Easy Ship's Ventilators
By John Freeman

Ships just don't look right without their ventilators, but building them in paper it can be a challenge. When I first started building ships in paper I cheated-I would find an appropriate ventilator in a plastic kit, make a plaster mold of it, and cast some in low melting temperature alloy. Definitely not paper! Here is how to make reasonably good looking ventilators in the real thing-paper.

I have made one example in a very large scale for a demonstration. This is one of the very tall ventilators on Starke, a model by Cony. His site is at http://hometown.aol.com/conysmodellbau/page4.html

Starke was an ice ship, a rail car ferry built in 1931, and used as part of the rail system in Sweden.

Here's the template for a simple ventilator. Scale it up or down to fit your model. (Insert picture "template")

Cut out the parts. I might use the gluing tab shown, or you can cut it off and place it inside as a gluing strip.. For the tiny ventilators I'll use on the actual model I just butt glue the edges together. Form both pieces around a mandrel. I find it easier to get a piece of wire the right size, and form and glue the tube right on the wire. It will slide off when the glue is dry. [K&D; brass or aluminum tubing works, too.-DS] On the small part for the cowl, I used the gluing tab because it is so small it doesn't show, anyhow.

Glue the two parts together, using plenty of glue.

Now for the step that really makes it look right: Sand off the back top corner until it's nice and round. On a tiny ventilator, using plenty of glue to join the two parts will give plenty of thickness to sand. If you sand all the way through and make a hole, just add some more glue. For larger holes, or on larger ventilators, you can stuff the inside corner with glue-soaked toilet paper, but for small ventilators, the glue is enough.

Finally, when you like the shape, touch your ventilator up with a bit of matching paint. Don't forget the red paint inside the mouth of the cowl.

Here are the finished ventilators installed on my partly completed Starke model. " " "

Short Hints & Tips

A Better Scoring Tool
Jim Baker

A short time ago I bought a crochet needle. It is a small size, marked 11/1.10MM, made by Boye�-chrome (color at least). It has very smooth point, which makes a very good scoring tool for paper. I find it works very well-much better than the polished nut pick or cobbled up paper clip that I have been using.

More on Coloring Edges
Bert Katterhagen

The very best way I have found to hide the edges of paper model parts is to use Pastel pencils from Schwam Stabilo� called CarbOthello� Just rub the pencil along the edge of the cut before you glue the parts together, and the edges just disappear

Submit your own paper modeling Hints & Tips to sakrison@dotnet.com. Try to keep them reasonably short. Include any photos or diagrams you need, and your name and location (city/state/country).

Hints & Tips Editor David Sakrison (sakrison@dotnet.com) is a paper modeler, model railroader, Private Pilot, and professional writer & editor. He lives near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA.