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My Scratch Build Papercraft Projects

FOO FIGHTER Boxhead Project
Its been awhile since I've created anything out of paper... the Megazord project was scrapped, or put aside in the prototype bin :) Pretty much the only things I can get done completely and looking pretty are these boxhead models. I've made 8 of my own creations, 1 of which you can download (i'll have the They Might Be Giants ones up soon). The main reason I create these are for gifts for people... birthdays and such. The Giants ones were for my-now-girlfriend because they were her favourite band and I knew she'd love them. Its another friends 21st birthday coming up and she's a major Foo Fighter fan, so I've started planning, gathering pictures and sketching designs for this 4 piece. This means 2 more boxhead people that usual, which means more work! But I have until late December to get them done so thats about 5 months... hopefully thats plenty of time :)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Dinozord Megazord Project - SCRAPPED :(

Once I finished the GGG prototype, I went looking for a new robot to build. I remembered during the last couple of years in my primary school days when Power Rangers [PR] first aired on TV. The show was pretty crap and you had to watch a whole 20 minutes of it just to get to the bit where they summon their Zords and start bashing the baddies! If you are uninformed of the PR phenomenom, it was a group of teenagers who were chosen to protect the Earth from evil, they had the powers of different creatures and controlled giant mechanical creatures [Zords] corresponding to their individual powers. These Zords then usually combined to form a larger more powerful Zord called a Megazord. Other special Zords, like Dragon Zord and White Tiger Zord could perform special transformations with the Megazord and create even more powerful Zord creations usually labelled Mega Ultrazord or Mega Dragonzord etc. I've researched the PR series and discovered that the franchise didn't stop in the mid 90's it has kept growing and has created a many different series [Time Force, Light Speed, PR in Space, Wild Force and many others]. I have however stuck to Zords from the first season of the original American TV series, Might Morphin Power Rangers [MMPR]. This included the 5 dinozords - T Rex, Mastodon [mammoth], Triceratops, Pteradactyl and the Sabretooth Tiger. These combined to form Megazord [Mega Dinozord?].

So I've taken upon the challenge to create these 5 zords as transformable paper models so they can combine into Megazord. I have decided to restrict the ammount of detail in this project, making this robot somewhat blocky and simple looking, almost Hako style. At the momment I am in the design stage, drawing up many images of each zord and how they can combine with each other. Watch this space for upcomming progress reports:

Currently the design of the basic body of both the legs [Triceratops & Sabretooth] are complete, and am now trying to work out the body and arms of the megazord [T-Rex & Mastodon].

GaoGaiGar Final Project

Update: 17st April Prototype build 100% complete!!

I finally got my MMS feature working properly on my new phone and managed to send a photo to my email address... & its finally finished!! [well almost, the hands aren't done]. There are a couple of design flaws which need to be ironed out, but most of it has to do with how I unfolded it in pepakura. The only major problem with the actual design of the robot is the knees. I don't know why I didn't see this before, but thats what a prototype is for right!? Anyway because its just made out of ordinary A4 paper the whole weight of the thing from the knees up is a wee heavy, and the paper has bent and now the body is leaning back slightly & is starting to do the splits. This might be fixed with the addition of the hands which might shift some of the weight forward thus making him stand straight again. But if this doesn't work [which I don't think it will] I'll need to redesign this joint, reinforcing it somehow. So all that needs doing now is to iron out the flaws then start work on colouring the thing in and packing up in a PDF for yall to share and enjoy. This is a long way off yet, but I hope to have this finished. Don't know if it will happen, I may just ship it as a black & white version... I hope not though. Oh and by the way if your wondering how big this thing is... its stands just over 40cm tall and its wing span is also just ove the 40cm mark.... a giant cube :)

The 2 images on the right is the final "skeleton" base that it has. As I print/build my models on plain-old office A4 paper, I have to take its strength into consideration. Relying on an empty shell alone might not be very wise. All the other bits attach onto the "skeleton".

A close up of the head and arm/hand. The hands look pretty stiff, but I'm guessing it mightunfold better being like this, but as you can see each joint in the finger has a V-shaped gap in which I left so that the hand can fold up and be a partial fist.

A close up of the waist area and one of its legs.

My main resource I have to base my scratch build on is a stack of pictures of the toy and in my toy section].

As you can see I've built it in a relaxed standing pose... legs slightly spreadout & feet pointing outwards, arms to its side with its palms facing frontwards. I'm considering creating extra parts that are interchangable to change its pose or maybe another model entirely with a different pose, but its just a thought at the momment. If this model works out, I will consider building its weapon.

I haven't got any links or anything at the momment, but I will...

Boxhead/Hako-clone

click me to download! I'm in .png format!

His name is Bad Ben. He's a made up character I had in my head. He's pretty cool to have sitting on your desk.


They Might Be Giants Boxhead Style!!

Its my friends 21st birthday and she is a big TMBG fan. I decided to create some boxhead style John & John's for her. Well I've finished them both, and damn they are cool! Stay tuned for a download for them :)

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's project.

I've completed Karen O [lead singer] and I don't know whether I'll complete the rest of the band...


Veritech project...

Now that I have some pictures of it to show you, I have dedicated a whole 'row' for it. As you can see its very small and well partially incomplete. Yep thats right it doesn't have a head. I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the head to fold up with the limited space that I had. The wings don't fold up with it either... which is a bummer, but hey its just a prototype. Its made out of an empty cereal box and some grid paper... I didn't want to use my good card :) As you can see "it does stand"... just. I'll need to make the feet a little bigger to stop it from toppling over forward or back. The arms are fine, except that they can't rotate... it has to do with how they fold up to transform. What I am very happy with is the body/nose part of it. That little tab behind the cockpit that you can see in the first picture, holds the whole front part of it horizontal with the body when in fighter mode. However when in battloid mode there isn't anything to keep the nose down, as cardboard doesn't like being told were to bend. The last few months of this year are getting a little busy so I probably won't work on it again until next year. I'm kind of having a break from building models for awhile... plus its getting a little hot in the southern hemisphere... going into summer and all, and building models with sweaty hands isn't good. I'd like to finish this model as it has good potential... maybe i'll make it a little bigger next time :) hehe

Macross Destroid Monster

Update: 17th October SCRATCH BUILD MOST PROBABLY ABORTED

I was both dreading and desperately waiting for this moment, and the day has come for me to put down my monster scratch building gloves and turn to another project. I said 'most probably', because at a later date I may try to convert the model I was working on into a Hako or SD style model. Its probably unlikely. It's more likely I'll set my sights a little to the left and consider building some of the other destroids, like the Spartan or Tomahawk.

Anyway, here's the link to get the professionally made Monster if you missed it.

Anyway if your wondering, I was stuck again in my scratch build of the Destroid Monster. I completed the arms, legs and body and am stuck trying to attach the 4 big turrets on top of the body. Mine keep going limp and it looks crap. The Monster from the convention looks like the turrents are held fast by the curved pieces of paper. I might have to make holes in the top of the body fo the turrets to sit in and reinforce them even further. Why? you ask. Well I'm not building this Monster for use with cardstock. Sure it can be used with cardstock, but I'm building it with normal A4 paper in mind, so my paper strength is weaker.

Other than that the majority of the bulky stuff is complete and perfect. It needs some work on maybe rebuilding some parts or adding smaller parts to give it more detail. After that its just a matter of colouring it in [which probably means building it in Maya and exporting to Pepakura and then going crazy in Photoshop], then creating instructions and packing it up in a pdf for yall to share!

I need to re-design the axel/hip area again because the legs don't sit there properly. The circular part should be completly in line with the circular part of the axle, but the chunky compartment on the back gets in the way. I'm thinking of incorporating an actual axle into the hip so you can tilt the Monster's body up or down.

I'm happy with the upper legs [although it was a dodgy attempt to recreate them in 3D: curves and polygons don't go hand in hand]. The arms are a great success as there will be articulation at the shoulders and elbow so you'll be able to point the arm turrets pretty much anywhere. I'm building the prototype out of grid paper from my old maths school book and the paper is pretty thin so the rotation joints didn't work very well and need to be made out of thicker card. I might consider making two versions: one with articulation and another without, depending on whether people have access to print on thicker card. Dunno its just a thought.

As my scanner is busted and in the bin, the images on this page are render shots of a 3D version of the model I made in Maya.

Thanks to some guy on the Smartgroups Papermodel group he provided a heap of reference material, i've forgotten most of the links now, but here are a few that fans of macross/robotech toys/models should check out:

http://www.me.umn.edu/~ngo/macross.html

direct link to monster

http://www.me.umn.edu/~ngo/monster.html

macross mecha design site

http://www.steelfalcon.com/macrossmecha.html

paperandglue© copyright Phillip Sabolta 2002

All models and images have the rights of their respective owners. I make no income or any sort of benefit from this site. ENJOY!!!