Green Earth & Blue Moon Stealth Fighters

So here are the green and blue ones:

• download Green Earth & Blue Moon Stealths

Yellow and black (grey) to follow of course, as soon as I build them myself.

Have fun building!

Advance Wars Dual Strike Stealth Fighter

It is ironic that Advance Wars Dual Strike's most powerful jet Fighter is modeled after the F-117A Nighthawk, because in real life, it is probably the worst jet fighter out there.

But there's no shame in that of course, for a bomber. ;o)

I already coloured the other armies, but I still have to copy/paste the parts to the templates. I'll build those as well, so I can take pictures of them for my website. I'm gonna be away most of the day but they're quite easy to build, so with any luck I can release them tomorrow.

And no, I haven't forgotten about Ganondorf. ;o)

For now, have fun building the Orange Star Stealth:

• download Orange Star Stealth

Ganondorf's first run through Pepakura

I'm ready to start the first run through Pepakura, hopefully I won't encounter too many problems during the test build.

But first I have to go and celebrate Christmas now though (Merry Christmas btw).

Advance Wars papercraft hits the water!

Not literally of course: so don't go throwing your Green Earth Cruiser in the water!

It's one of those little side projects again that I work on when I can't use the computer (which is a lot more often than I was hoping), have fun building!

• download Advance Wars Green Earth Cruiser

Jeez dude, you're a guy: lay off the mascara...

We don't get to see Ganondorf that much in the game, so I can understand why the game designers didn't make his hands very detailed (they're basically just boxes with textures on them).

But Ganondorf's head is actually more detailed than Link's, especially the mouth. Maybe it's because they needed be able to show his maniacal laughter when he fights Link better. ;o)

I want Ganondorf to be in the same style as my Fierce Deity Link though, so after making the hands more detailed, now I need to work on making the mouth less detailed...

Actually I already did that ;o) but as you can see, it still needs some work, as does the rest of the head.

Stay tuned!

Finally, Ganondorf again

Time sure flies.

I've been spending my scarce spare time to move my old website to a blog system, which will make it easier for me to update. Moving the downloads was the first thing I did of course, and yesterday I finished moving the entire Hall of fame, which was *a lot* of work...

I'll do the links section later, because I want to do some work on my Ganondorf project again first (after two weeks already, wut the...?!). I spent today fixing the hands, sword and cloak and some of the textures. I'll try to get those as good as on Fierce Deity Link.

So only the head to go, before I can start unfolding it. ;o)

Stay tuned!

Chamoo's and Kaizo's Final Fantasy madness...!

Luckily for you guys, some people *do* seem to have more than enough time to make new papercraft models, because Chamoo not only released this nice Final Fantasy IX Zidane paper model, but she also redid her old Vivi model! You can get both of them from her Chamoo232's Papercraft Archive.

And Kaizo from Kaizo's papercraft blog made not one, not two, but three versions of Final Fantasy VII Sephiroth and he's already working on several new models!

How do they do it?!? ;o)

• download Chamoo's Zidane and Vivi v.2 models
• download Kaizo's Sephiroth models

Have fun building!

Alternating (zipper style) glue tabs tutorial

I guess my Ganondorf is on hold until I finish moving my main website (where you can download all of my papercraft models).

Don't worry though, because that shouldn't be very long. All I have left to do for now is the hall of fame and the links section. The downloads are already be up.

In the meantime, I made this simple tutorial about alternating ("zipper style") glue tabs (where the glue tabs are on opposite sides instead of all on one side).

I'm not saying you should always use this method, or that you should never use it. But knowing the pros and cons of a method helps you decide whether or not it's a good idea to use it if you're making your own papercraft models.

As always with my video tutorials featuring a computer voice, you can download the script for the spoken text.

Have fun watching!

Main website moving!

I haven't been working much on my Ganondorf project this weekend, because I have been busy with moving my main website.

Now that all the downloads are back on my own webspace, I wanted to change the look of my website.

I have been busy making new pictures of all my papercraft models (which took forever...) and made a Wordpress account so that I can handle my website as a blog now, just writing a new post each time I release a new model.

It was a lot of work to make new posts for all my existing models, as I'm sure you can imagine, so again, if I made a mistake and you find a broken link, please let me know so that I can fix it as soon as possible.

I am not completely finished yet, but the rest will have to wait until later this week. For now, whenever you try to go to the old URL of http://members.home.nl/saarloos/, you will be automatically redirected to

www.ninjatoes.wordpress.com/

which is the new main adress. If you bookmarked the redirectional URL www.kickme.to/ninjatoes, it will change automatically, so you don't have to worry about anything. ;o)

Have fun building!

Majora's Mask Clock Town Schauzer

It's that dog, that bugs Link when he first enters Clock Town as a Deku Scrub in Majora's Mask. ;o)

It's scaled and available in lined and unlined versions to match my young Link papercraft model.

Have fun building!

• www.kickme.to/ninjatoes

Untitled

Looks like I didn't make it today, maybe tomorrow.

The Return of the Downloads

Good news! Finally, my ISP has upgraded my webspace account!

I have re-uploaded all my papercraft models, and you can download them directly from my own personal webspace like in the early days. ;o)

So no more waiting times or expired bandwidth limits!

• www.kickme.to/ninjatoes

Should you come across any broken links, please let me know so I can fix it ASAP.

Have fun downloading!

Ganondorf "tough guy pose"

As you can see, I already got Ganondorf in his new "So-You-Think-You-Can-Stop-Me-LOL"-pose. I'm taking some artistic liberty in re-modeling him, to improve the final papercraft model.

I already did the legs, hopefully I can do the torso and arms tomorrow. After that, the head (which needs *a lot* of work...) sword and cape, and then I can move onto Pepakura.

But as usual, that will probably be next week (if all goes well ;o)

Stay tuned!

"Strike a pose, any pose."

Like I mentioned before, sometimes it's necessary to take a step back to go forward when you have a stroke of inspiration to improve on your work in progress.

From the start, the plan was to pair up my new Ganondorf model with my Fierce Deity Link, as if they were ready to fight one final, epic battle to decide the fate of Hyrule.

The pose of Link is quite good for that, he's focused and ready to counter when Ganondorf will make his move.

The original pose I intended for Ganondorf was also a focused, tense one, but then I started thinking; with all the power (and ego) he has, Ganondorf wouldn't be so tense to fight Link. In fact, he would probably be quite unimpressed by Oni Link's fierce appearance, thinking he is unbeatable.

And then I thought: I already did such a pose before, from that other tough guy: Auron. I like Ganon(dorf)'s sword, but I'll be placing it resting leisurely on Ganondorf's shoulder like Auron has. The other hand will be on his hip, and he'll have the same confident (a bit arrogant) and relaxed stance as Auron. These guys fear nobody.

So that's what I'll be doing the next two days: getting Ganondorf into that pose, un-punify him and maybe I'll be able to start the real work as well. ;o)

Stay tuned!

PaperPoké goodness x56

If you follow the papercraft blogs and forums, you probably noticed a few PaperPokés releases recently.

They are from a group of people from the Nintendo Papercraft forums that have started a project to make papercraft Pokémons, no less than 56 of them to start off with!

And it looks like they'll make many more, so be sure to catch them all! ;o)

• visit the PaperPokés weblog

Have fun building!

Un-punifying the Ganondorf model

I'm still just "posing" the model, without doing any real work of fixing the problem areas (at the moment, I'm only making more).

But this is stuff that I can do just by playing around with the model for about half an hour or so, so it's perfect to do right now before I start the real work this weekend (I hope ;o)

Last time I decided on a pose for Ganondorf, but all the mangling I did made him look quite "puny" as one reader put it.

A lot of that was due to the crude posing I did, but I'm confident that with some more work and some artistic liberty I can un-punify the model.

You can see I didn't actually change a whole lot yet, but it already looks a bit better, don't you think? (hey, I said "a bit" ;o)

Stay tuned for more!

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!

Nintendo Papercraft Pokémon contest

Nintendo Papercraft just announced a new papercraft contest, this time you need to design and build your own Pokémon papercraft model to win one of the prizes!

This is Nintendo Papercraft's second contest again already, the first one (with a Banjo-Kazooie theme) was won by Navi's Banjo and Kazooie relaxing in a comfy chair model (I had a feeling it would ;o)

But this time you have a new chance to win! If you want to enter, you can read more about the rules and prizes at the Nintendo Papercraft weblog: A new contest: Pokémon!

Have fun!

Cut & Paste Sci-Fi working papercraft Rubik's Cube!

Cut & Paste Sci-Fi has several science fiction models to download and build, but it's worth taking a look in the non sci-fi section too: one of the paper models you can find there, is a working Rubik's Cube!

I'm sure everybody knows the world famous puzzle cube. You mix up the colours, and try to get them back together again by turning the blocks.

Many a mathematician has spent hours on end calculating the total number of different possibilities, and this is what they came up with: 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (the word you're looking for is 43 "quintillion")

But that's not the impressive part. The impressive part is, that you can solve all of those, in 25 moves or less...

If you don't go mad building all the delicate little pieces out of paper and getting them to work properly, you *will* go mad trying out if there really are 43 quintillion different possibilities...

• https://www.paperformed.com/free-models.html (free acount required now)

Have fu... Good luck building..!

(old link: http://home.hetnet.nl/~erwin47/models/nonsf/)

Working on the main project again

Although of course I spent most of my weekend finishing the Orange Star Rocket unit and instructions, I did do *some* work on my main project.

Most of it were fixes though, things I already changed from the original 3D model but that I still wasn't happy with. But that's progress too. The best kind actually, I think. Even though it can sometimes feel like taking a step back, it's really just a slightly slower path allowing you to take your time more, still going forward. ;o)

Chamoo232's Bioshock's "Big Daddy"

Many papercrafters have been waiting anxiously for the release of this Bioshock "Big Daddy" model from Chamoo232.

It already looked wonderful in the WIP pictures, so not surprisingly everybody wanted to have it "nao!!" but it took Chamoo232 a while to get it ready for release.

Which would be "nao", btw:

• download Chamoo 232's Bioshock "Big Daddy"

Have fun building!

Advance Wars Orange Star Rocket unit

Here's step 6 regarding "how to build a paper rocket launcher". I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

You can get the files from my website:

• download the Advance Wars Orange Star Rocket unit

Have fun building!

Red Hollow Cylinder tutorial

The Red Hollow Cylinder. In it lies the soul of an evil papercraftsman, who could not find joy in the paper models he made.

Bittered and lonely, with his dying breath he put a curse on the last papercraft he ever made, and then he let it loose on the world. Its sole purpose: to frustrate those that cannot build it, no matter how hard they try, and rob them of any joy they have building paper models...

Now it counts as a test of skill for those seeking to prove themselves strong enough to become Papercraft Masters.

Do you have what it takes?

• download the Red Hollow Cylinder template

Good luck!

How to make a paper rocket launcher: steps 4 and 5

I'm planning on getting some real work done again on my main project during the weekend, but now that I'm this far on my Orange Star Rocket unit, I will also be aiming to release it from my website in the next few days.

How far I am exactly, you ask?

Well, I colored the parts yesterday, which is step 4. For my Advance Wars series, I use magic markers to do so, for my hand drawn Star Trek series I use water colors.

I also finished step 5 already: scanning the colored parts to copy+paste them together on the sheets in Photoshop. In fact, I'm taking a break from adding part numbers to post this message. ;o)

How to make a paper rocket launcher: step 3

After drawing the parts with pencil and test building the model to make sure all the parts fit together properly, I like to trace the parts with a black ink pen, and erase all the pencil lines.

Then I scan the parts again before I colour them, so should I mess up, I always have a proper back up... ;o)