Well, it took a combined total of twelve hours in design and test building after a friend let me borrow the plastic kit to measure, but I can now make Nephilim fighters out of four sheets of letter sized printed cardstock instead of a ridiculously overpriced kit from GW ($75 for two sprues of plastic).  Send me an email if you want the PDF.  I also have cut files for the Silhouette desktop cutting machine if you have one of those handy.  Also keep in mind I’m for hire if you want anything commissioned in papercraft.

Here is my build of the Firefly class transport ship Serenity from the sci-fi TV show Firefly.  The template was created by Jorge A. Garcia from Mexico.  You can find the template and instructions I used to build it at:

http://papercraft.firefly-serenity.de/

The model is made using twelve pages of card stock paper.  Unfortunately, it’s a nightmare to build, even for a master papercrafter.

Here are the problems:

A lot of the parts simply do not fit together without customization, tinkering, and in some places straight up redesigning.  Even after all the fidgeting I had to do to get it to build, there are some large open gaps between the main body and the “neck” of the ship.  The panels on the outside of the side engines do not make sense, and must be custom cropped to fit the same radius as the engines themselves.  You have to assemble the rear engine sections from back to front and fudge/modify the subsequent parts to go from there, since the radii of the cylinders do not match at all.  The collar thing that goes around it is a nightmare to build, has open gaps you will need to make extra sections for, and will more than likely come out warped.  The bracing on the underside helps alleviate some of the warping to an extent.  My other primary gripe with this thing is that it does not really match the ship from the show (or movie) accurately.

Notice that the angles in the neck are all wrong as well as the overall shape of the rear collar.  The “wings connecting the side engines are also far more tapered on the show ship than the paper model.  The copied lensflare solar panels are also a bit of an odd choice, but I’ll chalk that up to styling.

One thing I will say on the designer’s behalf, is that it appears as if this model did not use 3d software and conversion (through pepakura or some other method).  Seeing as how the model is flawed, this means the whole thing was designed by trial and error instead of vector design and checking the math on the geometry.  Each part on this thing was guessed at, drawn up, printed, cut, misaligned, tossed aside, redrawn and attempted again and again until it fit.  That takes some hardcore dedication to get a model this complex done in that method.  Kudos, sir.  I just wish he’d have known the math to get his parts to line up properly.

You can now play MDA with a fifth hero class, the Beastmaster.  Beastmasters are aided by their animal companions, the swift falcon, the nimble ferrets, the deadly wolf and the mighty bear.  Oh, and that’s a werewolf behind everyone.  Werewolves are one of the larger enemies in the Castle of Count Vludd quest, which should be ready shortly.

You can download the expansion pdf with all the extra rules and miniatures (minus the werewolf) here:

http://flipitpapercombat.com/downloads/MDAbeastmasterpage.pdf

Are you into giant monster movies?  Are you into Board Games?  Are you into papercraft projects?  If you answered yes to at least two of these things then Smash Monster Rampage! might be worth your while to take a look at.  This is a print & play boardgame developed by Mike Swindall that brings the colossal monsters of classic films to the tabletop via the printer sitting on your very desk.

This game will be reviewed in-depth along with Phantom Capsule for my upcoming article in Games Magazine, so be sure to pick up a copy when it hits.

http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/

Visit the website for this great gaming project at

http://www.smashmonsterboardgame.com/

I thought I would be done with this template by now, but parts are getting very difficult.  The vanes on the front fins went through several revisions (mainly the little humps they connect to) before I found one that had a good balance between simplicity and looking the part.  Now the weapons for the upper turret, the underside weapons and antennae and the undercarriage detail are giving me hell.  I also have to take breaks on this to finish my articles and build various print & play games to review, so its going to be another week or two before this thing is finalized.

The paper version is on the right in both pics.  The model in the left is a plastic kit I assembled and painted that I’m using for reference.

So here’s the work I’ve got done on making a paper Eldar Wave Serpent today.  There is still a lot of work left, but the basic shape is done.  The engine intakes need to be adjusted to look properly round from all angles, then the paneling detail around the edges and the vents behind will be worked into the engines.  The troop compartment is done, as is about half of the underside.  I still have no clue how I’m going to go about making the weapons options for the turret.  Flat weapons wouldn’t work for something this large, though rounded tubes would make the bright lances look more like long barreled lascannons.  Oh well, I’ll figure something out.  I should have the intake vents and the engines finished tomorrow.  If all goes well, the kit will be online before I leave for the beach this weekend.

Just finished the armature for a larger version of the T-rex cake I’m doing as an entry to the NC State fair cake competition.  Going to deliver a flapping butterfly pop-up card a friend commissioned for his wife for their anniversary in the morning.

Oh, and I have an Eldar Wave serpent and some calipers out on my desk with corel pulled up.  Guess what’s going to be in paper soon?

Phantom Capsule is a papercraft minis game developed by Little Roller Papercraft.  The players take control of a CRADLE, which is a type of mecha used to defend cities from horrible creatures spawned from other dimensions intent on devouring the city’s perpetual reactor.  I’ve been building a copy of the game to test out and review for a homebrew games article I’m writing for Games Magazine.  You can download the rules and all the pieces required to play here:

http://littleroller.blogspot.com/p/play-phantom-capsule.html

Oh, and this is great background music to have playing during a game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xfIcR4-tA

The Purplecrons now have a MONOLITH.  Well, sort of.  It’s paper.  Twelve sheets, to be exact.  Three more and I could have built a ‘friggin Thunderhawk.  So many sub-assemblies and layers.  Took quite a bit of ink to print out the swatches to match the paint colors too.

Closeup of all dem deathmarks.  I first tried out the color scheme for the army on one of them, and it sold me on it.

The plain Necron lord with Rez orb was an interesting piece to build.  I never do seem to get any good photos of the sculpting work on the cloak.

a shot showing the regular necron warriors.  Painting 32 of these guys was an effort.  8 points of white, 18 points of silver, 7 points of green, 2 shade washes and 2 spots of black were applied to each figure.

The auction is still up on ebay right now.  Please feel free to bid on it.

http://www.flipitpapercombat.com/downloads/models/piratetemplate.pdf

http://www.flipitpapercombat.com/downloads/models/redspaceknightsheet.pdf

Here’s two models I made using the Flipit figurine template.  The pirate was supposed to be for a fantasy version of Flipit that eventually turned into Mini Dungeon Adventures.  The space knight Started as one of the Boxxorz figures I made:

They were never intended for a game, due to being too large.  The template itself was a nightmare of tiny triangular tabs.  I may revisit these guys at some point and try to fix the template design to make it less frustrating to build.  The legs need to be sealed off instead of just left open and hollow inside.  I do like the animated Lego look they had going for them.