2.5m Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Papercraft

[AntonisV]

Hello all!

I started making building papercrafts 2-3 years ago, and I started my biggest project up until now.

It's the "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" Statue, which I will make 2.5 meters tall. I have built it again 1 and half year ago but in smaller scale, about 1 meter tall.
And to be honest it was very fun, very challenging, and at a lot of times, VERY frustrating.
I basically found the .pdo file in a forum, and when I searched about that file, I found nothing but the link of the forum that I downloaded it. I researched for the file, the user that uploaded the file, but found nothing. So I guess it is a royalty free file?

So anyway, back to the first time building it. The papercraft was all one piece. So when I physically built it I ran in some troubles at times, like how do I "close" the papercraft, and at certain parts it was very awkward gluing another piece in an already done huge piece.

So. I saved the file as .obj, threw it in blender and edited it. I cut it to pieces and make connection keys to the seperated pieces(arms, legs, torsos, heads, pieces of cloth).

Right now, I imported it at pepakura and I will start making the 2d pieces.

Now. I would like to ask you a question.
As I said, I will make this to be 2.5 m tall. I intend to use 300gr A3 paper to make this but, I asked a guy that makes huge papercrafts, and said that 300gr paper will not be enough for that size and that needs to be strengthened very well inside.
I was wondering, could it be done with 300gr paper and put expanding foam just in the walls (or fill it?)?. Could the pieces be strong enough with the expanding foam to support that size?

Thank you!

[Viator]

I suppose the expanding foam could tear apart the seams or soak into paper, thus destroying your model... It requires an experimental proof.

Maybe if the model will be made as a triangles or poly pieces smaller than A4 probably they could be made of 300 g/sqm but layered twice or thrice, as an "exoskeleton" without an "endoskeleton", very light but durable. But if it contains mostly rolled or curved pieces, making them of a "composite" (multi-layered) paper looks not a good idea at all. I suppose that you shall make tests yourself, because the thickness of the cardboard is not the only factor. I think, it is too big and troublesome project to depend on someone's else opinion.

If you decide to make an "endoskeleton" you can use for example the thick tubes from the rolls of plotting paper - I used them as legs for the small table once and they proved to be stiff enough even without any additional strengthening.