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Just taught you guys might be interested to see some of my handy-work in the real world . Plus, at the end of this, you guys will get a chance to make your own as-well. It'll take some time for me to make that happen, as i need to copy all the parts and lay them on to A4 sized areas and then plot PDF's out of all of them. I'm using AutoCad and a big plotter, so everything is printed on to an 4xA4 sized sheet. But in the mean time, ill be posting pics and info on the project, as-well as constant updates, so you guys will get to see what the thing looks like before and after the build. While i'm still hanging around my old school (technically i've finished everything and i'm just waiting to get my papers), i decided to use take one of my notebook paper-model projects to the next level. In this case, an approximately 1:50 scale paper model of a Finnish armored train. It seems the train is actually closer to 1:70 scale. Or to be specific, a model of the train that is currently held in the Parola armor museum, witch is comprised of what's left over from Panssarijuna 1 (armored train 1), with an unarmored locomotive that never saw any action. Mine one will include the actual locomotive that was used on one of the two Finnish armored trains. Below is a collage of all the stuff that the paper-model train has. (the flatcars on both ends are there to be cheap cannon-fodder, for example if the track is broken or is wired with explosives, they will take the full brunt while the rest of the train will remain mostly unharmed. The front artillery car is from an old captured Russian armored train, that was captured well before WW2 and was modified multiple times during and before winter war and the continuation war, from an artillery car into an AA gun car. the second artillery car is a captured Russian PL-37 artillery car that was captured during WW2, other than a new paint-job, it's remained mostly untouched. The locomotive is a Finnish TK3 locomotive with an armored body-shell. The car behind the tender used to be an artillery car, but was later on modified into a command/kitchen car. The last carriage also started it's life as an artillery car, but was later on modified in to an AA gun car as it seemed like a better idea to use trains for AA support roles rather than front-line artillery support, as parts of the track where often blown to bits, potentially trapping the train, and because there was a general lack of AA protection for the trains from air attacks. The cars that weren't captured, where built/modified in Fredriksberg Works) If you wanna read more in to the history of these trains, go check this site out http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/TRAINS0.htm This was a project that i actually started quite a long ago by drawing 2D pictures of the locomotive/tender and all the other carriages on my school notebook. This is a style i like to use when designing my own paper models, as after i have a good 2D picture of it, i can pretty much then see the entire 3D model in my head. Then i can very quickly draw out the necessary parts to create that model. The main reason why i use school notebooks to do these designs, is because i actually measure a lot of my things by the squares on the pages. Like for example, my first custom tank that i made, had a hull that was 6x4x2 squares in size with a turret that was 2x2x2 sized with a gun-barrel that was 2x1x1 squares in size (i have created a whole series of vehicles based on that tank i did years ago). It wont create the cleanest of designs, but at least it's pretty impossible to get crooked lines and wrong measurements (tough i still do make mistakes every now and then). It may be a little difficult to get it right in the start, but there's nothing more pleasing than to get a model of your favorite thing made in any scale you want with a level of difficulty that suites you , rather than having to find a model on the internet only to find out that you have to pay a fortune and its also way too complicated . I didn't have a real scale in mind when i started to design this thing, i just drew the locomotive/tender so that it fit exactly on an A4 sheet length wise, witch by complete luck made this thing almost exactly 1:50 scaled. Scale wasn't all that important, plus it was would have been pretty impossible to even scale the thing in the first place as there are no real measurements of any parts of this train around, but i still wanted to see in what scale this thing was in for fun, plus, it helped in getting the trains crew to be of the right size. So, i measured it by scaling some 2D Finnish soldiers from Junior General to 1:50 scale (somehow accidentally scaled them to almost exactly 1:72 scale), and then used some pictures of actual people standing next to the train to see if my crew figures where roughly the size they where supposed to be. After i had drawn everything on my notebook, i redrew and enhanced all the picture i had in AutoCad (can only do that in school as an AutoCad license can cost a few grand), and then started making all the parts for the train one by one. It took me about 4-6 hours per train car (minus the super simple flat cars)plus all the previous work that was put into making the original plans. And here are some picks of what's going on with the project so far. And sorry in advanced, i was supposed to take some WIP shots of the locomotive build, but i forgot . Why not start off with the locomotive witch was the first thing i got done. The actual locomotive was a Finnish built TK3 locomotive that was equipped with an armored body shell. It was later on equipped with a very innovative stealth system, the pipe that you see running from the front of the train to the back, its used to transport the smoke from the main smoke stack under the train, making tracking of the trains movement by it's smoke-trail very difficult. I made some mistakes when designing it, that i didn't notice until i started building it, those won't be on the release version. The next part i wanna do is the Kitchen car. The Kitchen car is done now. WIP/instructional shots are inside the spoiler. While i do that and all the other cars, i'll have to do the crew of the train as-well. Say hello to the crew. I made the bases by just cutting the left over paper into little white rectangles. WIP/instructional shots are inside the spoiler. Those little guys are just copied and re-scaled stuff found on this site Junior General. It's more of a collection of random Finnish troops with some gun crews meant for 76 mm AA guns. If i wanted gun crews for the 3 40mm Bofors guns, i would have had to make my own or use US or British gun crews instead. The AA gun car is propably the most time consuming of all the armored cars, but also my favorite. WIP/instructional shots are inside the spoiler. The PL-37 artillery car went together no problem at all with no errors to report WIP/instructional shots are inside the spoiler. The forward artillery car needs a roof job, as there are big holes on it, but other than that, it went together just fine. Tough the gun commander now has to use the observation cupola as there's no room for him on the turret. WIP/instructional shots are inside the spoiler. There will most likely still be stuff that needs to be redesigned/fixed, but that's just part of the process, test builds have to be done to make sure everything works. It's done now, and here is the download link (does not include the crew nor the recolored tanks as im not sure about the rights in stuff like that). Oh, and btw, even tough they don't show up on any of the picks, the model still has the Finnish swastikas) https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4uoluos4d16a39/Finnish armored train paper model.zip?dl=0 As is said at the start of the post, ill be constantly updating this, so be sure to follow if your interested. And i hope you enjoy watching this little project take shape .