1/90 Scratch-built Etrich Taube with paper and super glue

[Br-BaiRang]

I built this Taube in 2025 and it's made of paper and super glue.
I tried to build "the Aviator of Tsingtao"- Gunther Pluschow's Taube but I cannot find enough detailed photos of it so I have to make compromises on its historical shape  .
Mainly referred to Gunther Pluschow's memoirs Die Abenteuer des Fliegers von Tsingtau and aviation art about one of Pluschow's victories. He claimed that he shot down a Maurice Farman Long Horn with his side arm during the siege of Tsingtao(青岛). He was ordered to escape from Tsingtao with his Taube in the very end of the battle of Tsingtao, and this was just the beginning of his long adventure which made him the first POW who successfully escaped from the British Isles.
The battle of Tsingtao during WWI and the question of Tsingtao's sovereignty at the Paris Peace Conference became the trigger for the May Fourth Movement(五四运动) in China.























Thanks for watching!

[Flamingo]

Very nice model, impressive detail! Why do you build 1/90?
Regards Joachim

[NigelR]

That is another beautiful scratchbuild. Could you explain how you build the structural parts of the model? Do you you use plasticard, brass, something else? You are clearly a very talented modeller.

This is a very interesting subject for a model. I did not know about the siege of Tsingtao or the May Fourth movement. I have now read about both of these and learned a lot, thanks for sharing.

[PrzemoL]

Amazing!!!

And I would also like to ask, why 1/90 scale?

[KiwiZac]

Another beautiful build, wow! What gorgeous work.

[lone modeller]

I have built one of these from a kit and the rigging was challenging in 1/72 scale. To rig this in a smaller scale takes real skill. This is modelling at its very best - many congratulations on a superb subject.

Stephen.

[Br-BaiRang]

Amazing!!!

And I would also like to ask, why 1/90 scale?

Very nice model, impressive detail! Why do you build 1/90?
Regards Joachim

Well it's complicated Joachim and Prezmol. Yeah that's a weird scale. That's a long story. My first scratch-built aircraft model didn't follow a regular scale, just roughly print out one piece of plan found on google and here we go. Years later when I start modelling again I found that my first model's scale was just close to 1/90, and I'd like to see all the models on my shelf in one same scale, so I hang on 1/90 now.

[Br-BaiRang]

That is another beautiful scratchbuild. Could you explain how you build the structural parts of the model? Do you you use plasticard, brass, something else? You are clearly a very talented modeller.

This is a very interesting subject for a model. I did not know about the siege of Tsingtao or the May Fourth movement. I have now read about both of these and learned a lot, thanks for sharing.

Like I said I mainly used paper and super glue. Specifically, I mainly use 200 grams thick paper card and cream-colored paper under 70 grams as the primary materials. My past experience building paper card models has really paid off.
My friend once found that when paper is fully bonded with super glue it becomes just as rigid as plasticard. When I used his building technique, I found that paper becomes more translucent when damped by super glue, and it's just perfect for replicating vintage aircrafts' fabric covering. I used 70g cream-colored paper for the covering, and cut the 200g paper card into thin strips to replicate the wing ribs.
The rest of the build is quite similar to scratchbuilding with plasticard, except that I use 200g paper card instead. The whole process requires loads of super glue, its strong fumes when drying and its high viscosity can be pretty torturous, but hey, the end result makes it all worthwhile!
Here are some work-in-progress photos.

[Flamingo]

Thank you for sharing your work in progress photos! Entertaining and educational.
Paper is a great material, too often ignored by modellers.
Some more questions, do you solder wire parts and do the wheels have a transparent disc?
May I say I do love the Taube?
Regards Joachim

[NigelR]

Fascinating, thanks you so much for sharing your techniques. I would never have thought to use paper in this way! The end results are very effecive.

[Br-BaiRang]

Thank you for sharing your work in progress photos! Entertaining and educational.
Paper is a great material, too often ignored by modellers.
Some more questions, do you solder wire parts and do the wheels have a transparent disc?
May I say I do love the Taube?
Regards Joachim

Your Taube is truly a masterpiece!
Yeah you're right, I use transparent plastic disc to replicate the wheel spokes, which is convenient when scratchbuilding in irregular scale. You know, there's no 1/90 PE parts in the market.
I solder brass and iron rods with each other which diameter is bigger than 0.4mm to replicate struts. As for rigging, I use half-dried gel-like super glue, just a little bit of glue per gluing is fine.
This is the memoir I mentioned, the copy you own is truly a time-honored collection.
By the way publishers back then really got stereotype of Asian appearances

Bai

[ColonelKrypton]

As others have been saying - beautiful, fabulous, marvelous, awe inspiring.

I particularly like the first two pictures you have presented. They really show the aeroplanes bird like resemblance and it's inspiration in the Zanonia seed. In fact, I find those first two images so inspiring that I have printed out copies and have posted them in my working area.

Your use of paper and card soaked in CA is intriguing.  I have used those same materials but only in small pieces to create small detail pieces. I am now inspired to extend their use to bigger pieces.

You have left me wanting to see more.

cheers, Graham

[Br-BaiRang]

As others have been saying - beautiful, fabulous, marvelous, awe inspiring.

I particularly like the first two pictures you have presented. They really show the aeroplanes bird like resemblance and it's inspiration in the Zanonia seed. In fact, I find those first two images so inspiring that I have printed out copies and have posted them in my working area.

Your use of paper and card soaked in CA is intriguing.  I have used those same materials but only in small pieces to create small detail pieces. I am now inspired to extend their use to bigger pieces.

You have left me wanting to see more.

cheers, Graham

Thanks Graham! Here're some hints while using this technique:
You can control the thickness of paper to adjust the translucency level. Build some test samples to find the best translucency level you need before scratchbuilding.
Paper soaked in super glue becomes rigid, but also brittle——it will snap if bent too far, much like a thin, dry, grainless piece of wood. So be sure to shape the paper into your desired form before applying the glue, especially for curved parts. You should apply super glue on your parts in the very final stage of parts building, and very-small-area gluing.
Second, if you apply too much glue, a white haze will form around the uncured adhesive. Also, excess glue droplets, once cured, will leave an uneven surface that is very difficult to remove even with sanding. So please be careful to control the amount of glue. Not too much, just apply some super glue on the surface of paper parts, make it just wet through the other side of paper and don't have droplets on the surface is ok.
If you wanna draw lines on your paper parts before applying super glue, you'd better use a pencil, because super glue can dissolve the ink from liquid ball pens and fine markers, leaving dark blotches on your parts. Wait until the super glue on the parts is completely dry before painting.
When the super glue cures inside thick paper, the parts can get extremely hot, I don't know why, maybe “the liquid releases heat as it solidifies” also applies to super glue? So please be very careful.
There is an old Chinese saying: "One becomes a doctor after long illness(久病成医）" and these are all hard-learned lessons from my own experience. I hope they're helpful to you.

Bai

[Dirigible-Al]

Your level of skill is astonishing.
Alan.