Our Handimonsters Patreon offers paper minis for high-tier subscribers. Here, Jacob Rodgers talk you through how they work.
And don’t forget – new monsters every Monday at handimonsters.com!
Here are the basic tools for Step 1: a self-healing cutting mat, a sharp knife, a scoring implement (in this case I used a toothpick, but something a touch stronger might have been advisable — I should have hunted up the rotary pizza cutter that I often use for such purposes), a steel straight-edge, and the print itself.
The print is on medium-weight cardstock. You’ll get better final results with as thick of a paper as you can get to go through your printer, but scoring heavier paper becomes even more important. You’ll notice there are red score lines. Go ahead and make all your scores (just making a line into the paper so that it will cleanly fold on those lines). You can score all the minis at one time. (Larger size minis have less minis per sheet, but for Small/Medium creatures you’ll get quite a few up.)
Then line up your steel straight-edge onto the cut lines instead of the score lines. Notice that I’m going to make a cut on the right side of the steel edge and my fingers are on the other side/top. We want you to keep all fingers!
Once you’ve cut the minis out, it’s time for Step 2. Taking a look at the folding diagram, go ahead and fold the mini as if you were putting it together.
Then lightly apply PVA glue to the non-printed side. It’s a balancing act, you want enough for everything to hold together, but not enough that it makes the cardstock wavy or seeps out the sides. You may be tempted to smooth the glue with a finger, if so keep a damp cloth nearby for the actual folding step, as you want to clean your hands and not transfer glue to the outside of the mini. (Yes, I’m telling you this, but you’ll see in the next step that even my efforts are still a work in progress. 🙂 )
Once you do that, fold up the minis, pressing the sections with glue on them firmly together. Give it a few moments to dry, and then grab some cross-promotional acceptable tiles and place them down. Voila!
Good luck!
Jacob