2dn Gotha - A Fiddler's Green Treat

[Blackronin]

This is the second Gotha I've built. I need it for a special project. And besides I needed a second one to declare that now I have an Air Force with strategic bombers.

So it started to reduce it to 1/144. Suddenly, a four A4 sheet plane becomes a one A4 sheet plane, or four A6 sheets, if you care for preciosities .



Bottom wings must be the first thing to glue, closely followed by the fuselage, since they must fit into the fuselage before being glued.



You must glue it carefully, as the wings must stay completely perpendicular to the fuselage. At this point, the fuselage looks like a deep fish caught out of the water.



Rudder and back fins are easy and straightforward to place and glue





The engines must be done with some care, as they are round and must fit well in the nacelles.



The nacelles with the engine have a very appealing round dimension that is difficult in such small object.



Engines glued to the bottom wings and upper wings made.



The most boring work of all. Struts and struts gluing...



Finally the landing gear is glued and the plane is ready to be exposed next to the first one. It only lacks detail painting, crew, machine-guns and varnish sprayed generously.

[Nightbomber]

I have been admiring your modelling skills for some time, Quim, but with these birds you deserve a as a paper builder of the year (at least). I got your Dr.I built as a wonderful gift and still can not imagine how to handle such small and delicate parts of a model! Could you please instruct me an the others step by step how to lower the scale and build these birds? I used to build paper models od aircraft in 1:33 scale when I was w teenager and it was a great hobby (I wasn't bad in that) but building them in 1:144 scale is outrageous.

[Blackronin]

What is the model you want to do?
The first thing is to choose the model. These are two places where you can find easy and good models of ww1 planes:
http://www.zioprudenzio.it/fok-air.html
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/

I can help you with the process of reducing it, as different printers will print in different "true scales". Choose a plane and get back to me.

[Marechallannes]

Himmel, Arsch und Zwirn...

What an amazing paper work!

Where are my Ares Games bombers?








Can't resist to give rep points for this outstanding work.

Think you need a pair of Ghota Flight Stands from the Aerodrom Accessoires.

[Blackronin]

With $8,50 you can have 2 different Gothas, and you can build any number that you want.

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/...mbdropper.html

[Nightbomber]

I have just bought their Magic Key for 3 months and got the whole sum as a rebate, so used it for GOTHA and BRISFIT downloads! But only one Gotha paint scheme I got...hmmm.


No! there are two of them!

[Nightbomber]

I'm registered at FG site and downloaded some models, but want to give a try to bombers and early birds (EIII and MS).

[Nightbomber]

I'd be very glad if you show us how to scale the plans to 1:144, Quim.

You should think of writing a "How to make paper models in 1:144 scale" article...

[Zakopious]

Joaquim,

Your Gothas look Great !

I am jealous.
Perhaps I could find a little modeling time so that I can make some Gothas for myself.

Ken

[Blackronin]

Yes, you should, my dear friend. I'm thinking about opening a Club here in the Aerodrome for Gotha's owners.

[clipper1801]

Can I join? I can stop collecting them any time I want . . . at least I tell myself that! : ) I did the full set in 1/144 and they seem to have dista-pered! I built the Fiiddler's Green and the Kampfflieger versions, GV and G1
Clipper in de Nile and enjoying Egypt

[Nightbomber]

Can I join? I can stop collecting them any time I want . . . at least I tell myself that! : ) I did the full set in 1/144 and they seem to have dista-pered! I built the Fiiddler's Green and the Kampfflieger versions, GV and G1
Clipper in de Nile and enjoying Egypt

Lucky you, David!
1. could you post some of your paper works when you come back?
2. where are you exactly in Egypt? I know this country quite well (been there 5-6 times). Nile may mean Aswan, maybe Luxor...

[Blackronin]

I make mine the words of Andrzej!! And yes, of course you can join. Good Lord! You'll have a special place in Gotha's Club, by everything I saw coming from your hands, David!

[Nightbomber]

I'm gonna (hope so) make my first FG paper model by Sunday Only if I am patient enough...

[Blackronin]

I'd be very glad if you show us how to scale the plans to 1:144, Quim.

You should think of writing a "How to make paper models in 1:144 scale" article...

I might do that soon, my friend, but now just to help you on your Gotha here it goes:

In the first page of the Gotha model you'll find a WSAM = 100% (That means that in the World Smallest Air Museum the 100% scale is 1/60) So the Gotha's is 1/60.
Now, some printers have... mmm... a true scale not too true, so let's make some simple calculations to help you out.

The Gotha has a wingspan of 23,70 meters.
Divide that by 60 and you'll have: 39,5 cms. That should be the wingspan of your Gotha if you just printed and build it. But, no, Mr Andrzej wants it a little smaller... So, let's divide it by 144: 16,45 cms. So that would be the wingspan at 1/144.

Now you make simple arithmetic calculation 39,5 at 100% To have it at 16,45, you should reduce the printing size in your printer to: (100 x 16,45) / 39,5 = 41,7% or 42% if your printer doesn't accept fractions. That will be the four pages printed in one A4 sheet.

Last, but not least, print without edges and after printing your Gotha, measure it (roughly) to see if your printer really prints in true format.

Any question, I'm here to serve.

[Nightbomber]

Thanks a lot Quim! Probably it's a simple typo: not 48% but 42% I just tried to turn a A4 printout into A6 and it was more or less that size.
Is this calculation of yours actual to all FG models or only those showing WSAM sign?

[Blackronin]

Yes, sorry, it was a typo. Corrected. Don't translate it directly from A4 to A6. What is your printer? In your printer set up, you'll be able to manually reduce the printing image to 42%.

[Nightbomber]

I hope I will be able. It's Canon PIXMA IP4300.

[Blackronin]

A Canon! Good choice, my friend! Yes you can!
When you give the print order, in the window go to: Properties, then to Page Configuration, then in the page layout, select Scale and use the 0-100% scale. I'm seeing this in a Canon MP550 (mine), but it shouldn't be that different, I hope.

[Nightbomber]

Quim

[Blackronin]

You're very much welcome, my friend! Happy build of your Gotha!!

[Nightbomber]

One more question (sorry!) - do you use any special kind of paper? (thicker?).

[Blackronin]

Sorry for forgetting about that very important subject. Yes. A here the plot thickens...
I prefer, for smaller builds 120g paper. It's thick enough, but not too thick that doesn't bend to your will.
Some people prefer thicker paper, up to 240g. I use it for bigger models, but 120g-160g is my favourite medium. Print your first plane in 120g and if you don't think that that is enough for you, print the next one at 160g. The Fokker I gave you was build at 120g, see for yourself if it is good enough for you.

[Nightbomber]

The paper used for Fokker is perfect. I'll use it. Thanks!

[Blackronin]

Re-uploaded the photos.

[epiphanius]

I am finding that with a Canon MP150, printing to Letter Size, that 36% is closer than 42%, judging just by the pilot and gunner sizes (even then, they are a little bigger than the WoW models suggest).

[Zakopious]

I am finding that with a Canon MP150, printing to Letter Size, that 36% is closer than 42%, judging just by the pilot and gunner sizes (even then, they are a little bigger than the WoW models suggest).

See post #15: "So, let's divide it by 144: 16,45 cms. So that would be the wingspan at 1/144."

Thus, the wingspan of your Gotha should be close to 16.45 cm.
The size of the pilot and gunner are irrelevant.

[epiphanius]

Thanks for your reply - after an examination of both printouts, I just learned that both versions ("42%" and "36%") came out of the printer identically, which means I have a problem somewhere.

The wingspan, from what I can see (i.e. unbuilt) is about 17.5 cm on both (!), which is why I tried to reprint (2nd time I used a different colour scheme).

My (inaccurate) report was not intended as a correction, by the way: I really appreciate the efforts on this post, especially with the math, which I am hopeless at. I posted because I am using a different printer and paper size (Letter vs A4).

I will see what I can do to correct the problem by printing out B+W versions to save on ink. I had similar problems printing other models. I may just build the slightly oversize version in the mean time.

I will also change my PDF reader from Sumatra to the more typical Adobe.

Thanks again for your help, it is much appreciated.

[Blackronin]

Thanks, Ken for covering this post's FAQ's.

David, feel free to ask whatever you want and to criticize everything, every critic is good.

When you finish your Gothas, please show them to us.