Tips & Tricks

Here I will give you all my tips & tricks so that you too can successfully build Pepakura models. If you are successful, I will have achieved my goal.

My most important tips right here:

- always keep the fun in crafting!

- if things don't go smoothly, take a break, paper is patient, it's waiting for you ;-)

Tools / aids

Be creative, almost anything can be used as a tool, it doesn't have to be expensive, a wooden stick or a bent paper clip, a piece of a PET bottle, etc.

You can find what I like to use here:

Tweezers in all shapes and sizes
Wooden sticks in different shapes
Paper clips in different shapes
Ruler
Scissors / small and large
Japanese knife and/or scalpel
Possibly a cutting plotter

Tip for buying tweezers:

Most cheap tweezers bend very quickly and cause more trouble than help. I bought mine from a cosmetics store, they are good and cheaper than medical grade ones.

I bought them here. https://remos-shop.at/ I have no connection with this store, but I am happy with the tweezers.

Printer
It does not need to be a color printer, black and white is sufficient. You may need to set your printer to “thick paper” and/or use the manual feed so that the sheets do not come out of the printer too curled. In most cases, 300dpi is sufficient print quality.

Cutting plotter

My best helper, but also my most expensive. If you only build a model every now and then, a cutting plotter is probably not worth it, but if you want to build paper models more often and don't enjoy cutting (like me), it might be worth considering. Maybe give it as a Christmas or birthday present? :-)

Glue / Adhesive

When it comes to glue, there are probably as many opinions as there are experts ;-) I glue my models with a conventional white glue that is not too watery and dries relatively quickly. A pressing time of a few seconds is sufficient. However, you can also use glue sticks and superglue. Find out for yourself what works best for you.

Here is a small list of the advantages and disadvantages:

Glue stick
- Advantage
  - Easy to apply
  - Easily correctable
- Disadvantage
  - Limited strength
  - It is not easy to get glue onto the flaps in difficult areas if they cannot be well supported or space is limited

White glue
- Advantage
  - Easily correctable
  - Easy to apply even on difficult areas
  - Good strength
- Disadvantage
  - Excess glue can lead to contamination
  - Pressing on takes some time, 5-10 seconds depending on the glue

Superglue
- Advantage
  - Sticks immediately after pressing on
  - Good strength
- Disadvantage
  - Correction hardly possible

Paper

I mostly use the 220gr. It is strong enough for larger models, but not as difficult to fold as the 300gr. paper. For smaller models 160gr. paper also works well.
Whether you use colored paper or white paper depends on whether you want to paint it. If you use white paper, you have the choice of what color you want to use later, and you also cover the glue numbers with the color if they should be on the outside.
There are models where the adhesive numbers are printed on the inside or outside of the part. If the numbers are on the outside, this makes assembly easier, but looks a little less attractive or has to be painted over. You can see whether the lettering on your model is on the inside or outside by the symbol with the square. If the arrows are pointing from the inside to the outside, the lettering is on the inside of the model.

Scoring/perforating/folding

Scoring/perforating the fold lines is an important step in achieving clean mountain and valley folds. I score the lines, i.e. I do NOT cut through the paper, but only cut the surface. This takes some experience, but produces the cleanest edges. For a perfect result, mountain folds would be scored on the reverse side. As you cannot see the lines, you can pierce a hole at the end and beginning of the line on the front side with a compass point. This gives you a mark on the back for the start and end of the line.
But that's quite time-consuming. That's why I score everything on the front side, which also works satisfactorily. Alternatively, you can also run a blurred narrow object along the edge with pressure so that the sheet is pressed in at this point.
Scoring is easier if the parts have not yet been cut out.

Divers

Preparation
- Prepare the next 2-3 parts (score/fold)
- Scoring is easier if the part have not yet been cut out
- Lay them down in the correct order

Where do I start when gluing
- Start with closed sections
- small areas before big areas
- Use tools
- Precise gluing is more important than fast
- Only as much glue as necessary

Very short scoring lines
- Here it can be difficult to see whether it is a dotted line or a dashed line. Go to the PDF and see what color the line is. Red --> valley fold / Blue --> mountain fold

A mistake has been made
- If the glue has not yet hardened,
  - remove immediately,
  - otherwise cut out parts with knife and scissors
  - cut away adhesive flaps:
    - cut out a new adhesive flap and stick it in the place of the missing flap
  - Cut out and glue in the new part
- Small holes are visible,
  - Coverthe holes from the inside with paper of the same color

Cutting machine

For my motifs I use the cutting plotter Silhouette Cameo, together with Silhouette Studio 4.5.
Here everything is engraved on the front
Only use adhesive film that sticks slightly. If you only have films that stick firmly, you can dab the adhesive surface with a cotton cloth until it no longer sticks so strongly. Other combinations are also possible, of course, but I cannot give any information on that.
- Cutting setting that works for me:
  - for 220gr paper, white (foreground, motif):
    - Blade depth: 3-4
    - Contact pressure: 18-22
    - Rounds: 2
    - Overlap line segment: 0.2 for start and end
    - Track reinforcement: OFF
    
    - As background paper I also use the thick colored paper and the same cutting settings as for the white 220g paper.
    - but thinner paper can also be used, in which case please use the appropriate cutting settings.