Clean Ogive Nose Cones?

[Steve_A]

I've been looking through the gallery and have noted that some models with seriously compound curves seem almost..well...seamless. I've added an image of Currell Graphic's Friede that I've been working on and as you can see it looks more like a farm silo top than the nose of the Friede. I used 60lb card but was wondering if I should have been using something much lighter and, how do you get your seams so tight? Lastly, what do you use to re-color the paper where your seam is and where the cut was made? Oh, and are you using white glue or something else and if so, where can I find it?

I have a series of shuttles I want to build before spring and I'll have the same issue with the external fuel tanks.

Thanks for your time.
Steve

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Hi Steve. It's one of the few disadvantages of paper modeling, the ogive cone shapes. One thing you can do is use a rubber superball to roll over the seams after glueing. It smoothens the shape a bit.
Secondly, what I also often do, is to colour the edges of the paper in a matching colour with crayons or colour pencils, preferably the aquarel-type pencils, before glueing them together. Wet the point a bit, colour the edges and afterwards, rub over it with your finger to give it an even spread. After glueing you will notice that with the white seams gone, the shape already starts to look smoother.
Some of us use balsa wood, in the philosophy that it actually is "pre-paper" stuff so it can be added. You can also use a glue that gets hard so you can sand it off for a smoother surface.
Where it comes down to is also a good fit. Sometimes you have to redo a cone piece to get a better fit.

Most of all: take your time. Don't hasten things. It won't make your build any prettier.
Have fun! "Friede" is also on my list.

[jaeike]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

Hi Steve. It's one of the few disadvantages of paper modeling, the ogive cone shapes. One thing you can do is use a rubber superball to roll over the seams after glueing. It smoothens the shape a bit.
Secondly, what I also often do, is to colour the edges of the paper in a matching colour with crayons or colour pencils, preferably the aquarel-type pencils, before glueing them together. Wet the point a bit, colour the edges and afterwards, rub over it with your finger to give it an even spread. After glueing you will notice that with the white seams gone, the shape already starts to look smoother.
Some of us use balsa wood, in the philosophy that it actually is "pre-paper" stuff so it can be added. You can also use a glue that gets hard so you can sand it off for a smoother surface.
Where it comes down to is also a good fit. Sometimes you have to redo a cone piece to get a better fit.

Most of all: take your time. Don't hasten things. It won't make your build any prettier.
Have fun! "Friede" is also on my list.

Couldn't have said it better. I will add that white glue is great to use. I would suggest applying it with a brush so you can get a nice thin coat. The water content in the glue causes the paper to buckle. With a thin application, you'll get little to no wrinkles.

[Steve_A]

Do you guys think that 60lb paper is light enough, or should I use something lighter?

[HMCS]

there is a cool thread on creating seamless panel lines on here that may help,.. let me dig it up

[HMCS]

here it is:
Seamless Paper Model construction

[airdave]

The nose piece in the first post should not be a difficult one to produce fairly smooth.

My method would be to use full ring joiner strips.
All the way around, tabbed on one side for the next ring.

Most important thing is clean edge cuts.
No rough edges, no tears, no wavys.
And cleanly edge coloured (I generally just use markers, but they do bleed a bit)

(I can tell you, the edges on each ring in your photos do not look smoothly and cleanly cut)

I use 65lb paper for everything (including this)

I would:
Assemble all nose rings as cleanly as possible and then I use a rounded, bulbous tool*
to rub the seams from the inside. Outside would be flat against my clean cutting mat.
I rub all the seams hard until they flatten out as much as possible,
taking care not to over-rub and start showing the joiner strips from the outside.

Then I burnish the the seams from the outside with the edges of my stainless
steel scissors. The finger loops are rounded and smooth, and work like the back
of a Spoon to smooth out the seams.

The inside shaping gives you a better curved shape to the nose
and if you have joined all the rings with tight, clean cut edges,
then the outer burnishing will smooth out the seams...
and you end up with a smooth curved nose.

I use Aileens Tacky Glue...but for ring assembly like this, Contact cement also works well.
It takes a but of practice, but you can join the rings with precision very quickly
with the quick strong grab of the contact cement.
(Coat both parts...allow to setup for 5/10 minutes and then contact)

Just my two cents on assembling a nose like this.


*I have one of those Ceramic Knifes.
useless for cutting out printed parts because you can't see the blade tip while cutting!
But the handle has these large rounded ends ...perfect as a forming and burnishing tool!

[Retired_for_now]

The only way to get fairly good ogives is to use the dreaded "petal" design for the nose cone (obviously requires the designer to start that way). Some threads on how to do that:
Tutorial and Technique for the Assembly of Open Petal Designs
Gluing petals in nose cones
Echoing Dave - With stacked conics, the only way I get half-way decent ogives (or hemispheres) is to use joiner strips between the rings, trim if needed so you get a good fit (edge to edge) between the individual rings, color the cut edges (sometimes just a light gray pencil to tone it down works well enough), and press the seams with either tweezers if you can reach or a smooth tool on the outside backed by a fingertip on the inside.

Cdavenports thread mentioned above has the info you need to make a really perfect fit.

Yogi

[Steve_A]

Originally Posted by airdave

(I can tell you, the edges on each ring in your photos do not look smoothly and cleanly cut)

I use 65lb paper for everything (including this)

Well, I thought I had a new blade when I cut those, but maybe I didn't. I did, however, free hand cut those rings (which I am not sure if there is any other way of doing it.) and I am certain there was a lot of starting and stopping as I worked my way around the part so I suspect that lends a lot to the roughness. At any rate, I plan to print off another and make another run at it with all of the advice you guys gave and we'll see what happens. As I stated, I have a series of shuttles I would like to do over the winter I would really like to somewhat master this before I do. Of course, I have stumbled onto a diversion...Thunderchild's Gunstar!

Thanks for the help guys!
Steve

[Steve_A]

Originally Posted by Retired_for_now

The only way to get fairly good ogives is to use the dreaded "petal" design for the nose cone (obviously requires the designer to start that way).

Yogi

You know the crazy part? The models I have built with that design of nose cone, have worked better for me than these rings!