Intro to Card Models Intro and Table of Contents

[ccoyle]

Hi!  I see the title of this thread has grabbed your attention.  I admit I have a shameless reason for starting this series, and that is to raise the profile of card/paper as a modeling medium here at MSW.  Over the years here and at MSW 1.0 a number of people have expressed an interest in trying their hand at a card model, and that's what I hope you will do after reading this series of posts.  My goal is to describe the building of a simple card ship model in sufficient detail that upon reading it, anyone can say, "Gosh, I can do that!"   And then, perhaps, you will actually go forth and do that!     Today's installment, Part I, is a very brief description of card models.  As subsequent parts are added, I will edit this post to keep the Table of Contents up-to-date.  So, sit back, enjoy the series, and seriously consider taking a trip to the Dark Side of ship modeling!

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I:  What is a card model?

Part II:  Start for FREE!

Part III:  Shopping for Card Models

Part IV:  Tools & Other Supplies

Part V:  Building V108 - The Hull

Part VI:  Building V108 - The Superstructure

Part VII:  Building V108 - Armament

Part VIII:  Building V108 - Miscellaneous Bits

[wthilgen]

Lookin' forward to the next issue.

[st george]

Sounds interesting. And we have some very nice Card models being built on this site.

[bogeygolpher]

Thank you for developing this series. After having built 8 wooden ships I was looking for something different and started building card models last year and thoroughly enjoy it. The engineering and levels of detail are amazing.  Further, being able to download  files and print them at home is very convenient as well as providing a great means to correct errors. Make a mistake, re-print the part and start over.

 

It was a task to find out information about techniques as well as materials. It will be nice to have that information available in one place.  I look forward to your series.

 

I went to the HMV site and noticed that their ship kits all seem to be in a scale of 1:250.  Is that a standard scale for ships built with card?

 

Paul.

[ccoyle]

1/250 seems to be the most common scale in Germany, the UK, and the US, while 1/200 is the usual scale in Eastern Europe.  1/400 and 1/350 are also not unusual (JSC has a substantial line of 1/400 kits), and 1/100 is common for smaller vessels.  Some card modelers prefer to work in a single scale and will scale kits up or down with a scanner (anyone wishing to do this, though, should keep in mind that scanning a model and then selling the original is tantamount to piracy).

[Feathermerchant]

Chris, thanks for the tutorial on card modeling.  I am in the process of building an intro presentation on card modeling for my ship modeling club. My initial model was the "Monitor" from the National Marine Sanctuary and sold through the Maritime Museum at Newport News, VA. I am now working on "Scalescenes.com" Cargo Ship and have downloaded Walden Model Co. "Imperial Russian Yacht "Livadia"". Do you have an updated list of card model vendors? In reading through part III, I noticed that neither Scale Scenes or Walden Models was on your list. Thanks again. .  

[ccoyle]

Hi, Feathermerchant.

 

Card model displays at ship modeling clubs can always be expected to draw a lot of interest.  Hope yours does well.  As for a list of vendors, it was never my intent to create an exhaustive list, as there are simply too many vendors out there, and new ones pop up on a regular basis.  I only meant to give readers an idea of what is available.  Of the two you mentioned, I am familiar with Walden Models.  The owner of that site creates some very good designs of unusual subjects, such as Livadia.  I would love to see you do some build logs of your models here at MSW.

 

Cheers!