How Tos

How to build a Minecraft model with the Minecraft Papercraft Studio app

Here's one I crafted earlier

How to build a Minecraft model with the Minecraft Papercraft Studio app
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iOS

Love the style of Minecraft and all the talk of make-your-own-fun gameplay more than actually playing it?

Do you stare wistfully at all those amazing YouTube videos of theme parks, palaces, and Game of Thrones universe recreations and wish you could be bothered?

Or are you fully engrossed in the Minecraft universe and wish you had something a little more tangible to show for your efforts?

Either way, the newly released Minecraft Papercraft Studio iOS app could be for you. All of you. You see, this handy application enables you to build your own Minecraft characters out of a few bits of paper and some glue.

If even a cack-handed idiot like I can do it, anyone can. Here's how...

Download the Minecraft Papercraft Studio app from the App Store [you can buy it here] and open it up.
Hit 'Choose Design' and select from an impressive list of models. I've gone for Spidey for a few practical reasons. 1. The black's going on my printer.
2. Any clumsy glue application can be explained away as webbing.
3. Everyone loves Spider-Man.
You can tweak and preview your model to make sure it's exactly what you want. This stage will also prove useful when it comes to assembling your model at the end, so keep it handy.
Hit 'Make Papercraft Model' followed by one of the listed printing options. Got an AirPrint printer? You lucky thing. Use that if you can.
I don't have a fancy-pants AirPlay printer, so I opted to have the template emailed to me as a PDF. It should look something like this, so open it and print it off on paper or - preferably - light card.
Now, you should have all of your materials to hand. You'll need three pages of templates, some glue (the stickier, the better), and some scissors.
Now, start cutting out your pieces. Don't worry too much about cutting around those tabs too carefully - just take it easy when it comes to the coloured sections. Oh, and kids: be careful when using scissors. I still have a scar on my lip from playing with them when I was a nipper. True story, that.
You should now have a pretty pile of coloured shapes, including a disc for mounting your model on.
Now, go around each sticky-outy bit and fold it along each edge, as illustrated. Each of these bits of paper will form a box, so fold everything inwards, towards the blank sides.
Put a small amount of adhesive on each tab and glue it to the underside of the adjacent coloured face, until you have a bunch of boxes.
Now, you need to stick the letters together - 'C' to 'C', 'E' to 'E', etc. Go back to the preview in step 3 and make sure you're sticking the right limbs onto the right bits of body. You can get a little creative with your model's arms by, say, making it stick it out forwards or, err, backwards.
And there you have it! Your very own heroic Minecraft model. You can glue it to the base, or just freestyle it. Hopefully, you've stuck it together better than I did. Now, stick it on your shelf, look satisfied, and prepare your excuses for why there's glue all over the living room table.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.