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Congratulations, Bill! That's a lovely model.

This is all I had time for last night. In this progression, we see first the fuselage parts with the joiner strip as it should be used for the no-wheel-wells option, the parts with the joiner trimmed for wheel wells (nose wheel, in this case), and the prepped fuselage section with its bulkhead, which consists of a laser-cut frame and printed part laminated together. Some thought had to be given to the bulkhead. As I mentioned earlier, the frames are laser-engraved, as seen here. It took me awhile to realize that the printed part is not the interior cabin color, but rather a kind of false air inlet that will be seen from the front of the finished model. Therefore, the part needs to be glued to the back of the printed bulkhead, making sure the two oval-shaped holes align properly -- they are not centered. That's it for now!

Tell you what, I will go for gear down and add the wheel wells, but will point out how to do the simpler versions. Wheels are not too hard to make, just a little labor-intensive -- but that comes later!

The option is to do no wheel wells -- gear up would require some modification, but I could probably do that without too much difficulty. I can look into it. EDIT: Gear-up is definitely doable. Doing so would require making a stand, but that would not be difficult.

Welcome aboard!

The instructions call for the first section of fuselage to be be built next. Here is the section and its joiner strips. But before we can move on, we need @CDW and @Richard44 to make a decision: wheel wells or no wheel wells? If the latter, then we will need to remove part of the joiner strip before gluing it to the fuselage piece, as indicated here:

A lot of 1st generation jet fighters had that stubby "pilot strapped to the back of a jet engine" look. On the plus side, the finished model should not take up too much precious display space.

Looks to me like with a minimum of modification, your shipyard could double as a permanent deer stand. 🤔

This is totally on Model Shipways, not on Midwest, since MS now does the manufacturing. The Midwest-version smack was my first wooden ship model, and I don't recall any metal cleats in the kit. Off-the-shelf fittings are one of the unfortunate cost-cutting compromises found in kits. The correct term is Britannia metal (also called white metal), which is a specific type of pewter, but yeah, it is still awful to work with. It came into use as a placement for lead fittings, which would oxidize over time, causing a phenomenon known as "lead disease" (not to be confused with lead poisoning). Keep up the good work!

Found this image at Wikimedia. This is the actual aircraft depicted by the kit. It is on display at the Katyn Museum.

Well deserved!

Part 1: Cockpit Assembly I started by separating the booklet pages and giving the parts pages my usual coat of matte clear varnish spray (some modelers have suggested that gloss varnish soaks into the paper better, and the shine can be knocked down later with a top coat of matte). To make the pages easier to handle, I separated the cockpit parts from the fuselage parts. Fold lines need to be scored in advance. For this I use a straight edge and a small-diameter manicurist's spotting tool. A scribing tool could also be used for this task, but it makes a sharper crease, which makes the ink more prone to cracking when a part is folded. The part is then cut out and folded. This task is repeated for the observer's tub. I wrote the part numbers for the two tubs (sounds like a missing novel in the LOTR series -- "Book 2A: The Two Tubs, in which the fellowship finally bathe after weeks on the road without showering") in pencil on the reverse side just to help distinguish which is which. Afterward, I glued one side of each tub. Leaving the other side open for now will make it easier to add internal details, such as the seats. A quick note on edge coloring: At this point, I'm not sure how much, if any, of these edges will be visible later. To be safe, I have colored the cut edges with a gray Crayola marker (hi-tech, I know). At some point, each builder will need to decide on an edge-coloring technique to use and start thinking about matching colors in the kit. That's it for this evening, but looking ahead at the build sequence I saw that laser-cut parts will soon be needed (if you are using them), and I was going to conclude my workbench session by numbering the parts with a pencil. But I was pleased to learn that each part already has its number laser-engraved, eliminating the need to manually add one -- a very nice touch! See you next time!

Here's the link to the SBLim build:

Introduction Welcome to yet another build log for a non-wooden, non-ship model! This build is inspired by a discussion that was had in my A6M5a build log. Fellow MSW member Craig (CDW) shared that his only attempt at card modeling was "a disaster," in his words, so I suggested he take a look at WAK's skill level 2 kits and offered to build one along with him, whichever one he wanted. He took me up on the offer and chose the SBLim-2A, so that's how the subject of the build was selected. Richard (Richard44) has also expressed an interest in building this kit (click HERE to see Richard's build) -- let's see if we can get any others on board, maybe? BTW, except for a very simple, free, downloadable, flyable MiG-15 glider I built many years ago, this will be only the second jet I have ever built in card. 😮 The Subject The SBLim-2A is a Polish, license built, two-seat reconnaissance variant of the MiG-15, built by WSK-Mielic in the 1950s. It's actually a conversion of a conversion. Originally, 227 Lim-1 (Licencyjny myśliwiec - licensed fighter aircraft) were built; some of these were later converted to SBLim-1 two-seat trainers (equivalent to the MiG-15 UTI), and some of those were later converted to the SBLim-2A. Confusing, right? The Kit The kit, representing an aircraft wearing the 1993 livery of the 7th Naval Special Aviation Regiment, is designed by Lech Kołodziejski, a respected designer who has published his own designs under the brand name CardPlane. I have built five of Lech's CardPlane kits (see the finished non-ship models section). Lech's CardPlane offerings were all models of either prototype aircraft or planes that entered into very limited service. His designs published by WAK have been more widely recognizable aircraft. Some of his recent efforts, including this one, have been collaborations with graphic artist Marcin Dworzecki, whose work is second to none in the hobby. As you can see, I purchased the available molded canopy and laser-cut frames. A quick pitch here for WAK. They have become one of my favorite publishers and a first-choice vendor. They offer a large selection of kits and always process orders promptly, package them securely, and offer very reasonable shipping rates compared to other vendors. If you shop there, tell them I sent you! The kit is designed with amateur builders in mind, and it shows. In this next image you can see, for instance, that only very rudimentary cockpit elements are included. Stuff on the side walls is printed rather than being separate parts. There are likewise no separate control surfaces nor landing gear bays. (EDIT: Upon further inspection, I discovered that optional wheel well parts are included.) Lech draws pretty easy to follow diagrams. Horrible white balance in this shot -- sorry! There's a lovely three-view. Finally, as a huge bonus, but not shown here, the kit includes instructions in English. The Purpose and Guiding Philosophy of This Build We all know that when it comes to beginners and wooden ship models, there is such a thing as "too much model." This is certainly true for card models as well. If you have never built a card model before and decide to start with Halinski's Bf-110G-4/R8, you will fail miserably (heck, even I'm not ready for that one). The WAK Skill Level 2 kits are a good compromise between detail and ease of construction. At least I hope that will prove to be the case, because I haven't built one yet -- but I trust Lech. I have titled this as a semi-tutorial, because it is not my intention here to describe every necessary tool and basic technique for building a card model; if you need that kind of help, you can find it in our Torpedoboat V-108 tutorial. So I will not, for example, demonstrate how to fold a part or roll a tube, but I will try to include as much detail as is necessary to get a novice builder through this project. And speaking of 'novice,' I will also try to make this build as much as possible an "out-of-box" project -- except there is no box, of course. So, join us on this adventure, won't you? And if you're feeling particularly bold, get the kit from WAK and jump in! Come over to the Dark Side --er, I mean, the "wonderful world of card models"! Cheers!

The usual robust framing in a Halinski kit, this time for the aft fuselage. The tail wheel well includes a piece with the interior color. And now for a bit of news: This build will be going on a temporary hiatus. I know I already have another kit on hiatus for this build, so I guess that makes this a hiatus²? 🤔 Anyways, I will be building WAK's SBLim-2A, which shouldn't take too long to build (hopefully). A build log will be created for that shortly. Cheers!

Well done, Pfälzer!

A shame they don't offer stuff in 1/250. I have a card kit of SMS Undine, and of course she has many of the same fittings.

Man, based on my very limited experience with 3D-printed parts, that looks like a potential nightmare of breakages. 😬

That's a fine-looking model, Michael -- congratulations!

Since all of Chris' designs are in 1/64 scale, you will run into the same issue -- and more often. You may need to look into doing kits in 1/32, 1/24, or even larger. You should take a look at Chesapeake Light Craft's model kits -- they are small craft, but done in large scales, e.g., 1/8 scale.

Yep, you are going to have to "earn it!" (also from the old Smith-Barney ads).

Yep, this has always surprised me a bit, since the AJ Fisher company has been around for a very long time -- obviously, somebody has been building their kits! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one comes together. Curious about the scale, though -- you said 1/72 scale, but the plans and parts listing both say 3/16", which is 1/64. BTW, here's a photo of the Lucia A Simpson at the Lake Superior Marine Museum to inspire you. She's a lovely vessel.

The forward fuselage has been added. This cylindrical section was quite a booger to shape properly. You can see there is a small gap along the left-hand white part labeled 'WPS' -- fortunately, that stands for "cut out after gluing," and that is where the machine gun channels will be added, so the gap will magically disappear. Forward of this (which comes later in the build) will be interesting, because next there is a bulkhead that supports the cowl, and the kit's paper exhaust pipes are supposed to be glued directly to this bulkhead; the 3D-printed pipes are longer and should ideally pass through this bulkhead and attach to the cylinder heads. I will need to do a lot of thinking about how to make that assembly work. The next assembly according to the parts numbering is the aft-most fuselage section where the tail wheel well is located -- the fuselage is thus supposed to be built back-to-front. Not sure why that is, but I will probably build up all the sections first just to play it safe, then assemble them together in the correct order. First up is the section right behind the cockpit. Right now I am letting everything set after gluing the ring together and soaking the bulkhead in thin CA. I've punched a couple of holes into the bulkhead so I can manipulate it with round-nose pliers. Cheers!

Nice work, Rob!

I keep telling myself I'm going to have to build one of your kits before I die. Maybe this is the one? 😮