Cobra Mk. III Papercraft

Oh man, that's awesome. I think I will have to do this.

Awesome stuff designing it and putting up the pattern!

Z...
 
I already have two stacks of cardstock waiting to be an Imperial Guard armour pool. This is not helping. Thanks anyway. :D
 
Fantastic work... the boys have been working on one each for the last few hours... I dont think I would pilot one tho... there are bends where there shouldnt be and clear gaps in their hulls!

I can't wait to see pics :) This one was really difficult for me to build... counting the Sidewinder this is only the second papercraft I've put together. Unless you count assembling random cardboard pieces into a spaceship.
 
I can't wait to see pics :) This one was really difficult for me to build... counting the Sidewinder this is only the second papercraft I've put together. Unless you count assembling random cardboard pieces into a spaceship.

Tomorrow. When i go home. Unfortunately i do not have the needed instruments in the office as the night is long and i have nothing better to do. :D
 
Awesome. The sidewinder was cool but a bit too basic for me. I'm a fan of complex papercraft. Example. I have the Kingdom Hearts 1 optional Boss Kurt Zisa sitting on my desk. Took about 1 week just to build. I think that is my complexity limit. I tried doing Cloud but, man his pants were a 50 part nightmare alone lol
I'll most likely try this one out and am pretty hopeful for the bigger ships. (cmon Clipper :p)

I also have a deku scrub and stahl child as well. I like papercraft :)
 
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Would any of you more experienced folk have a suggestion about the paper and glue types? I never done something like this and I have no idea how "solid" it must be :D
 
Would any of you more experienced folk have a suggestion about the paper and glue types? I never done something like this and I have no idea how "solid" it must be :D
Not computer paper or elmers glue that much I can tell you. I usually just go to a crafts store and get some thicker paper and super glue if I'm out. A thermal glue gun is amazing though but that's if you're really into crafts.
 
And there I was thinking this would be another moaning post about how the shields on the Cobra are too weak.

Awesome work!

Made me laugh :)

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Awesome. The sidewinder was cool but a bit too basic for me. I'm a fan of complex papercraft. Example. I have the Kingdom Hearts 1 optional Boss Kurt Zisa sitting on my desk. Took about 1 week just to build. I think that is my complexity limit. I tried doing Cloud but, man his pants were a 50 part nightmare alone lol
I'll most likely try this one out and am pretty hopeful for the bigger ships. (cmon Clipper :p)

I also have a deku scrub and stahl child as well. I like papercraft :)

Wow, I think that people who have the patience for complex papercraft are a special breed, I don't think I'd have the focus for it. The Cobra took me more hours than I care to admit to assemble... I'm hoping that it starts to get easier as I do more of them.
 
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Would any of you more experienced folk have a suggestion about the paper and glue types? I never done something like this and I have no idea how "solid" it must be :D

I've been doing these things for a long time now. You can get some surprisingly complex and detailed work from paper, and the internets are full of models.

For the bulk of my modeling I use 110lb cardstock; there's 67lb as well but it's not as sturdy without reinforcement. Depends on the build too, you can use even regular paper if you're doing thin fiddly pieces, but for these ships Ima use 110. Gluing regular paper to cereal box is also a decent method but it's harder to fold. Double-backing any large flat areas with a second layer of cardstock or said cereal box also works well for a model this size.

For glue, almost exclusively Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, my mainstay glue. It's like Krazy Glue for paper. You have to be more careful with your gluing due to the set time, but you can cut hours out of a build. Regular white glue is like waiting for a dead turtle by comparison and I find it bleeds the paper a lot more due to the much higher water content.


Edit: Just a tip for fold scoring; use a dead medium or fine tip ballpoint and a good ruler to score your fold lines. I find it's far easier than attempting to partially score paper with X-acto blades.
 
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As a first time 3D model gluer, I would have appreciated advice on how to glue these sorts of things together. With the Sidewinder I ended up finishing the model around the cockpit area, wondering how I'm supposed to glue the final seams together. I realised later that I should have started attaching the last part from the cockpit area and moved to the bottom, but...

In any case, great work! I'll try to find a larger printer than an A4 printer to print this, so that the Cobra will be bigger than the Sidey...
 
A quick and dirty build guide for those that are interested. This is probably one of the biggest challenges of paper models; almost none of them come with build instructions so it's sometimes a lot of trial and error, especially if you've not done much previous model work. This is a fairly simple model as these go though, it's a slightly fancy box really.

http://imgur.com/a/LKjii

First pic, scoring all the lines. I used a live black Papermate finetip; a dead pen leaves good creases but a live pen gets rid of some of the white edges on the finished model. You can go over the edges again when finished, with a grey marker (because of all the white on the model, grey edging will look a bit better than black).

Second image, after cutting and folding. Note that the tabs around the canopy edge should actually fold OUT and not under, since they're going to be attached to the inside of the upper hull.

Glue the canopy together first. Then attach the front upper hull to the canopy area, using the details to align the piece. You can see that in the third image. Glue the side tabs together at the rear sides of the ship to create the back corners by the thrusters.

After that's set, glue the bottom hull to the rest of the ship, leaving the back open for last after you're sure you've got good seams. If you want to add any extra support to the inside of the model, in the form of extra card, cereal box, craft sticks; this is your last chance.

Keep the tabs for the back section slightly folded outward so you've got lots of contact area for when you do the final glue to set the back.

It took me about an hour or so actual build time from printout (yaaaay Scotch Quick Dry); the gf had Smallville reruns in the background so I got distracted by superheroey stuff or I would have had this up faster for people. Hope this is a help.
 
Does this cobra come in chrome color? :D

Well, you could always desaturate it in Photoshop and maybe run some filters on it to get some chromyness... The process of making the textures from in-game screenshots is a bit tedious so I can't make new paintjobs without considerable effort. Color shifts would be easy... and decals would be easy as well if you have access to Photoshop or something similar.

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A quick and dirty build guide for those that are interested. This is probably one of the biggest challenges of paper models; almost none of them come with build instructions so it's sometimes a lot of trial and error, especially if you've not done much previous model work. This is a fairly simple model as these go though, it's a slightly fancy box really.

http://imgur.com/a/LKjii

First pic, scoring all the lines. I used a live black Papermate finetip; a dead pen leaves good creases but a live pen gets rid of some of the white edges on the finished model. You can go over the edges again when finished, with a grey marker (because of all the white on the model, grey edging will look a bit better than black).

Second image, after cutting and folding. Note that the tabs around the canopy edge should actually fold OUT and not under, since they're going to be attached to the inside of the upper hull.

Glue the canopy together first. Then attach the front upper hull to the canopy area, using the details to align the piece. You can see that in the third image. Glue the side tabs together at the rear sides of the ship to create the back corners by the thrusters.

After that's set, glue the bottom hull to the rest of the ship, leaving the back open for last after you're sure you've got good seams. If you want to add any extra support to the inside of the model, in the form of extra card, cereal box, craft sticks; this is your last chance.

Keep the tabs for the back section slightly folded outward so you've got lots of contact area for when you do the final glue to set the back.

It took me about an hour or so actual build time from printout (yaaaay Scotch Quick Dry); the gf had Smallville reruns in the background so I got distracted by superheroey stuff or I would have had this up faster for people. Hope this is a help.

Nice guide! Thank you for putting this up.

As a side note... the Cobra assembles in much the same way. Save the back for last and use pressure to affix the back panel to slightly bent out tabs.
 
would love to see a metal earth version:
star-wars-millenial-falcon.jpg

they also actually make licenced mass effect an halo models, FD should contact them!
here's some more:
http://www.fascinations.com/metalearth
 
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