a colour profile has to be converted to line drawing or vice versa.

The line drawing is converted in Photoshop or The  GIMP to unfold the parts. The unfold calculations are done manually with pencil, paper, calculator and a basic  knowledge of geometry and also by eye.  I prefer this compared to 3d modelling software because I have done it like this for years with plastic card, the subjects I choose to model are so old and it gives me the opportunity to practice a bit of ancient maths that my old maths teachers swore blind would be useful to me one day.

 

 

After a quick and dirty "proto alpha" build the line drawing has layers added to it so that the textures and markings can be added.  Files as big as 650 megabytes get generated because I work at 5120x3840 pixels at 300 lines per millimetre.  This all squashes down in the end to a file a couple of meg in size.

Next the Layers functions are used to check that all the parts line up.

 

Once the kit parts have been designed, some re-jigging becomes necessary and parts get moved about or redesigned in light of build experience and comments by those folks who I ask to do beta builds for me.

These pictures are of Ray Smith's  build of the beta version of the Moska. Incredibly the model you see here was built at 1/98 scale, with a wingspan of just 8.1cm!  At 1/33 scale the kit builds beautifully.  Ray lives in the States and I live in the UK. Ray emailed me recently to let me know that he entered his model of the Moska into a local model competition.  He won the third prize against some stiff competition from kits made from plastic.  Ray writes:   "The contest was the quarterly open competition held by the Lafayette Scale Modelers out of Fayetteville, North Carolina. There were 18 entries, spanning the modelling spectrum from figures to 1/35 scale helicopter to aircraft.  There were 17 plastic entries, and 1 paper entry, the Moska.  Not only was it the only paper model, but it was also the smallest model.  Placing in the contest is done by a vote of the members present.  The Moska was voted to a third place finish, with a small monetary prize."   Well done Ray with your superb build and thanks for letting me know..

Then comes the instruction leaflet!  Some folks are happy enough to look at some 3 views and get on with it.  But these kits are complex and the Moska can be built as one of six variants, so drawing diagrams and sequencing takes a while too.  The model even contains a tiny map of the Urals and a cockpit compass.

Several custom illustrations get done to help visualise how the parts fit:

That's not all.  Every kit I design has to have historical data as well as details on dimensions and armament.  As a kid in the 1970's, I used to love building plastic kits  released by Airfix.  They all had well researched information about the development of the aircraft you could build, and I aim to do the same. Finally the kit instructions, illustrations, history, data and parts are compiled as a pdf document and uploaded to our secure server.

So if you want to build the Moska, the kit can adapt to your own skill level.  Shrouded wheels for mortals, or spoked wheels for the more experienced. The kit is available for $7.99 You can download the kit straight after purchase.   View our other kits

As always, if you can build a micro model of the Moska using the thumbs from this page, send me a photo of it, with your name and email and I will send you one of my kits with my compliments!