Paper model choices. Scissors/knife? Single/double tabs? etc

[marcelteun]

A few days ago I got the following question:

I'm curious about materials and methods others use. I came across your website so I saw pictures of yours. One thing you must know after making models is that you have to take into consideration the thickness of the material you're using (where 2 edges meet, especially at acute angles) a "gap" is created. Can you tell me what you've used and how you've dealt with this issue?

I suggested that he should register on this forum and ask, so he would get an opinion from more than just one person. Apparently he didn't, so I will post the question and tell what I answered:

Gaps can occur at different places for different reasons. One place is at sharp points at
for instance a final stellation. My way to deal with this is to glue every piece on
paper, which is much thinner. This way the model becomes more accurate, but on the other
hand you have much more work as well. In this case I care more for the final result than
for the amount of work. Gaps can also occur at places where many pieces meet. I usually
solve this in the end after "completing" the model by putting some glue in the gap and
pressing the pieces together. I believe I read this in Magnus Wenninger's book Polyhedron
Models.

[marcelteun]

What does everyone else use for hole poking? I go through needles pretty fast, and I'm pretty sick of hot gluing them to sticks...

I actually bought a special tool a long time ago. I guess it was more than 10 years ago, since it was before I moved to Sweden. I bought it in a hobby shop:

[guy]

Material: card, 120gsm for small models, thicker for larger ones.

Scoring: any blunt point that's handy.

Cutting: Craft knife for edges, scissors for tabs (I use the single-tab method).

Glue: Bostik. It dries very quickly. Mostly, I spread a thin layer on each surface (using tip of tube and fingers), wait a sec to go tacky, then press together. Glue on fingers, being tacky, does not stick to paper . After a while it builds up thick/dry enough to peel off easily. Where I need a little time to position something, I glob the stuff on and push it in place straight away, so I have a few seconds to slide things into place.

[Ulrich]

I considered squeezing layers together a long time ago, but I was a bit afraid that this would be too inaccurate

I use a small stapler to sqeeze the layers together. Since my paper is rather thin, I can squeze up to 5 layers. The time saving is about 3, using your scale from 0 to 5.

Ulrich

[Nordehylop]

I considered squeezing layers together a long time ago, but I was a bit afraid that this would be too inaccurate

I started doing this recently for my Great Icosahedron. I don't think that it was any less accurate than usual, because although I was cutting many layers at once, I was also being a lot more careful with my cuts. But it did save me a lot of time. I would rate it a 3.5/5 for time saving.

At the least, you should poke your holes through 4 or 5 sheets of paper. It will save you some time and give your nets a lot less wear.

[Magnus Wenninger]

Dear list,

Recently I received an email from a polyheron fan who said the photo of me on my web page, which shows me with a polyhedron crown on my head and holding a polyhedron in my hand, is fantastic. This sparked my interest to look again at the Bruckner Polyeder in Great Stella to identify these polyhedrons. The one I am holding is 26,11(14,5). This can be found in the Great Stella Library. But the crown is 21,23(3,7). To my chagrin this is not in the list. In fact none of the polyhedrons shown in Tafel 21 of Bruckner's 1906 Polyeder are in the Great Stella Library.

The crown I'm wearing in the photo was done before I had access to Great Stella. But I have now done one like it, using Great Stella. I begin with Prisms/Antiprisms, click on 7.4.4 Heptagonal Prism, click on View Dual, click on View Stellation Diagram, rotate the diagram 180 degrees, then click on cells to get the butteryfly pattern, and finally the nets, which I then use only to rearrange the facets into a net for one cell of the crown.

Now for my question: is anyone on this list able and willing to do stel files of all the Bruckner Polyeder 21,p(3,q)?

Magnus

[Gronkling]

Material - Coloured paper of varying thickness.

Scissors/knife - Scissors.

Scoring edges - A ball point pen with out any ink. (EDIT I use a craft knife now)

Glue - Precision UHU.

Applying glue - Precision part of fast dry glue container.

Single/double tabs - I use double tabs for joining large-medium bits together, single tabs for pointy bits and no tabs for small bits (It stops you having to fiddle around with tiny tabs).

[

[oxenholme]

How smooth is the ball point without the ink? I'd always assumed that the ink would act as a lubricant.

What is the polyhedron in your avatar? Have you got a larger photo of it?

[Gronkling]

How smooth is the ball point without the ink? I'd always assumed that the ink would act as a lubricant.
It's smooth enough, I just don't like ink on my models

What is the polyhedron in your avatar?
I forgot, it was just a result of an experiment in stella. I forgot to save it as well.

Have you got a larger photo of it
No.

[indigotwilight]

I used to build polyhedron models as a childhood hobby, then stopped when sixthform college and university life took over. Now I've gotten back into it.

Still experimenting with materials and techniques really.

At the moment my favoured material is 220gsm mirror card. Just made a compound of 4 cubes using holographic mirror card which worked out quite well.
I've also used a lighter weight coloured card (160gsm I think). 220 gsm glitter card has also proved interesting. I made the final stellation of the dodecahedron using 220 gsm pearlescent card smothered in glitter.

I use a wood and fabric glue for the mirror card as it goes transparent when it sets. Any 'accidents' involving glue on faces can also be scratched off the mirror card fairly easily once set.

I print out the nets onto paper, and then use a needle or compass point to punch holes into the card.
For scoring, I use a compass point for the mirror card, or a needle for the thinner materials. Just enough to define the fold, and not 'cut' the card.

So far I've only used single tabs. But from what I've been reading here, double tabs appear to be the way to go with some models. I like building stellations and compounds, so my next project will probably combine the two. I'm thinking single tabs for convex joins, double tabs for concave.
This way the 'points' of a star will be made with single tabs, and the points glued together using doubles.