Hi,
While reading some topics on this forum, I found out that a lot of people have difficulties to make cilinders from thick paper for example the paper of GPM.
While building the T34/76, I used even thicker paper than that of GPM because that was the only paper/cardboard available in the desired color.
The construction went OK until I reached the gun barrel. I was not able to roll a nice cilinder without buckling the paper. Therefor I made my own tool to roll cilinders out of thick paper.
I did not think of sharing this with all of you until I recently started building the PAK of GPM. This model has a lot of parts that have to be rolled in a cilindrical shape.
My method works as follows.
Picture 1. I glued a piece of normal 80 gr/m2 paper onto a wooden stick of 3 mm in diameter.
Picture 2. Place the paper to be rolled onto the piece of paper (Face down)
Picture 3. Gently roll the stick across a flat surface while holding the thin paper under tension. The paper is now rolled onto the stick and pulling the part of you model with it.
Picture 4. Now gently tap with the stick on the table until you part falls out.
Picture 5. The part is rolled into a cilinder but slightly to much (left), now gently unroll the cilinder and due to the tension both edges are pressed together by itself (right). Apply some glue from the inside, and your part is finished.
This method works the best if the wooden stick is just a little smaller than the desired inner diameter of the cilinder. For bigger cilinders, you only have to roll the paper around the stick until the diameter is ok and than insert you part.
For very small cilinders, the GPM paper might still be to thick. Instead of de-laminating the paper, I hold it a few seconds above a cup of hot water (coffee, thee or whatever) to get some moisture in the paper. Make sure that you don't wet the printed side.
Due to the moisture, the paper becomes a bit softer, while after drying, it has the same strength, whereas de-laminated paper does not.
Because the forum is so big, I don't know if somebody already posted this idea. So for the moderators, please feel free to delete this post if it already exist
Xander
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