Friday, April 16, 2021

Blue Diamond (Steven Universe) built papercraft



The Steven Universe cartoon series is sadly over for some time now, BUT that doesn’t mean that the fans are over the hype and everything it teaches us. No freaking way! One of the most epic series in a long time, and I really enjoyed every single episode of it. And as it was in these long lockdown days, I was re-hyping myself for the series again and watching some of the best song clips online, when I decided to make my favorite Diamond of the main 4, of which I have made all 4 as papercrafts, but I also wanted to have one built and standing in my showcase.

So, I decided to make my Blue Diamond papercraft. Why? I think she is the most awesome out of all 4, for me personally. Just the esthetics of the few first episodes it showed her, the mystics behind it, the first shown Diamond in the cartoon, her power, the sheer endless sadness she expressed with her presence, the 80s anime silhouette that immediately reminded me of beautiful old anime movies such as “The Last Unicorn”, “Capitan Harlock” or “Interstella5555”, it was love at first site really. And that’s a pretty rare thing for me, since I probably watched (no kidding) over 100.000 different anime/cartoons + counting, and you can’t pull me on the “totally love it” side with most of them. But this one hit the spot :)

Blue Diamond 
Moving on to the assembly, the papercraft of Blue Diamond is unfolded to about 40 cm, since she IS a Diamond and huge, and it’s a great height to comfortably put together all parts. That being said, the only small parts that can be fiddly are the nose and the fingers, other than that it is mostly a walk in the part.

As always, I started making the face first (with the neck), and then the hair around. I finished the hair about ½ through, since I didn’t want to close it already, before finishing and attaching the head on the upper torso part, because trust me, you want to make the torso first and then attach the head. Really easier that way. So, I moved on to make her hands separately, to get that out of the way, and then the whole arms with the hands. Next came the top torso part of the body till the hips, so I had enough to attach the finished arms on it.

Once you have the upper torso with the finished hands and the separate head with half the hair, you can attach both parts together at the neck. Just push the neck with the flaps inside the torso hole, and smear the flaps from the inside of the torso with glue. Once the glue is on, fold them on the inside of the torso to glue it where it belongs, and you have yourself half of the papercraft finished.

Once the head is on the torso and the glue dries, make sure to reinforce the neck with additional jammed-up paper on the inside, so you make sure the neck doesn’t snap. I did that with the leftover paper from cutting out the template pieces, as always, so you can integrate those pieces without making any additional trash, which is always nice.

Now that the torso and the head are firmly attached and reinforced, I finished the rest of the hair on the back and closed it. Make sure to take extra time to glue the last piece on, flap by flap, since it can get a bit fiddly closing it like this. BUT since the back hair are very close to the torso, believe me, it is way easier to make it with these steps, than just building it all in 1 and then gluing it on, because you can get some problems gluing the arms on like that.

All that was left to do was to make the rest of the dress and close it. Again, since the dress pieces are the biggest of all of the template pieces, be sure to get a firm grip on those inside flaps, so it’s really neatly put together. Since I got small hands and fingers, I mostly do everything by hand, but I definitely suggest using other tools to help yourself if you can’t reach parts (such as sticks, tweezers, rulers, etc…).

And once you close the dress at the bottom, you got yourself you owl Blue Diamond. She stands perfectly, since the dress has a big surface and it’s flat and the upper body is in sync with everything. So, there is no need to additionally put weights in it, but you can always do so if you want to be 1000% sure. But it won’t fall over so easily even without.

And there you go, as you can see from the pictures, my own built and assembled Blue Diamond. It is the design of the older series, since I made her around the 2. season… probably, where she was still unhappy and miserable. BUT that’s the Blue I fell in love with, since these kinds of esthetics are really appealing to me, and the pose is also somewhat like an icon.

*Btw. also added some plastic sparkly stones around her when I took the pictures (coz I happen to have them around), since it looks more fancy and original that way XD nothing special, just wanted to enhance her "blue-ness" :D

The template and info on how to buy them (just write me a note/message) can be found here:

https://www.deviantart.com/antyyy/art/Blue-Diamond-Steven-Universe-papercraft-819935240

I hope you like her and that it sparks some forgotten Steven Universe hype with all of the fans out there, which lets you remember why these series was so freaking awesome. Happy crafting~



***This is a premium papercraft that you need to purchase in order to receive the PDF and blank PDO files for assembly. – You can find all information about the PayPal purchase in the provided upper outgoing link.***

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Ohayou! Spank (Good morning! Spank) papercraft



Time for a retro papercraft commission that I made some time ago. The commissioner found a papercraft reference online and wanted me to reconstruct that design and make a papercraft Spank.

Rollin' Stars 
Now, before we go into the details, YES, I am super old XD not saying anything about the commissioner, just talking about me, because I actually watched this retro anime on TV when I was a kid. On German TV, because I mostly watched German TV when I was little (although I am not German), it was called »Hallo Kurt« and I though the dog was really funny and it was a cute anime with its own style and all, and I still think it's a really nicely aged anime that still has a unique style even today and I think that's a lot, considering that in the last 25 years since the anime was on TV, at least 100.000 new anime series came out, so…. XD

Spank or Kurt is a special and very smart dog that is in love with a cat actually :D so it’s really funny and the original voice of the dog is sooo cuteee :D do watch the reference online or watch the anime so you know what I am talking about.

In any case, this commission was a real journey in time, since I immediately recognized the character and it was really fun to make as well.

The papercraft is 17 cm tall and has 3 pages to print. Spank is really simply made, a boxier design as the commissioner wanted, with the mouth being 3D and inward, so that should be the only real “fiddly” part to assemble, although as said its really basic skill papercrafting. He has a 3D attached body, and separate 2D 2-sided ears, 2D hair and 2 2D 2-sided cats that you put on the tip of his tail (which are his cat friends from the opening theme of the anime that take part in his adventures as well) that you just glue on like that. He also has 2D hands with a 2D flower that you also glue on just like that, and a simple 2D boxy purse that you put around his head at the end. Super simple to make really :) And because the commissioner is awesome, he allowed me to re-sell the papercraft for anybody wanting to assemble it for him or herself.

***This is a premium papercraft that you need to purchase in order to receive the PDF and blank PDO files for assembly. – You can find all information about the PayPal purchase in the provided upper outgoing link.***

Go watch the anime, I am sure it still has to be online somewhere to watch and enjoy, it’s really cute and funny :) Happy crafting~

Monday, April 12, 2021

Hatsune Miku chibi (Bear costume) papercraft


“Welcome to the internet, I will be your guide ~kumaaa~!” XD

Or something like that. I saw a super cute Hatsune Miku figurine in a bear costume like this online, and I thought I would make one for myself, in papercraft form of course, so here it is.

The papercraft is unfolded to 15 cm and has 6 pages to print. The papercraft is made out of a 3D Hatsune Miku model with a skirt and bear paws as her hands and feet and her Hoodie with 3D bear ears and hair tails. More or less simple to make, with a complex texture to look very nice, such as the snowflakes in her hair and such (really took my time to make the colors pop out and to look nice).

She has both feet and bottom flat, the skirt also touches the bottom, so she sits just fine without any weights or additional help. I find sitting papercrafts very satisfying to display, since they fit everywhere and never fall over no matter what. And the poses are always adorable XD

***This is a premium papercraft that you need to purchase in order to receive the PDF and blank PDO files for assembly. – You can find all information about the PayPal purchase in the provided upper outgoing link.***

(I did print out the papercraft to assemble it myself, but timeee.... I got none currently, so we'll see how long this will take me to make. In any case, I want to make this cutie, since I love sitting papercrafts so much now, coz I am lacking space in my loft to put them anywhere on display and if she sits like this I can put her really anywhere I want. Well, will take a while to post a finished version of it, but I'm on it XD~)

Hope you like the cutie. Enjoy and happy crafting~