Mini Star Wars Hoth Battle Papercraft

Who can forget the epic snowspeeder versus Imperial walker battle in the movie, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back? This 1:250 scale papercraft diorama by Rawen captures the excitement of the event. The vehicles in the diorama include an AT-AT walker, two snowspeeders, an AT-ST walker and a TIE Interceptor starfighter. Rawen offers a download of the printable PDF templates for the diorama on MediaFire. Also required to build the model as shown are some cotton for the snow and smoke of the crashed snowspeed, and some wire for the tow cable of the snowspeeder circling the AT-AT.

Other Star Wars Papercraft:

Mini Star Destroyers
Laser Cannon
1:48 Snowspeeder
Probe Droid Marionette

Tuantuan

Canon Halloween Candy Shop Diorama

Canon Creative Park always has the highest quality holiday papercraft. One of my favs for Halloween is their "Halloween Market" paper diorama. It depicts a Halloween candy store in the shape of a lantern. The best part of this papercraft are all the small objects that come with the candy store: pumpkins, a broom stick, candy, and a table and chairs. My person favorite are the tiny books. This printable may be downloaded for free in the Miniature World section of Canon Creative Park.

Other Halloween Papercraft:

Fortnite Masks
Ghost Train
Teddy Bear
Origami Skeleton Hand
Disney Jack Skellington

Vintage Dutch Village Papercraft

The kids' activities website, Woo! Jr, offers this vintage Dutch village papercraft as a free download. Originally drawn in the 1930's, this diorama depicts farm life in the Netherlands in the 1800's. The 3D elements in the set include two houses, a rowboat, a bridge, and a windmill with blades that actually spin. The 2D elements include townsfolk, animals, a tree, and (of course) tulips. The color-it-yourself papercraft template for the village in the form of eight JPG files may be downloaded here. There are a few instructions for the trickier parts of the model on the download page.

Other Architecture Dioramas:

Japanese Cityscape
N Scale German Village
Old West Fort
Little House on the Prairie Town
Mini Christmas Village

Papercraft Pokemon Cities

Pokecreation has created 3D papercraft dioramas based on 2D cities seen in the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl video game. Currently available in the collection are Snowpoint City, Sendgem Town, Jubilife City and Twinleaf Town. Each city includes a Pokemon Center and a Poke-Mart (of course!). The thing I like about these dioramas is that each element has it's own template. So, it is easy to print out, say one house or a boat, without printing out a lot of other stuff you don't want. The templates for these cities come in both PDF and Pepakura PDO format and may be downloaded here. Sorry, no instructions are available.

Other Pokemon Papercraft:

Life Size Eevee
Bulbasaur
Quilava
Suicune
Totodile

Vintage Papercraft Nativity Diorama

This extraordinary papercraft nativity scene was published in an Austrian magazine in 1958. The thing that makes it special is it includes not just a nativity scene, but also five other scenes from the Christmas story. Across the top of the model are Mary and Joseph inquiring at the inn, the Annunciation, and an angel appearing to the shepherds. Along the bottom of the model are the flight of the holy family into Egypt (I think), the nativity, and the three wise men. The JPG format template for the model may be downloaded from the AGK website. German language instructions are included as part of the download.

Other Christmas Papercraft:
Tiny Manger Scene
Santa's House
Easy Printable Nativity
Origami Angel
Snowy Cottage

Japanese Cityscape Papercraft

This cityscape paper model was created by the Mansei Company as a craft activity for children. The scene depicted is a panorama of the Akihabara area of Tokyo. Akihabara is a major shopping district for electronics and all things related to anime, manga, and video games. The district takes its name from the nearby train station (which is the low brown building in the model). Printable PDFs and photo instructions for this papercraft may be found here.

Other Architecture Paper Models:

HO Scale Historic Illinois Buildings
N Scale German Village

10mm RPG Urban Architecture

Czech Churches

Philippines Architecture Collection

Little House on the Prairie Paper Models

The Little House on the Prairie television series aired from 1974 to 1983. The show was set in the late 1800's in the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. These delightful little models by PaperPrairie depict various Walnut Grove buildings as they appeared in the show. All the models are super simple, just the thing for those who are beginners at building paper models. Pictured in the photos are the Ingall's house, the Oleson's Mercantile, the Blind School building, the post office, and the Hanson Lumber Company building. Besides buildings, there various props like horse carts, ground textures, and backdrops. In all, there are currently 30 different printables available. Is that a Little House Christmas village I see on the horizon? ;)

Other Papercraft Buildings:

Half-timbered Medieval Town
Little North Pole Diorama
Vintage 1930's Village
Micro City by Digitprop
24 Mini Dollhouses

Easy Papercraft Easter Story Diorama

The My Little House website produces a variety of paper models based on stories in the Bible. An appropriate model to build this time of year is their diorama of the Easter story. The diorama includes the risen Christ, Mary Magdalene, two angels, two Roman soldiers, the empty tomb, plus a variety of rocks and trees. A free printable PDF template for the diorama may be downloaded here. One of the accounts of Christ's resurrection is found in the Gospel According to Luke.

Other Easter Papercraft:

Bunny and Chick Paper Toys
Carrot Treat Boxes
Wonderland Egg Diorama
Polygonal Rabbit
Origami Egg Holders

Minecraft Enderman Papercraft

You have to be a real fan of the Minecraft video game to make one of these and keep it in your room. Too creepy for me! :) This Enderman papercraft was created by gamer Stephen Bear. The printable template for the model may be downloaded here. (wait for it to load, it may take a while) In case you want to build the model as a birthday gift, included in the template is a cake block for Enderman to hold. In the game, Endermen have the ability to move blocks and can teleport.

Other Minecraft Papercraft:

Mini Diorama
Ender Dragon
Captain America
Creeper Automata

Mitsubishi A6M Zero Papercraft Diorama

During the last five years of World War Two, the Japanese Imperial Navy made use of the technologically advanced Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter. This finely detailed papercraft diorama designed by Masahiro Hisashi depicts a Zero at an airbase complete with concrete storage bunker and fuel truck. The papercraft templates for all models pictured may be downloaded here. Also available for download is a "weathered" version of the aircraft.

Previous Papercraft Aircraft:

1:60 Scale Cessna 172
NASA ARES Mars Airplane
Blue Angels F11F Tiger
Super-Deformed Spitfire
Chinese MiG 17

WW2 Soviet Aerosani Paper Model

An aerosani, in basic terms, is a propeller driven snowmobile. During World War II, the Soviet Union produced a military aerosani with the designation "RF-8/GAZ-98". It was a two man craft designed for reconnaissance missions in northern climates. The driver of the vehicle sat in the rear, while a machine gunner sat in front. This 1:35 scale paper model of the RF-8 was designed by paperdiorama.com. A free printable PDF template for the model may be downloaded here.

Previous WWII Papercraft:

Japanese Ohka Model 22 Aircraft
US M4 Sherman Tank
Soviet MS-1 Tank
US Willys MB Jeep

Vintage 3D Papercraft Diorama Lampshade

During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, paper model publishers sometimes offered lampshade kits for kerosene lamps. These lampshades almost always took the form of 3D papercraft dioramas of exotic locales. The subjects depicted on the paper shades ranged from views of the ancient city of Constantinople to Swiss mountain landscapes to panoramas of the jungles of Asia. The lampshade in the photo was published in Germany around 1905 and is titled "Chinese Landscape". The "lit window" effect seen in the photo can only be achieved by modifying the original template (i.e. cutting out the solid windows and replacing them with a colored, translucent material). The templates for this lampshade and several others may be downloaded here. As common sense would dictate, hot light bulbs and paper shades should not be in close proximity to one another for any extended period of time! Use caution and a very low wattage bulb if you choose to build one of these!

Other Vintage Papercraft:
Elephant Pagoda
Circus Automata
Madonna Fountain
Moorish Style School

Papercraft Santa's North Pole Diorama

This free papercraft diorama of Santa's workshop complex at the North Pole was created by the folks at Papertoys.com. The set includes Santa's house, a reindeer barn, a toy factory, Santa's office, a clock tower and a North Pole marker. To give you a idea of the size of the completed diorama, the entire complex fits in a circle about 8" (20 cm) in diameter.

Other Christmas Papercraft:

Geometric Reindeer
Vintage Christmas Fireplace Model
Easy Paper Nativity Scene
Modular Origami Christmas Tree

Papercraft Star Trek Playset

Here's a fun little papercraft playset of the Star Trek TOS bridge. The playset features hand drawn art and comes in an easy to assemble 2.5D format. The various pieces of the diorama may be found in the DeviantART gallery of MadunTwoSwords.  The floor and walls work better when they are glued to cardboard or foamcore.

Previous Star Trek papercraft:
Mini Shuttle Collection
Kirk and Spock Paper Models
Type II Hand Phaser
Voyager Medical Tricorder
Klingon Knife

UPDATE 7/2/2019: Madun's DA account has been deactivated. :( The link above now points to an archived version of his page. Low res images of the playset parts may be saved by right clicking on the images and selecting "save image as".

Papercraft Motorcycle Racing Diorama

This nicely detailed papercraft motorcycle racing diorama is offered by Yamaha to promote their YZR-M1 motorcycle. The YZR-M1 was developed by Yamaha specifically to compete in the MotoGP World Championship (which is what the diorama depicts). Such a motorcycle is not available for sale to private individuals and is not street legal. The four part PDF template for the diorama may be downloaded here.

Papercraft Zelda Lightbox Diorama

Papercraft lightboxes are similar to Japanese tatebanko dioramas. Tatebanko dioramas create depth by spacing layers of paper cutouts inside a paper box. Lightboxes make of use the same layering technique, but add a light source behind the diorama to further increase the sense of depth in the scene. Otaku Crafts has created a series of papercraft lightboxes based on Studio Ghibli movies and video games. Pictured is a diorama containing the Master Sword from the Zelda video games. The template for this and other lightboxes may be downloaded from Otaku Crafts' webpage here.

In 2010, I released a tatebanko-like paper theater that could, at least in theory, be modified to become a light box diorama. An image of the finished theater and a download of the template may be found here.

Papercraft Animal Diorama

This cute papercraft diorama from the Kirin company features six animals: a squirrel, a chimp, an owl, two rabbits, and a fox. I think the fox is my favorite of the bunch.  These "Forest Friends" are offered by Kirin as part of their collection of promotional paper toys for kids. Printable PDF templates for each of the creatures may be found here. A template for the "display tree" in the photo is also available.

Papercraft Koi Diorama

The Akafuku tea house in Ise, Japan was established in 1707 to serve those visiting the Ise Grand Shrine, an important Shinto religious site. The Akafuku tea company also happens to offer free papercraft on their website! My favorite of their offerings is this koi diorama. Despite appearing life size, each fish is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. The diorama and other paper models related to the tea house and the Ise shrine may be downloaded here.

Easy Papercraft Nativity Scene

I like the cartoonish simplicity of this papercraft nativity scene. The fact that two cats and a mouse are included with the animals makes me smile. I also am impressed by the shear number of pieces the set contains. The templates for the scene may be downloaded individually, in groups (such as shepherds and wise men), or as an all-in-one 50mb RAR file. Kudos to Didier at My Little House blog for his labor of love in creating this set.

LOTR Hobbit Hole Papercraft

There is far too little Lord of the Rings papercraft to be found, so I  was glad to see this Hobbit hole diorama by Olli Bizer. Translated, the German phrase on the front of the model reads "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit" which are the opening words to Tolkien's The Hobbit. The PDF template for the model may be downloaded here.