I have been boring you with my Non-Photo build of this ship now. Well, I did get all those rails installed and painted white! Guess what? Those rail details now help increase the detail for sure. The fact that you can see them through the scratch built Helo rig is even better!
This is something I noticed through my short eighteen year of occasionally building paper Ships. especially the rails and ladders. Where there is space( I/E openings ) you will have the color of the paper it was printed on. Of course the paper without printing will show through!
Shania Twain even wrote a song about you: “…You got being right down to an art…”
But how does that relate to the stuff you wrote about?
In every “Mały Modelarz” issue they stress how important to the final appearance of the model it is to touch up the white paper edges of the parts. For a long time I didn’t want to beieve this, but now I know it really is important.
It’s best to touch up with the colour matched to the part. This is sometimes hard to do, when they don’t print the part in a solid colour but in a pattern (you know, those tiny dots to emulate shading and different colours). In a pinch you can touch up everything in black and it will still look a lot better than left with white edges.
No, Pawel what I was getting at is not the edges, The edges are easy with an artists Acrylic pen set because you can blend to get the color you want. But, the open spaces between say a printed rail or girder piece. The printed rails reminded me of an old Revell habit of molding rails like a solid wall with detail on the outside( Somewhat stepped at that!) and none on the inside. Viol’a a detailed Silver wall!
Have you ever seen a W W 2 ship with silver colored anything? I haven’t. Granted paper rails are printed on both sides for you to fold and install. But they still looked like printed walls to me. Enter P.E. Now my paper ships look like, or in some cases better than their Plastic counterparts. Of course I’ve got a greater selection to choose from too!
Now, on the Rio they have a lot of areas that have printed girder work with White( The paper Color) in the spacing in between. This is what I waas referring to. Nothing bugs me more than details in two different places that you Cannot see because of this. I know it’s not the printers fault. They can only do so much! And they do it well, for sure. But, even Scribed Clear strips with Paint or Artist’s Ink in the scribed lines is better than a solid wall. Plus you can dull the outside with Semi-Gloss Clear to take off the shine. That’s for rails.
Now, you could do this. All the girder and lattice steel work gets triple layered and glued. Then carefully cut out. I tried this and it took longer that re-creating the part on the paper ( Used as a Pattern) under clear lexan, in strip and rod plastic. When you do this and are patient, you’ll surprise even yourself as to how much better the ship looks. remember, Evergreen Plastics goes all the way down to .010 in rod and square shapes.
P.S I didn’t think to ask. Can you get Evergreen Plastics where you live? The reason I recommended Lexan is because regular plastic glues won’t stick to it and it’s nice and clear and flat! So you preserve the paper kit parts as well. Oh, By the way, You have a nice day too!
