Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Free papercraft Advance Wars Black Hole Artillery unit release!


I'm not going to finish Save icon Lara before the new year, but I remembered I still have a lot of Advance Wars units to paperfy... So I decided to finish this Black Hole Artillery unit that has been sitting for very long time on my computer to release this year!


Download + build your own free Advance Wars papercrafts:





Happy New Year and stay tuned for more papercrafts in 2020, starting with Save icon Lara of course. 🎆🎇

Monday, December 30, 2019

Cute free vtuber papercraft teddy bear mask for in your hair


This "Kuma no Mask" is the kind of mask that those Japanese virtual YouTube girls like to wear in their hair to look cute for more views. 🧸😉

Download + build your own cute free papercraft teddy bear mask (by Reality):
https://twitter.com/WFLE_REALITY/status/1209428507110936577

(download instructions: click the "reality-public.akamaized.net/..." link in Reality's Tweet)

Saturday, December 28, 2019

C'mon; we all know the Tesla Cybertruck was designed with Pepakura Designer (at least this free papercraft one was ;o)


Be honest; we all know Elon Musk's Tesla Cybertruck was designed using Pepakura Designer anyway, so this papercraft is no surprise. 😉

JoopB1 made this one to have blank templates, so you can print it on some nice coloured (maybe even metallic?) cardstock or color and change it yourself, so you could even make an A-Team version...

Download + build your own free papercraft Tesla Cybertruck (by JoopB1):
https://www.instructables.com/id/Tesla-Cybertruck-DIY-Made-of-Paper-/

Friday, December 27, 2019

Pinoart papercraft Toypoodle Smile Dog freebie


Pinoart made many papercrafts before, some commercial, some for free at Canon's Creative Park, but this cute papercraft wall-mounted poodle head freebie you can get directly from their own website! 🐶

Download + build your own free papercraft wall-mounted Smile Dog (by Pinoart):
https://pinoart.jp/papercraft/smile-dog-toy-poodle-dog-papercraft-2/

(download instructions: click the pink "同意します。リンクを表示する" button just above the instructions on Pinoart's papercraft blog, and then the blue 1, 2 and 3 "ページ目を表示" links)

Monday, December 23, 2019

The thing about making papercrafts from extracted video game characters...


The thing about making papercrafts from actual in-game 3D character models from a video game (..or in this case from a PlayStation 2 Memory Card save file 😉) is that they almost never make a good papercraft models... And I don't just mean that characters from modern games are so detailed that they are better off being "simplified" a bit first before being turned into a papercraft model with Pepakura Designer...

A Twilight Princess Puppet Zelda head based on the in-game model, but a bit simplified for papercraft

The in-game models from the classic Tomb Raider games are already pretty low-poly though, so they don't really need simplifying. They do need some attention as well of course, mainly because of "collisions". Collisions are when for example on the in-game model the shoulder moves into the body when the arm is moved, or when the lower leg moves into the upper leg at the knee when Lara is running.

With the technology for the time, this looked okay on the computer screen when playing the game, but with papercraft this is physically impossible of course. The solution is nothing special though, it's just a matter of removing the problem parts and connecting the pieces back together so that it looks okay (and you really don't have to be a professional 3D animator or anything to do this! 😉)

Polygons can go through polygons, but paper can't go through paper.

And then there are Save icon Lara's hands and ponytail. Like I said when I started this papercraft, I chose this save icon version particularly because this low-poly version fits in so nicely with the other classic papercraft Tomb Raider vignettes I made.

However, the hands on the classic Lara's are literally just rectangular blocks, while the ones on Save icon Lara are just a bit more triangulated. The ponytail on the other hand is a bit more detailed on the classic Lara versopm. Oh, and Save icon Lara doesn't have any weapons (but as we know, Angel of Darkness Lara could do some hand-to-hand combat too when needed... 😉)

Save icon Angel of Darkness Lara has some small peculiarities compared to the "real" classic Lara.

I decided to leave Save icon Lara as she is though, because this papercraft vignette will be very minimalistic and these small differences make her special I think. Stay tuned!

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Designing an Angel of Darkness Playstation 2 save icon Lara papercraft vignette stand


Normally I try to recreate a little scene from the game for my papercraft Tomb Raider vignettes, but in the case of The Angel of Darkness' save icon Lara, she doesn't actually appear in-game of course! 😇

So I want to keep the vignette very minimalistic to resemble how Save icon Lara only appears just by herself, and I decided to make the stand as a reference to the PlayStation 2 console.

Obviously, the square box won't be a direct 1:1 recreation with all the little details (although... the "fat" model version of the PlayStation 2 model version I have myself does look pretty squarish! 😋) but I made some very simple allusions to the design that I think strike a nice balance between being very simple and still recognizable, so that it doesn't detract from the actual paper Lara, like the dark color tones with the horizontal lines and of course the blue PS2 logo on top, and I even made a special backside to the stand with ventilation grille to allude to the PlayStation 2 console.

I'm pretty happy with how the design for the stand turned out, so now I'll start working on the actual 3D model of Save icon Lara. Stay tuned!

Saturday, December 14, 2019

How to get a Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Playstation 2 Lara save icon file as a base model for a new papercraft Tomb Raider vignette


Did you know that the Japanese title for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness ("トゥームレイダー美しき逃亡者") translates to "The Beautiful Fugitive"? Which is a much more fitting description of course. 😉

This sixth installment of Lara's adventures was created as the first 'next-gen' Tomb Raider game, with much more detailed graphics and character models, including Lara. It was however the last Tomb Raider game made by Core Design, the developer that created the classic ones too that make such nice little papercraft vignettes.

I played The Angel of Darkness on the Playstation 2, and maybe not a lot of people know this, but there's actually a cute little Lara that strolls about on your Memory Card when you save the game:


It's a much simpler character model than the in-game one of course, which makes that she'd fit perfectly with the simple style of the my other Core Design vignettes!

So I used the PS2 Save Builder 0.8x (running as Administrator in Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode on my 64-bit Windows 10 system) to extract the save icon from a Code Breaker *.cbs save file (simply click the "static.ico" and choose "Extract"). Then you can use the PS2 Icon Importer/Exporter 0.8 plugin by Vector to open the save icon model in Milkshape 3D 1.8.2 and save it to a more common 3D file format (changing the file extension to *.icn or choosing "all files" when trying to import it).


Tools used:
 - PS2 Save Builder 0.8x: https://www.ps2savetools.com/download/ps2-save-builder/
 - PS2 Icon Importer/Exporter 0.8 plugin for Milkshape 3D: https://www.ps2savetools.com/download/milkshape-ps2-icon-importer-exporter/
 - Milkshape 3D 1.8.2: http://www.milkshape3d.com/
And now I have a nice little low-poly Angel of Darkness Lara as a base model for a new papercraft Tomb Raider vignette! And of course I'll make a fitting stand for her too. 😉 Stay tuned!




(although in this case there are not a lot of steps, I still combined them into one image to make it easier to save)


Monday, December 9, 2019

Another papercraft done! Free hand drawn papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft release.


Another papercraft done! This one was made entirely hand drawn, which was fun to do for a change again. 🚀

I also really like the colour: usually on my hand drawn Star Trek papercrafts I used aquarel water colors, but this time I used a "cool grey" Promarker. I remember reading once that Star Trek ships have a "duck egg blue" tint, but I like this light gray tone that it has after scanning the hand drawn parts and printing them again for the papercraft.






Download + build your own free papercraft Galileo 5 shuttlecraft:

Have fun building!

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Yet another quick papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft update


Another quick update on the papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft I'm working on: the second (right sized😁) test build was still a bit tricky in some spots, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. 😊


So I finalized the lines with a black  fineliner and colored the parts with my Promarkers (sometimes I use aquarel colors for that, but this time I wanted them to be a "cool grey") so I can start making the final templates:


And you guessed it: then I will build it again! 😁 To have a final version of course, but also so that I can take pictures to make instructions. Stay tuned!

Sunday, December 1, 2019

First Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft test build


The Galileo 5 test build went together pretty well! There are a few places where the parts were pretty tight, but with a bit of extra care they turned out okay. I like how the impulse engines, warp nacelles and overall shape turned out, there's only one problem:

...I somehow managed to print it in the wrong size!


It's not that big a deal really and I decided to build it anyway; if the parts fit at this size, they still fit when I print them at the correct size of course. The only thing is, that I can't really transfer any fixes 1:1 to my hand drawn papercraft parts...

So... I will do another test build with the lessons learned from this one, and this time in the correct size (hopefully 😉).

Stay tuned!

free papercraft RMS Mauretania


Thanadol asked me to share his latest papercraft with you guys again: when the ocean liner RMS Mauretania was launched in 1906, it was the biggest ship in the world! Luckily, Thanadol made his papercraft version in a scale of 1/1000, so it will easily fit on your desk or shelf in your home. 😉

Download + build your own free papercraft RMS Mauretania (by Thanadol):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ZrJ0Vybj93qZj1Vnyxjr7X2oZPLIWbl/view

free 2019 papercraft gift containers (from wild boars to Christmas trees ;o)


After flowers, fruit and pop-up cards, now Sasatoku's 2019 papercraft series is coming to an end as well and of course December's small seasonal papercraft gift container is Christmas themed. 🎄

I wonder if they'll make another papercraft series in 2020 and what it will be...? 😊

Download + build your own free papercraft gift containers (+lots more, by Sasatoku):
https://www.sasatoku.co.jp/html/papercraft/

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Papercraft Star Trek Galileo 5 working model done


This is pretty much how far I'll take the working model for the papercraft Galileo 5 shuttlecraft. As you can see, the working model is actually missing one side, but as I explained before for paper models like this I mirror the necessary parts on the templates so I can make sure they'll be more symmetrical than if I were to draw them by hand separately. 😇

So now I've got some first test templates that I can use to see if the paper model will go together the way I planned, so next thing will be to do a real test build.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Wanna papercraft a cute girl engineer? Or a cute girl "Gatekeeper of Hell"? Try the Touhou series. ;o)


Nitori Kawashiro and Kutaka Niwatari are two characters from the Touhou games series. Like all characters, they are designed as cute girls: Nitori being an engineer, and Kutaka being the Gatekeeper of HELL...!! 😈👧

Download + build your own free papercraft Touhou girls (by Nobi):
http://sumatorausagi.seesaa.net/article/471743469.html

(download instructions: click the green ".zip" links in the post on Nobi's weblog)

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Papercraft Star Trek Galileo 5 shuttle working model WIP


A quick update on my papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft; I've been working on the hull and the impulse engines as you can see, and the little 'wings' on the sides. The back panel was tricky, because as I showed you in the last post, the sources don't really agree on its exact shape...

So I used my own interpretation, and I also wanted to make it in such a way that it would be part of the shape of the impulse engines. I like how it turned out, and although the impulse engines are not finished yet, I like the shape they have. They still need to the front and back edges, and the nacelles need to be added, and then this working model is pretty much already done! 🚀😃

When I have drawn out all the parts, I will scan them and do a first test build, to check if everything fits properly with glueing tabs instead of painter's tape before I colour it.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Getting a papercraft Star Trek shuttle shipshape?


So, a quick note about me making my papercraft Star Trek models; most of them (except The Next Generation's Enterprise-D) I made by hand, drawing the papercraft pieces on a piece of paper, then testing whether they fit and if they do, colouring them and then scanning them to make papercraft templates to print.

To do so, I just print views of the top, bottom, front, back and side views of the model I want to make in the scale that I want to make it (for the Galileo 5, I'm aiming at a scale of 1:48, which would make the papercraft about 19 cm long) so that I can easily get 1:1 measurements of those for the papercraft. But the thing with Star Trek ships, is that more often than not, no two schematics for the same ship are the same... 😆

Sure, the overall shape is the same, but details and sizes usually have differences between sources. There are not a lot of schematics for the Galileo 5 shuttlecraft to begin with, but I found some schematics on the Starship Schematics Database, three views from on the Federation Star Ship Datalink and even an Okudagram included with the Eaglemoss Star Trek model of the Galileo 5 shuttle, and as you can see in the image above they all have small differences...

The side view and the schematic seem to be closer related than the Okudagram, and because the schematics come as a full set of views (the coloured views are missing a bottom and a top view, and the Okudagram is only a section view) I decided to work from those.

Of course I also found lots of reference pictures, which (as usual 😉) show some differences. On this picture of a studio model on ST-Bilder.de the front on the nacelles is rounded instead of square, while the impulse engines on the studio model have more sharper angles than shown in the schematics for example:


Like I said, I'll be drawing the parts just by hand, so it will by no means be a perfect scale model of the studio model anyway, and with all this in mind (I papercraft just for fun 😉) the final paper model will be more of an amalgamation of several sources and my own interpretation. 😇

So I started trying the basic shipshape, well, shipshape. 😉


With the measurements from the 1:48 scale schematics, I made a structure that I can 'skin' with paper, and those will be the 2D parts that I will draw on a piece of paper to scan later on to make digital papercraft templates. For models like this that are pretty much symmetrical, I usually also only make one side that I can then simply mirror in Photoshop to make a complete model. If I were to draw both sides separately, I would probably not be able to draw an exact mirror image, and then in the end I would probably have a lobsided shuttlecraft...😉

Stay tuned!

Cleaned up & colourized versions of Dennis Kauth scifi tabletop game ATV & spacecraft card models


Remember a little while ago I mentioned the scifi tabletop game vehicles that Roebeast got from the friends of Dennis Kauth (link)?

Thomas let me know again via the Star Frontiers: Alive & Well Facebook group that now you can download cleaned up versions directly from Roebeast's Magical House of Sunshine (courtesy of Ruben, who also provided the built pictures so you can see what they look like when assembled) and even a colourized version that Roebeast made of them!

Download + build your own cleaned up and colourized versions of Dennis Kauth scifi card models (by Roebeast's Magical House of Sunshine):
https://roebeast.blogspot.com/2019/11/digitally-colored-version-of-kauth-atv.html

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Next papercraft: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Galileo 5 shuttlecraft


So with another papercraft done (link), I’m thinking about the next one. So far, my five newest papercrafts have all been made using the computer and Pepakura Designer, so I really feel like making one by hand using just a pencil and a piece of paper again. And what better subject for that than a new Star Trek model! (I want to try to update all the categories on my papercraft webpage with new papercrafts again to breathe some life into them again; my latest Star Trek papercraft is from 2008!) 🚀

I don't want to make one of the big starships though, so I chose the Galileo 5 shuttlecraft from The Final Frontier movie. I never really watched The Original Series, but I do enjoy the movies and I thought this shuttlecraft actually looks quite Next Generation-ish. 😉

I think I will be working on that side by side with a new Tomb Raider vignette; I have so many ideas for new Tomb Raider papercrafts now that I think I should really get some of them done because the ideas just keep piling up... I’ve  actually been playing the classic Tombraider games up to Chronicles the past few weeks and months, and Legend and Angel of Darkness before that so yeah: lots of ideas. 😉 Some of them I’ve actually been thinking about ever since I made the Home Sweet Home vignette (link) and which I actually worked on a bit already, so it makes sense to finish one of those first, but we’ll see.

Stay tuned!

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Free papercraft Final Fantasy X Iron Giant RELEASE



I finished the instructions, made a release video, and uploaded the Iron Giant parts to my papercraft webpage to download for free. 😊

He was fun to make, despite my initial concerns that he might end up too small because I had to fit some very large parts on A4 sheets of paper for home printing. But in the end, I ended up liking his 'bulky' size. He reminds me of other 'golems' like Pokémon's Golurk or Battle Chasers' Calibretto:

 a Pokémon Golurk or Battle Chasers Calibretto, a Final Fantasy Iron Giant does not make... 😉

But of course, he's nothing alike! (well... 😉) I wasn't able to make him to scale with my other Final Fantasy X papercrafts, but I hope you like him nonetheless!






Download + build your own free papercraft Final Fantasy X Iron Giant:


Have fun building!

Friday, November 15, 2019

Download this Trojan Horse now! It's free - and it's just a papercraft ;o)


Most people think they know the story of the famous Trojan Horse from the classical epic the Iliad by the Greek poet Homer,  which after all is all about the Trojan War - even though the story of Odysseus' trick to hide a group of Greek soldiers inside a giant wooden horse left after the Greeks pretend to sail home in their ships, to get the Trojans to take the horse into their city as a prize so the group can sneak out at night and open the city gates for the main army is never mentioned in what we're left with of Homer's epic. 🐴

Download + build your own free papercraft Trojan Horse (+lots more, by Niku Mansei):
https://www.niku-mansei.com/contents/05club/club02paper_craft.html

(please note: my antivirus software didn't find any problems, but of course I can not be held accountable if you decide to download a Trojan Horse from the internet to your computer! 😇)

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

papercraft Final Fantasy X Lulu vs Paper Giant


The instructions are coming along nicely, but for everybody (anybody? 😆) wondering about the size of the Iron Giant compared to my other papercrafts like Lulu, here's a picture (Lulu is about 24 cm tall).

So you can see the Iron Giant is not so tall, despite needing 15 sheets of paper; the large parts are pretty nice to handle though, compared to some of Puppet Zelda's for example! 😉

Friday, November 8, 2019

Thursday, November 7, 2019

free papercraft Panhard EBR 75 armoured vehicle


"World of Tanks"? More like world of World of Free Papercraft Armoured Vehicles, amirite? 😁

Download + build your own free papercraft Panhard EBR 75 armoured vehicle (+lots more, by World of Tanks):
https://worldoftanks.ru/ru/media/10/