Halloween 2010 WarCraft III Undead Graveyard papercraft release

Happy Halloween!

download Undead Graveyard parts and instructions

...and have fun building!

greetz ninjatoes

Papercraft Warcraft III Undead Graveyard final build

With Halloween only 3 days away, the templates and the final build are done, so now all that's left to do before the release is to make the instructions.

Stay tuned!

Undead Graveyard test builds

After unfolding the seperate parts over the weekend, I already managed to test build them.

I didn't really run into any problems either, so making the templates, final build and instructions shouldn't take too long, and the model should be ready for download in plenty of time for Halloween!

Stay tuned!

Polycounts & collisions

The thing with making a paper model from videogames, is that videogames weren't actually designed to be made into papercraft models. ;o)

Parts that you don't really get to see in the game (like the side of the coffin against the tomb's wall) are often simply not drawn in the 3D model, but of course in a paper model, you'll want to make a whole coffin again! ;o)

Collisions* often occur with character models (especially around the shoulders and hips and/or elbows and knees) but they're no problem in the virtual world of a computer game.

In fact, it usually solves the problem of having to create an often difficult connection between the different parts!

These are things you have to be on the lookout for, though, because in a paper model, parts can't collide of course, and they certainly can't be left floating in thin air like the roof of the tomb!

In order to be able to glue the parts together on the paper model without problems later on, the parts need to be connected properly in the 3D model first.

Often remodelling the parts is actually easier than trying to fix what's already there, but like with so many things, everybody has their own ideas about that of course. ;o)

Stay tuned!

(*intersecting solids/shapes)

Graveyard obelisks & base

Although as you can see in this earlier blogpost, the "mound" for the Undead Graveyard is actually hidden underneath the ground in the game, I really kinda like it, so I will include it in the model as a sort of base.

The four obelisks that surround the tomb are all a bit crooked, but of course I will leave them like that, because that's what makes them fit so well with the theme! ;o)

I did change their base, though, because the old one just didn't look right in a static paper model...

Stay tuned!

Because sometimes you *want* the walls to be not straight!

I think the reason why the Warcraft III Undead Graveyard's looks so "Halloweeny", is because the tomb doesn't have the regular proportions of a building with straight, perpendicular walls and such, but instead looks very stretched out and distorted.

That way, it looks extra big and threatening, as if it were looming over your head as you approach the entrance, just like a haunted mansion in a cartoon...

It's not very difficult to create this effect in a 3D model, but don't treat the 3D software as a pencil!

Instead of drawing each slanted wall polygon by polygon, create a primitive* and simply stretch the walls inwards (I like to use the scaling tool for this, but everybody has their own preference ;o)

This way, once you break down more complex shapes into separate primitives, you can work fast and create any model you want by combining them! ;o)

Stay tuned!

(*primitives are the most basic of shapes, like spheres, cones, cylinders, cubes...)

I see undead people?!

If you're scared of ghosts, the graveyard is probably the last place where you'll want to be on Halloween...

And this particular graveyard is double scary, too, because this one, is for the undead...

"Graveyard" might actually be a big word for just this one tomb, but I've always liked the graphical style of Warcraft III (leave that to Blizzard Entertainment ;o)

And with its scary, distorted walls, pagan obelisks and skulls adorning the entrance, I thought this Undead Graveyard might make a nice papercraft model for this year's Halloween!

Stay tuned!

Advance Wars Green Earth papercraft Tank release

You didn't think I forgot about this one, did you? ;o)

• download Advance Wars Green Earth Tank papercraft unit

Have fun building!

Poll results + new poll !

The old poll is still open to new voters, but with over a hundred votes already, I think we can say that most people can balance papercraft with their other activities pretty well (except for maybe the one or two people that seem to papercraft even in their sleep... ;o)

So here's a new poll for you:
What kind of paper do you use for papercrafting?

Don't hesitate to tell us a bit more about your choice in the comments!

Have fun voting!

Green Earth Tank build

Just like its big brother, the Green Earth Tank doesn't have a rotating turret, but in the game Advance Wars, it's just as versatile to use as the other faction's Tanks! ;o)

Stay tuned for the release!

Copy+pasting in Photoshop

Even though my papercraft Advance Wars models are all drawn by hand, I always like to add part numbers, glueing guides and things like that to the templates in Photoshop.

It also gives me the opportunity to properly rotate and align all the parts, so that I can place them next to each other as much as possible;

In the hand drawn version, I always leave plenty of room between the parts just to be sure, because I often don't know exactly how big the parts will be, and you don't want to have the parts end up overlapping each other of course! ;o)

Another bonus of using a computer program to lay out the final templates properly, is that you don't have to draw symmetrical parts twice: you can simply copy and mirror them, which is a lot faster! ;o)

Black Bird & Green Tank

The semi-glossy black spray paint turned out very nice on the plastic Revell SR-71A "Blackbird" model kit I think!

After that, it was just a matter of painting and glueing on the landing gears and putting on the decals, before giving the model a double coat of clear finish.

It isn't a very difficult model, but personally I think the SR-71 is a very smexy-looking plane...! ;o)

So with that project pretty much done, I also made good progress on my new papercraft Advance Wars Green Earth Tank:

After drawing all the parts with a pencil first and making sure they fit properly, I traced the parts with a black pen, and after that, I coloured the parts with markers so I can scan them to make the templates.

Stay tuned!

Plastic plane & paper tank

Like I said, the "Blackbird" doesn't really have many parts, so after glueing the cockpit and hull parts together, pretty much all that's left are the landing gears.

But as you can see, the black colour of the plastic parts is pretty scruffy looking, so before I glue on those, I will first spray paint the hull a nice, glossy black (using a spray can will give a much better looking effect than using a brush).

Because I already painted the inside of the wheel bays a nice, iron metallic colour (91) and the cockpit windows need to stay transparant of course, I carefully taped up these parts before spray painting the model.

Why the thing isn't finished already?

Well, because I've also been busy with other things. ;o)