ccoyle

I can attest to the methods described by Alistair, as I also use brushing for large paint areas.  Especially what he said about not scrimping on brush quality -- they're one thing I have found that you DO get what you pay for.  Get good ones, treat them nice, and they'll serve you well for years.

Hi
I'm a bit surprised by the very positive comments on my painting work on my Fly model. It is a quite easy process from my point of view so I thought I'd share my technique. Forgive me to all of you who know this already or do it better. My painting technique dates back to house painting in my student years, the principles are the same.
 
Brushes:
- Do not scrimp by buying cheap brushes. Get the best quality, sable hair, that you can afford.
- For painting a large area of your model use a square headed brush about 3 mm - 4mm wide with a tapered head and medium stiffness. Same as house painting but at a much smaller scale.
- Look after your brushes. Clean them in lacquer thinners, turpentine or water according to the paint you use. Do not let them soak in any of these solutions. After the first clean wash them in hot water and concentrated dish wishing liquid. The idea is to get rid of any paint residue in the brush and especially in its barrel. Always clean straight after you finished the area painted. Good brushes treated well will last for years.
- For clear finishes I use a larger, soft, round or oval head brush - these give a softer application and allow quicker application than a square head. I find clear finishes work best if they go on quickly. I use Testors Dullcote but that is just my choice.
 
Application
- Several or many thin coats are better than a few thick coats. If the wood behind is showing behind your first coat you are on the right track.
- Do not overload the brush with paint. I take the paint from the pot or bottle and lay it with the brush on to a piece of fresh paper. I then brush out the loaded brush on the paper until it is only lightly loaded with paint.
- Work in one direction from one end to the other of the ship - aft to stern or the other way round. Never start in the middle and then head aft followed by forward.
- Never go back to a perceived mistake behind you in a single application. The paint will have tacked and, especially with enamels, you will get pulling which will turn a minor mistake into a major mess. You can fix that perceived mistake on the next coat.
- Always allow the paint to fully dry. Enamels need at least six hours. Partly dried paint if processed will make a major mess. When you sand the paint should turn to dust. If it rolls into little slivers it isn't dry.
- After each coat lightly sand with 1200 grit paper. If this takes the paint back to wood it doesn't matter there is another coat to come.
 
Finish
- After your last coat of paint, leave it to fully dry and the rub it down with tissue paper. This will even out any brush strokes and colour differences.
- Apply a lacquer (or your favourite clear finish). I use Testors Dullcote. When dry, Testors can again be rubbed back with tissue paper to a dull sheen. I also do a second coat of clear and rub it back again. If you have any shiny spots 1200 grit plus a further tissue rub will get rid of them.
 
The above only applies to easily accessed surfaces. Strakes, fenders and other things in the way will make the rub off impossible. My theory is to get the base painting about right before those bits are added. I could be proved wrong...
 
Here is a picture of the upper works paint plus the wales paint. the upper works are a Humbrol enamel, the wale a Polly Scale acrylic. A little bit of grain shows through which suits me. This is more paint grain than wood grain. A too perfect finish would make the model too plastic looking (I'm not meaning to deride plastic models).
 
If any of you have better ideas I'd be keen to hear them - this works for me.
 
Cheers
Alistair

Jase,
 
Have a look at this article in the database.  Hope this will help.
 
Regards,

OK, here’s a quick look at what comes in the big box from Bluejacket:

 
 
Building Manual:
 

The manual is about 70 pages long, has plenty of line illustrations and some photos to help explain the steps laid out in the text. This is probably a good place to discuss the model’s complexity. Bluejacket has a 9-level grading system to help potential customers figure out if a particular kit is within their skills. They rate this kit as an 8 out of 9 and, as they state in their catalog, “This kit is recommended for very experienced model builders.” Having built two of their previous kits I can vouch for the accuracy of their rating system. This is not a kit for a first-time model builder. Although none of the steps look to be as hard as planking a POB hull, it is still a complex model. The instructions tell you WHAT to do, but not always HOW to do it, which is appropriate for a kit intended for experienced builders. Both Bluejacket and Model Shipways have some great starter kits. One or two of those and maybe a Bluejacket kit that they rate as a 5 or 6 and you should have the skills for this one. You can always call the folks at Bluejacket and discuss what would be best for you, they are all very helpful up there. The manual contains a complete parts listing, which should be checked against the kit’s contents upon receipt (mine had everything), and a list of recommended tools (nothing most modelers wouldn’t have on hand already)  
The hull

This is a solid hull kit. If you have not done one before the idea of doing one can be a little intimidating. They are not really any harder than a planked hull … just different. After building a couple of POB models I made the jump to solid hulls with Bluejacket’s USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) kit. Same scale as this one. It proved to be a good choice because, just like the Gearings, the DE’s have pretty simple hull shapes. Compared to sailing ships, fishing boats and many merchant ships US destroyer hulls are basically slab-sided, have no tumble home, simple curved sterns and the bows have straight cutwaters and little flair.With this kit at least you will not have to carve a block of wood. What you get is a hull that is either at, or very close to, its final dimensions and with the basic shapes in place. It can be considered 90-95% complete out of the box. There are plugs on the bow and stern left over from the machining process but they are easily filed off. The plans have templates you glue to cardboard to check that you are maintaining the correct dimensions and shapes as you sand the hull. I expect to spend more time doing the fine finish sanding needed to make painted wood look like painted steel than I will doing rough sanding to shape the hull. Something to keep in mind if you have not done a solid hull before is that they are very forgiving to work on. If you take off too much or make a gouge you can glue a block of wood or a dowel to the hull and then file it down to the correct shape. After it is painted no one will ever know. Fillers like autobody putty or Bondo are your friends and will cover a multitude of sins.  
The Plans
 

·    Four sheets are supplied that show where all the parts go, where to place the photo-etch railings and what color to paint what.
 
Resin Castings
 

·    Resin castings are used to supply the 5” gun mounts, the stacks, the GFCS director and other fittings too large for cast metal
·    Having built a couple of resin models I’m not a big fan of resin since it usually has a lot of holes or voids from casting but all the pieces that came in my kit were well done, just needing some fine sanding to smooth their surfaces. No voids and no over-pour except for the casting plugs which are easy to remove.
·    In case I forget to mention it later when I start working with the castings –remember that the chemical agent applied to the resin to keep it from adhering to the mold is also very effective at keeping paint from adhering to the resin. Always wash resin parts with warm (not hot) water and dish soap and let air dry before priming and painting.
 
Brittania Metal Castings
 
 
Most of the smaller details such as bitts, chocks, fire hose racks, gun mt bases, davits, etc are supplied as cast metal. They are well done with good detail and free of major flash  
Laser cut parts
 

Most of the superstructure components are made up of laser cut wood, stacked where necessary to provide height. Smaller details such as vents and some mast components are also wood. The other components using laser etch are sheet plastic parts such as superstucture decks and a neat adhesive template for painting the DASH deck markings  
Photo Etched Brass (PE)
 

There is a large fret of PE containing small or thin details such as doors, lifelines, inclined and vertical ladders, flight deck nets, and DASH details One unadvertised bonus is that the PE includes the parts to make either the SPS-29 or SPS-40 air search radar antennas. That may not seem like a big deal but they are a visually significant item and since the FRAMs were about evenly divided between having one or the other this allows you to accurately represent any ship in the class.  
Miscellaneous Parts
 
There is an assortment of brass tubing and rods, plastic strips, stripwood, a 50-star flag, decals for USS Gearing and some rigging thread  
 
Bottom line: No complaints or problems with the kit contents, it looks like it provides everything needed for a nice display model except paint, glue, tools and mounting hardware
 
My next post will deal with starting to sand the hull. It may be a few days since it’s too cold to work out in my garage. 

We need more non-stick-and-string builds around here.  Model on!

Hi all and thank you for your kind words.
I was dealing with the ship’s windlasses all this time…
She had two main for the anchors and four smaller ones for ropes.

I started constructing the main ones using pieces of plastic in proper shapes.
Every anchor windlass is consisted from 25 pieces...

............
 
The windlasses for ropes was another story...

They seemed to be much complex and I had no any good view of them in some photo. To be honest, I tried to find something ready from the market, thinking to modify it but eventually and haven't found something close to them, I constructed them also from scratch.


Finally, I placed them all on the deck.
Thank you.


.....................

Thanks for the comments Dee_Dee,  the pic may be a bit misleading, as it just shows the ribs. Here is a picture with "skin" on (including transom)

 
 
The camber may also look a bit exaggerated w/out planking on the sides, although my personal theory is it was a bit more than 2" over the 7' beam.  One of the things that led me to start making parts was that I felt that the stock kit didn't provide adequate camber.  In all truth, I won't really know until I have parts put together, so I did make the ribs a bit thick on top to give me room to knock the camber radius down if I need to.  I am REALLY looking forward to seeing what you found out about the fish wells, as I have drawn them up in CAD several times now and I'm still not really happy with what I've come up with.
 
In other news, even though I have had little time to work on the boat, I reached the "If I don't glue something together I'm gonna go nuts" stage, so here's a section of the bow made from actual bits of wood:




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It is only "rough-faired" at the moment, as I want to leave myself room to fair as the rest of the hull takes shape.

The next item was the deck gun and the the rest of the superstructure.  Is this model perfect no.  But considerering it is my first attemp at a new medium I am satisifed.  The next time I do this kit I will apply what I have learned and will use different materials as well.  The antennas will be replaced with wire and the tower will be attached in such away as to insure a square fit.  I have done some research and have found a lot of little things that can be done behing the scenes.  I had a good time and had fun and learned to techniques.  To me that is what made this kit fun. 
David B

finished longboat with sails

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the nice comments! and the likes.
 
Hi rafterrat, the PE is very easy to bend being only 0.15mm thick and the fold lines are grooves etched into the surface so it’s a simple case of using a blade to hold the part down, just showing the bend line and then using another blade to pry it up.
 
Thanks David not so sure about that though!
 
Hi Greg it isn’t too bad on the eyes, but I find I can only do a few hours at a sitting before eye and hand strain set in.
 
Thanks Sam but might leave that off for these…although you got me thinking about the main 15” guns!
 
 
Okay the 37mm guns are totally finished as far as I am concerned and even packed away in a little storage container never to see the light of day again for who knows how long.
 
The trials and tribulations at working at the kitchen table.  I made a spray ‘booth’ out of some poster board to keep any overspray contained.  The compressor was fired up and left in the shed and the airline run up the side of the house and in through the door to the filter/moisture trap/gauge which was clamped to the table.

 
 
The parts were held in various configurations to hold whilst spraying.  The main bodies were stuck down on to some blu-tac on the end of a bamboo skewer and then held by a clothes peg.  The side assemblies were stuck onto blu-tac and then stuck into some balsa blocks with piano wire.  These parts could be held by the wire and skewers and rotated when spraying.  The side seats were stuck down onto some Tamiya tape along the edges of a balsa block with the arms hanging over the edge for access.

 
 
Here are the main parts all sprayed up with Tamiya Dark Sea Grey.  Other than a few trials spraying the lantern on my Endeavour this is my first real attempt at using the airbrush in anger and a few points of note I would like to make.
 
The Tamiya grey was mixed 50/50 with Tamiya acrylic thinners and the pressure was set at 15psi although I turned this down a couple of psi as I progressed.  The above set up and ratio sprayed beautifully giving fine lines to broader spray no problems.  The spray worked perfectly during the whole time with no splatter or clogging even with multiple stops for a minute or two to swap over parts and I could have sprayed for hours like this.
 
This is in total contrast to spraying the black barrels.  In the morning I went to the local hobby store for Tamiya flat black but they didn’t have any so went home knowing I had Admiralty Paints Metal black.  Admiralty Paints paint beautifully with a brush but DO NOT AIRBRUSH. 
Within a couple of minutes the airbrush would clog and splatter and stop then blast out full bore before clogging and splattering again.  Not to mention the problems cleaning the airbrush at the end.  The grey cleaned up in a few minutes!  In the end I used the last of some Games Workshop Chaos Black spray I had in the shed.

 
 
After I glued all the parts together and left overnight it was time to insert the barrels.  I struggled for a long time trying to line up all the holes to feed the nylon bristle through to hold in place until I realised that the elevating quadrant was hitting the gun mounting.  For the first 2 assemblies I bent the front sector of the quadrant to give more movement but this was difficult.
 
In the end I used the craft knife to remove the front sector completely as trying to bend them was breaking them off and had to reglue them back on.  Once the front sector was removed the barrels dropped right in and then wiggled about to get the bristle through.
 
Once all the barrels were in place and the bristle slipped right through, I stuck the gun bases down on to masking tape and used a balsa block to set the heights of the barrels all the same.  Then using a needle I touched some CA to the breech/mount/bristle to fix the barrels at height.  Then I used nail clippers to snip off the bristles from each side of the mounting and a final touch up with grey and black.  Although the macro shows I missed some bits and pieces.

 
 
Guns totally finished and all laid out.



 
 
Not bad for a first real attempt at constructing with PE (used PE in the Endeavour build but nothing like this) but could do better I think.  As usual lots of lessons learned.  Firstly shiny brass appears to look really good since CA glue dries clear you don’t really notice it until painted when it shows up in lumps and bumps and rough spots.
Some of the bending could be better, especially the side arms but these are very difficult to hold and bend in multiple directions without disturbing previous bends.
 
Overall I enjoyed the experience and like I mentioned I have the 20mm cannons to do but might have a break for a weekend or two.  I should be ordering the hull forms and another ‘kit’ book next week so will be a relief to work on something that can be seen without being 3 inches in front the face LOL
 
Cheers
Slog

We need more non-stick-and-string builds around here.  Model on!

Hi,
 
David, already lost some parts.  Thankfully only needs 8 guns so 2 spare of everything
 
Right, that’s the construction of the 37mm SKC/30 Dopp LC/37 cannons finished and ready for paint and final assembly.
The side (elevation?) hand wheels were fitted into the holes mentioned previously on the side arms.  This was a major pain.

 
 
The tube/bar on top of the breech, although the half the size of an eye lash was pretty straight forward. At first glance they could be mistaken for a sight but I don’t think they are.  The AOTS shows them in a reverse position and lying down flat so who knows.

 
 
The 2 central (traversing?) hand wheels were the last part to be glued to the central seating position and pretty quick and easy.  Couldn’t help but layout all the assemblies to make 1 gun ready for paint.


 
 
Just remembered after paint there are a couple of bars to be made from brass rod which fit to the front of the side seating positions.  These aren’t supplied but given the length and where to attach them.  They appear to be some kind of shock absorber.
 
Total of 48hrs with each gun containing 65+ parts.  I haven’t ordered the laser cut hull bulkheads and forms yet so if I finish painting these next weekend then it will be on to 12x 20mm single cannons…oh joy 
 
I can hear everyone groaning from here.
 
Cheers
Slog

I got some paint on my lobster smack. I'm trying Behr paint samples from Home Depot. They are 3 bucks for a pretty good size little jar. (7.25 ounces)  I'm cheap sometimes. 

More progress pictures

Thanks for the compliments Eamonn, Janos, John, Popeye, Maury and Maurino.
 
Janos - yes the darker wood for the handrails is Swiss Pear
 
Maury, I've used the 7 - 10 method for other octagons, but the jig makes it a lot easier as I don't have to keep a careful eye on the lines .
 
Back to work - the Swivel Gun Mounts have a re-enforcing strap to hold the base of the swivel mounts. These are bolted through the timber mounts on the real ship, but I've omitted this detail as the bolt heads would be almost too tiny to see on the model. There is supposed to be an octagonal band around the top as well, but once again I'm not fitting that - I had several attempts at making them using various methods, but none looked satisfactory.
 

 

 
All the Mounts are now permanently fitted. The Swivel Guns themselves won't be fitted until almost at the end of the build.
 

 

 
  Danny

Hi.  I just noticed the 'CARD' tag on the title of this thread, so I had a look through it.  I see you are discovering all the joys and agonies of paper!  But your experience makes a very valid argument in favor of paper, namely the relative ease and low cost of starting over, if necessary.  There is a learning curve for this medium, and one can already see much improvement between your first few pics and your more recent posts.  Keep at it -- your future efforts will be better still!
 
Cheers!

Finished:







Best regards,
Doris

Please please please..... DO NOT PUT Personal Info in a post to a seller.  Use the PM's.   Posts are visible by entire Internet.  You're giving spammers and miscreants information that is useful to them.
 
Check out the sellers history of posts....are they well known?  They must have a minimum of 25 posts to reply to a topic or post a topic in this forum.  Look at their post history.
 
If paying a seller...Use PayPal.  They have great buyer protections.  Always select "paying for goods and services"   If you dont get the goods or services...you have a good chance of getting your money back.  Scammers usually insist you send it as "sending money for friends and family"  because its less likely you can get your money back.  
 
Personal information is things such as phone numbers, email addys, home addresses, etc. 

UPDATED JULY 2024
Only a few tools needed to get started in card modeling.  At the very least, you need a cutting tool and some glue.  Everything else is optional.
 
Here are some basic tools:

 
You'll need a self-healing cutting mat, available from most office supply or crafts stores.  Next, you need something to cut with. Most card modelers do not use scissors.  A garden-variety craft knife does the job nicely and with more precision. Some card modelers use scalpels. Get a good supply of #11 blades -- card can be surprisingly hard on them.  A steel rule is a must, not just for measuring, but more importantly for cutting straight lines.
 
Glue is, of course, essential.  A variety of glues will work. Each has its own merits and drawbacks.  PVA glue, either white (e.g., Elmer's) or yellow (wood glue) are good general purpose glues. Lately I have grown fond of Evergreen's Canopy Glue, which is a PVA-type glue that grabs quickly and dries fast. Bear in mind that PVA glues are water-based, and card can absorb the glue and deform. PVA is therefore not a good choice for gluing large surfaces together.
 
Cyanoacrylate glue, or CA ('Super Glue'), has its uses.  Fast-cure CA can be wicked into card stock to stiffen it. Medium-cure CA is useful for gluing parts made of different media together, as well as for paper-to-paper bonds.
 
Contact cement (not to be confused with rubber cement) is a non-water-based glue and thus good for gluing large surfaces together. Contact cement sets rapidly, so repositioning of parts once they come in contact with each other is not possible.
 
Now, on to some optional items.
 

 
From left to right:
     blackened, annealed wire - an assortment of diameters is useful for making gun barrels, railings, etc.      styrene rod - card can be rolled into tubes, but styrene is often a better choice      assorted paint brushes - for painting and as aids for rolling tubes      tweezers      paint, marking pens, or other media for coloring cut edges (more on this later)      calipers - for measuring card stock thickness, especially when laminating sheets together      hobby pliers (not pictured) - for cutting and forming wire (end nippers, needle nose, round nose)  
Some other useful items to have are thin, flexible, clear acetate sheets (for glazing windows), matte clear spray varnish (for prepping parts sheets), and 3M spray adhesive (for laminating card and/or paper sheets together).  3M costs more than other brands, but take my advice, it's worth the money.  Cheaper brands don't coat as evenly and produce clumpier spray patterns.  Trust me -- I learned this the hard way.
 
I'll add other items if I remember them. Now, go get your supplies and let's build a model!
 
Back to Part III: Shopping for Card Models     On to Part V: Building V108 - The Hull

First of all, never download a model from a third party file sharing site.  Always download models from the designer's own web site or a site authorized to host them.  Second, never buy CD's claiming to have "hundreds of models" from auction sites like eBay  -- these are inevitably scans of commercial kits.  If you shop at eBay or somewhere similar on-line, make sure the seller displays a photo of the printed kit booklet; it should have an artwork cover with the publisher's name plainly visible.

UPDATED JULY 2024
Only a few tools needed to get started in card modeling.  At the very least, you need a cutting tool and some glue.  Everything else is optional.
 
Here are some basic tools:

 
You'll need a self-healing cutting mat, available from most office supply or crafts stores.  Next, you need something to cut with. Most card modelers do not use scissors.  A garden-variety craft knife does the job nicely and with more precision. Some card modelers use scalpels. Get a good supply of #11 blades -- card can be surprisingly hard on them.  A steel rule is a must, not just for measuring, but more importantly for cutting straight lines.
 
Glue is, of course, essential.  A variety of glues will work. Each has its own merits and drawbacks.  PVA glue, either white (e.g., Elmer's) or yellow (wood glue) are good general purpose glues. Lately I have grown fond of Evergreen's Canopy Glue, which is a PVA-type glue that grabs quickly and dries fast. Bear in mind that PVA glues are water-based, and card can absorb the glue and deform. PVA is therefore not a good choice for gluing large surfaces together.
 
Cyanoacrylate glue, or CA ('Super Glue'), has its uses.  Fast-cure CA can be wicked into card stock to stiffen it. Medium-cure CA is useful for gluing parts made of different media together, as well as for paper-to-paper bonds.
 
Contact cement (not to be confused with rubber cement) is a non-water-based glue and thus good for gluing large surfaces together. Contact cement sets rapidly, so repositioning of parts once they come in contact with each other is not possible.
 
Now, on to some optional items.
 

 
From left to right:
     blackened, annealed wire - an assortment of diameters is useful for making gun barrels, railings, etc.      styrene rod - card can be rolled into tubes, but styrene is often a better choice      assorted paint brushes - for painting and as aids for rolling tubes      tweezers      paint, marking pens, or other media for coloring cut edges (more on this later)      calipers - for measuring card stock thickness, especially when laminating sheets together      hobby pliers (not pictured) - for cutting and forming wire (end nippers, needle nose, round nose)  
Some other useful items to have are thin, flexible, clear acetate sheets (for glazing windows), matte clear spray varnish (for prepping parts sheets), and 3M spray adhesive (for laminating card and/or paper sheets together).  3M costs more than other brands, but take my advice, it's worth the money.  Cheaper brands don't coat as evenly and produce clumpier spray patterns.  Trust me -- I learned this the hard way.
 
I'll add other items if I remember them. Now, go get your supplies and let's build a model!
 
Back to Part III: Shopping for Card Models     On to Part V: Building V108 - The Hull

Hi guys,
 
Continuing with the side seating assemblies; next up was to bend the seat rails together.  This was done in 3 steps.  Firstly was to hold the part by one leg and gently fold until resistance was felt around approx. 90 degrees.  It naturally bent on an etched fold line.  Using verniers I found that one of my steel rules was the right thickness so holding one leg against the rule I squeezed the other leg until it was parallel then gave a final squeeze with some tweezers.  The last stage was to squeeze together the seat post whilst still holding the legs together on the rule.

 
 
To glue the seat rails to the uprights I again used some Tamiya masking tape with the sticky side up and placed the bases with the upstands in a row.  Then using a needle applied some CA glue to the inside tops of the upstands and then using tweezers placed the seat rails between the 2 uprights.  Because the bases were pretty secure to the tape I used tweezers from both sides to wiggle the part into position before the glue set.

 
 
The tiny gussets on the outside tops of the uprights was placed holding the base in tweezers in one hand then using a needle in a pin vice; a  dot of glue was applied to the top outside face.  Using another needle in another pin vice I then picked the gusset up by pushing the point of the needle in to one of the holes and placing it on the glue.  The gusset, on touching the glue is pulled off the needle and then slide into final position before the glue goes off.

The eagle eyed among you may notice that there are only 19 seat rail assemblies in the photo 3.  After doing all twenty rails I noticed I had glued the seat rail the wrong way round on one of them so gently separated the pieces.  I was holding the upstand in some tweezers and was cleaning the old glue off the base when it pinged out.  I heard it hit my open tool box (fishing tackle box) so methodically went through each compartment followed by surrounding area in ever bigger arcs to no avail.
 
Since I have lost one seat anyway it is no big deal and still brings me down to 9 guns but as Chris pointed out  I only need eight so won’t worry.
 
 
The seats were glued to seat rail assembly by placing the seat upside down near the edge of the MDF I work on and then grabbing the assembly with tweezers, applied some glue to the top of the seat post.  Turning the assembly upside down I brought the post down to the seat which sticks to the glue.  Right side up I tweek the position of the seat before the glue goes off.
 
I placed a couple of seat assemblies onto a base to see what it looks like.  I will probably paint the seat assemblies separately before fixing to the base plate as it is starting to look very busy.

 
 
The next assembly to tackle is a box like structure which sits at the top of main gun body.  I think the gun elevation controls attach to this as there more hand wheels to attach.  To fold the flat PE into the box I started by bending the long side up first followed by the side and end tabs to form the ends.  Once bent to shape a squeeze here and there with tweezers closed them up nicely.  I use some eyebrow tweezers for final squeezing as they have flat broad ends which support the surfaces of the small tabs over a larger area.

 
Cheers
Slog

UPDATED JULY 2024
Only a few tools needed to get started in card modeling.  At the very least, you need a cutting tool and some glue.  Everything else is optional.
 
Here are some basic tools:

 
You'll need a self-healing cutting mat, available from most office supply or crafts stores.  Next, you need something to cut with. Most card modelers do not use scissors.  A garden-variety craft knife does the job nicely and with more precision. Some card modelers use scalpels. Get a good supply of #11 blades -- card can be surprisingly hard on them.  A steel rule is a must, not just for measuring, but more importantly for cutting straight lines.
 
Glue is, of course, essential.  A variety of glues will work. Each has its own merits and drawbacks.  PVA glue, either white (e.g., Elmer's) or yellow (wood glue) are good general purpose glues. Lately I have grown fond of Evergreen's Canopy Glue, which is a PVA-type glue that grabs quickly and dries fast. Bear in mind that PVA glues are water-based, and card can absorb the glue and deform. PVA is therefore not a good choice for gluing large surfaces together.
 
Cyanoacrylate glue, or CA ('Super Glue'), has its uses.  Fast-cure CA can be wicked into card stock to stiffen it. Medium-cure CA is useful for gluing parts made of different media together, as well as for paper-to-paper bonds.
 
Contact cement (not to be confused with rubber cement) is a non-water-based glue and thus good for gluing large surfaces together. Contact cement sets rapidly, so repositioning of parts once they come in contact with each other is not possible.
 
Now, on to some optional items.
 

 
From left to right:
     blackened, annealed wire - an assortment of diameters is useful for making gun barrels, railings, etc.      styrene rod - card can be rolled into tubes, but styrene is often a better choice      assorted paint brushes - for painting and as aids for rolling tubes      tweezers      paint, marking pens, or other media for coloring cut edges (more on this later)      calipers - for measuring card stock thickness, especially when laminating sheets together      hobby pliers (not pictured) - for cutting and forming wire (end nippers, needle nose, round nose)  
Some other useful items to have are thin, flexible, clear acetate sheets (for glazing windows), matte clear spray varnish (for prepping parts sheets), and 3M spray adhesive (for laminating card and/or paper sheets together).  3M costs more than other brands, but take my advice, it's worth the money.  Cheaper brands don't coat as evenly and produce clumpier spray patterns.  Trust me -- I learned this the hard way.
 
I'll add other items if I remember them. Now, go get your supplies and let's build a model!
 
Back to Part III: Shopping for Card Models     On to Part V: Building V108 - The Hull

And finally, a few dabs of touch-up paint here and there, and a careful separation of the model from its working base (sliding mono-filament line between the two does the trick neatly), and V108 is done, done, done!



 
I hope you have enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it.  I really, really hope that at least a few of you will be emboldened by this little treatise to step out and try a card model of your own.  Let's see what you can do!

Here are some pictures of the copper cleanup.
 
The first three provide a good idea of the original disaster: the second and third showing the difference after stripping the polyurethane with acetone.



 
The next four show the complete cleanup.




 
Having spent nearly 20 hours cleaning, I then reached for the spray can of poly - the stuff in the blue can.
One should read the label of course. Having given the (blue) can a good shake I proceeded to spray the copper matt black.  This was obviously not a good idea, and having said, "Oh, how unfortunate" (or words to that effect) I spent the next 2 hours taking the paint off with mineral turps. But fate had more in store. Having brought the finish back to its pristine cleanliness, I again tried the poly - this time, having read the label.  After making a couple of passes the can was empty, and to show its displeasure, sent, what I can best describe as a sploop of poly onto the copper surface.  Back to the acetone for which I have now probably acquired a sniffing addiction, then to what I hope is a final and successful spraying.
 



 







 
One positive came out of the black paint episode.  The cleaning left a tiny residual in the rivets which now shows them up very nicely.  However I do NOT recommend trying this at home.