M-25 Quad Mount with Scratchbuilt Trailer - 1:25 Scale Paper Model

The .50-caliber quad mount comes from an M16 MGMC US Halftrack paper model kit published by WAK of Poland. I scrapped the guns in the kit and scratchbuilt the .50-cals in paper from line drawings of the gun found online. I substituted my own sling seat and built the trigger post from plastic rod.

The trailer is scratchbuilt in cardstock using wheels & tires from another paper kit (the water trailer described in my earlier post). The heavy tow bar is plastic rod, the tow ring is brass rod, and the jacks are scratchbuilt from cardstock. Photos from Google were used as reference.

I used Photoshop to apply the "Kilroy" graffiti. At 1:25 scale, the model is 8 inches long and about 3 inches tall. Build time was about 35 hours, I think.

Midwestern Model Ships & Boats Contest - May 2025

I attended the 2025 Midwestern Model Ships & Boats Contest, held at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. I gave a 45-minute workshop on paper scale model ships. It was well-attended and well-received.

Two and a half years ago, I convinced the contest organizers to include contest categories for paper models. They created two: for kitbuilt and for scratchbuilt.

This year, I entered three kit-built paper models in the contest:

— David Bushnell's "Turtle" from Heinkel Models

— CSS "Pioneer" from Heinkel Models (more than 600 individual rivet heads!!)

— "Molch German Midget Submarine from GPM

I took home three Gold Awards.

US Army Water Trailer -- 1:25-scale paper model

 This is a 1:25-scale paper model from a printed kit published by Orlik (Poland). I'm waiting for the 1:25-scale Dodge WWII ambulance paper mode kit from WAK (Poland). That kit has British markings. I will scan it and change it to an American ambulance. I want a trailer to haul behind it, so I went looking through my stash of paper model kits.

I found the Orik kit of a Zis-5 water truck and trailer. I scanned the trailer into Photoshop and added LAR ("looks about right") U.S. Army markings. Then I built the kit according to instructions . . . mostly. It's a Russian prototype, but it's what I had in 1/25 scale, and LAR.

I scratchbuilt the jackstand to hold up the trailer until I can hang it on the back of the ambulance. Construction of the trailer was fussy but only moderately difficult. I made some substitutions for some parts and ignored the ridiculously small stuff. You'd need a magnifying glass and an attitude to know they are missing. The build took about 18 hours.

"Clyde Puffer" - 1:87-Scale Paper Model from Scalescenes.com

I reduced Scalescenes' "Clyde Puffer" from 1:76 to 1:87 scale and added four figures. I rate the difficulty of the model as "moderate," although the rigging was "difficult." Overall, it builds into a very nice model. At 1:87 scale, the ship is9-3/4 inches long at the waterline.

Waterfall & Rapids for the Model RR Club

 

The rockwork, track, & bridges were already in place. Working around the tall viaduct was a challenge. 

Before installing the falls, I painted some of the rockface with clear gloss medium to simulate moisture, and I added foliage and moss around the drop. The waterfall is clear silicone calk. I followed a well-established process:  I laid it out in strips of calk on freezer paper (the plastic side), then used a piece of stripwood to randomly tease the strips together. I let it cure for 24 hours, dry brushed it with gloss white craft paint, and peeled it off the paper in one long piece. I glued it to the rock at the top using matte medium gel with T-pins to hold it in place. I added a few T-pins on the rockface where the falls hit a ledge.

The rapids were built with gloss medium gel applied and stippled with a flat 1-inch brush and then painted with gloss white craft paint. Since the photo was taken, I've added dense foliage and a bear to the areas closest to the layout edge and added trees and foliage to the cliff top.

The drop from cliff top to rapids is about 20 inches. The track in this section is one of the two scenicked helixes that connect the upper and lower levels of the layout to create a 400-foot continuous main line.

Fine Scale Modeler "Ship Modeler's Handbook" 2025

 The Handbook will hit the stands early March, and it includes my article on paper ship models. The Handbook's editors titled my article as, "Chart a different course." The article first appeared in the Nautical Research Journal published by the Nautical Research Guild (NRG). The Handbook was produced in conjunction with NRG. To my knowledge, this is the first time the Handbook has included information about paper ships. We're spreading the word about paper scale models.

Snowshed / Rockshed Scratchbuilt -- 1:87 Scale

The club wanted a snowshed / rockshed for its mountain district. I found several plans in old Model Railroader magazines and used bits and pieces to draw a full-size plan.

I used that full-size drawing to build a jig for the frames. I built the jig on matte board and cut holes in the jig where the pieces of the frame were joined, so the glued joints wouldn't stick to the jig.

I test-built one frame and checked its fit on the layout. It needed only minor adjustments. The frames are basswood scale lumber from various sources, stained with Hunterline Weathering Mix, Dark Brown. The roof is 2-mm card with textures applied top and bottom. The ceiling is a texture sheet I made from a photo I took of a nearby barn, rescaled and recolored in Photoshop. The ceiling would be blackened with soot and oil from locomotives, so I added soot in Photoshop. I also applied Hunterline Black to the beams directly above the track.

The roof is a texture sheet from Scalescenes. I scaled it to 8-foot panel length, cut it into strips,  cut individual panels based on LAR,* and glued them one by one to the roof.

I used a drawing compass to fit the roof of the shed into the contours of the cliff and overlapped the steel panels onto the rock face and tunnel portal. I added nut-bolt-washer castings from Tichy Train Group where they are visible when the shed is in place. 

Finally, I dumped a few more rocks trackside.

The shed is easily removable for access to the tunnel, and the model is quite sturdy. I'm sure it could survive a few scale rocks bouncing off its "lid" into the river below.

*  Looks About Right

"How to Build Photo-Realistic Structures for Model Railroads"

 I wrote, designed, and printed this tri-fold flyer for model RR shows. Feel free to copy it and share it. I've uploaded it as a jpeg. The blog won't upload PDFs.

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My Bismarck Moves to a New Berth

In ten months over 2013-14, I built GPM's 1:200-scale DKM Bismarck paper model. Since late 2014, it has been on display in the reading room at my local public library. This year, the library will undergo extensive remodeling, and the shelf where my ship sat will be removed. So, in a very nice letter, the new library director expressed appreciation of my craftsmanship and my generosity in lending the model to the library, and asked me to remove it. After spending a couple of weeks trying to figure where to put it, my wife Christal and I finally found a practical and prominent (and temporary?) place for it in our living room, where it can stay indefinitely. If I can find another library or museum that would like to display it, it might move again. In the meantime, it's nice to have it at home where we and visitors can enjoy it.