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| Paper and card modelling-making tight, sharp wraps and folds. - Scratchbuilding. - More Practical Help - Your Model Railway Club | ||||||||||
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Chubber Casseroled Badger 
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Following a request to illustrate my method of folding and wrapping texture papers to give sharp edges I have produced the following 'How to'. I apologise in advance for the number of pictures, but I feel that is a lot better than me writing paragraphs of semi-intelligible waffle. I will try to explain how I do three things which are essential to the succesful and convincing construction of models such as the Scalescene series, where sharp, clean folds are needed to give the impression of solidity to scraps of printed paper wrapped around bits of cardboard. First, a 'brick' column, built up from multiple layers of 2mm card, then, probably the most difficult, a texture sheet wrapped around a long strip of card to represent a typical capping strip or row of stone slabs, and finally, a simple means of making a convincing slab of stone such as the flat stone slabs placed on top of columns. Two essential tools, a sandpaper 'plane' and a stiletto are easy to make or buy. Without these you will be lucky to achieve the desired objective of square edged forms, tightlywrapped in a clean 90 degree fold. The sandpaper plane is just a covenient way of holding a strip of sandpaper at 90 degrees to the work surface. The piece of wood from which it is made MUST be square in section to start with. [The cutting mat squares are at 1 cm spacing] The stiletto can, at its simplest be a large darning needle. The important point to notice [pun intended] is that the point is needle sharp, yet very smoothly formed. Dragged over your thumb-nail there should be no scratchy hook or roughness to the point. This I achieve by working it over 1000 grit wet and dry paper. It is that important, because you will use it to score halfway through printed texture papers without snagging them, even when damp from glue.  1. Brick Column Rule 1. No round edged former will ever wrap up to make a square edged component. Rule 2. There is only Rule 1.  Rub all 4 sides to get a smooth square edged block. Then lightly sand off any raised rough corners.  Cut a piece of paper that wraps all round plus about 1/4"  Smear with stick-type adhesive and place the component on top, in the centre. Either prick two holes from the pattern the otherside to line up on or draw a guide line. Now, with the stiletto gently scribe/score down the side of the work so as to rupture only the top surface layers. Too hard and you have cut it, too soft and the fold won't be crisp.  Fold this edge over. Notice the sharp fold, and we haven't started to flatten it out yet?  Repeat this all round, pressing the first and second sides firmly against the cardboard, but just lightly pressing down the 'closing' folds.  A wallpaper seam roller is perfect for the job of maintaining sharp corners.  Now you should have a wrapped up component, with three sides firmly pressed down, and an overlapping side, just lightly stuck down together.  Now, on the overlapped side, cut down the length of the overlap, being sure to cut through BOTH layers. This needs a very sharp, preferably new blade, or the paper, weakened by the glue will tear and drag. Immediately after cutting through, peel back these layers, remove the outer strip, pick off the inner strip and lay down the wrapped layers where they will miraculously match perfectly. I have shown a straight edge in use, it isn't really necessary. Roll all round and you should, with a little attention to details have a near invisible joint, like that below.  Now the finishing touch. Burnish with your knife handle or similar dead smooth tool to create an even sharper edge. Anyone who has ever put an edge on a cabinet scraper will know exactly the way to do it!  With any luck you will have a convincing column of brickwork.  Tomorrow, God willing, I'll do the next part, wrapping a long thin strip component. Doug ____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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rector Fumbling around. 
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This is excellent, Doug. I'm even printing it out for my "How To..." file. 
____________________ Tim. Ex-pat, retired cleric, artist, amongst other things. |
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Robert Legacy Member 
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Another definite for the forum Index.
____________________ Barchester |
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John Dew Full Member 
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Thank you so much......thats very very helpful......much appreciated. PS Thank you for the PM Kind Regards ____________________ John Granby III Lenz DCC,RR&Co Gold V9 B4 Windows 10 |
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Chubber Casseroled Badger
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2. Wrapping long strips e.g. stone capping There is very little difference in the technique used for long narrow strips except that with a narrowstrip it is very easy to crush the component inside the paper, or, to deform or bend it so that it dries crooked. Here is a strip of 2mm card and a piece of home made stone slab paper.  To get the component centred more easily I prefer to have the card a little longer than the paper so it can be lined up in the centre by eye.  The paper strip should be fractionally smaller than the sum of the width of all 4 sides because the paper will stretch when it is smeared with stick glue. Pose the card in the centre of the generously glued paper.  Again, scribe down besude the card with the stiletto. For clarity I have not used my other hand holding the piece still, but it is necessary.  Repeat on the other side and fold up 90 degrees before rolling the two edges. If you don't have a seam roller [which I heartily recommend] then use your knife handle to lightly burnish both sides.  Now the awkward bit, scribe down alongside the card again on both remaining small flaps. For clarity, I have not shown the piece of 2" x 1" wood that I rest the back against to make it easier. Fold the flaps inwards after scribing and then burnish lightly all 4 edges.  Hopefully it should come out something like this.......  3. Stone slabs or cap-stones Many kits recommend cutting out an involved paper shape before folding it around a piece of card and gluing it to the top of a column. Inevitably the small size of the component makes it a difficult job and you can end up with a squidgy paper, glue and card sandwich. I prefer to glue the card down with PVA on the back of a generously sized piece of paper, allowing it to dry and then trimming and folding it up to cover the edges.  Start as always with a square, sharp edged block. In this case a double layer of 2 mm card about 1" x 5/8", i.e. 4 mm thick.  Glue the component onto the reverse of the paper with PVA, and ensure that no excess glue is allowed to remain around the edges. Now here is the crafty bit........... Using the same card as the block, glue up a piece 4" or 5" long, and then glue on each side a scrap of the paper you used to print the texture sheet so that your strip is the same thickness as the block, plus twice the texture paper thickness. This will be the cutting gauge that allows you to cut the sides of the paper to exactly the right width to fold over the sides of your block, i.e. it gives you a 'fold allowance'.  This 'tool' is held firmly against the sides of the block whilst the paper, now dry of glue and hence stronger, is cut around all 4 sides.  You'll end up with the trimmed shape below.  In the picture below, I have shown where the cuts should be made to remove the corners. In fact I don't bother to draw lines like that, but just use the sides of the block to guide and position the knife blade.  Having cut away all 4 corners, scribe the paper, apply an even smear of PVA all around, being aware that the side of cut card will quickly absorb the moisture from the PVA, and fold up each edge in turn.  Press all around with a flat tool such as a ruler, attempting to squeeze any excess glue out of each 'end' so that the corners are well glued.  You will notice that the folded flaps are fractionally wider than the edge of the card. Do not try to cut off that little 'smidgin' because if the slab is to glued down on a flat surface, this tiny rim will press down all around to make a gap-less joint with the sub-surface, at the same time keeping in any excess glue.  Now press carefully around the block with your 'tool' concentrating on easing any excess glue into the corner joint.  This should be the result.  I hope the foregoing has been of use to someone and will encourage you to try a bit of paper and card scratch-building or to attempt a Scalescenes type model kit. Doug ____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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Robert Legacy Member
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An excellent tutorial Doug, thank you. If you use any other techniques that you think might be useful to others, even possibly the simple ones that you might think everyone knows, then I'm sure we would all like to see them. If you have the time of course.
____________________ Barchester |
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Petermac Admin 
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Superb Doug.  Those are two things I'd always found very difficult without either crushing the final result or creasing the paper on the corners. ____________________ 'Petermac |
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Ianbo Legacy Member 
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Thank you for that . Hopefully my next attempt at card or paper scatch building will not end up in the bin. ____________________ Bozzy(never known to pass a pub) |
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henryparrot Former Member
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A great tutorial Doug Thankyou for taking the time in preparing and presenting it cheers Brian |
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Marty Enjoying the Journey 
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Many thanks Doug. That should help with my next attempt. ____________________ Marty N Gauge, GWR West Wales Newcastle Emlyn Layout. Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction" |
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MikeC Former Member
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My thanks to you, Doug, for sharing these techniques. I think I'll need something more than mere knowledge to get results like yours though. Mike |
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Les Member 
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Excellent Doug.Hopefully my Scalescenes buildings will be better now but sadly I have just been caught going through the sewing box for a suitable needle and have been assigned extra dog walking duties. Many thanks anyway. Les ____________________ Devon Junction Kernow Junction |
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phill Hello 
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Thanks for takeing the time and trouble to do this how too, find it very interesting and i am sure i will be having a go myself. Phill |
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| This is topic ID = 6326 Current time is 01:56 pm |
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