Dennis's Paper Tiger

[SCEtoAUX]

The tiger is lookin' good, Johnny. That first pic looks like it is taking a nap.

[eatcrow2]

Looking really good Johnny!!!
I figured out the same with the tail.. definitely needs some support to keep from sagging. I'm back into mine this week, and hope to finish him off.

[JohnM]

Thank you Doug and Peter.

Two more bits to go before it's ready to join together ...



Oh, Yeah, there's a lot of seam boning, edge colouring, and stuffing to be done before the waist joint gets done. The tail support spigot is a success, but it will still need gluing in place to look right.

Then there's the whiskers ... Lots and lots of snippin' involved with them. Hopefully the white card edges won't shine too much, 'cos they'll be a pain to edge paint. Might just leave that until the pastels I've ordered arrive.

Keep on snippin' ... Johnny.

[elliott]

Am not familiar with the term seam boring. *in best hungry Oliver Twist voice* "Please, sir. What does it mean?"

Seriously, the tiger looks about as lifelike as possible. For shaky fingers youv'e done a remarkable job. Looking forward to the finish!

[JohnM]

Elliott, It's a panel beating term. BONING. Might be spelled wrong -- Bone-ing ?

ie- Rubbing the seams and peaks with a hard smooth bone to curve or flatten them. It helps to have something hard underneath as well, and a hint of spit can help, but not enough to affect the ink.

In my case I mainly use the hard polished back of a diamond dust nail file, liberated from the wife's handbag. She's never missed it as there were four in there. As a backing anvil I have all sorts of rods, tubes, and even marbles and ball bearings stuck on sticks.

During the build process I will also burnish any peaks or ridges with the flat chrome surface of the surgical tweezers or clamps that I use to access tabs. Applying the inside pressure with a finger. Best done when the card is still soft from the wet glue.

Another little tip that I've rarely seen mentioned on this Forum ...

Mother nature doesn't use edge lines. During the cut out stage, I try hard to remove the black edges from all parts. Where it cannot be removed due to a tab, I just make sure to cover it with the adjoining trimmed and edge coloured part. A little bit of boning can then blend the seam in better.

Of course, to lose the seam even better, I resort to taping. ie- Cut the tabs off completely and fit a tape that glues under both sides of the seam, resulting in an almost flush seam, that can be filled flush with a little poster paint, and boned when dry.

Taping is very time consuming though, so I usually only resort to it after I've built a model and am not satisfied with the result. So a second 'Better' one is built using tapes, but I'm not building at Exhibition standard here. Purely for my own entertainment, and any visitors to my humble abode.

Keep on snippin' ... Johnny.

[elliott]

Thank you Johnny, for a most informative post. It's been said before and I''ll say it again -"You can learn a lot on this forum.".

[JohnM]

Well! The tiger is all finished bar joining the two halves together.

BUT ... although I've been pushing it around for a few days, I still haven't figured how to actually go about joining it.

Being fully stuffed with tissue, the main problem is the weight of the thing. It's too heavy to glue one tab at a time as it will just tear them off. I think I'm gonna have to un-stuff the main body ... glue the waist up leaving the belly tabs open ... re-stuff the body through this gap ... then glue the belly tabs.

I note that Peter hasn't progressed any further either, so I imagine he's having similar problems attaching that last leg.

Keep on snippin' ... Johnny.

[JohnM]

I've figured out a trap door in it's belly, but I'm still much too shaky from Thursday's chemo session to attempt to finish this yet. Don't want to ruin it after all the effort.

The shakes are easing off though, so maybe in a day or so.

Managing to keep snippin' with some simpler stuff though. See 'the birds' and 'Tiny Paper Zoo' threads.

Keep on snippin' regardless ... Johnny.

[Vermin_King]

Glad the shakes are subsiding.

[JohnM]

OK, it's cards on the table time I guess ... I've picked this up and put it down again so many times now, but I'm finally admitting defeat!

I just can't fathom out how to gain adequate access to the tabs in order to join the two halves together.

However ... in the meantime, I have made a couple more of Dennis's WoW characters ....



I dunno why, but it just seemed obvious ... I built this cat working from the tail forward to the neck ... then built the head, and using a card guide tube in the neck opening, added the head on last. On re-studying the Tiger, I think this approach just might work on that too.

So, back to the printer and a complete new build of the Tiger.

DECISION TIME ! Do I now print this out expanded onto A3 card and make an even bigger one? I haven't figured out where to display the existing sized one yet, let alone one twice the size, but I'm sorely tempted.

Incidentally, anyone thinking of trying the Snake ... Small it may be, but easy it ain't! Tip ... working from head to tail, do not score or fold the tabs, and hard stuff each section with tissue as you progress. This will force a rounder. cross section to the body. Glueing the last tail section together is a lulu. I ended up cutting off all the tabs, and edge glueing it around a tissue former protruding from the previous section. Rolling it between wet fingers to get it round. I think maybe an A3 blow up could be an idea here too.

Keep on snippin' ... Johnny.

PS: Did you get your's finished yet Peter?