Paper models revisited.

Post by **aferguson** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:32 am

For the newer members that have come along in the last 18 months or so, this has been discussed before but bears repeating, given the times.

Paper models, or card models, are an excellent source for making stuff in 1/18 scale. None of them come in that scale but they are easily enlarged to the proper size. They make up into surpisingly good looking and durable models, if built properly.

The biggest drawback with them is that compound curves are pretty much impossible to do.....so they're not a great source for airplane models (even though there is an extensive range of airplane models available). But for most armour pieces they are very well suited. Paper model tank kits typically come in 1/25 scale, and as i said can be easily enlarged to 1/18.

And talk about variety....almost any tank you can name is or has been made in paper model form. Just recently a french char b has been released, which i am personally quite excited about getting.

The tricky parts when building these things are the tracks and the boogies but the rest is pretty straight forward, really.

Whether you use them as templates for making the tank out of plastic, or make it from folded paper as intended, they are a great source for expanding your 1/18 armour collection, especially with lesser known subjects.

I had posted a couple of pics of ones i made, but i can't find them now...maybe someone else can. I did a KV 2 and an Ferdinand and have several other projects on the go or planned (typical of me, lots of unfinished business).

Here are a couple of useful links:

http://www.papermodelstore.com

http://www.zealot.com/index.php?page=cardmodels.net

Website · Post by **Teamski** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:20 pm

Here is one of the threads. I still build these amazing models.

viewtopic.php?t=6851&highlight=card+models

-Ski

Post by **aferguson** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:48 pm

yes i forgot about ships. Ski has built some awesome ship models. Not in 1/18 but in 1/400, 1/200 etc.

Paper models can also be applied to 1/18 for ships, however. You can still scale up parts of the model and use them to make portions of ships, like a gun turret, conning tower of a uboat, gato etc. I'm going to do a psuedo waterline uboat which is going to be the deck and the conning tower, but no hull sides, as though it were starting to submerge or travelling with the deck awash, as was often done. I also hope to do a gun turret form the bismarck one day and i plan on using the scaled up turrets from a paper model kit to be my templates.

Of course if you had the space and a great deal of ambition, you could make a whole 1/18 battleship from a scaled up paper model.

Kleinesoldaten · Post by **Kleinesoldaten** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:05 pm

Thanks for the post aferg, very interesting and thanks to you Teamski for the link to the old thread, your ships are pretty darned impressive. And talking of impressive, that Corsair from that German site is freaking insane. The detail blows my mind and seeing it built step by step was interesting.