amateur

Dutch ships may have had a single taper on mast and spars, but that was not a ‘linear’ taper. Both for masts and spars the taper was (more or less) a large radius circle, leading to spars that are almost not tapered in the middle two quarters. The same applies to the masts (even more complicated: mastheads are square, and not tapered). Your model will gain by going the extra mile of recreating that profile. I dont see how you can get to that using a sanding disk
 
Jan

While I still consider myself a wood ship modeler, over the past several years, I've built a few card models. Almost exclusively, these have been kits from the Polish paper ship model kit publisher Shipyard, and really I've really enjoyed the process. Lately, I've looked at a few of their offerings and thought about how I might actually make some modifications to them.
 
For instance, their kits of the French lugger Le Coureur are beautiful kits and I've seen some excellent builds of them, but I'd like to do a deck arrangement that more closely resembles the plans published by Ancre. To that end, I started experimenting with some possibilities. I have Shipyard's 1/96-scale paper model kit, as well as their 1/72-scale laser-cut card model kit. I've been using the 1/96-scale paper model kit as a testbed for the larger laser-cut kit.

About a year ago, I went kind of overboard and bought an xTool S1 40watt diode laser cutter. Yes, it was somewhere around $1600, but there was a deal going on at the time, and I figure it was okay to splurge now and buy the monster, because there's a good chance I won't be able to do something like this in the future. Seemed like sound reasoning, and it got me the machine.
 
Long story short, I drew up Le Coureur's decks using Adobe Illustrator and basically want to replace the kit deck, since the kit deck has alignment markings all over it for the placement of the deck furniture as well as cut outs under their hatch locations, and I'm going to be making changes to all that. I figured cutting and scoring heavy card stock would be ideal, since that would match the way Shipyard's bigger kit is designed, with that being my final project goal.
 
Things were going okay, and I did a lot of experimenting with painting the resulting laser-cut and laser-scored deck, but i wasn't that satisfied with how the paint went on the card stock I was using. Then, I ran into an issue with the output from the laser cutting, and it took me weeks of troubleshooting until I finally fixed the problem – that was today, by the way. But, in the meantime, I'd temporarily given up on the laser-cutting idea, and just realized I could try to simply print the deck onto card stock. More long story short, I ended up with some printed decks that look pretty good.
 
These were simply output on my inkjet printer, and the small Le Coureur currently sports the new printed deck, shown below with a couple deck color variations. This wood grain pattern was something I only just discovered how to do with Illustrator.
 

I'm not sure if this looks TOO clean, but on a card model, it's probably fine. You can see the treenail detail is nice and subtle.
 
I printed one of the deck patterns at 1/72 scale for the larger model. You can see it and the laser-etched deck provided in the kit.

At this larger scale, the issue of the deck looking too perfect is amplified somewhat. So, I kept on working to troubleshoot the laser-cutting issue I was having. Today, I FINALLY figured out what was going on, and I was able to create some usable output again. But, in the meantime, I also picked up some wood veneer and trying working with that on the laser-cutter. And now, I have three options for the deck now. Here they are, all for the smaller 1/96-scale testbed model.
 
Top is printed paper, middle is laser-cut maple veneer, and the bottom is laser-cut card, which of course has to be painted.

Not sure which way to go, but now, I have options that I really didn't have just a few days ago.
 
Next step is to see if I can now paint this type of card stock to look like wood. I've done it before with a couple Shipyard kits, and they looked okay, but I never was totally happy with the results. Below, you can see the deck, early in my HMS Wolf build. It came out a little splotchier than I would have liked. The one good thing about laser-cutting my own card stock deck. I can make new ones until I figure out how to get it just right.

And, if I can't get it right, well there's always the wood veneer deck. Still might want to try that on a model...
 
 

Windscreen and cockpit canopy done. Building and installing the bomb sight was a booger -- the paper part wound up being too large, so I had to replace it with a piece of styrene rod wrapped with several paper bands.
 

You should also have a look at some of the build-logs of Dan Vadas. Lots of usefull info there.
This one for instance, but there is more to find.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/16864-bismarck-by-dan-vadas-finished-gpm-1200-card-and-pe/
 
 
Jan

You should also have a look at some of the build-logs of Dan Vadas. Lots of usefull info there.
This one for instance, but there is more to find.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/16864-bismarck-by-dan-vadas-finished-gpm-1200-card-and-pe/
 
 
Jan

Markers work fine, but often just plain watercolour or acrillic paint does the trick.
 
with respect to the side wings: i should have cut the angled pieces, and glue them, instead of folding backwards: the paper I used was slightly too thick to get a nice even bend.
 
Jan

I don’t know whether you already looked elsewhere, but the eastern half of Eirope is home to some very good builders. There are some very nice card-websites over there.
 
Jan

Markers work fine, but often just plain watercolour or acrillic paint does the trick.
 
with respect to the side wings: i should have cut the angled pieces, and glue them, instead of folding backwards: the paper I used was slightly too thick to get a nice even bend.
 
Jan

Starting on the greenhouse-style canopy. This is the first of five sections. 😵‍💫
 

Made quite a lot of progress since the last update. First, I got the engine mated to its bulkhead and the forward fuselage ring done. You can see some of the cowl rings in the background.
 

 
Next, all of the cowl rings were shaped and closed. At this point they still need a little final shaping.
 

 
Here the cowl rings have been added. I had a problem with the last ring because I didn't realize that it was supposed to angle back into the cowl opening instead of forward. I made a few cosmetic boo-boos in getting it repositioned.  I also overlooked that there is a printed interior cowl piece. Fortunately, as this photo suggests, the interior is difficult to see, so the interior piece's absence shouldn't stand out.
 
 

 
A couple of exhaust stubs and an air scoop later and the forward fuselage was ready to mate to the rest of the model.
 

 
Finally, the .30 cal mount was completed. It's just loose-fitted for this shot -- I will remove it while I work on the canopy. I had originally planned to display the gun in the stowed position and have the aft canopy closed, but the diagrams were unclear on how to configure the mounting to make that possible, and I could find no helpful images online. Displaying the gun deployed means that the rearmost canopy section will need to be separated from the rest of the canopy in order to display it in the open position.
 

 
That's it for now!

Dear all,
I went on, as said in small steps and also paying attention to the build sequence which differs from what is standard for me. For example, I already had to put on some decals that otherwise would have been difficult to position at a later stage. After that, I tackled the landing gear struts and the long exhaust pipes that required some adaptation to fit the new gas collector outlets:

Then, I rigged the landing gear struts:

For that, I used a monofilament fishing tread which was glued in place with CA glue. One end of the tread went through the axle so that it could be easily tensioned before gluing it. I also had some collateral damages, when I discovered that some glue mysteriously migrated to the underside of the starboard wing. As seen above, some sanding was necessary to smooth out again the surface.

Here, the tread attachments were finished off and the wing was repaired.

The Bulldog now can rest on its legs:

By the way, I must note that the quality of the decals is very good with no carrier film visible. They also respond very well to the Microscale liquids.
That is all for now, thanks for following,
best regards,
Dan
 

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

Not much -- which is why I'm going to pass on super-detailing this one.

Pretty good for a braindead builder  How much of it will be visible in the finished product?
 
Jan

And here's the finished engine.
 

Although cheap sometimes means: crappy wood and even crappier instructions. That makes cheaper not the same as ‘easier’…..
 
Jan

Thanks Jan,
I think that sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees....
I do recall seeing this in Flying Fish instructions I downloaded years ago.
 
I'll have a go once I have completed the remainder of the Flying Cloud Yards.
The time spent on this task will give me more time to ponder my approach.
 
Cheers and Regards,
 
Harry.

Did some googling. 
you can use that same string to determine the position of the slots in the lower chanel. 
You may discover that the slots in the upper chanel need some tinkering to get enough space to set them on the correct angle
 
Jan

I have Sibajak on my pile of ‘to do”s,  but still not confifdent enough to start cutting. I read varying reviews: not easy but doable, but also “flawd, needing many work-arounds’…..
 
Jan

Yves, you described what the F-4 is. A refrigerator strapped between two J-79s, going Mach 2. 😄