Hi all,

I thought it best to write down some tips and tricks and do's and dont's about modelling with card or paper. Some of them will be the same for whatever material you are using but others will be more specific to card and paper.

To start of, there is no real difference between cardboard and paper. The difference that is used is purely by convention, in that paper with a square meter weight of 120 g or less tends to be called paper and paper with a weight of more than 150 g is called cardboard.

There are different ways to obtain a card model. They can be obtained in book form from several suppliers or obtained free as a download off the internet. In the latter case you are supposed to print out the model yourself from a PDF file or similar.

One of the most used search links for free card models is paper-replika.com. Free card models listing

If you want to print your own model then you need a stack of card, best in A4 size, which will need to have a square meter weight of 200 - 230 g as well as some sturdy printing paper, which has a weight of about 90 g/m2. There are several places that sell these cards, in the highstreet (shops like Works, several office supplies companies and Hobbycraft) or online.
A search on Google will help you to find a supplier close to you.

It is important to remember not to buy paper or card that has a shiny layer on one side. Theses look nice but are difficult to work with or glue.

Talking about glues, you will probably want to use three types of glue. Firstly there is the 'standard' PVA, then a rubber glue and lastly a superglue.

The PVA is best used for glueing of small parts and assemblies. It is relatively fast bonding, which means that as soon as you push down the parts they will become stuck. BUT PVA contains water which will soften the card as you glue it which can lead to misshapen assemblies. It is best to leave the glued parts to dry thoroughly before further use.

For larger sections and parts, a rubber glue is used. Unlike PVA it does not soften the card, but it consists of a rubber-like compound which has been liquified with a solvent. During use the solvent will evaporate leaving a layer of sticky rubber between the glued parts. It will not bond as fast as PVA so you will need to push the glued parts together for a longer period. On the other hand, the delay in setting allows for the possibility of repositioning of the parts to ensure proper placement. Another benefit if rubber glue is that if a little bit is squirtng out during glueing, it can be rubbed off with your fingers without damaging or marking the paper or card. The biggest problem with rubber glues, though, is that during use, some solvent will evaporate, leaving the glue inside the tube to become a bit less liquid, to the point that when you try to put the glue onto the card, it can start pulling 'threads'. And these can create quite a few problems when the part that you are trying to glue is small. The older the glue, the more threads it will create, so it is better to use rubber glue in small tubes to keep it as 'fresh' and liquid as possible.

The superglue has two specific uses. The first is to glue metal bits to the card model if and where required. Secondly a layer of superglue on the back of a part will stiffen the card/paper, making it a lot sturdier to handle.

However, whatever glue you are using, it is imperative that you NEVER put the glue straight onto the model. You should be using a cocktail stick and a piece of waste card on which you deposit a blop of glue to transfer a little drop of glue with the stick onto the model. This way you will reduce the amount of glue that is deposited onto the model and thus have less chance of ungainly glue blops appearing all over the model. Less is here definitely better. Just make sure that you use enough glue. Too little here is definitely NOT better. BUT, the less glue you use, the faster it will dry up.

I hope you found the above helpful and informative. I will add another page or two dealing with the required tools and special attention points when building a model.

Of course, if there are any questions, then please do not hesitate to make them known!

OK?

See you all later!

Adrie.