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Paper models, also called card models or papercraft, are
models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
constructed mainly from sheets of heavy paper, paperboard,
card stock Card stock, also called cover stock and pasteboard, is paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing and printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, ...
, or foam.


Details

This may be considered a broad category that contains origami and card modeling. Origami is the process of making a paper model by folding a single piece of paper without using glue or cutting while the variation
kirigami is a variation of origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. In , the paper is cut as well as being folded, resulting in a three-dimensional design that stands away from the page. typically does not use glue. Overview In the United States, th ...
does. Card modeling is making scale models from sheets of cardstock on which the parts were printed, usually in full color. These pieces would be cut out, folded, scored, and glued together. Papercraft is the art of combining these model types to build complex creations such as wearable suits of armor, life-size characters, and accurate weapon models. Sometimes the model pieces can be punched out. More frequently the printed parts must be cut out. Edges may be scored to aid folding. The parts are usually glued together with
polyvinyl acetate Polyvinyl acetate (PVA, PVAc, poly(ethenyl ethanoate)), commonly known as wood glue, PVA glue, white glue, carpenter's glue, school glue, or Elmer's glue in the US, is a widely available adhesive used for porous materials like wood, paper, and ...
glue Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advant ...
("white glue", "PVA"). In this kind of modeling, the sections are usually pre-painted, so there is no need to paint the model after completion. Some enthusiasts may enhance the model by painting and detailing. Due to the nature of the paper medium, the model may be sealed with varnish or filled with
spray foam Spray foam is a chemical product created by two materials, isocyanate and polyol resin, which react when mixed with each other and expand up to 30-60 times its liquid volume after it is sprayed in place. This expansion makes it useful as a specia ...
to last longer. Some enthusiasts also use papercrafts or perdurable to do life-sized props starting by making the craft, covering it with resin and painting them. Some also use photo paper and laminate them by heat, thus preventing the printed side from color wearing out, beyond the improved realistic effect on certain kinds of models (ships, cars, buses, trains, etc.). Paper crafts can be used as references to do props with other materials too.


History

The first paper models appeared in Europe in the 17th Century with the earliest commercial models were appearing in French toy catalogs in 1800. Printed card became common in magazines in the early part of the 20th century. The popularity of card modeling boomed during World War II when the paper was one of the few items whose use and production was not heavily regulated. Micromodels, designed and published in England from 1941 were very popular with 100 different models, including
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
, ships, and aircraft. But as
plastic model :''In art and architecture, plastic model may also be any three-dimensional physical model, regardless of material.'' :''In mechanical engineering, a plastic model is a mathematical model of a material which incorporates plasticity.'' 300px, A 4-y ...
kits became more commonly available, interest in paper decreased.


Availability

The Robert Freidus Collection, held at the
V&A Museum of Childhood Young V&A, formerly the V&A Museum of Childhood, is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum (the "V&A"), which is the United Kingdom's national museum of applied arts. It is in Bethnal Green and is located on the Green itself in the East En ...
has over 14000 card models exclusively in the category Architectural Paper Models. Since paper model patterns can be easily
printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...
and assembled, the Internet has become a popular means of exchanging them. Commercial corporations have recently begun using downloadable paper models for their marketing (examples are
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization esta ...
and
Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...
). The availability of numerous models on the Internet at little or no cost, which can then be downloaded and printed on inexpensive inkjet printers has caused its popularity again to increase worldwide. Home printing also allows models to be scaled up or down easily (for example, in order to make two models from different authors, in different scales, match each other in size), although the paper weight might need to be adjusted in the same ratio. Inexpensive kits are available from dedicated publishers (mostly based in Eastern Europe; examples include Halinski, JSC Models, and Maly Modelarz), a portion of the catalog of which date back to 1950. Experienced hobbyists often scratchbuild models, either by first hand drawing or using software such as
Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Inc., Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud (Adobe's shi ...
and Inkscape. An historical example of highly specialized software is
Designer Castles Designer Castles was a software title for the BBC Micro and later Acorn Archimedes (RISC OS based) range of computers. The software produced by Data Design in Barnsley, England, UK allowed its users to design a medieval style- castle by means o ...
for
BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
and
Acorn Archimedes Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems are based on Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and the proprietary operating systems Arthur and RISC OS. The first models ...
platforms, which was developed as a tool for creation of card model castles. CAD and CG software, such as Rhino 3D,
3DS Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capab ...
,
Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...
, and specialist software, like Pepakura Designer from Tama Software, or Dunreeb Cutout or Ultimate Papercraft 3D, may be employed to convert 3D
computer model Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...
s into two-dimensional printable templates for assembly.


3D models to paper models

The use of 3D models greatly assists in the construction of paper models, with video game models being the most prevalent source. The video game or source in question will have to be loaded into the computer. Various methods of extracting the model exist, including using a model viewer and exporting it into a workable file type, or capturing the model from the emulation directly. The methods of capturing the model are often unique to the subject and the tools available. Readability of file-formats including propriety ones could mean that a model viewer and exporter is unavailable outside of the developer. Using other tools that capture rendered 3D models and textures is often the only way to obtain them. In this case, the designer may have to arrange the textures and the wireframe model on a 3D program, such as SketchUp,
3DS MAX Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capab ...
,
Metasequoia ''Metasequoia'', or dawn redwoods, is a genus of fast-growing deciduous trees, one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. The living species ''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'' is native to Lichuan county in Hubei province, China. Althou ...
, or
Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...
before exporting it to a papercraft creating program, such as Dunreeb Cutout or Pepakura Designer by Tama software. From there the model is typically refined to give a proper layout and construction tabs that will affect the overall appearance and difficulty in constructing the model.


Subjects

Because people can create their own patterns, paper models are limited only by their designers' imaginations and ability to manipulate paper into forms. Vehicles of all forms, from cars and cargo trucks to space shuttles, are a frequent subject of paper models, some using photo-realistic textures from their real-life counterparts for extremely fine details. Architecture models can be very simple and crude forms to very detailed models with thousands of pieces to assemble. The most prevalent designs are from video games, due to their popularity and ease of producing paper models. On the Web, enthusiasts can find hundreds of models from different designers across a wide range of subjects. The models include very difficult and ambitious paper projects, such as life-sized and complex creations. Architectural paper models are popular with
model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...
enthusiasts. Various models are used in tabletop gaming, primarily wargaming. Scale paper models allow for easy production of armies and buildings for use in gaming and that can be scaled up or down readily or produced as desired. Whether they be three-dimensional models or two-dimensional icons, players are able to personalize and modify the models to bear unique unit designations and insignias for gaming.


See also

* Net *
Cardboard modeling Cardboard modeling or cardboard engineering is a form of modelling with paper, card stock, paperboard, and corrugated fiberboard. The term ''cardboard engineering'' is sometimes used to differentiate from craft of making decorative cards. It is o ...
*
Paper Aeroplane A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...
*
Origamic architecture Origamic Architecture is a form of kirigami that involves the three-dimensional reproduction of architecture and monuments, on various scales, using cut-out and folded paper, usually thin paperboard. Visually, these creations are comparable to int ...
*
Paper prototyping In human–computer interaction, paper prototyping is a widely used method in the user-centered design process, a process that helps developers to create software that meets the user's expectations and needs—in this case, especially for designin ...
*
Superquick Superquick Models are a series of printed card kit buildings used mainly for model railways. Manufacturing takes place entirely in the United Kingdom. There are several ranges of model kit - railway buildings in Series A; houses, farm buildings ...
* Leo Monahan *


References


External links

*


Specialist software for creating paper models


Pepakura Designer

Dunreeb Cutout

Ultimate Papercraft 3D

PaperMaker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paper Model Paper products Scale modeling Paper toys