Paper Lara & aluminium can Batman (and lots more!) by Bob Penikas

01-01-2024: “Be careful, it’s not a toy: these things are sharp…!” In November, 2023 Bob Penikas did a presentation on How To Model Using Soda Cans for the OCIPMS (the Orange County chapter of the International Plastic Modeler’s Society). The presentation was filmed and you can watch it in three parts on Bob Penika’s own YouTube channel! (you might even see a familiar face near the end– other than Bob’s of course ;o)
part 1 | part 2 | part 3

18-08-2018: Typical Lara of course, she can’t stay put very long… So she went with Bob to yesterday evening’s IPMS Orange County chapter meeting! :o)

She looks interested in the other models, especially (typical Lara again… ;o) in the planes and tanks: picture 1| picture 2 | picture 3

07-08-2018: After Last time’s Legend Lara, this time Bob built Underworld Lara in her wetsuit: picture 1 | picture 2

But he didn’t just build her “as is”, he used the butt glueing technique (I did an old explanation video about it here: link) to avoid overlapping joints so the final paper model looks extra smooth: picture

And of course: this was the first (and so far only… ;o) model I made with not just separate fingers, but also separate toes: picture

In fact, Bob did such a good job building paper Lara, that after she was finished he thought she actually looked a bit *too* clean! So he gave her a wash of brown water colours, and finally a coat of Krylon Acrylic Clear Matte.

Bob is a member of the PaperModelers.com forum, where you can find lots of paper modeling information and tips and tricks and built examples like paper Lara: link ;o)

13-04-2018: This time Bob didn’t use aluminium cans, but just paper to build my papercraft Lara Croft: picture

(and Lara doesn’t like soda or beer, she likes something a bit stronger… picture ;o)

He used Wausau 90 LB Exact Index for the most part, but that was a bit too stiff for the hair, so for that he used a 20lb paper: picture

Bob edited parts 43 and 45 a bit to enhance Lara’s eh, chest area… ;o) And to make sure Lara wouldn’t fall over, he added some lead weights inside her boots.

Bob’s Lara stands 11 inches tall, with an additional 2 inches for the shotgun, because Bob changed the pose a bit so Lara looks ready for action!

picture 1 | picture 2 | picture 3

07-08-2013: Bob Penikas did a small paper modeling/soda can demo at the Southern California Area Historical Miniature Society (SCAHMS) meeting last march, and another visitor Steven Lloyd made a video of it and posted it on YouTube! ;o)

In it, Bob explains in detail how to go about using a paper model template to create an aluminium can model and he even mentions my Batman: picture ;o)

Bob’s demonstration is posted in 4 parts of video, here are the links:
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

Have fun watching! ;o)

11-11-2012: The London 2012 Olympic Games Coca Cola can Batman that Bob made served as a prototype for this second version, made from Guiness beer cans.

With the experience he got from building the prototype Coca Cola Batman, Bob only used one layer for Batman’s cape and made this one a little bit bigger (9 5/8 inches instead of 7 3/4 inches): picture 2 | picture 3

As you can see, the black Guinness beer cans are very suitable for making an aluminium can Batman!

The gold coloured utility belt was made from a Michelob beer can, and the skin tone of his strong, masculine jaw came from an A&W Root Beer can again.

Bob had only just finished his Guinness Batman (literally!) when he took it and his Coca Cola Batman to a meeting of the Southern California Area Historical Miniatures Society (SCAHMS): picture 4

As you can see, the SCAHMS meetings are an event where you can find lots of great miniatures made from all kinds of materials, and Bob tells me got some very good comments on his aluminium can Batmen! ;o)

31-10-2012: Remember those aluminium beverage can papercraft models made by Machaon I told you about a while ago?

Well, those pictures inspired Bob Penikas to make his own aluminium can Batman: picture 1

Bob’s version is made out of London 2012 Olympic Games Coca Cola cans, an A&W root beer can for his skin tone jaw, and a Miller’s beer can for his utility belt!

Bob suggests making him a bit taller than the original to make it easier to make the small parts like the fingers out of aluminium cans instead of paper.

Some parts had to be patched more than he’d like, even though I personally think Coca Cola Batman still looks great! ;o)

Another issue that arose, was that using two layers of aluminium for the cape (front and back) resulted into it being much too heavy and Batman tumbling over: picture 2 :o(

To keep everything together, Bob used Loktite Stik’n Seal Original Waterproof adhesive, but if you know a better alternative, he’s open to suggestions! ;o)

I think Bob did a great job on his Coca Cola Batman, and it’s great to see people inspire each other like this! ;o)

Thank you for building a Ninjatoes’ papercraft model (out of aluminium! ;o)

Link, Mario, LEGO C-3PO, Kim Possible, NES Zapper, Batman, Lulu, Barack Obama and lots more by Richard (and Kristine ;o)

23-03-2019: Richard did it again! He built another really nice papercraft, and this time it’s Cloud, in the Kingdom Hearts version!

He’s originally from the Final Fantasy series though of course, where he’s famous for his huge “buster sword” – in fact even the papercraft version is so heavy, that he decided to put it down for a little bit: picture ;o)

It’s another great build by Richard, whose only problem now he says that he “doesn’t know where to put them anymore…” ;o)

17-10-2018: Who wants to build papercrafts when it’s so warm and sunny like it was last Summer? Not Richard! ;o)

In fact, he didn’t papercraft for months, but now it’s Fall, he felt the itch to papercraft something again, and that something was Twilight Link: picture 1 | picture 2 | picture 3

07-03-2018: Richard’s friend is a big Obama fan, so Richard decided to build a papercraft LEGO Obama for her as a gift: picture ;o)

You can see that I don’t have a papercraft Obama LEGO minifig though, so he recoloured my Luke Skywalker to make it. ;o)

To save time, Richard left out all the inner parts that are quite tricky to build sometimes and take a lot of extra work. So LEGO Obama can’t move his arms and legs like my other papercraft minifigs, but he looks great for the picture of course! ;o)

06-02-2018: Normally, Richard builds papercrafts that he knows, but even though he never played Final Fantasy X, he liked my papercraft Lulu so much that he decided to try it anyway: picture

It took him four weeks of work at a regular pace. And although he says some parts like the hands were hard to build for him and that he would like to “build them as clean” as me, I think he’s a bit exaggerating because his papercraft Lulu looks amazing, especially in her photoshopped setting! (I’m half expecting a big Ragora to pop up from the background! – not that that would worry Lulu of course, since she’d just Firaga the hell out of it ;o)

02-01-2018: Well, it looks like Batman is warning us beforehand not to make any trouble on the streets of Gotham, or else… :o!

This time, Richard had the help of his sister Kristine, making this papercraft Batman as a holiday project together: picture

It was not easy, especially the head and hands, but I must say they did a good job on making him look so intimidating to any evildoers: picture ;o)

24-11-2017: Richard has been playing Super Mario 64 lately, and couldn’t resist building Paper Mario 3D: picture

He says he didn’t find it very difficuly to build, except maybe the hand. ;o) But as you can see, he managed, and Paper Mario 3D is quite as part of his growing papercraft collection: picture!

19-10-2017: How cool is that! Richard is fairly new to papercraft, but he already made not only LEGO C-3PO, but also Kim Possible and the NES Zapper:

picture | picture | picture

Some parts like C-3PO’s head and hands were tricky, but as you can see, he did an impressive job! ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ (and other peoples’!) papercraft models!

Snow Queen, Wonder Woman, Batman and many other repaints by David Penso

18-04-2017: There are two reasons why you might not recognize my original Wetsuit Lara papercraft model in this new repaint made by David.

Not only did Lara go blonde, but more importantly, our familiar Tomb Raider is wearing a dress!?

And not just any dress, but a real Snow Queen dress, with icy motifs! ;o)

06-03-2016: This picture shows the newest repaint made by David: Wonder Woman, played by the actress Gal Gadot in the upcoming “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice”!

Wonder Woman is a mix of the Underworld wetsuit and the Legend versions, but her clothes, shield, and other weapons are all brand new by David!

I hope the movie will be good too…! ;o)

29-08-2015: As you can see below, David must be a big Batman fan, because he spent a lot of time repainting my papercraft Batman several times before already!

This time, he repainted him as the Christian Bale version, from the 2005-2012 “The Dark Knight Trilogy” Batman movie series reboot by Christopher Nolan, looking very dark indeed: picture

21-04-2014: After repainting my papercraft Batman into several other comic book characters, this time David left “The Dark Knight” as he is: picture ;o)

16-03-2014: Why should the U.S.A. be the only country that has a national superhero (Captain America)? For instance here’s David’s version of Captain Mexico (based on my papercraft Batman again): picture ;o)

10-02-2014: Superman is no longer a Man of Steel, but a Man of Paper: picture ;o)

06-02-2014: David made another repaint of my papercraft Batman after a request from a friend, who as you can see wanted him to make a papercraft He-Man: picture ;o)

15-03-2013: David still wasn’t done with Batman, but this time he wasn’t making Batman, but Flash, another comic book hero: picture !

Just as he made Lara into the Black Widow earlier, he took the parts of my papercraft Batman and repainted them into the distinctive red and gold colours of Flash!

And as you can see, since Flash is just as muscular as Batman in the comic books, it looks pretty good! ;o)

13-11-2012: After a few people made my papercraft Batman out of aluminium beverage cans, David made a regular, paper one again: picture

He glued on the left arm a little crooked, but instead of changing it, he made a little Batarang and put it in Batman’s hand so it looks like he’s about to throw it! ;o)

05-06-2012: Some time ago, David contacted me about the possibility of recolouring my papercraft Tomb Raider Legend Lara to make her look like Natasha Romanova (Black Widow) from Marvel’s Avengers series.

And as you can see, he decided to pursue the idea, and now you can see the result: picture

David really did a great job! I think Lara looks great as Black Widow, with the contrasting black catsuit and the red/aubern hair, which is kinda her trademark I guess. ;o)

David even added some extra strips of orange paper to give Black Widow some more/fuller hair, and for the final finishing touch, he used the bullet bracelets and belt buckle parts from the My Paper Heroes Black Widow toy: link

15-12-2011: This time, David built my papercraft model of Indiana Jones: professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and ‘obtainer of rare antiqueties‘ (in other words, a tomb raider ;o)

You can see a picture of David’s paper Indy here: picture

Of course he has his trusty fedora and shoulder bag, his whip, his gun, and a machete to cut through the jungles of Peru.

Everything an adventurer needs to save the world from certain doom. ;o)

15-11-2011: This year, Thanksgiving falls on November 24th, and as you can see, David has already been making preparations: picture

He made a small Thanksgiving display for the office where he works with the papercraft Thanksgiving turkey from the SpaceStation42 (I think he made the turkey’s legs himself) and his Homer Simpson paper model.

But although a papercraft turkey isn’t edible of course, Homer doesn’t seem to realize that…

(or perhaps, Homer being Homer, he just doesn’t care that it’s only a paper turkey… ;o)

11-11-2011: Only a day after the last one, David sent me another picture of a papercraft model he built, this time of Homer Simpson!

David did a great job putting it together, but I’m not sure he should leave Homer alone with a pair of scissors, though; knowing Homer, that combination can’t possibly end very well…

10-11-2011: After Mario, David built another one of my papercraft models: the Great White shark from the Tomb Raider II video game: picture

It’s one of the first models I made using Pepakura Designer, because I really like the polygonal/blocky look of the classic Tomb Raider games!

And I kinda like sharks, and although I’m not sure Lara does too (to be honest, I never almost got eaten by one…) I’m glad David does! ;o)

13-07-2011: It’s always fun to welcome a new co-worker at the office, and especially if it’s Paper Mario!

This one was built by David Penso, and from the looks of it, Mario‘s already feeling at home: picture ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ papercraft models!

Batman, Batmobiles and Wall-E by Sunny

28-11-2013: Besides the two Batmobiles, Sunny Jain also built this papercraft Batman, together with his friends as a gift for another friend!

It’s a nice idea for any Batman fan of course, and I hope their friend liked the gift! ;o)

At one point, Sunny and his friends even thought about using real cloth for Batman’s cape, but because they couldn’t find a proper one, they stuck with paper (and it still looks really good I think! ;o)

24-11-2012: Sunny sent me a whole set of pictures of the papercraft Batmobile that he built from my papercraft webpage: picture 1

The unofficial name is the “Keaton Car“, because Michael Keaton played the role of Batman in the two movies (Batman and Batman Returns) in which this version of the Batmobile was used.

My original papercraft Batmobile was hand drawn and coloured with a black marker, and I made it so that the cockpit roof and the jet engine could be removed, as shown in this picture made by Sunny: picture 2

Because the Batmobile is all black of course, the “white lines” you often get on papercraft models from the edges of the paper, can become extra visible, as you can see in this picture: picture 3

Although Sunny didn’t mention it explicitly in his message, I think he found a great solution to that by painting over his papercraft Batmobile with black paint, because in the other pictures, you can see no more white lines and the whole model looks a single, smooth black, just like the real Batmobile! ;o)

picture 4 | picture 5 | picture 6

So that’s a great job building his very own papercraft Batmobile, and a great inventivity from Sunny!

Update: Sunny sent me some more pictures of the building process of his papercraft Batmobile!

I always find it very neat to see other people’s papercraft projects too, how a bunch of 2D paper sheets transform into a 3D paper model. ;o)

As you can see in Sunny’s pictures, you really don’t need a lot of tools to build a papercraft model:

Update 17-11-2013: Sunny now also built the Lincoln Futura concept car Batmobile from the 1960’s Batman television series, made by Paper Inside!

Sunny found it very challenging because there were a lot of small parts, and to make it look even better, he touched up the white edges of the paper with black and red colours.

The most troubling parts were the famous double canopy windshields of the Lincoln Futura, because it was very difficult to get the plastic sheets to stick…

But Sunny managed to do it, and here are some of the pictures he sent me (but only a few though, because Sunny really took *a lot* of pictures of the entire build process…! ;o)

picture 1 | picture 2 | picture 3 | picture 4

Update 13-11-2014: This time Sunny didn’t build Batman or a Batmobile, but Wall-E (from the animation movie with the same name) made by Paper-Replika: link

picture 1 | picture 2

It was quite challenging says Sunny, which is not difficult to understand when you see all the different parts: picture 3

But as usual, Sunny managed to build a great paper model! ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ (and Paper Inside’s and Paper-Replika’s ;o) papercraft models!

Papercraft based Batman kite by Guy Reynolds

19-10-2014: Guy Reynolds is crazy about kites, making and building his own designs for fun and on commission too with his company Ursus Volans Parachute Co.!

But the way I heard about him was when Craig Harby posted a picture on Facebook of a huge Batman kite built by Guy, based on the papercraft model I made in 2012! ;o)

As you might imagine though, making a 9 meters (!) tall flying kite out of a papercraft model of only 25 ½ cm, was not so easy…

It meant that Guy had to redraw the patterns so the parts could be made to fit together using the special kite fabric:

picture 1 | picture 2 | picture 3

And after that, he still had to find a way to “bridle” it properly (attaching the lines to the kite) so it could be flown:

But in the end, it was all worth it, because as you can see in the top picture, Guy’s Batman won the Best Kite award as at the 23rd Portsmouth International Kite Festival (August 23rd – 25th 2014): link ! ;o)

Thank you for building a 9m tall Ninjatoes-based Batman kite! ;o)

Batman, Sora, Homer and Majora’s Mask by Daniel

03-10-2013: Daniel sent me some pictures of another one of my papercraft models that he built: Batman, from the Batman cartoon series! ;o)

Daniel says he only wanted to build the black version, because the version with the blue accents looks too much like the 1960’s Adam West-version of Batman, and he never watched that series. ;o)

It also allowed him to save some money on ink, by painting the black parts by hand: picture 2 | picture 3

You can see it looks very good, and if he wouldn’t have told me, I probably wouldn’t have known about it! ;o)

Daniel enjoyed building his papercraft Batman, only the hands were difficult, but he says those are “a pain in the ass in every model…!” ;o)

But nonetheless he had to build those too of course, and in the end he did a great job on them!

24-01-2013: Daniel got himself a new printer, so he can finally print and build his papercraft models in full colour now!

And that’s exactly what he did with my papercraft Kingdom Hearts 2 Sora:
picture ;o)

He was a little worried about building the spiky hair, now that it’s all done, he says it was surprisingly easy to build and everything went together perfectly: picture 2

I think you can tell Daniel put in a lot of work to do the best job he could on his papercraft Sora, because everything from the hands (which are always a bit tricky because of the small fingers!) to Sora’s Kingdom Key keyblade looks really great! ;o)

picture 3 | picture 4

Oh alright then; because he did such a good job, here’s one final picture of Daniel’s papercraft Sora: picture 5 ! ;o)

18-06-2012: Daniel built another one of my models: Homer Simpson: picture

Because he could only print the templates in black-and-white, he had to paint it himself, and I have to say he did an amazing job: I never would have guessed! ;o)

Daniel started with the shoes and pants, then the shirt and arms and then the head. He was a bit worried the fingers would be difficult, but luckily he didn’t have any trouble making them.

He thinks the eyes on his paper Homer look a little bit weird, but maybe Homer has just had a little bit too much Duff beer…? ;o)

21-12-2011: 24 year old Daniel Navarro from Venezuela built Majora’s Mask: picture

It was only the second papercraft model he made, so he printed it on regular printer paper to use it as a kind of practice and to save the thicker cardstock paper he has for other paper models he wants to do (and it’s in grey colours because he ran into printer problems… ;o)

He’s pretty happy with the results though, and I agree with him: even without colours, he did a good job building it and I think he can safely try doing more complex models too! ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ papercraft models!

Batman by Henry Dig

29-10-2012: Henry Dig from Vietnam built my papercraft Batman, The New Batman Adventures version!

He did a great job, which is not surprising because he has lots of experience building papercraft models!

In his DeviantArt gallery, you can see a (*much*) bigger picture of papercraft Batman, and lots more pictures of other papercraft models he built: link

Thank you for building a Ninjatoes’ papercraft model!

Aluminium can Batman by Machaon

16-10-2012: A few days ago, Space sent me a message about somebody who made lots of paper models, including my papercraft Animated Series Batman.

Out of aluminium beverage cans.

Made from different kinds of cans to get the colours just right, aluminium Batman looks fantastic I think!

I was able to contact the person who made it, called Machaon, and she agreed to be in the hall of fame here. ;o)

If you want to see more pictures of aluminium Batman though, you should really visit her Akikann Kurafuto weblog here: link

And be sure to check out the rest of her weblog (link) and her other craft website (link) too, because Machaon has made *lots* more papercraft models with aluminium cans, from teddy bears to Pokémon, all kinds of animals and lots more!

Thank you for building a Ninjatoes aluminium papercraft model! ;o)

(if you’re inspired to do the same, do be very careful of course, because a paper cut is nothing compared to the cuts you can get from a thin, sharp piece of aluminium…!)

Batman by Lionel Cousseau

02-04-2012: Here’s the first papercraft Batman for the hall of fame!

As you can see, it’s the Animated Series version with the blue cape (I also made a New Batman Adventures version with a black cape).

Lionel’s papercraft Batman looks great, and he tells me he had a lot of fun building it, but he did assemble it in a slightly different order than I did in the instructions:

– Lionel found it easier to glue the torso to the legs *before* glueing on the head.

– And he also found it easier to glue the hands to the arms *before* glueing the arms to the torso.

I always base the part numbers and instructions on the way I assemble the paper models myself, but if you find it easier to do it a different way like Lionel, don’t hesitate to experiment a bit of course! ;o)

28-03-2010: Lionel from France sends me this great picture of Ganondorf: picture

But besides that one, he also built young Link and young princess Zelda!

He tells me he found them challenging to make, but that the end result was worth it (“awesome !!!”, in his own words ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ papercraft models!