Stahlhart Papercraft – genuinely free paper models and how to design paper models

formers

How to create formers to give
additional shape to a model

On my model designs I try to avoid inner structures to give shape to the model (usually referred to as formers) whenever possible, as I personally do not like them and I do not consider them crucial as cardstock paper can be formed quite sufficient without them.

However as there are those of you who would like to have more formers, here is how to create them yourself.

Many thanks to Rainer and Karl, who independent of each other have told me of this method.

1.		Find a good blueprint. There are blueprints that include sectional drawings. In the above picture you can see them marked with A,B,C etc. I have gathered some blueprints at the bottom of this page.

2.		Scale the blueprint to the scale of the model. The easiest way to do this is by matching the size of the wing of the blueprint to the size of the wing while scaling the sectional drawings along with the wing. Another way would be to calculate the scale of the blueprint by measuring the length and wingspan and then use the dimensions of the actual plane.

3.		Fitting the former into the fuselage. The approximate position of the sectional drawing is given in the blueprint. Glue the section to some stiffer material and cut out. Then build the according fuselage section and glue the former inside.

Blueprints with sectional cuts

Here are some blueprints with sectional cuts that are available online. I do not own the copyright for these drawings, so I advise you to use them for private use only

A-37 Dragonfly
F11F-1 Tiger
F-18 Hornet
J-35 Draken
Nanchang Q-5

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