3D Papercraft Cicada Shell

Across the world, there are more than 3000 species of the insect known as the "cicada". Each of the species has a common feature: the nymphs shed their skins to emerge as winged adults. At the right time of the year you can find hundreds of their empty shells clinging to plants and trees. Just the thing for scaring your little sister! ;) This 3D papercraft cicada shell was created by a Japanese papercraft designer in 2008. The template for the model consists of 7 JPG images which may be downloaded here. There is a link on the download page to photo instructions showing how to build the model. The estimated length of the model is 12" (30 cm).

Other Papercraft Bugs:

Mexican Tarantula
Emporer Butterfly
Arabian Fat-tailed Scorpion
Rhinoceros Beetle
Swallowtail Butterfly Origami

Nintendo Samus Aran Papercraft

Samus Aran is the playable main character of the long-running series of Metroid video games by Nintendo. In 2009, Gollum999 created this Samus paper model for the now defunct Nintendo-Papercraft website. Fortunately, the papercraft template for the model is still available here! The download includes both PDF and Pepakura PDO templates as well as some written instructions. The first appearance of Samus Aran was in the original 1986 Metroid video game.

Other Video Game Character Paper Models:

Prince of Persia
Marvel Punisher
FNAF Withered Freddy
Crash Bandicoot
Cupheads

Easy Mini Star Destroyer Papercraft

Japanese papercraft designer, Masayu-i, created several free paper models as "gifts" during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020 to help those shut in cope with the situation. One of these models was the simple mini Star Wars Star Destroyer pictured above. The template for the model may be downloaded here. As you can see there are two ships included in the template, one half the size of the other. The model is not any particular scale. Print as large or as small as you like!

Other Miniature Papercraft by Masayu-i:

RMS Titanic
Zoids Command Wolf

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

Papercraft Endangered Animals

Pictured is a sampling of some of the paper models offered by Yamaha in their "Rare Animals of the World" papercraft series. The complete list of animals available include a tiger, a California condor, a great Indian rhinoceros, a gorilla, yellow-eyed penguins, an African elephant, and a coelacanth fish. The printable PDF templates for the models may be downloaded here. Each of the templates comes in two versions: a "lines only" version meant to be printed on color cardstock and a color version meant to be printed on white cardstock.

Other Papercraft Animals:

Snow Leopard
Siberian Chipmunk
Arabian Scorpion
Reticulated Giraffe
Thresher Shark

Bismarck Battleship Paper Model

The Bismarck was a German battleship that saw action in World War II. In its last battle in 1941, the ship was scuttled after sustaining heavy damage from British torpedo bombers and warships. This 1:400 scale paper model of the Bismarck was created by Zio Prudenziati. The PDF template for the model may be downloaded here. Only a few instructions are included in the PDF. My favorite part of this model are the tiny boats and seaplane on the deck of the ship!

Other Papercraft Ships:

Lilla Weneda Ferry
Mini Titanic
Spanish Galleon
1775 USS Enterprise
1910 Ocean Liner

Chibi Fullmetal Alchemist Paper Toys

I thought these Fullmetal Alchemist anime paper toys by Emanuel Franco were pretty cute, especially the Edward toy! The toys pictured in the photo left to right are Roy Mustang, Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric, and Winry Rockbell. The printable templates for these toys may be downloaded here. The first Fullmetal Alchemist anime series was released in 2003.

Other Chibi Papercraft:

Rozen Maiden
Doctor Who Incarnations
Pokemon Team Rocket
Naruto Uzumaki
Harry Potter Characters

YZF-R1M Motorcycle Papercraft

This impressive 2015 YZF-R1M Motorcycle model is from Yamaha's "Ultra Realistic" series of 3D papercraft. Being ultra-realistic, this paper model uses a LOT of ink and paper! There are 914 parts to be printed on 54 sheets of cardstock. The completed model is approximately 1:5 scale. The part sheets for the model may be downloaded here.  According to Yamaha, the YZF-R1 series is "the flagship model that represents Yamaha's leading-edge technology and design philosophy".

Other Motorcycle Papercraft:

YZR-M1 Diorama
1911 Harley-Davidson
Honda CBR1000RR
Thai Tuk Tuk

Marvel Papercraft: Venom

Here's another well done Marvel papercraft from Paper Juke. This model is of Spider-Man's archnemesis, Venom. Standing at 15.5" (39.4 cm) tall when complete, the piece is somewhat large. The printable template for the model (which may be downloaded here) is available in Pepakura PDO format only. To create this papercraft, Paper Juke made use of a 3D model from the Marvel Future Fight video game.

Other Spider-Verse Papercraft:

Spider-Man 2 Doc Oc
Black Cat Bust
Spider-Ham
Iron Spider
PS4 Spidey

G1 Transformers Papercraft: Devastator

In the Transformers universe, Devastator is an enormous Decepticon formed by combining the Constructicons. The Constructicons are robots that transform from construction equipment such as a bulldozer and a concrete mixer truck. The six Constructicons that make up Devastator are Bonecrusher, Hook, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Scrapper (who is the leader). The pictured papercraft is modeled after the version of Devastator from the Generation 1 cartoon. The PDF template for the paper model may be downloaded here. Build photo by Chris24jc.

Other G1 Transformers Papercraft:

Ravage
Soundwave and Buzzsaw
Omega Supreme
Laserbeak
Bumblebee