Another long-awaited Fan Board update. There are a few international submissions, and Becky goes wild with lamination again.
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There are 15 comments.
Becky:
February 4, 2010 at 10:29 PM
Hiya!
My model building technique is a bit unusual. As I’ve mentioned previously, I have my cutting mat on a clipboard. It’s a green poly-vinyl box-like affair that has a storage compartment, great for keeping small parts organized. I think it came from wally-mart. I also have a carousel desktop organizer in which I keep my knives, scissors and other tools I use all the time. I have a pair of old pill bottles in one compartment, one with a hole in the cap that I keep water and a brush at the ready 24-7, and the other sealable one holds elmer’s glue. (great for getting the right amounts of glue.) For smaller parts, I apply glue with a sharp bamboo skewer. I find it lets me create a super thin veneer of adhesive that almost dries before I can get the pieces joined. And it’s easy to clean the skewer with an emory board. For large pieces I either use a glue stick or I apply the glue in a swirling motion with the brush.
Here’s the unusual part, besides the fact that I DO DO this just about every single day. I’m not sitting in a chair. I’m laying on my left side on my bed and my desk is right there 4 inches away at a 90 degree angle to the bed. My line of sight from my usual posture is only about 10 inches down to the desktop, and the desk edge gives me a perfect place to brace the clipboard as I cut. The desk is pretty old and in pretty bad shape (thanks to me) and has a glass top which has broken into 3 pieces over the years. So I have no reservations about scratching the glass. In the drawers I keep everything from colored pencils to rulers and objects I’ve saved to make circles of various sizes.
So, I’ve found a perfect balance between comfort and control: 1:having my work surface close to my eyes without straining my spine. 2:laying in bed with an almost limitless amount of time to work. 3:all tools and etc. within easy arm’s reach. 4:an 8×12 work area on the desk with the rest of the desktop available to set assembled parts aside (while still having them within arm’s reach). And, a 4 inch wide 24 inch deep void between the bed and desk in which to allow the trimmings to pile up so I’m not constantly trying to get the chaff out of my way. I also have a full spectrum lamp.
To obtain this paper model building paradise, you have to 1:give up your life. 2:have a bizzarre unclassified form of epilepsy that confounds medical science. 3:live with your mother and let her pay all your bills. Since this is a naturally unviable position for most people, I consider myself lucky. But I have learned that finding the best possible balance between comfort and work surface makes for better models.
Anyhoo. There is one model I painted extensively with Testors, Floquil and acrylic paints. It’s a working model by Ed Bertschy (SP?) of a stationary steam powered mill engine. I’ts mounted on a small foamcore box in which I installed a small electric motor. Through friction drive the motor spins the main wheel and that in turn moves the piston and associated gears and rods.
To do this, I replaced several of the paper parts (the original kit was 100% 20lb. paper to be operated with compressed air) with bamboo, balsa, basswood and even a very few styrene parts. Making everything match required that I paint the paper parts to match the replacement parts which were obviously the wrong colors. As long as it’s on the surface, most paints I used completely covered the original printed details in one coat. As far as painting only on the back-side goes, it’s extremely hard to find a paint or ink that won’t saturate the paper and bleed through to the surface. This is very common in building model rocket engines from paper. “Paint the inside black” is a phrase that often appears in the instructions. I only use color pencil in those cases, and that works best if you color the part prior to assembly so you can get an even color layer. Or I use single color cardstock to line the part if viable.
Another way involves building a model with no printed details what-so-ever and spay painting the parts. There’s a recent pic on the fanboard of my Christmas layout. The majority of the buildings are painted posterboard with balsa frames and foamcore bases. In that case I was looking to resemble the painted steel and tin toys of the early 20th century. However getting a glossy finish on paper is tough, matte finishes are much easier to achieve with oil-based paints. They’ve held up very well considering the rough life they have. Getting run over by trains, stored in a high humidity basement, etc. However I have been considering remaking all of those structures with my laminate technique.
Oh, I almost forgot. One of the primary reasons I lie on my left side is to keep my left hand steady. It has a tendancy to shake and twitch wildly. Keeping my hands busy building things has been the best and most effective way I’ve found for controlling my seizures. I alternate between paper based crafts and other projects year round to try to stay busy 100% of the time.
And I get to live in pajamas and build models all the live-long day. Lemonade from the lemons.
Wow Becky! Thanks for that whopping response! At best I have an hour or two of free time each night to work on some papercrafting because I have the wife and kids to keep happy. On some weekends I can get more done, but right now I have stockpiles of unfinished models and pieces in airtight clear plastic bins. Every day I’ll take one out and attach another piece or so. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, so I find myself taking my time to make something look perfect. A pet peeve of mine lately has come to be the white lines obtained from making creases and from joining pieces (the white unprinted edges of paper). To remedy this somewhat, I have begun using the dull side of a butter knife to do all of my creases as I have found it not to scrape off inkjet color the way the back of an Xacto knife does. I also have a box of fine tip sharpie markers in various colors that I use to “edge” all pieces prior to gluing so that you don’t see all the lines. To me it is just unsightly in the .pdo world to have these white lines that make everything look “digital.” The only problem is that the markers bleed, ruining the edge of the piece if it has different colors near its edges. Another issue I frequently deal with in frustration is when parts just don’t fit or line up correctly. I’ve learned to test fit things as I go rather than build subassemblies, due to hard lost hours of work when my two awesome sub-parts don’t fit together. Some other info is that I use the heavy paper, I think it is 200 lb, for everything. The problem it has is that it is actually two sheets of thinner paper glued together. This is evidenced when you try to tightly roll cylinders out of it and it parts on the edge. Therefore, I make thin cylinders for rods and gun barrels out of regular thin paper. I use a white poly cutting board and #11 Xacto blades and sharp scissors for all cuts. I use elmer’s glue, but one thing I noticed is that you must be careful in which elmer’s glue you use. I grabbed my son’s bottle one day without reading the bottle only to find out it was the new type with water in it (easy to clean up for kids). Hence, pieces took forever to dry together and it was much runnier. It might be useful in other applications. I also use 2 sets of tweezers for holding small work, and I use toothpicks to apply all glue. I know one thing I struggle with is the warping and bubbling that occurs when gluing two large flat pieces together (e.g. pop up cards with an inside and outside. I apply the glue with a toothpick by rolling it out. It’s hard because I have to go fast and apply a thin layer to everything and then attach the faces before it dries.
Try gel pens for edges, the gel ink doesn’t bleed. Stores with large scrapbooking sections usually have a plethora of these. I started using 110lb card but switched to 65lb for it’s flexibility, which is easier on my printer. 67lb cover stock is even more flexible, but it’s harder to glue and damages more easily. And yes, some parts are better made with 20lb copy paper.
I recently started using a new type of glue stick made by 3M. It’s a clear glue that’s much tackier than white, it has a silver scotch brand label but I can’t remember the exact name. I’m out of stock at the moment but I remember buying it at wal-mart in the craft aisles. I’ve found that it doesn’t bubble and warp like ordinary glue sticks because it has an extremely low water content. It’s really more like a sticky resin than a glue. It dries fast and you can rub it off without damaging the printed surface. For paper modelling I consider it the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Becky:
February 11, 2010 at 4:03 PM
Got to wally mart today. The glue stick is “wrinkle free” Scotch brand. Acid free, photo safe and briefly repositionable.
Kurt Young:
February 2, 2010 at 11:37 AM
All those hundreds of hours! Oh God, I don’t think I could redo all the models I’ve done. Of course, part of me says, gosh, it’ll be great when I retire, I can papercraft all day long. Hopefully, my hands will still be steady enough in a few years and my eyes will be good enough.
Say, that brings up another interesting topic. For the small work (i.e. the pop-up card castle), do either of you use a magnifier of any kind? I wonder if those surgeon’s glasses would work good? I have a big “cheapy” adjustable desk lamp with a huge magnifying glass on it. I’ve tried cutting by looking through the magnifying glass, but I can’t do it–it’s too hard. So, I just use it for a good light source.
Another additional topic: Painting. Have either of you ever tried airbrushing / handpainting your models? Is there an easy way to remove all the color from .pdf or .jpg files and just keep the black outlines so that they can be printed and then painted to your liking? I’ve tried every option in adobe illustrator 3, looked in every help file, played around with “masking,” etc. but I can’t seem to just remove the color and leave black and white. It’s too painful to go in there with the eraser tool and manually remove all the color. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve tried using a swing-arm lamp with a large magnifying glass, but I found that I lost a lot of depth. It’s like looking at a 2-D image, so I get really poor depth perception.
I’ve have tried using a pair of magnifying eye glasses (sold at Walmart, Rite Aid, etc.), but they were a strain on my eyes. Plus, I had to remove them if I were to look at anything other than what I was cutting. Since I’m often looking at parts, television, or someone else in the room, it gets annoying very fast.
I’ve thought about using jeweler’s glasses, but I haven’t tried them yet. I don’t think I’d like it much for the same reason that I’d have to take them off/lift them up constantly.
If you want to remove the color from the models, your printer should have a black & white color setting. I’m not sure if that would work for you, since the color would be printed in gray scale and not actually be removed.
After responding to your questions, I went straight to Amazon.com and looked up some jeweler/hobby magnifying lenses. I bought the Bausch & Lomb Magna Visor to try out.
I received my Magna Visor today. So far, it seems to work very well (looking at nearby things), although I haven’t used it on anything. I started putting together the WALL-E model last night, so I’ll try it out on that.
The lenses are hard to change out, but I was expecting that (I read the customer reviews). I don’t think I’ll need to swap out the lenses often, so I’m okay with that. The strap is wider than my head, so it stays on with a vice-like grip on my forehead. Headaches are likely.
Personally I feel the act of construction is far more rewarding than the end result. So I always expect to do it again eventually. That probably explains why I display my models in a way that resembles a “heap” more than a carefully executed presentation. giggle
But I do understand the desire for longevity. There are a few exceptionally intricate models I’ve done (like an Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module for example) that if I had to redo them any time in the future it would be too soon. But, one of these days they’ll get wet, squashed or otherwise faded or damaged to the point that I’ll accept the need for a do-over. Today I’m completing Ton Noteboom’s Hubble Space Telescope PM and starting his Titan 3 booster. I’ve done the Vostok/R-7, Vanguard and Ares 1 rockets in recent weeks and have Ares 5 ready to build too. Ex-post-Christo seems to be my season for rocketry.
Anyhoo. Laminating was a means to an end to make paper models into toys children could actually play with. I don’t really expect them to hold up forever, and one of these days I’ll redo them for those kids when they’re done playing and start reminiscing. Wouldn’t it be great if someone had been able to remake for us all those toys we used to have, way back when? :)
You can also order an acrylic or glass cube to place over your models, that way you don’t have to worry about moisture or dust, I order some for my Sleeping Beauty Castle, Haunted Mansion and Main Street Train Station and that works great! :)
Ah, I didn’t think about warping, good call. I have no idea how that might affect a .pdo project–it could cause it to tear itself apart. I just want some way to preserve my hundreds of hours of labor. I am going to try Becky’s single-side lamination technique with reinforced backing.
I print on an inkjet, and I have tried it. It made the ink run even on a fast pass with the can. Clear Acrylic anyways. I’ve had better success with a Grumbacher artist’s fixative, at least as far as not running the ink is concerned, but it didn’t provide enough protection to warrant the expense. The ink still runs with the tiniest bit of moisture.
Trader and Becky, On the subject of lamination, have either of you ever tried the acrylic spray sealer on any of your papercrafts as a preserver against oils in our hands from handling them, to help protect them against water damage, and to help stiffen them? I would like to try, but haven’t had the nerve to chance ruining anything I have made if it will make the printed ink run… Please provide some feedback!
If you try it, use light layers. I’d imagine ink would run if you’re using an inkjet printer. You’d also have to be careful about warping. Paper is like a sponge!
I use a laser printer; the toner tends to resist liquids by beading them. So, that’s a whole other problem.
I was just wondering, because I’ve never tried it before, but do you think that spraying a completed papercraft with an acrylic sealer would be a great way to preserve it (i.e. protect it from oil from hands as we handle it, protect from water, etc.)? I want to try it, but I’m afraid to ruin a good papercraft if it causes the ink to run.
Hiya!
My model building technique is a bit unusual. As I’ve mentioned previously, I have my cutting mat on a clipboard. It’s a green poly-vinyl box-like affair that has a storage compartment, great for keeping small parts organized. I think it came from wally-mart. I also have a carousel desktop organizer in which I keep my knives, scissors and other tools I use all the time. I have a pair of old pill bottles in one compartment, one with a hole in the cap that I keep water and a brush at the ready 24-7, and the other sealable one holds elmer’s glue. (great for getting the right amounts of glue.) For smaller parts, I apply glue with a sharp bamboo skewer. I find it lets me create a super thin veneer of adhesive that almost dries before I can get the pieces joined. And it’s easy to clean the skewer with an emory board. For large pieces I either use a glue stick or I apply the glue in a swirling motion with the brush.
Here’s the unusual part, besides the fact that I DO DO this just about every single day. I’m not sitting in a chair. I’m laying on my left side on my bed and my desk is right there 4 inches away at a 90 degree angle to the bed. My line of sight from my usual posture is only about 10 inches down to the desktop, and the desk edge gives me a perfect place to brace the clipboard as I cut. The desk is pretty old and in pretty bad shape (thanks to me) and has a glass top which has broken into 3 pieces over the years. So I have no reservations about scratching the glass. In the drawers I keep everything from colored pencils to rulers and objects I’ve saved to make circles of various sizes.
So, I’ve found a perfect balance between comfort and control: 1:having my work surface close to my eyes without straining my spine. 2:laying in bed with an almost limitless amount of time to work. 3:all tools and etc. within easy arm’s reach. 4:an 8×12 work area on the desk with the rest of the desktop available to set assembled parts aside (while still having them within arm’s reach). And, a 4 inch wide 24 inch deep void between the bed and desk in which to allow the trimmings to pile up so I’m not constantly trying to get the chaff out of my way. I also have a full spectrum lamp.
To obtain this paper model building paradise, you have to 1:give up your life. 2:have a bizzarre unclassified form of epilepsy that confounds medical science. 3:live with your mother and let her pay all your bills. Since this is a naturally unviable position for most people, I consider myself lucky. But I have learned that finding the best possible balance between comfort and work surface makes for better models.
Anyhoo. There is one model I painted extensively with Testors, Floquil and acrylic paints. It’s a working model by Ed Bertschy (SP?) of a stationary steam powered mill engine. I’ts mounted on a small foamcore box in which I installed a small electric motor. Through friction drive the motor spins the main wheel and that in turn moves the piston and associated gears and rods.
To do this, I replaced several of the paper parts (the original kit was 100% 20lb. paper to be operated with compressed air) with bamboo, balsa, basswood and even a very few styrene parts. Making everything match required that I paint the paper parts to match the replacement parts which were obviously the wrong colors. As long as it’s on the surface, most paints I used completely covered the original printed details in one coat. As far as painting only on the back-side goes, it’s extremely hard to find a paint or ink that won’t saturate the paper and bleed through to the surface. This is very common in building model rocket engines from paper. “Paint the inside black” is a phrase that often appears in the instructions. I only use color pencil in those cases, and that works best if you color the part prior to assembly so you can get an even color layer. Or I use single color cardstock to line the part if viable.
Another way involves building a model with no printed details what-so-ever and spay painting the parts. There’s a recent pic on the fanboard of my Christmas layout. The majority of the buildings are painted posterboard with balsa frames and foamcore bases. In that case I was looking to resemble the painted steel and tin toys of the early 20th century. However getting a glossy finish on paper is tough, matte finishes are much easier to achieve with oil-based paints. They’ve held up very well considering the rough life they have. Getting run over by trains, stored in a high humidity basement, etc. However I have been considering remaking all of those structures with my laminate technique.
Oh, I almost forgot. One of the primary reasons I lie on my left side is to keep my left hand steady. It has a tendancy to shake and twitch wildly. Keeping my hands busy building things has been the best and most effective way I’ve found for controlling my seizures. I alternate between paper based crafts and other projects year round to try to stay busy 100% of the time.
And I get to live in pajamas and build models all the live-long day. Lemonade from the lemons.
Wow Becky! Thanks for that whopping response! At best I have an hour or two of free time each night to work on some papercrafting because I have the wife and kids to keep happy. On some weekends I can get more done, but right now I have stockpiles of unfinished models and pieces in airtight clear plastic bins. Every day I’ll take one out and attach another piece or so. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, so I find myself taking my time to make something look perfect. A pet peeve of mine lately has come to be the white lines obtained from making creases and from joining pieces (the white unprinted edges of paper). To remedy this somewhat, I have begun using the dull side of a butter knife to do all of my creases as I have found it not to scrape off inkjet color the way the back of an Xacto knife does. I also have a box of fine tip sharpie markers in various colors that I use to “edge” all pieces prior to gluing so that you don’t see all the lines. To me it is just unsightly in the .pdo world to have these white lines that make everything look “digital.” The only problem is that the markers bleed, ruining the edge of the piece if it has different colors near its edges. Another issue I frequently deal with in frustration is when parts just don’t fit or line up correctly. I’ve learned to test fit things as I go rather than build subassemblies, due to hard lost hours of work when my two awesome sub-parts don’t fit together. Some other info is that I use the heavy paper, I think it is 200 lb, for everything. The problem it has is that it is actually two sheets of thinner paper glued together. This is evidenced when you try to tightly roll cylinders out of it and it parts on the edge. Therefore, I make thin cylinders for rods and gun barrels out of regular thin paper. I use a white poly cutting board and #11 Xacto blades and sharp scissors for all cuts. I use elmer’s glue, but one thing I noticed is that you must be careful in which elmer’s glue you use. I grabbed my son’s bottle one day without reading the bottle only to find out it was the new type with water in it (easy to clean up for kids). Hence, pieces took forever to dry together and it was much runnier. It might be useful in other applications. I also use 2 sets of tweezers for holding small work, and I use toothpicks to apply all glue. I know one thing I struggle with is the warping and bubbling that occurs when gluing two large flat pieces together (e.g. pop up cards with an inside and outside. I apply the glue with a toothpick by rolling it out. It’s hard because I have to go fast and apply a thin layer to everything and then attach the faces before it dries.
Try gel pens for edges, the gel ink doesn’t bleed. Stores with large scrapbooking sections usually have a plethora of these. I started using 110lb card but switched to 65lb for it’s flexibility, which is easier on my printer. 67lb cover stock is even more flexible, but it’s harder to glue and damages more easily. And yes, some parts are better made with 20lb copy paper.
I recently started using a new type of glue stick made by 3M. It’s a clear glue that’s much tackier than white, it has a silver scotch brand label but I can’t remember the exact name. I’m out of stock at the moment but I remember buying it at wal-mart in the craft aisles. I’ve found that it doesn’t bubble and warp like ordinary glue sticks because it has an extremely low water content. It’s really more like a sticky resin than a glue. It dries fast and you can rub it off without damaging the printed surface. For paper modelling I consider it the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Got to wally mart today. The glue stick is “wrinkle free” Scotch brand. Acid free, photo safe and briefly repositionable.
All those hundreds of hours! Oh God, I don’t think I could redo all the models I’ve done. Of course, part of me says, gosh, it’ll be great when I retire, I can papercraft all day long. Hopefully, my hands will still be steady enough in a few years and my eyes will be good enough.
Say, that brings up another interesting topic. For the small work (i.e. the pop-up card castle), do either of you use a magnifier of any kind? I wonder if those surgeon’s glasses would work good? I have a big “cheapy” adjustable desk lamp with a huge magnifying glass on it. I’ve tried cutting by looking through the magnifying glass, but I can’t do it–it’s too hard. So, I just use it for a good light source.
Another additional topic: Painting. Have either of you ever tried airbrushing / handpainting your models? Is there an easy way to remove all the color from .pdf or .jpg files and just keep the black outlines so that they can be printed and then painted to your liking? I’ve tried every option in adobe illustrator 3, looked in every help file, played around with “masking,” etc. but I can’t seem to just remove the color and leave black and white. It’s too painful to go in there with the eraser tool and manually remove all the color. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve tried using a swing-arm lamp with a large magnifying glass, but I found that I lost a lot of depth. It’s like looking at a 2-D image, so I get really poor depth perception.
I’ve have tried using a pair of magnifying eye glasses (sold at Walmart, Rite Aid, etc.), but they were a strain on my eyes. Plus, I had to remove them if I were to look at anything other than what I was cutting. Since I’m often looking at parts, television, or someone else in the room, it gets annoying very fast.
I’ve thought about using jeweler’s glasses, but I haven’t tried them yet. I don’t think I’d like it much for the same reason that I’d have to take them off/lift them up constantly.
If you want to remove the color from the models, your printer should have a black & white color setting. I’m not sure if that would work for you, since the color would be printed in gray scale and not actually be removed.
After responding to your questions, I went straight to Amazon.com and looked up some jeweler/hobby magnifying lenses. I bought the Bausch & Lomb Magna Visor to try out.
I received my Magna Visor today. So far, it seems to work very well (looking at nearby things), although I haven’t used it on anything. I started putting together the WALL-E model last night, so I’ll try it out on that.
The lenses are hard to change out, but I was expecting that (I read the customer reviews). I don’t think I’ll need to swap out the lenses often, so I’m okay with that. The strap is wider than my head, so it stays on with a vice-like grip on my forehead. Headaches are likely.
Personally I feel the act of construction is far more rewarding than the end result. So I always expect to do it again eventually. That probably explains why I display my models in a way that resembles a “heap” more than a carefully executed presentation. giggle
But I do understand the desire for longevity. There are a few exceptionally intricate models I’ve done (like an Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module for example) that if I had to redo them any time in the future it would be too soon. But, one of these days they’ll get wet, squashed or otherwise faded or damaged to the point that I’ll accept the need for a do-over. Today I’m completing Ton Noteboom’s Hubble Space Telescope PM and starting his Titan 3 booster. I’ve done the Vostok/R-7, Vanguard and Ares 1 rockets in recent weeks and have Ares 5 ready to build too. Ex-post-Christo seems to be my season for rocketry.
Anyhoo. Laminating was a means to an end to make paper models into toys children could actually play with. I don’t really expect them to hold up forever, and one of these days I’ll redo them for those kids when they’re done playing and start reminiscing. Wouldn’t it be great if someone had been able to remake for us all those toys we used to have, way back when? :)
You can also order an acrylic or glass cube to place over your models, that way you don’t have to worry about moisture or dust, I order some for my Sleeping Beauty Castle, Haunted Mansion and Main Street Train Station and that works great! :)
Ah, I didn’t think about warping, good call. I have no idea how that might affect a .pdo project–it could cause it to tear itself apart. I just want some way to preserve my hundreds of hours of labor. I am going to try Becky’s single-side lamination technique with reinforced backing.
As always, thanks for the reply!
I print on an inkjet, and I have tried it. It made the ink run even on a fast pass with the can. Clear Acrylic anyways. I’ve had better success with a Grumbacher artist’s fixative, at least as far as not running the ink is concerned, but it didn’t provide enough protection to warrant the expense. The ink still runs with the tiniest bit of moisture.
Trader and Becky,
On the subject of lamination, have either of you ever tried the acrylic spray sealer on any of your papercrafts as a preserver against oils in our hands from handling them, to help protect them against water damage, and to help stiffen them? I would like to try, but haven’t had the nerve to chance ruining anything I have made if it will make the printed ink run… Please provide some feedback!
Thanks,
Kurt
I’ve never tried using any type of sealer.
If you try it, use light layers. I’d imagine ink would run if you’re using an inkjet printer. You’d also have to be careful about warping. Paper is like a sponge!
I use a laser printer; the toner tends to resist liquids by beading them. So, that’s a whole other problem.
Trader and Becky,
I was just wondering, because I’ve never tried it before, but do you think that spraying a completed papercraft with an acrylic sealer would be a great way to preserve it (i.e. protect it from oil from hands as we handle it, protect from water, etc.)? I want to try it, but I’m afraid to ruin a good papercraft if it causes the ink to run.