More photos of my build – in the Michael Collins papertoy photo album
Below are instructions on assembly of papertoy of Irish leader Michael Collins (Mícheál Ó Coileáin), that I’ve designed.
Download PDF:
How-to build this papertoy
pic. 1: Print PDF pattern & assemble tools.
- Print your model, usually it takes only 1 or 2 pages of A4 paper (can be printed on legal paper too with some scaling). I prefer paper with thickness of 120gsm, but regular office paper works too (for the info – it’s 80gsm thickness).
- Get a good glue. Usually PVA glue is recommended for papercraft, but in some parts of the world getting a decent PVA glue is unexpectedly tricky – a normal liquid clear glue is fine too. Glue in a stick won’t work though – details of paper toys are too small to use it. I prefer to apply glue with wooden toothpicks.
- I recommend scoring future fold lines on the uncut page (indicated on how-to pic.3) with pointed but blunt instrument (empty pen, knitting needle…)
- Decide what look do you want – with or without overcoat – this means you have to choose what colour hands to use with your papertoy.
- Then cut all the details, as some details are small – you may have to use smaller scissors.
- Fold all pieces.
- Assemble head, put it aside. You can choose to add an extra smiling face – glue it over “serious” one.
- Glue front piece of hair to it’s back part. Back part is made larger intentionally, to allow some margin of error here. Cut excess paper. Put aside.
- Assemble main body.
- There is an “extra body piece” that goes to close the gap between legs – it can be challenging it glue in (I use pincers to hold it in place), but it can be skipped and your figure will still look great.
- Assemble both hands (grey or black), put them aside.
- Put together overcoat, if you want to use it.
- Assemble hat.
- Assemble figure stand.
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TIP: If you want your paper toy to look really polished and tidy – carefully color white edges of the papertoy in corresponding colours (or in black). I also color backs of overcoat and jacket. Any paint or marker can be used. This instantly elevates figure and also can be used to hide any build imperfections.
- Time to put it all together. Recommended order:
- Glue body to figure stand.
- Put front parts of jacket on the figure (as indicated by the green arrows on how-to pic.1), if you don’t want to use overcoat – attach grey hands to the body.
- Glue in overcoat
- Glue in hands to the overcoat. Good position for hands – 0,5cm (0.2 inch) from the neck on the sides of the body.
- Glue in head.
- Glue in front piece of hair to the head. It’s designed to stand out at the top over the main head piece. Put glue only on the top edges of the face plate (zone indicated in blue on how-to pic.1).
- Put on hat.
- Assemble flags, if so desired.
pic. 7: Attaching jacket and overcoat - All done!
pic. 2: Scoring fold lines
pic. 3: How-to build Michael Collins papertoy – fold lines and zone where to attach hair
pic. 4: Cut out all the parts
pic. 5: Fold along all fold lines
pic. 6: Individual parts are assembled, ready to put it all together.
Extra:
My cat supported me through this build process and his input deserves to be acknowledged.
