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I was very lucky, and found a laser printer at a second hand shop for $15. Bargains are out there, often in unexpected places. So keep you eyes open and imagination stirring. Since most of free downloads come from the civilized metric part of the world, I get A4 cardstock from Amazon, currently using 65lb thickness. It is thick enough to provide sufficient support for most models. I also use 85lb U.S. letter size cardstock from Walmart for letter size designs. For parts that need to be laminated for reinforcement I use Presentation Board from Office Depot. It’s just about 1mm thick so works great for internal structures. However, for this build I’m using triple fold insulation foam from Lowe’s Hardware stores. It is cheaper and I can cut the meter long internal formers from a single piece.
After I print out the pages, I spray them with a light coating of clear gloss spray paint. This helps to seal the paper. It may keep dot matrix prints from running, but most importantly I can wipe my glue smeared fingerprints off the model once completed.
For this build I wanted a metallic sheen to the fuselage. So after I sprayed the clear on, I pored some acrylic silver paint on the sheets and rubbed it in with a paper towel. It helped darken the parts and with a little buffing from the towel gives it a slight metallic shine.
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