Card blocks

@jimsI dont do my own ropes or blocks
Still its always a challenge, specifically if you cant buy easy good quality stuff. I buy meine mostly from Syren Modell co, extra fine quality and the prices are excellent! Still again I do think of making always more stuff by my own, only if I can make such good quality as for example Syren Co.
This is exactly my point, Messis. There will be always people who will build their models from kits no matter what! Because they have limited tooling, space, skills ...just because they like the convenience of everything in one box and ready for assembling. :)
Also, there will be always people who love 'bash' the kits. They would modify some\most of the parts, even utilize their own timber. They assemble kits, at this time, I would use the term 'build' the way they want, and not the way the kit suggested. :D
...and there will be people who build their models - from scratch (including blocks) ;)
 
Hi
Lloyd McCarthy makes / uses paper blocks .
The problem I have is paint and strength.

Kit card blocks (shipyard Poland) : you try 2mm size, making the blocks!
Video great but then your turn!

Principle is what is suitable for you and scale.
Model making is about sweat, toil, pleasure, frustration and having the time / thinking time. Of course a little play with materials. Drifting off to never-never-land.

If ? Try 1st. Then ...

I am making Krazz 22b from card.
(Something different).
Whole new ball game : just made Jerry cans and then, paint them. They look :((( so I reprinted plans and must re build.
I try spray next time and water down acrylic paint.
40 years building and still clueless but I try!

Yes - easy to make wooden blocks
When someone holds your hand and the set up!

Everything easy - what about colour ? Eg. Black what you use ? Wood what you use? Bass, boxwood, alder....? Shoe polish to spirit dyes ? ...
Try car oil and nail polish remover ? That’s a new one!
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Model making is about sweat, toil, pleasure, frustration and having the time / thinking time. Of course a little play with materials. Drifting off to never-never-land
I have to disagree with you, Hermies. Model-making should be all about joy and fun. If you have to sweat, toil and frustrated take this hobby aside. Obviously, there is a learning curve and skills acquisition period - but it shouldn't turn into a stressful one. This is why a forum like ours is a great companion to the novice modeler. We have many members across the globe, they can help minimize the stress with their suggestions and mentoring. Don't shy asking. :)
 
Can anyone tell me about card blocks. Are they suitable for a wooden model?
Interesting question. My opinion is, depending on scale, they should work OK. They look better than basic kit blocks which are square blocks...perhaps not as good as premium blocks as illustrated in previous posts. However, as long as they are sturdy enough to accept pulling the rigging taught, once complete on your model they will look fine to the discerning eye. They can probably be enhanced in appearance with a darker stain. For a casual build I would use them. Let us know your decision.
 
Jim, forgive me, but I'm wondering what is the casual build? Does the RC Messis building fall into this category? ;)
Yeah...for me a casual build is any build other than a museum quality, historically accurate model. For example, building a wonderful model straight out of the kit box...which can be a master build in itself but not necessarily a historically accurate museum quality build. Although there are some master modelers out there who could probably build a museum quality model straight out of the box. Those museum quality builds belong in another universe...certainly not on my “casual” workbench! Actually I have no idea what a casual build is. Anyway...this got to be way more than we wanted! :)
 
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Jim, with the terminology of 'museum quality' you have opened a can of worms. It is probably a discussion for another forum but... A museum is a building where a large number of interesting and valuable objects, such as works of art or historical items, are kept, studied, and displayed to the public. There are no words about the quality of those items displayed in the musium. Often time those artifacts are extremely old and have absolutely no quality (except the historical value) IMHO.

But again, this is the discussion for another forum...
 
Yeah...for me a casual build is any build other than a museum quality, historically accurate model. For example, building a wonderful model straight out of the kit box...which can be a master build in itself but not necessarily a historically accurate museum quality build. Although there are some master modelers out there who could probably build a museum quality model straight out of the box. Those museum quality builds belong in another universe...certainly not on my “casual” workbench! Actually I have no idea what a casual build is. Anyway...this got to be way more than we wanted! :)
Hello Jim, this is exactly what I understand by the term, too. :) But hardly anyone wants to tackle the topic.
 
@Manni vielen dank, sieht gar nicht schlechtes laden.

@danielsje and @Jimsky "casual or historical accurate model", is not the issue guys and definitly not relevant to my original question on card blocks!

You can go for a historical accurate modell using any materials they contribute to your end result... historically to look authentic.

You can go for "a casual build" by which you care more about the aesthetic than the historical accuracy (my case on RC now), again independently of the materials, but with parts that look nice and definitely convicing..... other wise build the modell abstract and do whatever Dali did... you never know maybe you got a Salvator Dali in you

In other words: card blocks can look historical accurate or not and at the same time nice and convincing, or not nice, or even nice but not convincing! After all...this was the original issue of my post, do card blocks look convincing?

@Jimsky "But again, this is the discussion for another forum... "
100% correct my friend. And ps. I like pink floyd
 
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@danielsje good to hear that, thank you. Still am going for wooden blocks working them out of some market usual lower quality blocks, believing that this way I will succeed a more convicing result than cards, because cards flat shape maybe eyecatching even at 3 mm size. eye
 
One more thought on the card blocks...stain them a dark color...the dark color will subdue the block to the eye making it stand out less if that is a concern...
 
disclaimer, I am a card modeler. you will find that paper and card stock has a grain and this effects the quality of the parts, secondly the density of the card stock will effect on how sharp a line you can cut. I'm assuming that these blocks are laser cut. most of the laser cut sheets I have used and seen are cut on a low density card stock and if the part size is less than 3mm the card stock will tend to fall apart. The work around is to apply water thin Cyano to the part this will keep the part from falling apart when it is under tension.

This is a link to Shipyard Models which is the publisher for these blocks. There is a video of how to build these blocks. you will note that they will not look like the photo from Cornwall model Boats. which is a nice way of saying I think you will be dissatisfied with the blocks. you may want to contact Model Expo for blocks they will ship world wide.

Jim Nunn
 
Still looks better than the cheap 'kit' blocks.
The second video....ties off wrong end of block, so the rope passes under the 'sheave' rather than over it.
Two edge razor blade? Strewth!
 
@Jim Nunn thank you Jim, I believe you are right and 6hank you for sharing all this helpfull information. Still they are better -as Pagwash pointed out- better than the cheap kit blocks and cheaper than the top quality blocks.

Ps. I shall insist on Chucks blocks anyway. Syren Co makes great quality and still the prices are well reasonable.
 
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