Brian Papercraft: 2018

Friday, October 12, 2018

Robot/Mecha Papercraft 2:11 AM

[Premium] Shin Musha Gundam Papercraft ver. Ette

by Brian Papercraft

Shin Musha Gundam papercraft

Designer: Ette

Builder: Forsythia papercraft

Based on the Samurai Motif, Shin Musha Gundam can be seen as a famous upgraded version of the Musha Gundam. The idea of putting an RX-78-2 Gundam in a Samurai Armor turns out to be a great idea. The models look hard on themselves, sturdy and robust (both the Musha Gundam and the Shin Mushan Gundam).

Musha Gundam and Shin Musha Gundam

Samurai armor on the Shin Musha Gundam is much more detailed than the Musha Gundam with more patterns. The armor is also redesigned with more zigzag lines instead of parallel lines. This design gives us a feeling of an elaborate armor with many pieces putting together (the waist is a typical example). The shoulder plates bend a little to give it a smooth look. Pipes are also added for more curves.

I think It's enough about the Gundam. Now, let's talk about the papercraft. This model is designed by Ette - a famous papercraft designer from Korea. After many premium Gundam Papercrafts have been shared widely on the internet, the Korean Papercraft community decided to shut the door for foreigners. Only Korean (or people who live in Korea) can join their community and get or buy models from Korean designers. You can still find many of Ette's designs on the internet. They were premium models. But after years of being shared without any authority, they can be considered as free models.

I haven't seen any Ette's papercraft in a long time until Forsythia shares his work of this Shin Musha Gundam on Facebook. There're some versions of Shin Musha Papercraft, but I can say that this one is the best of all.

The model is 50cm tall from head to toe and 77cm tall with weapons included (well, or you can say in a different way that It's 50cm tall with 77cm halberd and spear). This papercraft is designed to be fully articulated, but Forsythia wants a firm and durable model, so he didn't make movable joints. The only moving thing in this build is the head, It can turn right and left (I believe It's because the head is separated from the body so we can put it at any horizontal view that we want). I really want to see him wielding his Katana or posing with the halberd, but this is the best we have.

"What? Are you talking about me?"

Weapons for this Gundam includes a percussion pistol, a 77cm long halberd (freaking long for a papercraft), a Naginata spear and a Katana. These weapons can be stored on the backpack of the Gundam, except for the Katana. It will be attached to the waist. The halberd can be used as the third leg that helps the model stand firmly on the ground with no stand-base needed.

I really like the way he makes the curved blades and the handle of the pistol. It's designed to hide the paper's edge when gluing pieces together. That design will help the paper model looks so subtle and elegant. But then there's a thing that makes me feel really uncomfortable: the Katana. I know that Ette wants to follow the original design of that Katana. But this one is way too simple indeed. I Believe he can add more details on the pommel, the cord wrap on the handle and the scabbard, but I don't understand why he didn't. I feel like this Kantana is from Minecraft instead. It doesn't match the rest of the model at all.

Well, If you put that aside, this is a perfect model. There's a thing that I can not forget to mention about this build by Forsythia. Take a look at the shoulders to see if you can find it... Yes, those are real pipes. It was designed to be paper pipes (just like others), but Forsythia replaced them with craft wires. It was very creative and perfectly matches the model. No matter how good you are, you can never make curved pipes without leaving some marks of gluing. So this is a perfect replacement.

Just compare pipes on the shoulders and those are on the legs to see the difference.

There's another thing about this build that I really like: the use of gold decals. I don't know what kind of decal or paper is that, but It's beautiful.

There're a lot of gold decals was used all over the model. But the head part gives me the best feeling above all. Those little gold and shiny lines really pop it up. Red armors with gold border lines create the effect of luxury, elegance and royalty. I also like the way he makes curved part of the helmet. Because in my opinion: Gundam's curves are beautiful.

Here are some more pictures of this Gundam papercraft. At the end of this blog is the information for you if you want to buy it:

In the past, this papercraft is restricted to Korean only. But now you can buy it for 70$. Contact Forsythia (click on his name to get the link) as he is selling this on behalf of Ette himself. I hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Robot/Mecha Papercraft 8:10 PM

[Premium] Barbatos Lupus Rex Gundam Papercraft ver. Hikaru11

by Brian Papercraft

Barbatos Lupus Rex Gundam papercraft

Designer: Hirasawa Hikaru

Builder: Xiangpeng Chen

A few days ago, I saw this Barbatos Lupus Rex Papercraft on Facebook. It looks fantastic, and I thought I had to share this on my blog.

Talking about IBO Gundams, At the moment I can list some Gundams that are released like: Barbatos (ver. ART, ver. Amim, ver. Kai), Barbatos Lupus (ver.ART, ver. Hikaru11, ver. Amim), Barbatos Lupus Rex (ver. ART, ver. Hikaru 11), Vidar (ver. ART, ver. Hikaru11), Astaroth (ver. Gom Tting-e), Gusion Rebake Full city (ver. Hikaru11). This list doesn't contain all the designs out there and does not include SD versions. Our model today is the Barbatos Lupus Rex ver. Hikaru 11.

In case you don't know, Hirasawa Hikaru is an Indonesian Papercraft designer. He has a lot of Gundam designs and many IBO Gundams (as in the list above). And for Xiangpeng Chen, a Singaporean Papercraft Enthusiast. He built many Papercraft, and they're excellent, including this one.

The Papercraft will cost you $35 to buy. Contact the designer if you want to buy it. The Papercraft has its own inner frame just like the Gunpla, and then will be covered by white armor.

Even the Inner frame itself is a masterpiece.

Just look at this arm...

After making all these parts (quite time-consuming), the next thing is to make all the white, yellow, blue, red,.. parts. Then comes the most interesting and satisfying step: glue them together.

From this...

...to this...

Or this...

... to this. Oh, and It comes with a base (It can help to hold the mace too).

The bad news is that Xiangpeng Chen decided not to make the mace so we couldn't see him posing with it. What a waste because all joints are movable. I want to see more pose from this. Of course, I couldn't stand well like Gunpla, but some basic heroic poses are obviously possible.

Detailed enough? Not until you see this. It has a cockpit that can actually open. Not sure what we can make use of it, but It's totally amazing.

You can actually put a mini figure inside this cockpit as a pilot

( Or as in the anime, it has enough space for 2 people. If you know what I mean)

Here are some pictures of the completed model. After all, Xiangpeng Chen did a great job making this Gundam. So neat and clean.Not sure If I can ever make one like this in my life. I'm way too lazy. LOL.

Thank you for reading! One last thing, this is a premium model, so if you want to buy it, buy it from the designer to support him and don't share, exchange or re-sell the template. For a greater good!

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Robot/Mecha Papercraft 8:39 AM

[Free Template] RX 78-2 Gundam Papercraft ver. Juancho Aran

by Brian Papercraft

Hello everyone! Long time no see. How are you today? I haven't written any blog recently, so I want to start writing now. Begin with this excellent RX 78-2 Gundam Papercraft.

RX 78-2 Gundam Papercraft

Designer: Juancho Aran

Builder: Ngọc Nguyễn

This model was designed by Juancho Aran a long time ago, and It was not free back then. But then he decided to share his model freely because he doesn't want people to trade his model for other premium Papercrafts.

RX 78-2 is a very old Gundam, and you can find many free templates for it. But Juancho Aran's design takes this old-fashioned Gundam to the next level. I will compare his model to a free version of Hide.

On the left is the RX 78-2 designed by Hide, built by Rarra, and on the right is our Juancho Aran's version, built by Ngọc Nguyễn

In my opinion, both of them are good. Hide's design is almost like the original Gundam in anime, while Aran brings us a sexier RX 78-2 Gundam with smaller feet and a thinner body.

Which one is better in your opinion? Some may like the first one, some will send love for Aran's version. I love them both. But because in this blog, I want to share Juancho Aran's model, I will show you more about his design.

The Gundam is divided into 9 parts: Head, Body, Waist, Legs, Arms, Backpack, Shield, Rifle and Bazooka. The template will take you 37 pages in total. One thing about the template is that Aran didn't mark the color of every page in his template. So you will have to look at the Color guide on the very first page to know what color you should print the page in (for example, pages 2-14 must be printed in White, 15-26 in Dark gray,...).

You can find the Color guide and some instructions in the lower right corner on the first page of the template (as above)

Well, I think It's enough. Below are some pictures of the finished model made by a Vietnamese maker Ngọc Nguyễn and some of his progress. Oh, and by the way, you can find the download links for both Papercrafts (Hide's and Aran's) at the bottom of the post. Have fun and enjoy!

NOW, FINAL PRODUCT:

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own this design nor building this papercraft. This is the work of others that I mentioned at the top of this post. The template is shared by the designer.

Hide's RX 78-2: Click to download

Juancho Aran's RX 78-2: Click to download

Password: brian_papercraft