An Unusual Hobby: The Art of Cardboard Modeling

I have an unusual hobby. I build replicas or models out of cardboard. In short, I do cardboard modeling.

What are cardboard models? Cardboard models are replicas of things and objects that are made primarily from cardboard, paper or plastic card. They attempt to approximate the likeness of objects from which they are patterned. Subjects are range from simple paper cutouts, buildings, castles to ship and aircraft. They can come in colored pre-printed patterns for assembly or the model can be built entirely from scratch.

As far as can remember, I always built toys out of cardboard or paper. I have fond memories of telling stories to my classmates during my First Grade using cardboard cut-outs of “Superman” which I drew. I was often in awe of car crashes and explosions that I saw in TV shows so I built cardboard cars which, true to form, I burned. I often watched science fiction TV shows like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers where I based and built models of the spaceships I saw. Japanese Anime characters were a source of subjects for my models. When I saw first saw Return of the Jedi [I watched the trilogy in reverse order], I built my own squad of storm troopers, R2D2 and C3PO. I remember building large versions of Airwolf, a Huey helicopter and the American Space Shuttle. During my entire childhood, I must have built close to a thousand models. All were eventually lost either gracefully like burning/explosions or sadly thrown out. When I graduated high school I abandoned this hobby. I thought that it was just a part of my childhood and had no part in a growing mans’ life.

One day in my late thirties, sick and jobless, I went online using my old computer. I accidentally found myself in a site for paper models. I was amazed in the number of people involved and the amount of creativity they possessed. This led me to ask myself, “Can I still build cardboard models after all these years?” I bought some glue and cardboard to find out. I finished two models based on popular Japanese Anime robots within that week.