Last year a friend introduced me to a nice video game called Machinarium.
It's a nice game where you direct a small robot through several levels in a robot city, solving puzzles that vary in difficulty.
The story is a bit lineal. It basically is a point-and-click adventure game.
But the graphics and music are incredible.
I really loved that game. The demo can be played here:
Machinarium
More info:
Machinarium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some weeks ago I found that a paper model of the main character (called "Josef the robot") was available.
The paper model can be downloaded for free from:
âÁà´Å¡ÃдÒÉ papermodel www.Modelgradas.com
This is my building of Josef the Robot:
The kit is a PDF file that contains all the parts of the robot and the base. Also included is an image with instructions, reminiscent of the instructions' console that can be found in the development of the game.
Although the model itself is very nice, I must confess I didn't like the instructions sheet. It is extremely basic, and if you don't have any previous knowledge on paper modeling, this may be difficult.
Another thing that can be of some trouble is the fact that the parts are not numbered. That's not a serious problem. Only a matter of personal preference. I like numbered parts when possible.
You must be careful when cutting, and a frequent reference to the pictures of the model and the instructions sheet may be necessary.
I started building from the head. This is a classic petal-shaped dome.
The model originally has tabs, but for the head I decided to use connecting stripes, because I felt it would benefit the model.
It looks "dirty" inside. But that's not dirt. It is remnants of the brown Prismacolor pencil I used to colour all edges. The glue smeared some of it.
The final result was very nice, and is really nice looking:
I followed by assembling a series of pieces that have similar shape and are built almost the same way.
This is a bit tedious, but it helps a lot to make them all at once.
They are: eyes, hands, feet, and the small top of the head.
After that I assembled the arms (easy task, just roll and glue), and the legs (bit more difficult: they are curved and require more work).
The assembling of those tiny "fingers" was really difficult for me. Those are small pieces with several folds. Patience (and a magnifying glass) is required.
The following step is to assemble the body.
It is made with three big "rings" and the upper/bottom supports.
After spending a couple of hours trying to figure out how to make it, I had to cut some extra stripes of paper to glue them to the inside/outside borders of the rings.
The idea is that the rings are movable, so that the body can be retracted.
This are all the parts before the final assembly:
And here's Josef assembled:
Then it's time for the base.
It is really a model in itself. It has 18 single pieces, and took me longer than I expected. The result is great.
And finally, a couple of pictures of the final model with the base:
I really enjoyed building this model. Probably because I was already biased from the nice experience of playing the game. But besides that, it really is an enjoyable model: you go from the very basics of modeling, to the challenges of some solutions. I found the base specially entertaining.
It took me like 12 hours to finish this model completely.
The design itself of the character makes it an attractive model. And small mistakes are forgiven given the rustic nature of the original artwork.
Colouring the edges helps a lot to give a nicer finish to the model.
I found that assembling the legs is critical for the final look of the model. A bad assembling can lead to a very unstable robot that cannot stand for itself.
In my case, a leg was a bit longer than the other by a couple of millimeters. It meant that it could not stand at full height. Only whit the body retracted and in certain parts of the base it could stand stable. Of course, one solution is to glue the feet to the base.
Josef the Robot's height is over 19 cms (21 with the base), and in my opinion is a nice addition to any collection.