Cheerios Paper Boeing 707 Cereal Premium - Pt 2 Conclusion

The build on this is fairly straightforward with the exception that I added pieces to the aircraft that weren't part of the original artwork. By flipping the scanned image horizontally and printing it out I ended up with wing bottoms and was able to show detail on both sides of the engine pods. The tools were simple: a couple different sized scissors, a hobby knife, ruler, glue, and cutting pad. I tried a new glue (for me), archival "Neutral pH Adhesive" by Lineco. It looks and applies just like Elmer's white glue - perhaps it's just a tad thinner. So far I haven't noticed anything better - or -worse - than your standard white glue so the jury's still out on that one.

I cut out all the pieces first then, going one assembly at a time, glued them up. Cutting took about an hour and drove home a reality to me. My eyes aren't as strong and my control with the knife isn't as good as it once was. No fancy model building in my future I guess. Oh well.

All the assemblies were placed under a weight for 24 hours and the next phase began; assembling the airplane. The slots for the engine pods and wings were cut out first. Instead of thin slits in the paper, actual slots were cut out. In retrospect they could have been smaller because there are gaps, but then this whole thing was meant to be a toy, not a highly detailed scale model. Then all the assemblies were outlined with a black Sharpie marking pen. More unsteady handwork left quite a few stray marks. Maybe I can find some colored markers or crayons and kinda cover them up.

The last step was gluing everything in place.Remember, wait until the main wing is glued to the fuselage before gluing the engine pods. Also, the glue was applied to the wings not to the slots. If you do that the glue will spread all along the wings and you'll have a mess on your hands.

Once the glue dries a little straightening out of the wings and fuselage by running them lightly through the fingers did the trick. The original artwork would have made a plane 7 5/8" (19.4cm) L x 7 1/4" (18.4cm) wingspan. My finished plane measures 8 7/8" (22.5cm) L x 8 3/8" (21.3cm) wingspan x 2" (5.1cm)H

I haven't yet figured out how to hang this thing up so for right now it'll sit on a shelf. It was fun to do an actual build again. Until next time - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

A long piece of thread is inserted here and used to whirl the plane around your head. I think I'll skip that LOL