TEXT: Techniques
  1. Scoring 
  Scoring is a technique used to make folding easier by pre-creasing the paper along a fold line. The 
  most common method of scoring is to lightly drag a knife blade across the fold line, slicing through the 
  upper layers of the paper. The recommended method is to instead use an empty ballpoint pen or a ball 
  stylus tool to gently compress the paper along the fold lines. This prevents the appearance of unsightly 
  naked edges and makes for a much stronger model.
  2. Cutting
  Cutting may seem to be a glaringly obvious technique, but a few pointers are essential. For the majority 
  of cutting where paper models are concerned, a sharp knife and a steel ruler are far more precise and 
  efficient than a pair of scissors. Save the scissors for separating individual parts or groups of parts 
  from the rest of the sheet. 
  3. Edging
  Edging improves the appearance of paper models considerably by hiding the naked edges of cut parts. 
  Anything from color markers to soft pencils and various types of paints may be used to edge parts. 
  However, in most cases, matching the color exactly is less of a concern than simply matching the 
  contrast. For most purposes, three or four shades of gray from lightest to darkest will more than 
  suffice.
  4. Folding and Gluing
  Depending on the thickness of the paper or cardstock used, some parts may be difficult to assemble 
  with fingers alone. In this situation, a pair of tweezers is worth more than its weight in gold. Tweezers 
  come in a wide variety of sizes and jaw shapes, and some of the more exotic shapes are fantastically 
  useful for assembling tiny parts. Tweezers can be used to fold tiny flaps and clamp them in place while 
  the glue sets, as well as making it much easier to attach small parts to other parts.
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  Tools Needed
  1. Knife
  2. Steel ruler
  3. Scissors
  4. Tweezers
  5. White glue
  6. Empty ballpoint pen
  7. Markers or paint
  8. Cutting mat
  9. Inkjet or laser printer
  10. Cardstock or heavy photo paper
  11. Patience
  The Basics Of Paper Modeling, Page 1 of 2
  
  Special Notes
  1. Gluing Tabs
  This model includes integral gluing tabs for joining certain parts together. However, the utility of gluing 
  tabs decreases proportionally as the thickness of the paper or cardstock increases. Thick cardstock 
  or paper can be used for printing this model, but it is recommended that you try a test assembly 
  before committing wholly to assembling a model. If the gluing tabs won't fit or otherwise throw off the 
  tolerances of the finished test assembly, leave them off the parts entirely and cut your own gluing tabs 
  out of scrap cardstock.
  These separate gluing tabs should overlap both of the parts to be joined, and glued to the unprinted 
  surface along the joining edges of both parts. This is called “backing”, and a side effect of this is that 
  parts will fit more or less flush. Backing parts with separate gluing tabs also generally yields better 
  modeling results, but the integral gluing tabs are retained for the convenience of beginners and those 
  who prefer to use thinner media for their paper models.
  2. Sealing
  In most cases, sealing the model with varnish or other form of spray sealant isn't necessary. However, 
  if you want to add further detail to the model with decals or paint, you may want to seal the model with 
  several light coats of a waterproof glossy clear sealant first. This will protect the model from a 
  moderate level of moisture, and the smooth surface will facilitate the application of decals. You can 
  also apply a final coat of a matte clear sealant to kill the gloss afterwards. Keep in mind that the simple 
  act of sealing a model does not necessarily render it waterproof, and that any application of waterslide 
  decals needs to be done with great care.
  3. Reinforcing
  At times you may need to reinforce large pieces, either to make them heavier or to increase their 
  strength. To do this, you may wish to glue toothpicks, craft sticks, or other suitable items to the interior 
  of a model as shown in the picture below.
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  The Basics Of Paper Modeling, Page 2 of 2
  The craft sticks used in the photo above serve the important purpose of strengthening the long 
  sections along the sides and bottom of the model. Reinforcing models goes a long way towards 
  improving their durability and heft as gaming props.
  
  Walls and Floor Tiles
  This set contains 1 type of short wall (Part C) and 13 different kinds of long walls (Parts A, E, F, H being four examples), 
  with and without doorways. Each wall is designed to rest atop its own floor tile, and to facilitate the process the gluing 
  areas have been marked in white.
  This set also includes dedicated floor tiles in three sizes. In most cases, setting up a playing area involves laying out floor 
  tiles and then bordering them with walls and connectors.
  Connectors
  There are three types of connectors in this set: X (Same geometry as Part G), L (Part B), and T (Part D) connectors. These 
  are in the form of column pieces that glue to their own floor tiles. As with walls, the gluing areas are marked off in white. 
  Connectors are usually placed at the corners of a room, and then bordered with wall pieces as needed.
  Support Columns
  Support columns (Part G) are handy for breaking up line of sight in large rooms as well as generally spicing up the place. 
  Like connectors and walls, support columns have their own floor tiles with the gluing areas marked in white. To build rooms 
  that contain one or more support columns, you may need to use the 1x1 and 3x1 inch pieces to fill out the space around a 
  support column's floor tile.
  Corridor Adapters
  Sometimes you may want to connect multiple rooms by long corridors rather than using 1x1 or 3x1 tiles between adjoining 
  rooms to form corridors. To this end, this set includes corridor adapter pieces designed to interface with the doorway 
  pieces. The corridor adapters create a seamless bottlenecking from a 3x1 inch wide doorway to a narrow corridor. The 
  corridor itself will still be three tiles wide, but the effective area within the corridor itself is one tile wide.
  Assembly Instructions
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  A
  B
  C
  D
  E
  F
  G
  H
  
  Wall Layer Pieces
  This set also includes some specialized flat pieces intended to be glued to a wall piece (Part I being just one example). 
  These layer pieces can be used to give walls a specific function or purpose relevant to your gaming needs. Generally you 
  would want to glue those layer pieces to one of the 3x1 inch special walls (Part F being one example) since those are also 
  more geometrically interesting than the standard box walls.
  Decorations
  While this set does not include loose decorations such as tables, chairs, consoles, and so forth, those are currently being 
  prepared as a series of supporting releases. For the most part, these will be free upgrades made available to customers at 
  the Ebbles Miniatures web site. Please visit http://www.ebblesminiatures.com regularly to see what free upgrades to this 
  set are available as well as giving our forum a visit.
  Basing the Pieces
  Basing your pieces helps keep them well-aligned and sturdy during use. Due to the inherent lightness of cardstock, you 
  may wish to base your floor tiles and walls with foamcore, MDF board, illustration board, or thin chipboard. Alternatively, 
  you may wish to look into the affordable, laser-cut 3mm microplywood bases offered by Litko Aerosystems 
  (www.litkoaero.com), which already come in all of the correct sizes needed: 1x1 inch, 3x1 inches, and 3x3 inches. This is 
  the ideal route to take for those who dread the thought of slicing up bits of foamcore and MDF by hand. All you need to do 
  is cut out the floor and wall tiles and then glue them to the appropriately sized microplywood bases. At the end of the 
  instructions you will find links and some helpful pricing information related to the Litko Aerosystems bases.
  Securing the Pieces
  During gameplay you may find that errant hand gestures or even a mild breeze may have the same effect upon your 
  cardstock scenery as a 21,000 pound fuel-air explosive device detonating in the midst of a trailer park. While this may be 
  convenient for resolving the effects of large explosive devices in games, for the most part this is an extremely irritating 
  phenomenon. Thus, you may wish to secure your pieces to the playing surface using one of the methods on the next page.
  Assembly Instructions
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  F
  I
  
  Securing Method 1: Magnetic Backing
  The first method of securing your pieces to the playing surface is to use magnetic backing. Available from most stores as 
  either squares or rolls of adhesive-backed plastic impregnated with magnetic particles, magnetic backing may be glued to 
  the bottom of your pieces and placed on a sheet metal surface. This method is only recommended if you already have 
  access to these materials, either as leftovers from other projects or because it's on sale at the local craft store.
  Securing Method 2: Velcro
  In this method, squares of Velcro are used to hold pieces in place on the playing surface. You may wish to attach only the 
  hook end to your pieces and cover the playing surface in a hook-friendly material such as felt or a similar surface due to the 
  fact that if you bond Velcro to itself, trying to remove a piece with undue haste may well leave you holding a freshly 
  crumpled wad of cardstock in a state of openmouthed horror. Velcro hooks have a less tenacious hold on felt, but 
  nonetheless grip securely enough that your scenery will remain in place. This method is recommended for small layouts 
  specifically designed for roleplaying games.
  Securing Method 3: Glue
  If you absolutely, positively want to make sure your scenery never goes anywhere, ever...glue it to the playing surface. 
  While this method may seem utterly nonsensical at first blush, there are uses for permanently fixed layouts. Ideally the 
  surface you glue it to would be dedicated to just that purpose, such as a bit of extruded polystyrene terrain or some form of 
  rigid backing. This allows you to create predesigned, fixed layouts for tabletop wargames that you may reuse as needed 
  over multiple games.
  As an example of what can be done with a fixed layout, one could use 12x12 inch flooring tiles available at home 
  improvement centers as a basic scenery unit to build upon. Gluing structural pieces atop the flooring tile would create a 
  12x12 block of interior scenery that can easily be butted up against other 12x12 blocks to form large complexes quickly. In 
  addition to the much quicker setup time when using such prefabricated scenery blocks, most flooring tiles have a 
  significant enough mass that the scenery won't be shifted out of position accidentally. As an alternative to flooring tiles, 
  many home improvement centers will gladly cut wood or extruded polystyrene stock to specific sizes on request. This 
  method is recommended for tabletop wargames where larger blocks of prefab scenery are more practical to set up.
  Caveat: Gluing scenery to the dining room table permanently usually causes very entertaining and dramatic reactions from 
  spouses and family members. For this reason, it is not recommended that you do so.
  Special Notes and Tips
  Due to varying cardstock thickness and printer capabilities, there may be some slight tolerance issues with a couple of 
  parts. Most notably, the doors and door trim strips may need trimming to fit after assembly. In the case of doors, you may 
  need to trim them slightly smaller all around to make them fit. For the door strips, start gluing them to the upper middle 
  section of the doorway first, and then evenly attach the rest of the strip to the doorway frame. You may see roughly 1.5 to 
  2mm of overlap on both of the lower doorway frame edges. Snip off the excess bit of door trim strip and run a dark gray or 
  black marker across the cut edges as a final bit of touching up.
  If you have trouble assembling the walls, try leaving off the bottom flap entirely in order to create a volume that is open on 
  the bottom. This will allow access to the side flaps for clamping with tweezers, and will generally mean an easier build at 
  the expense of some structural strength. If you elect to do so, make sure to slice some tabs along the bottom edges so 
  that you have somewhere to apply the glue while attaching the wall piece to the floor tile. Also, it is strongly recommended 
  that you reinforce the walls as described in the Basics of Paper Modeling section in order to negate any potential twisting 
  and warping along the long axis of wall pieces.
  .
  Assembly Instructions
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  
  Note that this list is current as of March 18, 2004, and is offered only as a courtesy to interested customers. The 
  information in this appendix may change at any time. Go to http://www.litkoaero.com for up to date information.
  Litko Aerosystems Base Links and Price List
  1x1 Inch Bases 
  Link: http://www.litkoaero.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LAI&Category_Code=MB_SB_1in
  10ct
  $2.49
  25ct
  $4.99
  50ct
  $8.99
  100ct
  $11.99
  1x3 Inch Bases 
  Link: http://www.litkoaero.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LAI&Category_Code=MB_IS (scroll 
  down to 1x3 bases)
  10ct
  $2.99
  25ct
  $5.49
  50ct
  $9.75
  100ct
  $15.99
  3x3 Inch Bases 
  Link: http://www.litkoaero.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LAI&Category_Code=MB_SB_3_in
  10ct
  $3.99
  25ct
  $6.99
  50ct
  $12.99
  100ct
  $23.99
  Bundles of all three types, by quantity
  10ct
  $9.47
  25ct
  $17.47
  50ct
  $31.73
  100ct
  $51.97
  Optimal Starter Bundle: 50ct 1x1, 50ct 1x3, 10ct 3x3, for $22.73. (This bundle will create 10 full walled 3x3 rooms with 
  10 1x1 and 10 1x3 pieces left over for corridors. This is sufficient to build basic layouts suitable for most roleplaying 
  scenarios. For larger layouts covering significant tabletop real estate, you may wish to instead look into the other bundles 
  listed above.)
  Appendix: Litko Aerosystems Bases and Price List
  ©2003 Christopher Roe. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use only.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Crafts/Papercraft/Ebbles Miniatures/Ebbles Modular Station/derelict_kit_instructions.pdf