DeviantArt is a great place find lots of creative, fanish work. Looking over my past posts, you’ll notice a lot of the art I feature is from there. Well, here’s another fun thing that you can do too! It’s papercraft. It’s like model kits made out of paper. Someone else has done all the hard parts of creating the pieces. All you have to do is put it together! A quick Google search will get you papercraft for just about any subject or fandom, and I’ve personally done several from anime and manga. But in this post I’ll feature another favorite fandom of mine, Doctor Who.
The first series of Doctor Who papercraft that I found, that wasn’t just K-9 or kid-friendly cut outs of masks was from Cyberdrone. He has created all 11 Doctors, including different versions, several companions and villains, as well as 5 different Tardises, depending on your prefered era. There are also dioramas for displaying your Doctors. His papercraft is based on the Cubeecraft template, which is very box-y looking and more realistic, but are fairly easy to put together.
The second series I found is made by Rabenstolz. His 11 Doctors look like chibis. I think these guys are really cute. In Japan, papercraft is pretty popular, and there are programs specifically for creating new models and designs. These templates came from a Japanese artist on pixiv, as credited by Rabestolz. They are a little more difficult than the Cubeecraft, and have several more steps, but the end result looks really good. They look more like the characters, and have some depth to them.
Papercraft is a fun and inexpensive way to participate in the fandom. All you need is a color printer, an exacto knife, glue stick and lots of paper. Card stock makes for a sturdier model, and paperclips and mini binder clips really help to keep pieces together while gluing. Rabenstolz, on the pages for each Doctor has links to a tutorial as well as tips for papercraft in general. These make a great summer project for both kids and adults!
