Why do you build card models

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barry

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Jan 28, 2004
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Brighton Uk
I should have retired but it got too boring so I help out my buisness partner doing telesales for a hotel finder site, you turn off your brain pick up your script and start dialing the numbers. So I have one of my computers permanently tuned to this site and the poles and every time I think I will tell the next idiot on the line to do something unmentionable to him/herself I switch to one of the sites and get some inspiration for my own models. This way I stay just about sane.

End of the day I just pick up the scalpel.

barry
 
I am very detail oriented and I love following precise directions to produce a work of art - Calculated creation. I don't think I have what it takes to be as creative as Gil, for instance - but I would love to try to follow the intricate instructions to make that Bismarck!

Josh
 
I reckon it is genetic. Most of my male ancestors have been 'makers' of one sort or another for the last 3 generations at least, and my mother is a painter, and did pottery and sculpture before she retired. My brothers are a musician/graphic artist and an agricultural engineer respectively, and I am a modelmaker for a product design company. We all 'make' things. My father was making paper models when he was a kid ( during the war there was not much else materialwise, although he did have an uncle who was a cabinetmaker (another one!) and he used to get offcuts of balsa for Alan from the bits of Mosquito they produced) but glue was always a problem!

Some people are just predisposed to make things. Others are not so lucky! Have you ever seen those amazing wire models made by African kids, out of old coat hangars and stuff? Just fantastic imagination, with whatever materials are to hand.

Oh, myself? I can't give a reason, it is so much part of 'me' ! My problem is, as you all know, I just never finish anything!! Too easily distracted by the next project. Ho hum....

Tim
 
As a kid (over a half-century ago...yuck), it was to emulate my dad. Some of my earliest memories are watching my father work on (of all things) cardboard models of battleships. As a father myself, to give my kids an interest that would keep them away from drugs and booze (worked on 3 out of 4, at least). Now, to have at least one thing in my life giving a sense of accomplishment.
 
why build?

i build and design for war gaming. that is how i started. as a youngster, my dad would buy me only one plastic model a month. i was pretty hard on them. i found i could have as many as i could build for my forces when built (mostly) from cardboard.
 
"If God gives you lemons, make lemonade."

I had a friend that introduced me to Fiddlersgreen.net and I did some redraw work for Chip...been doing it ever since (as I have time).
I lost my job almost 2-1/2 years ago, and have not been able to find steady income since. Lost my dad and house last year; I, the Mrs., and our 2 kids moved into a moblie home. Basically, one of the reasons I started was that couldn't afford anything else, besides, plastic models are too expensive and boring.

I should also note that my eldest daughter and my wife are hooked as well (though they prefer animals and cartoon characters).

I just really appreciate the creativity that goes into these (being an unemployed artist/toy designer) and find it fascinating what can be done with card stock and glue.
 
Why I build cardmodels, let me count the ways

Card - Download
Plastic - Buy new kit

Card - Make a mistake, reprint
Plastic - Buy a new kit

Card - Paint not needed
Plastic - Paint mess, fumes, cleanup
Make a mistake, strip it or buy a new kit

Card - Can make different versions without decal
Plastic - Buy extra decals, make a mistake, Buy more decals

Card - Not a lot of extras you have to buy
Plastic - All kinds of extra parts, tools, glues, fillers, etc. etc.

Card - Huge selection of unusual subjects
Plastic - Buy a kit, the subject of which was decided by
some corporate workgroup. Make a mistake
Buy a new kit

Card - I build small scale. I can take ANY kit and resize it
Plastic - Buy a kit and do major conversion, buy special equipment
and make my own kit, hope they manufacture a kit
I am looking for, etc

Card - Very easy for me to travel with. Small building kit fits in
an 9 x 6 x 2 case
Plastic - Almost requires its own support system to travel with.

Card - I can finish a model in 2/3 weeks. Make a mistake, print
new parts.
Plastic - Got tired of a kit taking 6 months or better to finish. Make
a mistake or break a critical part, Buy a new kit.

I built plastic kits for almost 35 years. I chased the contest genie,
and did well at it. But I barely saw any new additions to my model
shelf. Then I actually tried one of the free downloadable models.
It was like mainlining crack cocaine. You become a junkie after
just one! After a few kits, I found myself buying 6-10 online a month!
Then, I took a card model, spent 3 weeks building and detailing it,
and started winning small contests at my local modellers club, against
the plastic guys! And yes, I heard the familiar.......THAT'S PAPER?

Gotta love it.

Now I am working on getting my sons involved (3 and 6) and maybe
even....THE WIFE!!

I shall leave now.

Texman
 
The voices insist I must make paper ships.
They get really angry if I try to ignore them.

Bernhard
 
All (well, most) of the above. Plus:

Having worked on and around real airplanes for a substantial part of my adult life (before I started working on and around people) I find the process of constructing a scale model airplane from card is much more akin to the way real aluminum or wood airplanes are built, compared to plastic models. Thus building a card model is somehow more satisfying than gluing plastic parts together.

Although modern plastic scale models, when assembled by a real modeler, are incredibly realistic, there are some aspects of real airplanes that are actually better represented in card, especially in the smaller scales. Take, for example, wing and tail surface trailing edges. You can easily achieve a very scalelike knife-edge in card. Nearly all plastic model airplanes, especially in 1/72 or 1/48 scales, have trailing edges that are so blunt you'd think the real thing was made from a piece of 3/4 inch plywood. Similarly, other panels such as landing gear doors and access hatches can be more easily represented in scale with card.

Real airplanes, at least after they've been knocked around a bit, don't have the flawlessly smooth contours that plastic models have. Aluminum buckles and bulges between frames. Steel plate warps when welded (as on steel ships). Take a look at the cover photo of a real De Havilland DH89 Rapide on the cover of the current issue of The Aeroplane. That nosecone looks like it could've been made out of papier mache. Look at the fit and finish of the various components of the cowling and landing gear pants. I have a copy of the Heller plastic kit of this airplane and those parts don't look anything like the real thing, except in general outline. This airplane is much better represented in card.

Just some random musings. I'll go back to lurking now.

Ming
 
I grew up near the first registered airport in the World near Shoreham, in Sussex UK. My grandfather, who worked on the Pullman coaches for the railways, turned his carpentry skills towards building Horsa gliders for the Normandy invasions. My great Uncle flew Liberators, Whitleys and Hudsons for RAF Coastal Command and my father flew Meteors and Vampires in his national service. Aircraft have been in the blood for generations. My first model kit was the airfix Cessna O2a at age 5. I started building free flight models at the age of 10 and gradually learnt the craft. It was while surfing for freeflight plans that I discovered Fiddler's Green. At first I dismissed the models as mere toys, unworthy of my attention. Then circumstances changed.
I had to sell my extensive collection of unmade plastic kits to finance a purchase of a PC when I became a teacher. I got married.
My new wife banned me from displaying any plastic models anywhere in the house. Plastic models are also really expensive. Then I rediscovered paper and card models. :shock: Woo Hoo! :P
I still have some plastic models sitting in their boxes unbuilt after a decade or longer. Every now and then I take them out of their boxes, lay out the parts and work out what paints I will have to buy and what other stuff I have to do to get it to look good. Then I work out how mnuch tiome I can afford to allocate and I glumly put the plastic kit away again. So far I have built model aircraft out of plastic, resin, balsa wood, pine, spruce, pewter, white metal and paper. Nearly everything in fact, except cheese. :twisted:
Many plastic kits these days are multimedia to overcome the limitations of plastic as a medium. In many ways paper and card as a medium,are really very good. In some ways superior to plastic. (trailing edges, gun barrels etc) True there are limitations, but that is where multimedia comes in.
Now when I want to build, I can include the features I want on a kit. If I want to open up gun ports, I can. If I want to include radio gear, I can.
If I make a mistake - no problem. The very satisfying "Fist Of Death" disposes of the evidence and I reprint the parts.
My paper models in progress all sit in a box file, along with my basic tools. So If I fancy a buildfest, I can do it, clean up my mess and do it all in the space of an evening.
So I'm a happy bunny, and my wife is a happy bunny because I'm not spending thousands of bucks on plastic, and that I can keep things tidy.
I'll probably make a few more plastic models before I go to aeromedellers heaven, but I will definately make a lot more paper ones. 8)
TTFN,

Marcus
 
I've built plastic models off and on for as long as I can remember (early days watched my dad build 'em).

Through the years my production rate has deminished (first school, then work, then wife, kids, etc...). I have amassed quite a collection of plastic kits, never getting around to building them.

Along comes the internet, and I discover Paper/Card Models you can Download for FREE!

Now I fill up my harddrive instead of my closets with unbuilt kits!!!

I do, however, actually build some kits now. Especially the very easy ones. They don't take much time or space, and I can do them while on a conference call at my desk at work!
 
So this thread is being revived... :D I'm building cardmodels because I like the idea of downloading your model from internet, and that it's easy to design anything from scratch. It's also highly environmental, no harmful solvents/paints required ;)

--Well, I guess, it's a poor person's only option anyway... Those cast anime figures really cost a fortune...
 
I like telling stories ^.^

Well, before Cardmodeling here, I used to build very few plastic kits. Since I am still in my teenage years, I'm not really experienced in any type of crafts.

It all started off on that one Christmas morning when my Kind Father and Mother gave me what I always wanted, a plastic Gundam Model kit. I was extremely happy, and building it for me was a breeze, since it was a snap on model, but a fairly detailed one. Continuely, I played with it, until one fateful day the polycap joint snapped. Since I had no Super Glue, I just left my Alex Gundam rot and rust. Over the course of my next years of childhood, 8,9,10, I continually recieved the sasme kit each YEAR for CHRISTMAS! This may not seem like a care for you, but I was simply joyed by the fact of that kit. I wanted more, but I was limited to store bought items. Even today, I scour the Stores here in the Valleys of California to find a Gundam model. And so, the years passed and in the 5th grade, when we went to Gilroy to pickup a Gundam kit, to my utter unfortunate amazement, there were none in sight. We checked Target, and still none! Then, I searched the internet to find out why. Sadly, they took it off the market partly due to the Gundam names, which at the time they were selling Gundam Wing Items, and G Gundam.

So...as I passed my 5th grade and 6th grade years, I just wasted away on clone trooper models, or action figures if you will.

AND THEN! One glorius day, the irony however, since this day happened on October. I believe, 2 days before Halloween?

Exactly, I remember it, my little brother even remembers it! I was looking through flickr, the photo hosting place, at a few lego models. At the time, I created an abundance of MOC's which were reviewed, rated, and posted on MOCpages. While looking at one of my contacts profiles, I checked their favorites. One favorite, depicted an image of a starship, which caught my eye quickly. I clicked on the picture, and VAMOOS! An amzing model appeared on my screen, the Taiidan Heavy Frigate. I wondered what it was made of, and checking the tags, one of them listed, PAPER.
I thought it couldn't be true! So I typed on my web browser, paperstarships, and founda site too! Clicked on it, and was disappointed to the fact that the site was gone. However, I found the forums, and found other links to some great papermodels. It wasn't until I found my first model, the Vagyr Laser Corvette, deep in the forums. It was only a WIP, but I was too giddy to notice that. So, me and my brother printed out the pages, and were amazed at the time it took to eve cut a piece out! We eventually gave up, but continued searching for more, better models of starships to build.

Then, another event struck me, which was when my little brother stood up to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, Can wee see some Transformer Papercraft? I typed it in, and found more sites! But they led to mecha models! The course of that week I continued searching for more, until I came across Gundam models. I believe I saw Hi-Nu first, and thought, I could do that! And so, I was desperate to find some Gundam models, (Non SD Of course :rolleyes:) I eventually found this forum, on the morning of a school day. Since I didn't have time to copy the URL to my Notepad, I had to remember the site name the enter day at school.

And now I'm here! Anyways, I build Cardmodels because of the detail that's packed in certain ones. I still, however, have a longing for a Plastic Gundam, since my quench for more different models has not ceased. Also, Cardmodels, are so...so...I'm not sure >.> They, to me, are so much fun to do. I especially love to do it with other people, and have music on. The thought of seeing that final product is what pushes me to at least try to get half of it finished. I don't want to be redudant, but the other guys reasoned the basics of why we build cardmodels.
 
For me it's "just" a hobby :)

At work I often have a lot of "free time", that means nothing in the factory is broken down and needs my attention or has to me fixed,production is going steady,no power problems etc etc.....
In those quiet hours at nightshifts and weekends I build models.....makes me stay sharp and ready.

At home I build when kids are at school and wife at work and I'm off work just enjoying the early hours together with a mug of cofee out in my "manshed"

I build papermodels because I like the building and the challenge of turning 2D paper into 3D models.Not just assemble parts as in plastic models.And since I'm colorblind I don't have to worry a lot about painting.....
I'm having fun building in paper, and for me thats the main reason.
 
I got into paper modeling in high school. I really liked airplanes and had tried my hand at plastic models and balsa as well, but growing up in a two bedroom apartment with seven other siblings I never had my own space to leave my models so they would unavoidably get crushed, or damaged and forget about painting. I came across paper models over the internet. Fiddlersgreen and EMil Zarkov, I could then just work on a model if and keep it safe in a small cardboard box. Also it was much less expensive! Thanks you card models!!
 
I build cardstock to get away from boring plastic kits wall1 there is more to do with cardstock, they just seem to have the same old boring cars & trucks in plastic nothing new:rolleyes:. :cool:
 
cardmodeling in kits is relaxing from scratchbuilding. Not so many problems to solve and no painting, just cut and glue. I also think that although my card models are not so sleek as plastic they have more "character". From looking arounf this forum it also seems to allow more freedom for scratchbuilding that can't be done in plastic. The fantasy sailing land cruiser for instance. What an imaginative piece of work. BILL
 
I build card models, as opposed to other types of models because of:

1. The unique range of subjects available
2. The large size of some models ( I love to hang big models from the ceiling or display them in the library)
3. The incredibly low cost for some of these models (though I recently invested over $100 for an OOP card model)
4. I got tired of putty and paint on plastic models (so what am I doing with my Hunley build? Painting the damned thing!)

No one ever said there has to be any sense or sensibility to what we do.
 
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