Papercraft again!

Papercrafting - making things with paper - is a really accessible and satisfying hobby. It doesn't take much to get started, isn't particularly difficult to execute, and what's possible is only really limited by how much effort and time you want to invest.

I have been missing having a decent printer for a while now, so when it came to my birthday time, I got myself a new, second-hand Brother printer. It is one of the newer ink well-type affairs (INKvestment as Brother calls it), so while the colours might not be as fantastic as some, it more than makes up for volume. Also, it's a big boy that can print A3 size paper.

So what have I been doing with my new printer? Glad you asked: making paper models. I hadn't made a paper model for a long time, then a few months back I made the monastery for reasons, which I really enjoyed AND it turned out a treat. I used our (ancient) Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM215fw Laser Printer for that job. Laser Printers can be rather cool however there are some things about them that do suck a bit. Firstly, they're typically expensive, especially if you want one that can accommodate lots of things. Our one can't handle any sort of card* which makes it less than ideal for papercraft projects.

*card or cardstock is a denser and thicker paper than you'd normally see used in a printer. Paper's given a weight value, and the normal paper you'd use in an office setting is about 80gms. When doing paper modeling, you typically employ something like 200-240gms weight card with about 300gms being the heaviest 'paper' available. 

To get back into the swing of things, my first model was the Genet Ebbles M722 LEV an APC with more than a passing resemblance to the M577 Armored Personnel Carrier used in the Aliens movie.

The paper model consists of 9 A4 pages and ends up being 58x95x184cm in size. Sure the transaxle might be a bit sensitive, but it comes with a removable roof, sliding doors, stowable turret, and removable troop seating - I'm sounding like a car salesman!

Now it had been many years since I attempted a paper model this complicated and, in truth, I had forgotten just how clever and tricky they can be. For example, the wheel arches are double sided giving the model some real volume and size - basically making for a better model than you'd probably expect. 

Here are a few pics of the construction process:

I tried a magnet to hold on of the wheels - it worked okay
but not really necessary

Here the APC is flipped onto its roof. you can get a bit of a sense
of the shapes that fit together to make it.

Here's the interior floor before the sheets have been fitted.

And the floor with seats. I included a little tab so I could
more easily lift out this false floor if I wanted.

Plenty of room for some troopers and even more when the floor is removed.

It is a great model, one I can definitely see myself trying again. This particular construction wasn't without error but nothing of much note in the grand scheme of things.