Treating the edges

[Rutek63]

Hey everyone!

I would like to share some methods of edge treatment that include cutting, painting, folding, glueing and joining. Most of these methods I have learned from Polish Paper modelers on the "Karton net Work" forum.

Good place to start is obviously cutting. By using this cutting method you'll be able to put together almost any part of a model where the part's edges join under almost any angle, without any need for edge coloring. The key to this trick is to cut the card under the right angle, precisely in the middle of the line, and avoid touching them, except for the cases when you're working on the edge to improve it's quality, bevel or quality of the fit. If you get those things right you'll cut the edge coloring by at least 70 %.

Now let's see how most of us are tend to cut the parts out of the kit pages.



By cutting a card with a knife held vertically we create a groove of the V shape and eventually we end up with parts with slanting edges, like in (figure 1) in the last picture. This scenario will call for the edge coloring to mask partially visible white edges. But, if you cut a card with a knife's beveled edge positioned parallel to the ruler's edge, you'll end up with a 90 degree cut .
In this case, when you put two parts together edges will disappear, and your seam won't need any coloring. (Figure 2).



And finally you can cut or file a card under any desired angle, especially if the angle parameter is between 180 to 45 degree. (Figure 3).





Regards!
Peter

[whulsey]

Excellent illustrations and explanations. Thanks

[pahorace]

Thanks Peter
for this simple and clear explanation about the cut.
It would also be nice, at least for me, to know how you glue the parts (method).
Especially in parts without connection tabs.

Regards.
Orazio

[Pat_craft]

Thaks for sharing those very clear informations....

[Bomarc]

I love it Peter. Excellent precision, and clear graphics. Your last few discussions about edge and seam work have really made me come to realize that this is an area in paper modeling that I need to focus on a lot more.

Thanks!

Mike

[rbeach84]

Peter, may I use your illustrations with my tutorial on plastic card fabrication? The principle is exactly the same dealing with plastic sheet parts. Your drawings are superior to my hand drawn versions. I would of course include credit you (and any other linkage, such as "via Papermodelers.com" that you might want to include) on the image.

In any case, nice job - obviously I think they are clear and straight forward. I admit I have been thinking of the cut angle, but was thinking that the minimal thickness of the card (100lb weight is the max I use) made this a 'non-issue'. After doing this, I see that is not the case.

In plastic card constructions, I often use a sub-tended (is that the word?) angle to leave a tiny 'gap' along one side of the glue seam, since the solvent action of the cements will cause the resulting 'weld bead' to push into the gap, making for a cleaner seam on one side - which I then control based on the cut angle.

For paper, the only effect of this glue interaction is that the fibers may 'swell' a bit, so leaving the gap is not really desireable for any contructional technique. This means, as you noted, that a flush match of the edges will give the best results.

Thanks again, excellent post!

[Alcides]

Thanks a lot!!!! I've saving this thread as reference. Excellent!!!

Thanks for share your knowledge.

[Art Deco]

Great tip, and very nice graphics! Thanks!

[Rutek63]

Thank you!
I'm glad, that you see it as a useful tip.

Robert,
Of course you can use my illustrations. Though, models made of the plastic card you'll eventually paint, so you can join the edges any way you want, I think. Give us the link to your tutorial so we can learn a thing or two about plastic.

[leclerc]

@rutek63
Very nice tutorial you have. May I use your illustration ? I will use it the picture to explain my fellow Indonesian paper model builder who want to level up their skills one notch up.