Paper is a precious material for modelers. If you have a good idea for the card model you can achieve better results than from plastic or resin kits. This model is cheaper and easier to build. This paper model is the best evidence for this theory.
Model printing.
Before printing, check if the printer's default setting allows you to print sheets in scale 1:1. If not, change it.
Page Scaling: None
Auto-Rotate and Center: YES
Choose paper source by PDF page size: Yes
Imitation of panel lines.
The Armour of the real USS Monitor has been made from rolled plates of iron. Plates were 3 feet wide and 6-7 feet long. Steel gratings have protected air intake smoke holes and the turret roof. There were also eight coal chutes and one ash hatch on the deck of “The USS Monitor”.
We can imitate them with the aid of a ruler and sewing needle. For your convince there are pictures and direction lines close to every element where panel lines should be made. Keep the needle at an angle of about 30 degrees, don't use too much power, be careful, and don't scrape the paper. You may fix the needle into an X-Acto knife collet.
Imitation of ash hatch and coal chutes.
To imitate these structures we have to make a special tool. Take a small nail diameter of 1,6 mm. Fix him into a vise and blunt it with the aid of a file. Put your blunted nail perpendicularly to the paper and delicately hit it from above with a piece of wood. Better make a few trials on a piece of paper before you do it on the model.
Mooring bollards
Take 0,5 graphite leads for mechanical pencils, and poller ends and fracture them into 1,5 m long pieces with the help of tweezers. Poll the top of the pieces with the help of a sheet of paper and stick it onto the bollards' base with cyan-acrylate glue.
Cutting circles.
There is a lot method how to cut an ideal circle from paper. Bellow one of them.
Photo-realistic imitation of seawater.
Download from the internet a photo of water. Modify texture with the help of graphic software according to your needs and print it on photographic paper.
Glue water imitation to the stiff surface (glass plate or a piece of wood).