Johan indicates that 80 grams paper could be used as well, but I wouldn't recommend it, it's just too thin.

Then I gave the sheets a thin coating of satin varnish to protect the home printed ink and to make the sheets firmer (stiffer).

First parts are the body and the tail. Not that difficult but the real challenge is the relatively thin paper, which can be dented easily, so be careful. Starting at the back, symmetrically gluing the tabs towards the belly. It's simply amazing to see just a single flat part shape into an ingeniously designed 3D-body!

Cheers,
Erik

**birder** · #2 12-26-2020, 07:08 PM

Very clean work on this one Erik, it is fun to watch it come together, and you are precise and careful. I am also amazed at the shapes that form in your hand as you build these birds. I've been playing with the Robin, built one but thought I would do another, and the Barn Owl, which I bought from Papel3d website , his book of American birds are very pricy now probably few of them are intact as quite a long while out of print. I hope your folks are safe, it is a pity to not have visitors for those people.

**Erik Zwaan** · #3 12-30-2020, 11:13 AM

Thanks Glen for your response! My folks are safe, I talk to them every other day but they are counting down the days.

A bit of progress on the flycatcher. The wings are ready. They need to be bent quite substantially but the design is such that this is not much of a problem. A piece of a skewer is used through the body to ease mounting the wings onto the body.

At the belly there's a small marking for the hole through which a metal wire has to be inserted. As the bird flies, this will become part of the mount. Unless you prefer to make a bird mobile, then you need to use fishing wire or the like.
I used steel wire, which is thin, strong and flexible. The wire has been glued with construction kit to the skewer, right at the center. Ensure you leave this overnight for thoroughly drying/hardening of the glue.

Johan's instructions indicate that the head has to be glued in place first but I preferred to do the wings first, realizing that a small modification to the head will be necessary. With the head not fixed in place first, you can still use your index finger from the inside of the body to counterbalance the pressure on the body when pressing the wings in place from the outside. Note that Kevin WS opted for the head first, so it's just a matter of personal preference. It works either way.

Finally, a small correction regarding the scaling: I printed the model to 104% of its size, and not to 106% as mentioned in the previous post. 104% results in an exact 10cm scale line.

That's all for 2020 - I wish you all a very enjoyable New Year's Eve and a good start of 2021!

Regards,
Erik

**romanmodels** · #4 12-30-2020, 02:55 PM

good work Erik all the best for the new year

**birder** · #5 12-30-2020, 05:50 PM

Very clean work there Erik looks nice the wing is quite convincing

**Kevin WS** · #6 12-31-2020, 03:19 AM

Nice clean build Erik. Glad you are enjoying it!

And keep safe!

**Erik Zwaan** · #7 01-03-2021, 11:54 AM

Hi David, Glen and Kevin, thank you and wishing you a wonderful 2021!

The build continues with the head, beak and legs and a few touch-ups at the thighs and wings. Because the wings need to be bent quite substantially, by design there's a small gap in the wing leading edges, which I closed with a tiny patch of black paper upon completion of the model. In fact I used a spare copy of the model (this time for the specific purpose of being able to make small corrections, printed on 80 grams paper).
Similar way of working to the inner thighs, to patch up the fluffy feathers of the bird's belly.
I used tightly rolled up pieces of paper to reinforce the legs by pushing them into the hollow "leg tubes".

Then a mount made of wood, with railway grass and moss glued to it. Don't make the mount too small as the model may otherwise tip over.

Finally a satin (semi-gloss/matt) coat of varnish and clear gloss to the eyes. A very nice and elegant model, made in just one week.

With a bit of photoshopping you can erase the metal wire and then the bird really flies. Hope you enjoy the pictures and on to the next bird

.

Regards,
Erik