Making a papercraft Critter

Papercraft! It’s sort of like origami, but with less rules. And more glue. It’s making models on the cheap, and it’s pretty cool.

Hey! Adam Walker Studio make papercraft kits and templates! Let’s check ‘em out, and I’ll take you through the process of constructing one of our more popular models, a Critter from Arcade Trap.

What you’ll need!

-The paper template, printed onto sturdy, thicker-than-average paper. Download the Critter template and more from the Adam Walker Studio papercraft site.
-A sharp hobby knife/scalpel/stanley knife
-Glue - hobby glue works, a glue stick is perfect
-A ruler for making accurate cuts if you’re a bit shaky
-Something to score paper with. You want something sharp enough to make defined creases into the paper, but not sharp enough to actually cut through
-Patience, and the right attitude. Calm down!

Let’s get started!

Ready to get into some craftin’!

Kit used to make the paper craft

I decided to start by making the grass section of the model, as it’s the simplest part, yet requires the most heavy-duty gluing. Follow the instructions by cutting out the model, folding it in half, and then gluing it together. Finally, cut around the white lines and slot the pieces together. So lifelike!

Grass pieces cut out

Grass glued to make it more rigid

The completed grass

Onto the Critter itself. Here’s a tip from a pro (me): cut out all of the parts, but in the instances where tabs and flaps on the pieces are numbered, pencil the numbers lightly onto the reverse of the tab. This way, you can have everything cut out and ready, without worrying about losing track of the different parts’ orientations. That makes sense, right?

Anyway, once you have the parts cut out, start gluing the appropriate tabs and flaps to where they’re all meant to go. Or hey, why not freeform and stick them where you want? Don’t let The Man tell you how to make YOUR model!

Critter Parts cut out

Cutting the teeth out

Working on the papermodel

Gluing the individual pieces together

Man, hands are hard! So tiny, so fiddly. This is where scoring the fold lines comes in handy. That way, the paper bends MUCH more easily, precisely where you want it to.

Gluing the Critter’s hands

See those little feet in the back? I packed them with plasticine to add sturdiness and weight to the base of the model. MY Critter’s not gonna fall over anytime soon!

Glued individual parts

The top of the Critter’s Head

I quite like this look, as if my little buddy here’s about to happily gum me to death.

The almost finished Critter (awaiting some eyes)

And there you have it! The beauty of DIY papercraft is that you can print stuff out any size, and so long as you make sure that all the parts are printed to the same scale, make super-huge or super-tiny versions of your models. For reference, I printed the Critter instructions to an A4 page, but he would have been a bit easier had I started bigger.

Finished Critter (and friends)

How did he put these glasses on? Clearly his arms aren’t long enough to place anything onto his own head or face. Clearly the work of a meanie.

“Hey Wow! You look 3D.

AWS make a range of papercraft templates that you can download for free here, and if you want to check out more papercraft, check out some of these links:

http://paperkraft.blogspot.com/
http://www.papercraftmuseum.com/
http://papercraft-world.blogspot.com/