Ganondorf WIP: stance

Pic related, as it is the pose I decided to use for my new Ganondorf model (more or less of course). Like I said, I wanted him to be in a fighting stance, instead of just standing there. I only just roughly re-positioned the model in this image, and as you can see, it needs a lot of extra fixing now.

I've also been playing a bit around with the sword, but I'm not sure yet if any of the alternatives are actually an improvement or not. ;o) The cloak needs some extra work too, but it's been a busy weekend, and the week to come is going to be even busier...

Stay tuned!

Papercraft Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope (one of NASA's "Great Observatories") is without a doubt the world's most famous space telescope! 🔭

It was fortunate though that the Hubble was (the only space telescope ever) designed for maintenance in space, because right after it had been carried into orbit by the space shuttle "Discovery" in April 1990 and it started sending back pictures, it was discovered that one of the mirrors was not polished properly...

It would take three years to correct this problem, but once it was, Hubble's new pictures, were some of the most beautiful and detailed pictures of our universe ever taken. The most famous picture it took perhaps is that of the M16 Eagle Nebula NGC 6611. This picture of the "Pillars of Creation" taken on November 2nd 1995, inspired many scientists and amateur astronomers: those are stars being born... 🪐

The Hubble has expanded our knowledge of our universe but now it is growing old and tired... And with today's powerful computers that are able to compensate for the light distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere, it is becoming obsolete.

Because it's a public's favorite however, NASA decided to give its a few extra years. If you want to know more about the Hubble Space Telescope, the Hubble Site is a great resource. Of course you can also download the plans to build your own hand-held Hubble from paper (or from PVC if you can get some extra parts you need)!

• Intermediate hand held Hubble papercraft model: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/products/01F2JGF4XFRD618VWVXB10GZ7Z.html
• Expert hand held Hubble papercraft model: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/products/01F2M3JXMG10EKX9FBQAPGR372

• (and the PVC model is here: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/products/01F2JGDJNYW54WJN96X5T3R9N1.html - you'll need some extra materials to make this one 😉)

(download instructions: download the Directions and Pattern Sheets under "Download Options" on the right side of the HubbleSite Hand Held Hubble webpages)

Have fun building! 😊

Ganon(dorf)'s sword

I haven't really started work on the 3D model yet, instead I have been "getting into the mood", playing the game again and looking around on the internet for inspiration.

I took a closer look at the 3D model, and like for all my N64 papercraft Zelda models, I really want to preserve the polygonal look, because it looks really great on the paper models I think.

Even so, I'll have to think of something to make the head/face and particularly the hair buildable, because it's quite a mess right now... I also want to change the hands, because Ganondorf's hands are basically just blocks with a textures. I won't make all 10 fingers again though, just the thumb, like on my other N64 Zelda models.

I'm also thinking of having Ganondorf in a fighting stance, like Fierce Deity Link. He needed a sword for that, though, but in the game he just uses lightning bolts to fight Link. I think I'll give him one of Ganon's swords (from his pig-form), stretched a bit for the right proportions.

Stay tuned!

Papercraft "butt joint" (don't laugh!) tutorial

While I was contemplating ideas for my new Ganondorf project, I decided to make this small video tutorial about "butt joints" (don't laugh).

"Butt jointing" is again a very simple (and time consuming) technique for glueing together the parts of a papercraft model.

Normally, you use glue tabs to glue one piece on top of the other, and you will get a ridge because of the thickness of the paper (these ridges are also the cause of the white lines I told you about in my edge coloring tutorial).

With butt joints, the parts themselves don't have glue tabs, but instead, a seperate strip of paper that you glue underneath the parts acts as a seperate glue tab. That way, you can "butt" the edges together. And because there is no overlap, the seam will be flat and you won't get a ridge.

This technique is most often used on airplane fuselages, or space rockets, or submarines, with larger, tube-like parts. I don't think I'll be using it on my new Ganondorf model, though... ;o)

(if you can't understand the computer voice in the video, you can download the script I used here)

Ganondorf, Great-King-of-Evil-style

After thinking about it over the weekend and today, I have decided on my new project: Ganondorf, Great-King-of-Evil-style.

I'm not sure if that's a good idea, because although it's an N64 model, it still requires more than average fixing on the model (and I really wanted to do something simple after Alice...)

The thing is, I'm probably going to make it even worse, because I don't really like the "oh look at me! I'm floating in mid-air!" thing. It's cool for intimidating your enemies, but that totally looses its awesomness when you're just 20 cm tall and made out of paper.

Perhaps I'll change his pose some more, but I'll keep you guys updated on that. First I'll have to play some Ocarina of Time to get in just the right mood.

No wonder my papercraft projects take so long. Goht will have to wait again...

Stay tuned!

So many ideas, so little time...

Due to time (or rather: lack thereof) for my next project I want to do something a little less complex than my Alice model (I know, Alice might not look very complex now, but getting there was... ;o)

Advance Wars units are always good for me to do on the side, but for a main project I'm thinking something like a classic Tomb Raider model again, or an N64 model (which will probably mean a Legend of Zelda model).

Or maybe something completely different? (sci-fi?)

I worked hard to release Alice *before* the weekend, so I've just been relaxing the past two days, thinking about what would be fun to make next, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

I'll try to decide soon, so I know what to Google for background info and artwork for inspiration and I can start working on it. ;o)

Nightmare before Christmas Jack Skellington papercraft model by Chamoo232

My last post was a bit much so this time I'll keep it brief, but I just *had* to share this with you. ;o)

From the creator of the Big Daddy, Earthworm Jim and many other great paper models:

• download Chamoo232's Jack Skellington

Have fun building!

American McGee's Alice clues unraveled

Yesterday, I finally released my American McGee's Alice papercraft model. I kept it a secret while I was working on it, but I left several clues so you might guess what it was:

1) New papercraft project
It all started two months ago, when I announced a "new secret project" I would be working on. The announcement video was a first, small clue: the words are riddling and appearing and disappearing much like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland likes to do.

2) "ALICE"
The second clue was rather easy to find and unciphered quickly by Adr1_Link in my Shoutbox: the first letters of each paragraph on this post spelled out the name "ALICE" as you can see here:


3) The music box
The next clue was the music that would play if you clicked the "Play" button that I put on my weblog for just this occasion. It's the music box that's also in the American McGee's Alice game trailer. I was planning to use it as the background music in my release video as well, but in the end I decided to use an even more eerie, lone music box... ;o)

4) Alice: The Movie
The "ALICE"-clue was quickly spotted by several people (even though they were not 100% sure of course ;o) I think it's because "Alice" is such a common word/name that most people instantly recognize the combination of letters.

I decided to test that theory, by repeating the same trick only this time with a "not so common" name: Mia Wasikowska, who will play the lead role in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. And sure enough, this time it was a bit more difficult to spot.

(I'm sure that would it have been Sarah Michelle Gellar to play the part of Alice, "Buffy" would have been far easier to spot again ;o)


5) Gothic swirls
Most of you probably didn't even know this was a clue. On this post, I didn't really have a suitable image to post, so I decided to post an image of a Victorian scroll (those ornate, swirly designs).

American McGee's Alice has a real gothic theme, and gothic versions of these kinds of designs are used in the logo and in the box art and the corner brushes in the instruction booklet for instance.

6) "Follow the white rabbit."
The new clue that I gave away in this post, was indeed the "white rabbit girl" ("Dujour", played by Ada Nicodemou) from one of the opening scenes in "The Matrix" as Servotron pointed out in the comments. ;o)

I don't have to explain the connection between Alice and white rabbits, do I..? ;o)


7) Mind games
I guess you can call this a "clue" as well. This particular optical illusion kind of reminded me of a chess board, and the mind trick fits the weirdness of Wonderland where nothing is as it seems. ;o)

8) The final clue
The final clue I gave away shortly before the release: I changed the music box music to a distorted voice, saying something like "seotajnin ot noos gnimoc, ecilA". If you play it backwards at double speed, you will hear this. ;o)

As you can see, I made it much too easy for you guys, as several people guessed right quite quickly. But at least I got to fool some of you. ;o)

Ninjatoes' papercraft American McGee's Alice model

That's right, as you might have already guessed, my secret project was American McGee's Alice. I have been wanting to make this for years now, but somehow I kept making other paper models first...

When the game first came out, I really liked the dark tone of the game, and when I started papercrafting I came across the Alice model from Nikomi Zosui (Alice isn't available, but the White King is) and decided I would make one as well. Later, Killer094 had the same idea and so did Pixel-Kakashi (although I don't know if his is finished yet or if he's even still working on it..?)

But I never mind doing models that already exist, because I always have my own ideas. In this case, I wanted Alice to have a kind of mischievous look, pretending to be the good little girl from the Lewis Carroll's books, while hiding a big knife behind her back (well, not exactly hiding... ;o) so I came up with the pose she's in now.

The other things were just ideas on how to build the model: the shoulders were a big issue, because they were intersecting with other parts. At first I tried to cut away the shape of the shoulders from the arms and torso, but that looked "not so good"... So in the end, I completely re-modeled them in a way that I found quite easy to make actually!

While I was making this model, I liked the level of detail I was able to maintain, and I thought it would be a shame to not make the hands that detailed as well. Ironically, on models that already have 10 seperate fingers, I usually end up doing a lot of work making the hands easier to build, and on models that already have simplified hands (like this one) I end up making the seperate fingers myself... ;o)

As with many (old) games, to save computing memory, parts that you don't get to see, don't exist: meaning Alice didn't have a "bum". ;o) But because I didn't like the idea of having to glue the legs to her dress, I decided to make one. Of course I had to do lots of research to what kind of undergarments a girl like Alice would wear ;o) Bloomers and striped socks seemed appropriate. ;o)

The face/head always needs a lot of work, and this was no exception. I had some experience of course, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I had to change the texture because I wanted Alice to have a mischievous smile, and I don't think she ever smiles in the game... ;o)

And speaking of textures: the textures from the game were quite dark, and I didn't really like that. I made Alice's skin paler, (suits the whole goth theme I think) and I made the blue of her dress brighter. The white was *just* right for my taste, so I left that as it was.

And yes, I omitted the little skull on the back of Alice's dress: it was in the way of the arms, and it didn't really add a lot of extras to the model.

But enough chatter: you just want to download and build the model!

• download American McGee's Alice parts+instructions

And for those that are interested, I'm planning on revealing all the clues I left for you soon (if you didn't find them yourself already, that is: I really made it much too simple for you guys... ;o)

Stay up to date about this and future releases!

At the rate it is going right now, you probably only have 1 day left to try and guess what my secret project has been all this time!

Of course when I finally upload the templates and instructions to my website, I will announce so here on my weblog. I always try to keep my weblog updated regularly and frequently about my papercraft works (and sometimes that of others).

If you want to stay up to date all the time, you can subscribe to my RSS feed, or if you have a Google Blogger account yourself, you can also follow my blog!

Release will be this week.

The last two days I, only spent an hour or two a day building my new paper model, but since I already started last sunday and everything is going so well, I'm already half way the final page!

Just one arm left to go: the first one went together easier than I thought, even the fingers. I pre-shaped them by folding them around a toothpick because they're basically just tiny cylinders, and this way they're not very difficult to make. You just have to take your time. ;o)

I think I will definitely be able release the model this week, as soon as I finish the instructions (I'm making those in parts as well, right along with my build) and a nice cover for the template. ;o)

(PS: You might want to click the "Play" button again.)

Just the arms and hands to go!

That's what I said 5 days ago as well, but this time, it's the final build, which is a big difference. ;o)

It means this project is nearing completion, and it looks like I will be able to finish and release it this weekend. It ends up just about 25 cm (10 inches) tall, on 5 pages with 75 parts, of which you can see the most difficult (smallest) ones here.

The model will be able to stand on its own, but I also made a very simple stand. It will come on 2 pages with 3 parts (would have been 2 if it would have fit on one page ;o) and should be a breeze to build after the main model. ;o)

Final build underway

Everything is going so well, it's a little bit scary... I expect to release it soon, after I finish the final build and the instructions.

Stay tuned!

Kaizo's Final Fantasy Cloud and Lady Luck goodness!

It will come as no surprise to you that I'm a big Final Fantasy fan. I enjoy the games, and I also any paper model concerning Final Fantasy!

Kaizo from Kaizo Papercraft has some nice Final Fantasy paper models, and his latest ones include an old style Cid and a FFX-2 style Lady Luck (Paine's Dressphere):

• download Kaizo's Lady Luck
• download Kaizo's Cid

There are more paper models where those came from, so have fun building!

Raziel's amazingly detailed Star Wars Lambda-class shuttle "Tydirium"!

Great news! Earlier, I posted about Klaymen's Aliens Caterpillar P-5000 powerloader model. Klaymen was kind enough to let me host it on my own webspace, because the original link to the Konradus forum had been dead for a couple of years already...

Although that forum was the first place where I asked around, it looks like I only got their attention when I posted about it on my weblog here. ;o)

Because the forum thread is back up again and how! Not only Klaymen's powerloader model is back up, but also another favourite of mine: Raziel's Star Wars Imperial Lambda-class shuttle "Tydirium"!

It is the same shuttle (just a little bit bigger) that a small rebel strike force uses to sneak past the Imperial blockade of the forest moon of Endor, to try and take out the shield generator protecting the second Death Star which is still under construction...

It is amazingly detailed, an I was e-mailing with Raziel for permission to host it on my website because the download links were dead, but now that they aren't anymore, I can just point you guys to the Konradus forum:

• download Raziel's Imperial Lambda-class shuttle "Tydirium"

Oh and by the way, there are some more great paper models from that same place if you go up a level. Have fun building!

Edge coloring tutorial

I have been working on laying out the parts of the finished model on the templates in a logical fashion (you can be the judge of that when I release the model... ;o) but I also wanted to make a small video tutorial again on a technique to make your paper models look even better.

It's a very basic, but also very time consuming technique, so I don't normally use it. But I'm planning on doing so on this particular model, to see how it turns out.

And judging by the simple model I made for this video, it will turn out quite awesome and well worth it. ;o)

The voice is a computer voice. If you have trouble understanding it, you can download the script I used here.

Test build finished and approved!

Yay! I finished test building the final parts and I'm satisfied with how the model looks and how to assemble it.

That means I can start making the final templates this weekend. But it will probably still be another week or two before I can release the model, because I will have to build it again from the start (my own final build) to make pictures for the instructions each step.

And then I have to *make* the instructions of course. So I don't think it'll be ready this weekend; please be patient a little while longer... ;o)

Head and hair done: just the arms and hands to go

I made a new test build of the head yesterday, I changed a little more than just "the nose and a few glueing tabs". ;o) But I also built the hair, and the new head and the hair look great together!

The hair can be a little difficult to build because it some some thin parts, but if you take your time and don't get frustrated (it's only paper ;o) people should manage (I see examples of people building far more complex paper models than this one every day!)

All that's left now are the arms and hands. The arms won't be much of a problem, and the biggest problem I foresee with the hands is the small size of the fingers. But because they're basically just cylinders, you can practically make them just by rolling them around a toothpick.

It's a "trick" I used for making Super Smash Bros. Melee Link, and it made building the fingers very easy.

Test build update

So far I built the legs, torso and head, and for most parts, the model went together quite well! I want to redo the nose though (it can be made to look better than it does now I think), and I'm thinking about switching a few glueing tabs on the face.

But before I actually do that, I want to see what it looks like with the hair (because it can make quite a difference). I haven't built the hair yet, but the way I modeled and unfolded it, the hair glues to the back of the head, which is a closed plane; before glueing on the final piece of the hair, you can glue the hair to the back of the head and reach inside with your fingers or a tool to push down on the glueing tabs.

Then the final piece of the hair acts as sort of a "lid", that closes the hole and should be easy to glue in place without the need to push down on the glueing tabs from the inside (because you can't reach them anymore at that point! ;o) because of its shape and the natural tension in the paper.

(It will probably make more sense when you have the pieces in front of you)

William Aldridge's "Airwolf" helicopter papercraft

Yesterday, I posted Hisato Shimada's Bell-222 helicopter model. The Bell-222 is a nice looking helicopter by itself, but there's also a very famouse one: "Airwolf", the futuristic attack helicopter from the 80's TV series with the same name.

The "Airwolf" helicopter from the show is a modified Bell-222, and William Aldridge has made a paper model of it. It's a very different model than Hisato Shimada's Bell-222, but it is also quite challenging. And of course this one is textured to match the "Airwolf" from the TV series!

• download William Aldridge's "Airwolf" from Dpilleggi's Picks
• download William Aldridge's "Airwolf" from GreMir Models

Have fun building!

Hisato Shimada's 1/24 scale Bell-222 helicopter paper model

Hisato Shimada made this wonderful and challenging 1/24 scale paper model Bell-222 helicopter for his Card Model Workshop website in 2007! 🚁

Even though the site is gone unfortunately, can use use the Internet Archive to still download it.

Download + build your own free detailed black-and-white/color yourself papercraft Bell-222 helicopter (by Card Model Workshop):

https://web.archive.org/web/20140725163343/http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022248/BELL222.html

Download notes:

• Download the parts:

1. After using the Web Archive link, click the "Download" link on the archived website;
2. You will be taken to the download page;
3. Be patient and wait a little while, and then the download should start automatically (it may take a minute or two!)

• View the instructions:

1. For the instructions, click the "htttp://ameblo.jp/..." link just below "Instructions" on the archived website and you will be taken to an archived version of the creator's weblog;
2. You will have to browse through 18 pages on the weblog using the "1 | 2 | 3 |4 | 5 次のページ > >>" navigation links to see all the images and (Japanese text) that form the instructions.
3. Copy+paste the text into Google Translate if needed you can't read Japanese.

• Important note!
• If the Wayback Machine has 'captured' a website in the past, it tries to show you what it looked like on that day. Often, the Wayback Machine 'captures' a website multiple times, and then if a certain 'capture' version doesn't seem to work, you can try a different time by clicking the Wayback Timeline at the top of the captured website:

(old link: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA022248/BELL222.html)

Test build going great!

Things are going fast now, but that is because it's the final test build is going so well! The connection between the shoulders and the torso that almost drove me crazy because I couldn't think of a good way how to model it, went together quite easily now (yay!)

I'm going to test build the second part today (the bottom part of the body). Then I'll do the legs, then the head and hair (those parts I still need to unfold) and then the arms and hands. I'm not sure if I'll have much time during the week, otherwise I'll just pick up next weekend again.



So far everything is going better than I expected! But I do think that I will make the final model a little bigger than the test build, though. She is turning out smaller than I thought. I'm thinking "Rikku-sized" would be a very doable scale for this build.

But that's not really a problem: making it bigger should only make things easier. ;o)

Finally, Pepakura

Because I decided to finish the last work on the 3D model earlier this week, today I could start working on unfolding the model right away.

I already have most parts unfolded properly now, certainly enough to start the final test building... ;o) The model's textures are a plain green in the screencap, because I find it a bit easier to see what I'm doing in Pepakura that way.

So there you have it, that's the status of The Project for today.

Ohara Deer Forte 370 ski slope maintenance vehicle papercraft

The Ohara Corporation makes snowmobiles for life in the winter season. And I don't mean "ski-doos" like the ones you get to ride in Tomb Raider, but more like real vehicles.

There are two paper models on the company's website, a simple multipurpose 1 box cabin Caliber snowmobile, but also a much more detailed Deer Forte 370 ski slope maintenance vehicle.

On the download page for that one, you'll find links for the instructions, parts and a seperate PDF to be printed (or traced) on a transparant sheet. The bottom links are for the same instructions and parts, only broken down into smaller files.

• download Ohara multipurpose 1 box cabin Caliber snowmobile
• download Ohara Dear Forte 370 ski slope maintenance vehicle

Have fun building!

Final trouble parts tackled

So yeah... I couldn't wait until the weekend to continue working on my main project again, now that after a few minor test builds and consecutive fixes I was this close to finishing the preliminary work on the 3D model.

Today I finished fixing the last parts I wasn't completely happy with yet (some of the parts look deceivingly simple when you look at them now...) so now I should be able to focus entirely on unfolding all the parts next weekend to start a (hopefully) final, complete test build.

On some of my latest models, I was so confident that the 3D model and unfolding were done properly that the final "test" builds were actually also the final final builds. But because this one might still have some surprises, I think I will first do a quick test build of the complete model in low quality to save ink, then make the final templates and only then build it "for real" and make pictures for the instructions.

Sounds like a plan to me. ;o)

Project update

I haven't exactly been working 24/7 on my main project lately, but rest assure, that work hasn't halted. But my evenings are so short, that I only really work on this bigger project during the weekends. And because I found a few things I'm not completely happy with, I'm gonna have to fix those again first.

One of the parts I wasn't completely happy with, were the hands. I had decided to make all ten fingers instead of a simplified hand, but the way they were now, I thought they would be too frustrating to build. And because I don't want this paper model to turn into the new Red Hollow Cylinder, I'm re-making them (the image isn't completely finished yet, but it's already a bit more "buildable" than before ;o)

And because I haven't been very generous with clues regarding the subject of this project lately, here's a new one.

Have fun puzzling!

Piotr Koper's Aliens Caterpillar P-5000 powerloader papercraft

If you like challenging paper models, then here's another one I managed to track down for you: a very detailed model of the Caterpillar P-5000 powerloader, that Ripley uses to fight the Alien Queen in the last scene of the Aliens movie! 😃

I downloaded it a couple of years ago from the Polish Konradus forum, but when I was checking my link collection a little while ago, I found that the the original forum thread had died: http://www.konradus.com/szufladki/caterpillar/index.php 😢

I managed to contact the designer, Piotr Koper (aka Klaymen) though, and he was very kind in giving me permission to host the model on my own webspace so that I can share it here with you guys!

The picture I used is from a more than amazing build thread done by morph on the French "Forum en Papier". If you want to try this great model yourself, you might want to check out the tons of great pictures there to get an idea on how to assemble all the parts:

• download Piotr Koper's Caterpillar P-5000 powerloader
• see morph's build thread at Le Forum en Papier

Have fun building!