My Siege Tank Model is Tearable

Let me just state beforehand, I do not own any of the content (the design of the papercraft, the design and blueprint of the siege tank from StarCraft II and the viewing software). I obtained all of these online through various websites and it's only for recreational purposes. So without further ado, this is my experience for making my very first papercraft and I hope this helps those of you who are considering making one as well.

This blog came about a year late because I typed it and took the pictures but then just forgot about it till recently so apology for that haha

1. Gather the materials:

-Papercraft pattern 

 I downloaded mine here online and this guy does some StarCraft II specific ones, it's in Korean.

(the file type should be .pdo) The link might be gone already so feel free to ask me for the file. 

-Software to open the patterns

I used Pepakura Viewer 3 

unfortunately it only works on Windows, but it allows you to see the 3D layout of the model and you can click on a few parts together at the same time to see which things goes with which.

-Scissor and knife

to cut the parts out of the paper

-Glue

I just used normal liquid crafting glue. It's generally better to go with "quick drying" or "tacky"

-Choice of paper

Based on several papercrafting sites I've looked on, generally you want to get paper that's about 120 gsm (grams per squared meter) so it's thick enough to handle the folding. I used normal cheap printer paper (~80 gsm). It made the whole process a little more difficult but I didn't have to pay for anything

-A good working environment

You want to find a location that is both well lit and flat. Also make sure your pet can't get to it.

2. Print Out the Pattern

Using color printing would make the end product look nice. I did mine the economic way aka black and white everything.

3. Cutting Out the Pieces

Between step 3-5 I actually repeated the process over and over again for each individual page because this specific pattern you can do that (ex. first page is the body of the tank and the things that go on top of it, and second page is the part that is directly under the body), I imagine not all patterns are like this. Cutting all of the pieces and then moving on to the next step is also an option.

This is probably the second hardest step of this whole process, behind only step 4. If you printed this out in color you should have an easier time cutting. I did not. Black and white make the lines hard to see and I made some mistakes here and there because of that. Another thing to keep in mind is to leave more than enough space for gluing. I personally thought what the original designer left was not enough so for each of my pieces I purposely cut the gluing space twice as large just so I can feel safe.

the space is too small for my clumsy hands to glue

an example of a cut out piece

4. Making the 3D Blocks

As I mentioned this is the hardest part and for the siege tank one the later pages are the harder ones to glue so you're gonna need your patience at the end.

size comparison to a penny on one of the smaller parts

5. Gluing the Blocks Together

Seeing the blocks one by one coming together is the coolest thing because everything just fits together. But sometimes you just can't glue the blocks right and they turn out kind of twisted. solution? Add more glue to the surface so it sticks. Just don't go overboard though, because it is paper after all. 

one of the pieces with glue on it

almost there

working environment/layout of the software

6. Admire Your Masterpiece/Find a Place For It

I haven't had time to go get a case for mine from Hobby Lobby, but when I get a chance I will. There is no way I'm gonna let this thing get ruined... I spent too much time on it haha. Here's a link to the Instagram video of it.