Second Paper Card model: Short 184

[Alexis]

You are moving right a long with this build SP and she is looking really nice  Well done so far !



Terri

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Interesting fix to your gluing issues.  Take your time.  It's going too well to mess up now! 

Dan

[smperry]

Finally it's a biplane.
Using flexible white glue to fix the struts to the lower wing was the key to being able to get the top wing on. It allowed the wiggle needed to get each strut into it's associated hole in the top wing. I used CA to fix the struts in their top wing holes and when that set, I coated each strut with CA. That was a mistake because I should have used watercolor paint to color the edges of the struts first. Now I will need to use acrylics or enamels. Another bite in the backside courtesy of my impatience. You'd think I would learn and think in between steps.





sp

[rhallinger]

Fantastic, sp!  That looks so cool.   I always struggle with struts and wings, and you have done a great job with a long multi-bay wing.  The Short is looking very much like it should.  Very nicely done--and it's paper!

Best regards,

Bob

[RAGIII]

Amazing work SP. You make this look easy and of course it is NOT!
RAGIII

[smperry]

Thanks guys.
I had to find a different way to handle the struts because my usual method of holding the top and bottom wings between thumb and forefinger simply doesn't work with paper struts. (it didn't work well with plastic either, seeing as how I crunched the wings on the Eduard Albie I was working on) I had to glue the struts to the bottom wing and when dry, use tweezers to fineagle the struts into the holes in the top wing.
The measuring that these paper card designers do is the key to why these things are assemblable in the first place. I am amazed that things go together at all much less how well everything fits. Even with that, I would have binned this model already if I hadn't wanted a model of a Short 184 so badly and hadn't been getting constant encouragement from y'all.
Now I have to resist the urge to bull ahead and make the floats, but rigging the wings on this beastie is going to take a lot of handling, so I better get it done now before I add stuff to knock off of it.
sp

[Bughunter]

Ooops, I missed your paper model so far, but now I grabbed my wife's TabletPC and read your report comfortably on the balcony in one go.
Such a paper artwork wouldn't be for me, I'd rather solder a stripdown model from etched parts, but you have earned my deepest respect!
Good luck and fun with the further build!

Cheers,
Frank

[smperry]

Thanks Frank.
Coming from you that is high praise indeed. Your work has certainly earned my highest respect. I look forward to each of your updates because I know I will learn something useful.
Regards
sp

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Whoo-Hoo!  Top wing is on with all of those struts.  Makes you feel accomplished, doesn't it???!!! 

I think it's moving along plenty fast and it going very well...keep up the fight!

Dan

[smperry]

Thanks Dan. The struts did go better than I expected. I only had to yank one loose and reposition it, an 8.3% failure rate or a 91.7% success rate depending on whether you are a glass half empty or glass half full kinda guy. I'll take 91.7% success rate and not quibble. Hopefully that will translate into a similar success rate for the rigging, (36 separate runs...yipes!) That isn't counting 4 control horns for each aileron and all that funky business in the outer bay so the wings can fold back without tangling the flying wires in the horizontal tailplane. I may run out of sprue to stretch. I hope the flying officers took real good care of the enlisted riggers who must have worked their tails off to keep these birds flying.
sp

[Alexis]

Nice work on getting the top wing fitted , she looks really good SP . Rigging is going to take some time one this one . Was there the double flying wires ?  And what have you chosen for the rigging ?



Terri

[smperry]

The lift and landing wires are doubled according to the DF. They are about half as far apart as normal. Some planes have them covered, some not. The photo of 842 is too fuzzy to tell for sure, but I'd say not covered. I have some ideas I will have to try out now that the chain mail gauntlet has landed squarely in my teeth :-) I was going to use heat stretched sprue, but may use something else to get the double wires.

Your timing is golden. Thank you for asking before I started rigging :-)
sp

[Lt. Bronson]

This is a very impressive build, glad I came across it. Recently joined, hoping to improve plastic model building skills, so hadn't expected paper built aircraft - this is a great job!

[smperry]

Thank you Sir. I am just learning about paper card modeling. There are several true masters on this Forum. You have to look very hard to tell their work isn't plastic.
sp

[smperry]

This project stalled at the point of rigging the wings. I had to get it moving again or bin it. I tried a new way, for me, of using an old material. The old material is heat stretched sprue. The new way is using Tacky Glue instead of CA and to use a pair of dividers to get the length of the run. With a couple of trials I can get the length just right. The squared up wing bays of the Short allow for multiple runs of exactly the same length. Measure once cut 12 times, at least that is the idea, and it seems to be working. I did the fore and aft crossed wires between pairs of mainplane struts. I was able to pick up a length of cut sprue and dip both ends in a drop of Tacky Glue and then tweezer the piece in place. The Tacky glue tended to hold better than CA while drying and made installing each piece less fidddly than when I use CA. The down side is that it takes a while for the Tacky Glue to harden enough so that heat can be applied to get rid of any sagging wires. At least you can tell it is dry when the white Tacky Glue turns clear. Makes a slow job longer, but it seems to work well otherwise.



I used to heat a wire in a bamboo skewer handle and then wave it under the sagging wire. Now I use a digital soldering iron where I can adjust the temperature. I can set it so it slowly shrinks the wire and I end up burning through way less wires that way. The soldering setup was only 65 bucks which was a bargain to me since I use it a lot on RC stuff as well.



sp