Building a Paper (or Card Stock) Armored Vehicle for 28mm (or 15mm, or Other Scale) Games.

So, you got into a miniature game at some point. Perhaps a friend introduced you to Warhammer 40K, Stargrunt, or something else entirely...

Problem: the scale models cost a lot (as you need more than just one or two to effectively create an army), and you may not have the money (or just don't like the designs of the plastic or resin kits).

Solution: Use card stock, paper, or other inexpensive materials to create your vehicles!

I. Critical, must have tools:

A. A design, either you draw it yourself or you download it. Check out the forums at http://www.papermodelers.com/, https://www.zealot.com/, and https://cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/ for some great free designs. Of course, there is also Wargame Vault and few other places where you can purchase templates, or Facebook groups like Warhammer Paperfabricators and Papercraft Massacre to name a few.

B. First and foremost: printable paper card stock. Your base material. I've used everything from A4 80# (216 gsm) to US Letter 110# (198.8 gsm) stock paper card stock for printing the templates. You can use normal typing or copy paper and spray adhesive or glue stick to thicker card stock, but the results are inferior to what you can achieve with printing the design onto similar cardstock listed above.

C. Clear, matte or satin, spray can coating. Don't got expensive here, if you can find a big can at your local hardware/DIY store that is matte or satin, that should work. Save the hobby grade (Mr. Surface, AK Interactive, Testors Dull Cote, etc) for after you build and/or paint the final model.

D. Hobby knife and cutting mat: Your standard hobby knife, scalpel, or similar cutting instrument. I use an Exacto style knife with No. 11 hobby blades the most. Also, a cutting mat to cut on, a self healing mat works best.

E. Strait edge: Some form of ruler with a metallic inking edge, cork backed metal ruler, or stainless steel machinist ruler.

F. Ball end tool, or burnishing tool. Find the smallest spherical round diameter possible. Mountain or valley fold, it doesn't matter, the cardstock will fold either way beautifully when the fold line is traced with this tool. Panel line? No problem, that looks great with this tool as well.

G. PVA (Poly Vinyl Acrylic) glue and cyanoacrylate (CA, or "Superglue"); good low water content wood glue. In the US/North America I find the Tite Bond wood glue perfect, avoid Elmers (too much water, warps your card stock too much). CA glue is great for faster drying times, it comes in three consistencies such as the gel or 'thick', medium gel, or liquid 'thin'. Whenever you have a greeble to add to the papercraft that is not paper, CA glue is your friend. The liquid CA glue comes in hand with small card stock details to add rigidity.

H. Cardboard, cereal box, and other paper scraps... Sometimes, you can use rougher corrugated cardboard box scraps for reinforcement, and holding the interior of large complex shapes. Raid your recycle/garbage bins!

I. Toothpicks: One of the greatest tools for spreading glue, creating rivets, or providing a nice round cylindrical detail to your model (when trimmed up).

J. Black Permanent Marker: Or similar colors to the print, if not painting. If painting the model, this belongs in the "Nice to have" list.

K. Sand paper, emery boards, and other abrasives. All said and done, paper is just wood pulp. You can, within the limits of thickness, treat the material like a wood project and sand surfaces smooth or round corners by sanding.

II. Nice to have tools, but not as critical as the above:

A. Rolling tool: helps flatten laminated sheets or parts. Any round tubing, dowel, or screen print roller will do, don't worry about getting too carried away here, so long as you have a nice uniform surface to roll on top of...

B. Flat tile, board, or other cutting surface: ...tile scraps can be handy for keeping parts flat while the glue dries or rolling out. Sorry, not pictured, as my cutting mat is on a nice flat desk.

C. Circle templates and circular objects: Pick up some old drafting circular templates, cheap ratchet sockets, drill bits, dowels, markers, pens, cans, and any circular objects you can think of. Some time, you might find yourself wrapping paper around these, or using them to scribe and cut circles.

D. Hole punches: book making punches with different sized tips are best, as well as scrapbooking and office supply punches for creating holes, or round cut outs you can use in other places on your build. Drill bits can also help with hole making when precision is required in rather thick material (of several layers).

E. Clamps: Anything, from clothes pins to scale model bar clamps, can help free up your hands and maintain the shape you want while gluing complex shapes!

F. 3D printed parts: Loads of these can be easily designed in Tinker CAD and other free design suites to save time and effort on greebles and mass produced parts (like tank treads, wheels, etc). Highly optional, as this is dependent upon your access to 3D printers and services.

G. Greebles! From scale models bits to cool looking beads, wood shapes (from the craft store), to junk packaging parts, wires, and solder, these will provide your models with some extra character by adding bits of details that you may not be able to make with the paper.

H. Painting supplies: If you are messy with your glue like I am, you find yourself ruining the beautiful work these artists put into coloring the kits they make... So I use spray can primer, namely Krylon or Rustoleum Camo paints) and then acrylic paint (and not the expensive hobby paint, but the inexpensive bottles at the craft store).

Whatever printer you might have, if it can handle card stock, print off your desired model (be it freebie or purchased). For this exact example, I am building an Ebbles Miniatures M8A3 Kirchner MBT with US Letter (8.5" x 11"/216mm X 279mm) 110# (199 g/ms) index paper. When I print the design, I use the pictured clear coat spray on both sides of each sheet of paper I have printed. Spray one side, allow to dry thoroughly, then flip and spray the other side. This will greatly reduce the warping and allow better details to be inscribed with the ball end tools for panel lines. Honestly, this step alone was a game changer in how I have looked at paper models compared to plastic and wood over the last few years. From this point forward, most of your plastic and wood construction and detailing techniques should work for cardstock paper models (within reason, don't expect to carve too much material off, or use plastic model cement...).

After printing and coating the flat sheets (both sides) with a clear coat, evaluate the design. Most designs will indicate folds with a dotted or dashed line (or both) for valley folds and mountain folds (valley folds were the line indicates the bottom of the fold, mountain folds where the line indicates the top of the fold). If you use the burnishing/ball end tool listed above, you can create a crease where these lines are (most often with the ruler, and it doesn't matter which side of the sheet you crease with the ball end tool, the fold will work equally both directions). After you create these indentations for folding, cut out the parts and fold them into their shapes for a test fit. If you printed a color model, use the permanent marker, or a similarly colored pencil/marker (similar to the base color of the part), along the edges of the part that will be exposed after gluing. If you plan on priming and painting, just proceed to glue the parts together.

Many times, with buildings or armored vehicles, you have large flat areas that are likely to warp (no matter the coating or material thickness...) and you need reinforcement. Following the Ebbles Miniatures instructions, you will find recommendations for using popsicle sticks. I'm showing you how to use old cereal/cracker/cookie/biscut boxes or just strips of card stock cut to 1/4"/6mm width folded in half like angles (angle irons, 90 degree angles, etc) to keep flat surfaces flat. Whatever works for you, experiment, and don't panic when things warp. It's paper, in many cases, you can use the above procedure to fix that warping (adding more supports as you go along). You might hold off on completely sealing box structures until you are satisfied with how flat and even things are.

On some designs, you might have to cut out very small detailed portions or holes within the part. Cut the small parts out first before removing the whole part from the sheet of paper. This will prevent smaller details from being ripped out while cutting out the part from the sheet of paper.

Here is where the bulk of the work, and the magic, happens while building a papercraft vehicle. Several examples of buildings and other vehicles are shown in the pictures provided, all using the same methods. After cutting out and folding parts, apply angle/thicker card reinforcements, and laminating details.

As mentioned above, keeping thicker and thinner card/paper stock available helps incredibly with detailing. Outside of folding sheets to create 3D polygons, I have found that layering materials really enhances the build. Laminating a paper card hatch to a cereal box before cutting it out really allows it to stand out from the hull or turret of a tank/APC (armored personnel carrier) for example.

If not painting, applying marker (or colored pencil) to exposed edges (mountain folds included) of the paper/card stock is critical, now is the time to accomplish this! Once again, use that burnishing (ball end tool) to the widest extent possible to create all your folds (I've mentioned this in every section for a reason!).

By far, this the where you become the artist and take your models to the next level. The pictures all come different models than the vehicle I started out with, but show the variety of details achieved by the use of common items. From tooth pick pieces, to hemispherical nail art beads, to just added layers of cardstock and solder CA glued to the walls to look like wiring conduit. Masking tape makes great belts and tie down straps when you cut it into thin strips. Good PVA glue can be used, stippled with a toothpick, to create rivets for those steampunk/gothic science fiction vehicle projects. Dowels cut to length provide a solid shaft for turrets, as well as a good form to wrap paper tubes around for cannon barrels, axles, and other cylinders.

You are only limited by imagination, and what might fall apart on you too many times to continue trying (if you frustrated, STOP, do not throw the model across the room... Trust me, you will regret doing so every time... not that I have any personal experience or anything). One great thing about papercraft models is that you can always print spare parts, allowing you to build the same over and over again when needed.

If you have carefully constructed a colored model, like the M8 Kirchner I linked in the first section, all you will likely need to do is use that same clear coat you used on the flat sheets. Simple enough! You are done now. I've included a couple other Ebbles/Genet kits in this photo section showing off the level of detail of those pre-colored kits, and how simple laminated panels with some black or other color edging makes the detail pop in the final assembly and painting phase.

However, if you are like me, you likely made a mess of the beautiful artwork with your gluing and cutting.... So, this is where you take your primer of choice (mine being camouflaged paint for solid neutral colors with good 'tooth' for paint to adhere to), and prime you major sub assemblies.

From here, take your acrylics (or enamels, or oils) of choice, and paint up the model like you would any plastic, resin, or wood kit. I'm not going to go into too many details here, as there are thousands of painting specific tutorials of any style of miniature and scale model you can think of out there.

My 'secret' weapon is a wet palette for my cheap acrylic paints. It's a leftover food container, with a cotton 'sponge' in the bottom (you could use paper towel), and a bit of parchment paper (for baking) on top of that after water is applied to the sponge. Sure, you can pay a pretty penny for a miniature painting wet palette from Army Painter to Red Games (and if you paint for a living, do so); but for us mere mortals, go cheap.

You will also see that my choice of paints is not expensive, not the cheapest craft paint, but certainly more bang for my buck than I get out of more expensive paints (and believe me, I have some of those for special effects like rust...). If you are starting out, this is the way to go to experiment without a major investment in currency; however it will require to put in more time and effort to experiment. Good painting comes with time and experience. So, keep at it, and don't give up if you don't like your first results. Besides, it's a paper model; you can always print another one to paint later!

I'll be honest, I'm still learning this step myself. I'll start with a few pictures of the M8 Kirchner we started with on the bench at a few angles to show off that build. I like the bench photos to provide scale with the cutting mat, here in the US each square is 1.00" (25.4mm), so you can get an idea of the size of the models.

Next, I have a classic "Rhino" APC build that I photographed in a special setup I made with black matte board glued to foam core sheets to provide the walls and floor. The Zealot card stock model forum provided the paper centimeter cubes to use for scale (you can download them for free). These, along with 28mm miniatures, show how effectively the papercraft model fits within the game scale. Black backgrounds are nice, as they reduce the visual clutter of the background, and make your finished model pop.

Now, I need to get some black velvet material someday....