Paper Air Force Construction Method

Check out some constructions photos in the gallery below.  While there are many steps from start to finish to build a Paper Air Force aircraft kit, and the instructions might seem to make the process more complex than it really is since they are so thorough and detailed - the main process is very simple:  just attach the skins (fuselage pieces) starting with a center point to one bulk (former), continue a little more on each side until 2/3 wrapped, then insert the other bulk to the other side, then close it up and you're done with a section.  Remove the bulk centers.  Make the sections and stack them together.  You can be looking at a mostly formed fuselage in a matter of hours - whether it is 1/26 scale or a large 1/7 scale model. 

Some fuselage pieces will need gluing together before starting, and by using "joiners" - a thin strip of paper.  Some braces are then glued inside of the finished pieces. Wing spars are laminated together, and ribs and spars are glued right to the wing bottom, and then the top is closed over.  So there are no additional covering processes or skills needed.    A little bit of spackling, or modelling paste, is also used on the nose of the model and sanded to fill in some compound curves otherwise not attainable with paper.

Spray paint will turn the paper into a kind of composite that is resilient and water-resistant, and adding white glue to bracings made of paper stiffen them up significantly to provide for strong lightweight pieces.  Details can be easily added too, such as using a dry pen to press rivets into the paper, or press panel lines into it.  As for many of the other paper details, such as gear housings - nothing seems to resemble the original sheet metal of the planes as paper does.  

One caveat: Paper Air Force kits are not die or laser cut.  All the pieces must be cut out with scissors.  While it may seem like a lot, it will go much more quickly than anticipated, especially if done while watching a video, or by cutting out the next pieces while you wait for prior pieces to dry.  This keeps the kit cost much lower, and also allows you to make a perfectly reproduced copy for yourself to make spare parts, or another model whenever you want.

See our P-47 1/22 scale short build video on our video page.