I’ve done plastic and wood ships and the occassional composite effort for decades but never worked in paper (which I would guess is actually a sort of heavy but flexible card stock).
A meter-long model with hull “planking” that seems to be not only printed but textured, coupled with what appears to be excellent detail on the decks and aloft, for around US$30? One would think people would be jumping on that bandwagon yet I rarely hear of such builds.
For those who complain about the lack of plastic kit subjects, card modeling should be another avenue of interest. There are more subject to chose from and the results of card building are just as impressive as plastic modeling. Try it, you might like it.
I have tried and have thoroughly enjoyed card modeling. Crackers has a great suggestion. Indeed, anyone could use the card templates as plans from which to scratchbuild. Also, these models look great when completed!
its a new skill set that needs to be developed in the usual way, start small and work your way up.
I’d say the same thing to any modeler who wants to try a plastic sailing ship and has their eye on that Revell Cutty Sark. Or first time wood anything more ambitious than a solid hull schooner.
As our former mayor famously said, “a man has to know his limitations”.
One huge plus for card models is that you can buy them online And get them instantly, if you have access to a larger format printer.
GMorrison has a great point. Card modeling has a great advantage in the purchasing kits at a more reasonable price, plus the greater variety of subjects from traditional sail to more modern ships. These kits can be bought online. A good example of unusual sailing ships is the British row brig HMS WOLF of 1752 at 1/72 scale.
Shipyard has a nice selection of British, French, and Spanish sailing ships through age of galleons through the Napoleonic Wars. I just ordered the British Frigate HMS Cleopatra. One of the nice things about modeling in paper is that it is easy to reprint the kit to any scale the modeler desires by either reducing or enlarging the images of the parts on your printer. And, it is easy enough to use the parts as templates for building the kits in wood or plastic. These kits are wonderful but somewhat difficult.
Other companies produce paper-card sailing ships as well.
