This papercraft comes from the 1986 animated movie Castle in the Sky, the first official movie release from Studio Ghibli. The flapter is a machine that flies by means of four vibrating insect-like wings. In the movie two young characters, Pazu and Sheeta, make use of the flapter in their adventures which eventually lead them to a legendary flying castle in the clouds. This papercraft was designed by "Orca", Japan, 2005. The template may be found here, while instructions in Japanese are located here. The wings may be built with either cardstock or clear plastic (as is shown in the photos).
July 4, 2009
Studio Ghibli Papercraft: Flapter
This papercraft comes from the 1986 animated movie Castle in the Sky, the first official movie release from Studio Ghibli. The flapter is a machine that flies by means of four vibrating insect-like wings. In the movie two young characters, Pazu and Sheeta, make use of the flapter in their adventures which eventually lead them to a legendary flying castle in the clouds. This papercraft was designed by "Orca", Japan, 2005. The template may be found here, while instructions in Japanese are located here. The wings may be built with either cardstock or clear plastic (as is shown in the photos).
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Its a nice to heard the introduction of the papercraft. Thanks for the given the information regarding this.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome!
ReplyDeleteNicely done! I have often wondered why the huge variety of Studio Ghibli flying machines is not better represented. Many of them are actually aerodynamically sound. I have made a crude version of Nausicaa's Mowe glider that flies pretty well. Next I am looking at the "Conan Boy of the Future" Falco seaplane.
ReplyDeletehello, i downloaded the papercraft for flapter, but the pdf file manage to show the images, everything was blank. do you mind checking if anything's wrong? thanks so much!
ReplyDelete@Cheryl
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the flapter PDF and all the images showed correctly. Please try downloading again. If your computer is slow it may take a moment for the images to show up in the PDF.
what did you make the wings out of?
ReplyDeleteClear report covers work nicely. Although you may need to attach them with double sided tape as the typical glue used in papercraft doesn't work on plastic.
Deletehow about the edges? they look like you put some sort of border on it.
DeleteI think that is just the edge of the cut plastic showing. It tends to turn a little white when you cut it. Oh, and for the record, I did not build the flapter in the photos...
DeleteThanks for the help. I doubled the size of the parts to make things easier. Also when you built yours did you color the edges?
ReplyDeleteEver tried the Mehve from Nausicca?
I don't typically color the edges of my papercraft, but I think it looks better to do so. I have not tried the Mehve.
DeleteThanks for sharing this! I’m delighted with this information, where such important moments are captured. All the best!
ReplyDelete