[HN Gopher] Haunted Paper Toys
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Haunted Paper Toys
Author : exvi
Score : 195 points
Date : 2026-04-06 10:09 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (ravensblight.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ravensblight.com)
| solstice wrote:
| Those look delightful! Eg for the next RPG session. On Google,
| the search term "papercraft" yields a lot of other results with
| easy to assemble models
| brisky wrote:
| What kind of paper should be used for these folding projects?
| tao_oat wrote:
| The page says
|
| > I recommend printing these toys on HEAVY CARD STOCK.
| ljf wrote:
| Years ago I made a papercraft Daft Punk helmet, using standard
| printer paper, but glued it with super glue, and then treated
| it with the 'resin' from a home fibre glassing kit, to make it
| solid and ready for full fibre glassing (obviously not needed
| in this instance!)
| phrotoma wrote:
| Ooh! Were you happy with the results? If so would you be open
| to sharing the pattern you used?
| ljf wrote:
| Very happy with the results - and learnt so much making it
| - i.e. building my own vac forming table to make the visor.
|
| Loads of sanding and spray painting, in-all I think it took
| me about 70 hours, but we wore the helmets loads for
| festivals and parties.
|
| I no longer have the file sadly, but got it from a paper
| craft forum - where people posted them. Happy to share pics
| if of interest.
| smith7018 wrote:
| Wow how hard was it to make the vac forming table? Have
| you used it since? I'd love a link to a tutorial if you
| have one.
| ljf wrote:
| Sadly I can't find any pics of the basic table we made,
| but that was actually an easy thing to make once I
| thought it through.
|
| I basically got a 2 sheets of MDF to the size I wanted
| (roughly the size of a baking tray for the oven, as I had
| to heat the plastic in my home oven) then drilled a hole
| every couple of cm in one of them, then made them into a
| shallow box - sealing all the places the wood connected
| with bathroom sealant on the inside and duct tape on the
| outside. I made a hole in one of the 'side' pieces that
| would fit my vacuum cleaner hose, and then added more
| duct tape to seal.
|
| Then I made two wooden frames as big as the largest
| baking tray for my oven, then cut some heatable plastic
| to size, and clamped them in the two frames and put them
| in the oven.
|
| This part had loads of trial and error - ie how long the
| plastic needed heating, how long to run the vacuum
| cleaner, how to make sure the plastic didn't end up
| behind the thing you were forming, how to make sure the
| think you were forming didn't deform while under
| pressure.
|
| Email in bio if you want pics or more info.
| NoLatency wrote:
| Any idea of scale? Could I use them as scenery when DMing?
| lelanthran wrote:
| This is great for RPG games; I made up a small cut-down RPG
| ruleset for my 6yo, and was going to try to 3d print some
| figurines, but...
|
| This way, I can get my kid to make his own monsters; while he
| can't run blender to produce his own monsters, using these paper
| templates is sufficient for him.
| 4ndrewl wrote:
| Does anyone have any glue recommendations for these types of
| project?
| phrotoma wrote:
| Glue gun. I've made probably a dozen paper masks in this style,
| patterns purchased from Etsy shops and printed on heavy bonded
| paper.
|
| I like hot glue for this type of work because it gives you a
| _little_ bit of leeway to make mistakes while it's still warm,
| so you can slide the pieces around to get them just so. Then it
| cools and hardens quickly so you don't have to wait a long time
| before moving on to the next piece.
| 4ndrewl wrote:
| Nice, thank you!
| joebergeron wrote:
| Aleene's tacky glue (standard gold bottle) is basically the
| best there is for this kind of work. I used to build some very
| intricate and involved papercraft models, and at least for
| precise and detailed work, tacky glue (and in particular
| Aleene's!) has a lot of desirable properties. Very strong bonds
| once dried, quick drying time, but with plenty of time to
| adjust, easy to work with, and can be applied very
| tactically/precisely.
|
| That last point is super important - basic approach is to make
| a small glob/reservoir of glue on some scrap paper, and keep a
| box of toothpicks handy to use as applicators to transfer the
| glue onto the the tabs. When the dried glue builds up on a
| toothpick end (making it bulky/less precise) just toss it and
| use a new one. If your goal is to build clean, tidy models with
| no trace glue or smudging, this is the way :)
|
| The only other glue I occasionally use, and only then very
| sparingly, is some kind of cyanoacrylate adhesive. Typically
| "Krazy Glue", in the tubes with the fine/precision tips, though
| I'm sure any brand will do. I reserve this for bonding together
| joints of a model that bear a lot of weight (think like, long,
| freestanding structures attached to the core of the model at a
| single point; see [0] for an example with structures like
| this!)
|
| [0]: https://imgur.com/a/papercraft-deep-striker-25kEi
| WillAdams wrote:
| Reminds me of The High Keep of the Grand Chapter of the Order of
| St. Raphael, "Old Stoney" from _Dragon Magazine #86 (June 1984):
|
| https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/dragon/31/DRA31_DRA86.pdf
| 1313ed01 wrote:
| I have cut and glued some of Peter Dennis' Paperboys for use in
| miniature wargames:
|
| https://peterspaperboys.com/
|
| He has some free sets to download.
|
| Also his instruction videos taught me a lot about how to cut and
| glue paper miniatures. Using so much glue basically that you end
| up with something that feels more like plastic than paper.
| tsumnia wrote:
| These look awesome! I remember in college building the Dragon
| Illusion Papercraft [1] and it was always fun to move about the
| dorm room as it followed me. Might have to build one of those
| ships this summer for old times sake.
|
| [1] https://www.instructables.com/Hollow-Face-Illusion-Dragon-
| Wi...
| juliushuijnk wrote:
| Create your own silly face by clicking around (make combo's of
| facial features), export the image, cut out, fold, glue.
|
| https://helpalot.nl/silly/
|
| Currently it folds 'into a brick', but am open to suggestions on
| how to make this more fun.
| samlinnfer wrote:
| Not sure if I've gone blind but there's some funky
| illusion/visual effect caused by the bright red text and
| underlined blue text. On the phone it looks like the red text is
| almost popping out the screen and the blue text is sunken in.
|
| Especially strong on this page:
| http://ravensblight.com/GhostShip.html
| jammaloo wrote:
| That's the chromostereopsis effect, that is caused by how our
| eyes refract different wavelengths of light
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udpEnJXVWEk
| yomismoaqui wrote:
| I knew about this kind of papercraft from paperhammer, that is,
| using models like this in Warhammer tabletop. This makes that
| hobby accessible if you don't have too much money to spend.
|
| If you are interested in this also search for poorhammer. These
| kind of things are refreshing in a world of hobbies that are more
| concerned with buying stuff instead of using that stuff in the
| hobby.
|
| Also, lovely 90s web design.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I always enjoyed this one: https://www.gathering4gardner.org/wp-
| content/uploads/2021/03...
| pimlottc wrote:
| Way back in the day there was a fantastic piece of software from
| Broderbund (of Lode Runner fame, among others) called The Toy
| Shop [0] that let you print customized papercraft designs that
| you would then assemble into working toys. Some of them were
| quite impressive - a steam shovel, a balloon-powered dragster, a
| mechanical clockwork bank, even a model steam engine!
|
| It is still one of the most unique and creative pieces of
| software I've ever seen. I guess maybe it didn't do that well,
| though, since there's unfortunately not a lot about it on the
| Internet now. There is a copy in the Internet Archive [1],
| though.
|
| It would be an interesting project to resurrect this, or at least
| extract the models into a modern format.
|
| 0: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/3278-the-toy-shop
|
| 1: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Toy_Shop_The_1986
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