Metroid has been one of my favourite series of games since I first played Metroid Prime back in 2002. There actually aren’t a lot of Metroid-themed papercrafts out there so I felt it was time to make one of the infamous creatures out of paper and change that. It’s actually no surprise that there aren’t too many papercrafts of Metroids specifically as there is a pretty obvious challenge: the membrane.

Metroid bodies consist of a clear membrane surrounding a central nucleus-like brain with some claws attached. This is something that is easy to accomplish in a video game but making it out of paper is obviously a whole other thing. The two main ideas I had were to make an arch to give the impression of shape or to use transparency film to make the membrane. After much testing and playing around with it I ended up focusing on the arch method as I felt the transparency tests weren’t satisfactory.

I think the arch method turned out very well though and I am very happy with the result. From head-on, the model resembles the Metroids from the original Metroid game for the NES. In addition, using the arch to create an impression of shape also fit with my “low-poly”, asymmetric style that also aims to give only an impression. So it worked very well for multiple reasons.

I didn’t entirely abandon the transparency method though as I did create an alternate version with a back shell to provide more shape. It also makes the model a little sturdier as well as a bit of a more challenging build too. I’m also going to keep experimenting with the transparency film to see if I can produce a better result so I may revisit this model again in the future.

Well, time to get back to designing more papercraft models. As always thank you for reading!

The Papercraftsman

The first model of 2021 is here! It took much longer than I had anticipated but it’s finally here!

I decided to go with something from my favourite game series: Metroid. At some point, I want to do a Samus model or a Metroid or a Ridley but I don’t feel my skills are quite there yet so I decided to settle on a zoomer. It’s not the most imposing or fearsome enemy but I figured if anyone has ever even tried Metroid or Super Metroid they should recognize what it is haha.

Overall I am quite happy with how this model turned out. I probably had the most fun during the initial design process because I took a little creative license with it. When playing the original Metroid I always pictured zoomers looking very bug and crab-like than anything else and I tried to work that into my interpretation. Because of that I probably drew the most inspiration from the Metroid Prime concept art because their renderings are more bug-like than the drawings of the original Metroid. The eyes were especially fun to play around with.

As mentioned before this model took a lot longer than I had intended. Some of it was because I had to go back and re-do somethings like the eyes; they were too complex initially. Mostly though it was because with over 600 parts the instructions became a bit of a nightmare haha. Almost every day I worked on them I ended up failing to meet the progress goals I set up for myself simply because of the sheer volume of work to be done.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is too much I can do to refine the process with my current setup as when I made my first model I approached the process of making the instructions in so many ways that I am pretty sure the way I did it is the only way I can. This means I will probably be looking at expanding my software library here to try and find a more automated way of spitting out those instructions. Until then I think I am just going to have to try and scale back the complexity of my models while I look for a solution.

With that, I think I am going to get started on my next creation. If you’re curious about what I am working on and want more regular updates then consider joining my Patreon. I tend to post more regular updates over there and even show some behind-the-scenes photos of the design and construction process.

Thanks and happy crafting,

The Papercraftsman