Bunnie's Papercraft/Pepakura Help Desk

It's been a little over year now, that I've posted my first instructable: Create faceted papercraft-objects and almost 500.000 People have taken a look at it and started to build the deer or their own models. And even though I tried to be as precise as I could, a few questions came up. Some of them over and over. That's what this instructable is about: The top 3 Pepakura questions I got.

1. What are these dashed lines for?
2. Can I print it in a different size?
3. How do I align the numbers?

To make things more interesting and suited for the upcoming easter festivities I've made a new model - a little easter bunny. With that template I'll walk you through the questions and all the steps to build one.

So off we go...

Everyone knew that it had something to do with the way you're supposed to fold the pieces. Folding up or down. However there is no easy answer to that. It all depends on how you build the model. With the printed lines and numbers on the outside, or vice versa - the printed side on the inside.

If you plan to paint the model afterwards or if you are transferring the lines by scoring them, you can keep the printed side up. If you are printing on the paper you want to build with you will probably want the printed marks on the inside.

The answer requires a little thinking, but isn't that hard. Most models you'll build will be an enclosed body. So most of the folds will be mountain-folds. On the template these are marked with a dashed line ( - - - - - - ). You will see that most of the lines are of that type. These are folded down, so that the dashed line will be on a mountain-ridge.

The dot-dashed lines ( - . - . - . - ) are the remaining valley-folds. These are folded up to make a valley.

All of that is true when you have the printed side up. If you build it with the printed side down, everything is just the other way around, resulting in a mirrored object. In this example the bunny will look the other way then.

Simple answer, YES.

It'll just be smaller or bigger depending on the templates original scale. I make my template mostly on A3. If you have a printer that can print A4/letter only, you can either build the model just a little smaller (71% of the original size). Most copy machines will be able to copy onto A3 paper, so you could just use a xerox machine to copy your small print. (141% will take you from A4 to A3)

Scaling down more than 50% will have one caveat - the flaps get very small. In most cases you can just cut them out bigger. I'll show you how later on.

You just pair them up.

So 1 and 1 go together and so on. You'll find some pairs right next to each other. Those are the pairs that I glue together right at the beginning. It makes it easier to fing matching pairs later on. It also adds a little stability to the pieces right away. And you have some early satisfaction. There's so much preparation to be done, it feels good to finally glue something together.

I love to share my work with you. It feels great to read the comments and see the pictures of your builds.

All the templates in my instructables are free downloads. This time all I ask for is that you share too.
Post a note on Facebook or tweet about it. I thinks that's fair.

You can get the printable templates on my blog: Faceted Bunny Template

Once you've printed it, take a look at it. See how there are way more dashed lines than dash-dotted?

It might be a good idea to mark the valley folds with a pen so that you won't get confused when you're folding the pieces later on

Take a look at the flaps. Are they big enough. When you scale a template up, the flaps get bigger, so they should never pose a problem. When you scale down however, the flaps might get to small for you to comfortably glue them later on.
If that is the case just extend them. Draw them a little bigger until they have the size you feel is right just as I did on the tail piece above.

I start by loosely cutting away all the pieces, just to get them all disconnected. I'ts hard to wiglle the whole sheet of paper all the time.

User sharp scissors that will actually cut all the way to the tip. BTW, that's how you can tell good from bad scissors. Or use an exacto knife. Cut along the solid lines. Don't worry about being precise where the tabs are. But do cut with precision in the corners and open edges.

You could just fold the pieces now. With the triangles being as small as they are on this template you might just get away with it. I would advise you to score them first with a ruler and a scoring pen. If you don't have a scoring tool an (empty) ball-pen will also work. Just make sure that you can't see any ink from the other side.

As you can see i did the scoring before I did the final cuts. It's up to you when you do it.

Now it's time to fold. I fold all the edges before I glue the parts together. That way you can see if everything works out.

Since I want to build the bunny inside out, with the printed side inside. As I wrote before you'll have to turn the folds around too. Valleys become mountains and the other way around.

The tail is a good part to start with. You'll see and feel pretty soon, that it isn't that hard to figure out wich way to fold. Most of the times it just won't fit if you made a mistake.

Go on and fold all the parts before you start to glue.

I have learned that it is best to start with the little parts that a furthest from the bigger parts. For our bunny that means that the tail and ears should go first.

Then attach the ears to the head and build the head around the ears.

Now start with the body. You can start wherever you want, go slow all around.

Before you close the body work in the remaining breast piece and the tail and head.

The bottom is open which leave you enough room for you to reach in.

The base is the hardest part to put in, because you can't apply pressure from the inside. That's why I'm using double sided tape here. It is so sticky that it will bond strong enough with the sides of the body. The last two or three flaps are just placed on the inside. It is the underside of the model, so if there is a gap, there it is least visible.

Congratulations you've made it!

Time to grab a beer or wine and enjoy the sight of you work. Hopefully you've seen that it takes time and patience but isn't that hard. Time to move ahead and make more to give away for easter.

I found this awesome mirrored cardboard and made a bunny out of it. What can you come up with? Show us! Please post your builds in the comment section. I love to see yours

Jan