Paper Structure Kits

[mags_minibuilds]

Does anyone have experience building these paper kits from a PDF file?

https://paperstructure.jimdofree.com/ショップ-昭和の建物/

 

How difficult are they to build? Is it preferable to have it laser printed at a copy store or printed at home on an inkjet printer? I'm located in California, what kind of paper would be comparable to they one they are suggesting (cardstock that is 0.20mm or thicker)? Lastly, does anyone have photos of their completed structures in a layout?

 

Thanks!

[cteno4]

ZandT,

 

printable papercraft can work quite well, but they require some practice to get good at them, but luckily being printable you cna always reprint any screw ups. They will never give exactly the same look as moulded plastic, more 3d scratch built or laser cut models like sankei, but with some added detail and taking the time to do a few layers and cut out windows and doors to give some depth with extra layers you can make them pop. The use of printed shading and details can help fool the eye at a distance there is a lot of relief going on , but as you get closer that effect can fade and things start looking flat. It’s amazing what just a little 3d physical relief will do to the eye.

 

building is a matter of a lot of cutting pit pieces with an xacto knife and some glue (double stick tape or transfer adhesive are helpful on some parts) and some practice and patience. They have a few free downloads so you can print some out and give it a whirl to see how you like building them and their look and what it woild take to build them to last and to your needs

 

https://paperstructure.jimdofree.com/フリー-無料展開図/
 

what I think they are best for is to get a range of building done quickly and cheaply to figure out what sort of scene you want to set. Let’s you have a lot of building with little investment past some time and ink. Just build them simply for short term use in planning then replace them with similar regular plastic building or rebuild some with more detail and to last. A few of their buildings are very unique and would require scratch building. These can also be guides to scratch building or kitbashing. Could also fill in a back scene where it’s far enough away you don’t notice the flat effect much at all, but again the overall color balance and stile may clash if you have a lot of segregation going on.

 

few issues to deal with:

• The color balance relative to moulded models which tend to have more muted colors, this series of printable paper craft are a bit bold in their color palette. you can try to desaturate in a graphics program.
• Printing on 80 or 100lb card stock is the usual and most printers, except some laserprinter with convoluted paper paths which, at times, they don’t like heavier papers. You can get A4 sized paper easily in the us, just a bit more expensive. 
• The biggest issue when doing cardstock buildings for a long life is they need to be sealed well with something like an acrylic spray matte to help prevent moisture and help protect the inks. The inks can be susceptible to aging and uv fading so best use some archival inks if you want these to last the best. Inks and sealers can also then cause some cracking on folds so you have to test your materials to look out for this and then devise solutions for it.
• Figure in your ink costs. These are pretty much full page prints on a lot of the sheets and some folks ink costs are quite high.
• Sagging and warping with time can be an issue. To prevent this for long term use it takes some extra effort to either glue up multiple layers of card stock (which you can do some cutouts of doors and windows to give some depth relief). or you can back the walls with chipboards and cardboards to beef them up.
• One disadvantage to these kind of printable papercraft is you can’t light them. Trying to light seal them would be tough and you would need to cut out all the windows to do real windows and that may fight with the printed relief effect.
• Since you print these on white paper you need to deal with the cut white edges that will be visible at joints and such. Usually sung colored pencils or markers can help blunt the white and blend with the colors around it. Take care if using markers as some will wick into the edges and bleed color.

dowload a freebie and give it a whack for yourself!

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Paper structures can look pretty good if done right. This is John Kosma's Gypsy Trolley Line and I'm pretty sure that most if not all of the buildings are paper structures, many scratch built from photos John has taken of buildings in the Milwaukee area. One of my favourite little layouts.