084015 Hero of Twilight (December 12, 2009)
from: the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess video game / size: ± 24 cm
Download:
parts (2,65 MB PDF file)
instructions (2,60 MB PDF file)
reverse sides (278 kB PDF file)
some extra help on Twilight Link’s hair: 1
Pictures:
Google Photos
Ninjatoes' papercraft webpage 
Im having a hard time attaching the fingers to the hands on this model. the paper keeps on bending, and im getting really annoyed. do you have any tricks or tips?
I think I’d have to agree that the hands are undoubtedly the hardest part on Twilight Link!
The best tip I can give you, is to take your time pre-shaping all the parts properly before glueing them together: this takes the tension out of the paper, so it won’t try pull itself apart so much anymore.
Bend the paper around a toothpick to pre-shape small, curved parts like the fingers and the sides of the hand itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ph7ayEs1RA
Examine step 42 in the instructions to see how you have to shape the hand itself: the fold with the arrow is a valley fold (score it with a blunt tool and then fold the glueing tab up) and if you shape the left (as seen in the picture) part into kind of a tube, it will become the base of the thumb.
Bend the other side of the hand around a toothpick, so that the right side is curved as well with 1 small glueing tab, and in between, you will have 4 small glueing tops at the top and 4 small glueing tabs at the bottom (it’s hard to explain in words, but I hope you can understand what I mean when you look at step 42 in the instructions).
The hand should be kind of “flat”, with the top and bottom of the front close together.
To make each finger, pre-shape each part around a toothpick, and only use just enough glue to make sure it won’t come apart (too much glue means you’ll have to hold it forever until it’s dried…)
Then, the way I do it, is to put a drop of glue inside the open end of the finger so that the open end is completely filled with glue, and then I push the finger over the small glueing tabs on the hand, and then I hold it until I can let go, before I make and glue on the next finger.
Each finger will be glued over one small glueing tab at the top and one at the bottom of the front of the hand, and on the sides to the other fingers of course (you can see in steps 43-49 of the instructions).
I always use quite thick paper (200 gsm) instead of regular printer paper (usually about 75-80 gsm) so the parts will be a bit stronger to work with and they hold their shape more easily. But you can use any kind of paper you want of course, as long as you are careful enough.
If you’ve used the same parts over and over again to try different methods, maybe they’ve become a bit too weak now; maybe you can use them as “test parts”, and once you’ve found a good way that works well for you, print a new copy of the hands so you have fresh parts to work with.
Now, I’m not sure if my difficult way of explaining things really helped you; the best way really is to take your time and keep trying, and I hope you can work it out!
Yamaha has a good papercraft tutorial if you want to check it out, most of it is pretty basic but maybe you can use some of their tips too: http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/howto/0002.html
If you’re really getting frustrated, it’s usually better to leave it alone for a while before you try again, or you’ll only get more annoyed… There are plenty more fun things to do of course! ;o)
Thank you so much, im using card stalk so its plenty thick, but its probably weak from all the attempts. ill try my best and thanks for the tips.
also, one last question…. for now atleast…. is how did you make it so clean! my hand has creases and grossness all over it! How did you do that!
Haha well that’s really just a matter of being careful to have clean hands when you touch the parts, although there are some smears on my builds too… ;o) Sometimes you just don’t notice when you spilled some glue, and when you touch it, it makes a smear…
Using thicker paper usually helps a lot to avoid unwanted creases, simple because it’s stronger than regular printer paper and won’t creases so easily. And of course taking your time to score and/or pre-shape the parts like I told you, so it will bend but only where you want to. ;o)
There is one mroe tip that I can give you and that’s edge-colouring; when you cut out the parts and glue them together, the thickness of the paper will show up as “white lines” on the finished model. If you don’t like that, you can colour the white edges of the paper with a marker (on dark colours) or a pencil (on light colours) after you’ve cut them out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBuuEVSUcw
You can try it out on a piece of scrap paper, because especially with markers, the colour will turn darker because the ink will soak into the paper.
Thank you so much for responding. and ill try what you suggested. i guess ill just keep on practicing!
Sorry for asking so many questions, but i would like to know what glue you use? im currently working with Rubber cement and finished chopsticks, because i dont have any normal (Elmer’s liquid or so) Glue. What type do you use/prefer?
I always use “TESA All-purpose glue” (you can see a picture of the bottle in the instructions) but I don’t know if they sell it where you live of course I’m afraid… A lot of people use white PVA glue, Elmer’s, or Aleene’s tacky glue.
But those are just brand names, most hobby glues will do. Simple wood glue also works very well according to a lot of people, and you can get it at any DIY store.
What are the reversed sides for? why would someone use them?
Because this paper model is meant to be printed on white paper, when you build it, some parts like Link’s tunic and part of his hair will have a white backside, and some people don’t like that.
You can colour the backsides of those parts yourself with markers or pencils for instance, or print the reverse sides-parts on regular printer paper and glue them on to cover up the white backsides.
So it’s really a personal choice whether you want to use them or not. ;o)
How do you come up with all of these cool designs?
Papercraft is just a hobby of mine, so I make models of the things that I like: and I’m a big Zelda fan, so of course I would make a Twilight Link! ;o)
What size paper do you need to print this?
how can i make it life size
To make this papercraft model life-size, you could try printing it on a large format printer (called a “plotter”) and set it to scale the pages bigger.
Or you could open the sheets of the PDF file in an image editing program like Photoshop, or Gimp (which is free) and then scale all the sheets and re-position the parts to fit on regular A4/US letter sized sheets. If the parts don’t fit on the sheets anymore, you can have the printer cut them off during printing, and glue them back together again before assembling them.
But if you are looking for the life-sized Twilight Link model that a lot of people have already built, then that’s not this model! That one was made by Haywan Chiu from the Papercraft Museum website, and you can find the parts to print there: link
(you will need the free Pepakura Viewer to open and print the Pepakura *.pdo files)
I hope this answers your question, have fun building!
dude i love the way have ur papercrafts so easy to get to i dont get that rar and zip junk i finished link!! it so cool thanks man!!
Thanks, I like to make it easy for people to download my models as well, instead of having to wait and/or having to enter captcha codes. Not every ISP offers a free webspace account with their internet account, though (I’m *very* happy that mine does! ;o) so a lot of papercrafters have to look to other, free methods to host their paper models.
Although it can be annoying to download paper models from certain file sharing services, if you like the model, I think it will be worth the wait of course! ;o)
Most computers nowadays already have a file archiver to unpack the most popular archive formats like RAR and ZIP-files, but if you don’t already have one, there are many free tools online, like 7-Zip, which can handle many other compressed file formats as well.
I’m happy to hear you managed to finish Link, I hope you had fun building him, despite taking so long! ;o)
i need ALOT of help withthe FINGERS the first set of fingers tookme 2 hours to do but i have to do the second pair of fingers can u help me?
Assembling the parts for any paper model is much easier if you pre-shape the parts: that way, there won’t be so much tension in the paper anymore that will want the parts to come apart again, especially with small, round shapes like the fingers.
The fingers aren’t very difficult to pre-shape: you can roll them around a toothpick to make the parts take the shapes of small cylinders already. I once made a small YouTube video about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ph7ayEs1RA and a similar one about making small paper cones here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAb8jzFh80s
Once you’ve pre-shaped them, it will be much easier to assemble the fingers. Then you will have to glue them to the hand, and the easiest way to do that is to do them one by one: assemble one finger, glue it to the hand as indicated in the step by step instructions, and while it dries, assemble another finger to glue to the hand.
There really are just a lot of parts for the hands and fingers! So don’t feel bad if it takes long! If you’re becoming bored by glueing so many small cylinders together, take a break from papercrafting and store all the assembled parts and sheets together in a safe place so you can continue later when you feel like it again. The end result will be much better if you don’t force yourself to continue “just because you want to get it done already…”
Like I always say: have fun! ;o)
Hello is that can make link with the red suit of armor magic used by princes twitlight
My email is geovany_kyls7@hotmail.com
I love the Legend of Zelda series, and alternative outfits for Link are definately amongst my papercraft ideas! ;o)
When I do, it will be a completely new model, but I can’t promise you when I’ll make a new Link, though…! (I simply don’t know yet myself ;o)
I built this about a year ago when I broke my leg. I used the wrong type of glue, though, and it slowly sagged until it eventually came all apart. So far, I haven’t had the time to remake it, but I intend to do it. I would love to have a Twilight Princess Ganondorf and Princess Zelda models to stand beside Link. Do you have any plans to create either of these?
They’re very iconic characters that I’d love to make some day in the same scale as my two TP Links, yes! With all the other ideas I have as well, though, I can’t promise you when exactly, sorry!
Haywan Chiu made a Princess Zelda once (link): it’s bigger and a lot more detailed than my Links, though…
I seem to remember somebody made a TP Ganondorf too, just recently, but I can’t remember where I saw it I’m afraid… :o(
Maybe it isn’t released yet, otherwise I’m sure you can find it with Google or something. ;o) It was also big and very detailed again, so I don’t know if you’d like scaling it down much if you can find it…!
I hope you’ll find the time to re-do your papercraft Link, have fun building!
Hey, thanks for your quick reply and also for the link.
That Princess Zelda may be a tad bit larger than I want to go. Plus, I’m hoping to find a model with her sword as well. At one point, I downloaded the ripped models from the game, but converting them to a papercraft proved to be beyond my skill level. I’m definitely going to re-do my Link, though, so at least I’ll have him.