Wing Commander Tallahassee Cruiser

Gandolf50

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You've told me that before and every time I'm tried that all I wind up doing is destroying the edge and having to clean up a pile of dirt. Do you have a tutorials or a video that shows the process or anything?

I take 180 grit wet and dry .. and attach it to a FLAT piece of pine..or an unused paint stir stick, something like that.. I also begin with a good quality snap-blade knife and a steel rule ( 1/8" thick) with a beveled edge, and cut the edge of the card at an angle.. 45 would be the perfect angle but that rarely happens..I aim for around 10-15 degrees to the inside of the joint.. that way when I glue up.. the outside edge has a razor sharp point +- and the inside gets filled with glue, and what ever I use to support the corners I will sometimes use magnetic 90s on the inside to get things right and square .. plus you can always glue up some 90 degree "L's" with a little waxed paper to stop glue from sticking to them for the outside.. anything that is heavy can be used to prop things up.. I have some 1/2" steel plate for steel bolts on metal girders I use ...the list can go on forever.but you get the Idea!

as far as machinist files.. you might look for them under the name of Swedish Files, as they are sometimes called that also..mainly as they usually come from Sweden for clockwork..or used to anyway.. that's where I got my 12 piece set from and why...also! Damn that was a long time ago..! You might want to see if you can find just a triangle, bladed flat and a round..that's about all you really use, I'll bet a full set of good ones are not cheap any more!

PS.. I forgot.. Keep a steady hand cutting the angle.. I see your using chip board..which is hard and a bit difficult to cut, dont wobble on the cut!
 
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zathros

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You can firm up that Cereal carton with good old fashioned paper dope. It will seal the moisture from coming in and warping it in the future. I look forward to learning your Styrene process. :)
 

Gandolf50

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Um... unless 'chip board' is a nother word for "Cereal Box Carboard" I'm not using chipboard.
Yep .. that's it exactly.. when it's called chipboard.. ( in some areas ) it's a cereal box, which is great recycling and a great source for fairly large flat sheets of approx 0.5mm +- cardstock .. (other areas the mean the wood stuff we call OSB oriented Strand Board.. regardless it will eat up them blades in a flash.. a good blade in a snap knife will take care of that, or a scalpel, if you know how to put an edge back on them.

Paper dope is the stuff you use for balsa and tissue paper air craft.. tightens the tissue and makes a rock hard smooth surface that resists warping..

Got caught up with this..forgot to say" Love what you are doing.. !! ".. Built many a model by your method and still do on many parts, and corrections or additions to stuff now! Great Job!
 
Yep .. that's it exactly.. when it's called chipboard.. ( in some areas ) it's a cereal box, which is great recycling and a great source for fairly large flat sheets of approx 0.5mm +- cardstock .. (other areas the mean the wood stuff we call OSB oriented Strand Board.. regardless it will eat up them blades in a flash.. a good blade in a snap knife will take care of that, or a scalpel, if you know how to put an edge back on them.

Paper dope is the stuff you use for balsa and tissue paper air craft.. tightens the tissue and makes a rock hard smooth surface that resists warping..

Got caught up with this..forgot to say" Love what you are doing.. !! ".. Built many a model by your method and still do on many parts, and corrections or additions to stuff now! Great Job!
ah, the only 'chipboard' I was aware of was the compressed really dense cardboard that frankly is easier to cut with a band saw then anything else I've found.

And as for the 'dope' what is the actual name for it?

and surprisingly, googling "Paper dope" brings up surprisingly few drug results.
 
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zathros

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"Paper Dope" has been used for maybe 100 years, if not much longer, so it is pretty common in most Hobby shops. Makes the Tissue Paper on the rubber band balsa planes really tighten and stiffen up. :)
 

Gandolf50

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Aero-Gloss which disappeared for awhile is back on the shelves .. everywhere, IMO the best, though it does stink to HIGH heaven! as any lacquer/bytual, based stuff will, but it works!
dope.jpeg There are many types..even one that is hot fuel resistant, and also in colors... Name Brand Aero-Gloss
 

zathros

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Aero-Gloss which disappeared for awhile is back on the shelves .. everywhere, IMO the best, though it does stink to HIGH heaven! as any lacquer/bytual, based stuff will, but it works!
View attachment 166657 There are many types..even one that is hot fuel resistant, and also in colors... Name Brand Aero-Gloss

Thanks Gandolf. :)

@resurrected...., I guess you haven't built any balsa wood and tissue aircraft.
 

subnuke

Banned
In the US, nitrate dope shrinks very little and butyrate dope shrinks a lot. Still used on airplanes so still available. Model quantities varies in availability. Same stuff just different size container and vastly different price. In the UK, I think it is called nitro cellulose.

Thin lacquers work. For water-based, Minwax Polycrylic is awesome stuff. RC airplane guys used it with thin fiberglass cloth instead of epoxy resin and get great results. I used it on a plane I built for display and it is very strong. I plan to try it someday in the paper model world when I can get back into that world. Right now, I reside in the special needs caregiver world while being disabled myself.
 

Papa Mashy

Masher of paper
celulose dope pic.jpg
I'v only ever seen it as cellulose dope in the UK. Definitely something to be used only in well ventilated areas though!
Edit: ...and clear shrinking dope.
 
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View attachment 166667
I'v only ever seen it as cellulose dope in the UK. Definitely something to be used only in well ventilated areas though!
Aero-Gloss which disappeared for awhile is back on the shelves .. everywhere, IMO the best, though it does stink to HIGH heaven! as any lacquer/bytual, based stuff will, but it works!
View attachment 166657 There are many types..even one that is hot fuel resistant, and also in colors... Name Brand Aero-Gloss
Yep .. that's it exactly.. when it's called chipboard.. ( in some areas ) it's a cereal box, which is great recycling and a great source for fairly large flat sheets of approx 0.5mm +- cardstock .. (other areas the mean the wood stuff we call OSB oriented Strand Board.. regardless it will eat up them blades in a flash.. a good blade in a snap knife will take care of that, or a scalpel, if you know how to put an edge back on them.

Paper dope is the stuff you use for balsa and tissue paper air craft.. tightens the tissue and makes a rock hard smooth surface that resists warping..

Got caught up with this..forgot to say" Love what you are doing.. !! ".. Built many a model by your method and still do on many parts, and corrections or additions to stuff now! Great Job!

So I'm confussed. What should I be looking for? a Hobby store that sells Aero-Gloss, or a Home Depot that sells the MinWax or are they the same thing practically speacking?
 
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Gandolf50

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I would say a hobby shop.. MinWax is definitely NOT what you want.. DOPE is a LACQUER Been awhile since I was in the UK but cellulose Dope sounds close.. but I would check first..the well ventilated area is right on the money, for Aero-Gloss tm .. here are some brand names..that might be found in the UK.. though Aero-Gloss seems to be the best for keeping things from warping due to dampness, like would happen flying a balsa plane in a dew soaked field!

They have various brands some that shrink and some that don't shrink.. Jeesh we have got so far into this discussion that I have forgot what the original question was, or for what purpose!
OK I remember now.. you wand NON-Shrinking.. you could even ( since you mentioned Home Depot) and grab some sanding sealer.. it would do the same thing.. just not as well.

Go with the airplane crowd..they have had YEARS of doing this!
Make sure it is BUTYRATE DOPE.. they sell another by Five Star Brands they say it is Butyrate, cellulose dope..

BRODAK clear BUTYRATE Dope is another good brand..
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Aero-Gloss Dope England&chips=q:aero gloss dope england,online_chips:butyrate dope&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjk9fCr29PcAhUi7IMKHZW6CIEQ4lYIKygD&biw=1920&bih=943&dpr=1

I only mentioned Aero-Gloss as it was the only one that always worked well on the large scale gliders I used to build. In fact the last one I flew in England, headed out to the North towards Scotland, caught an updraft and headed for the clouds, lost site of it after that!
 
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zathros

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Oh, you're in the U.K., didn't know that. You probably can't get that there till you join the U.S. trading Bloc after the Brexit.......................................just joking, do what Gandolf said.:hide:
 
Must have been your accent. :)

This stuff is too easy to find, you're not trying very hard. This was literally 2 minutes of Google searching while I was watching a movie on T.V..

Link = https://www.hobbyzone.com/dlmbd42.html?utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI__CamP3U3AIVScDICh2OiA_uEAQYBSABEgIzdPD_BwE

View attachment 166672

actually I found that the first day you mentioned the paper dope. It's just... everything I've read about it tells me this is most assuredly NOT what I want to use for this. Everything I've read about it talks about it being used to shrink and tighten up Tissue paper. Since the cardboard I'm using is layered, wouldn't that mean it will warp the part since the outer layer(s) of the cardboard would be shrinking while the other layers wouldn't be?
 
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Papa Mashy

Masher of paper
I'm no expert by any means, but I think you have a few options to explore jointing on some scrap card with the responses so far.
I can see bevelling the edge is tricky and I haven't explored this much myself but I can see that it would be difficult to cut an accurate line at 45 degrees (or less) without some sort of guide/jig set up to do it in one go.
Following on from Gandalf's suggestion, have you thought about using a nailboard (the ones that ladies use to shape their finger nails) to apply the bevel after cutting to size?

Regarding the glueing, I am a big fan of the white glue sticks. I've found any brand works well including the ones you can find in the stationary sections of supermarkets e.t.c. They all perform well with minimal/no warping.

Perhaps the thing to do is just buy whatever you can find locally to you and experiment a bit on scrap to see what works for you.
It won't hurt to try out using dope but I would also try watering down some PVA a little and very lightly apply it over the whole sheet of card to stiffen it before then cutting out parts if you want super stiff and slighty more water resistant card? (It's worth a try and if it doesn't work, then at least its another entry in the knowledge bank)
 
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