Hello all

This is my version of the faceted deer head i found on this site. i thought it looked amazing and I set out making my own.

credit goes to Krummrey who has made an amazing instructable about how to make this deer head and any other faceted object! check out his page to find out more and also the pdf file needed for this project.

www.instructables.com/id/create-faceted-paper-objects

So if you like the end result on the picture here is how i made it and some tips.

Step 1: Materials

I wanted it to be rigid and sturdy and to look like it was made out of plastic, a really smooth finish.

I thought that the paper suggested in other tutorials would not give me the result i hoped for so i thought of a few different alternatives : cardboard, featherboard, different coatings.

in the end i opted for cardboard, cereal pack type. I tried to find i with a side already coloured, but i didn't find any, so i had to paint it.

in the end and after a few trials i used :

- a few sheets of cardboard (0,5mm) - around 8€

- a primer -(called "gesso") - around 5€

- white acrylic paint (titanium white) - around 5€

- gloss gel to mix with the paint - around 8€ (i don't think it's really necessary)

- glue (uhu) around 3€

i also needed the following elements

- X-acto knife - around 10€

- fine synthetic brush - around 10€

- cutting mat - around 25€

and to mount it on the wall :

- a deer head mount - bought on the internet around 40€ with shipping

I thought a long while of a way of rigidifying the interior of the deer-head : i contemplated expanding foam, but read it had already been tried and was a failure... so i gave up the idea. i explored more seriously coating the insides with fiberglass and resin. I have never worked with it but I think it could have worked on the bigger parts of the head, but definitely not in the horns or the ears which would be too inaccessible.

In the end with the cardboard only the head is sturdy enough.

For painting, i ended up with using a simple acrylic paint mixed with a gloss gel to make it shiny. The retailer told me that with a fine brush it shouldn't leave any traces and be nice and smooth. In fact if you look closely you will see the traces of the brush, but on the whole it looks good.

I'd of liked to have spray painted it to make it smoother, but i don't have the equipment.

The product i'd have liked to try would have been "plastidip", but it seemed a bit expensive and i still had that spraying problem, i did all this project in a small apartment, so i had to keep it simple.

Step 2: Getting Started

i started by printing out the pdf files on A3 paper (i did this at work, i don't have an A3 printer. I suppose you could do it on 2 A4 sheets)

you can get the pdf file on Krummrey's instructable (i can't seem to copy the link, sorry)

Then i stuck the sheets to the cardboard. put very little glue. i suggest to use a repositionable glue stick - you will have to take them off afterwards. This is just to get the patterns on the cardboard.

Next step is a long one, be patient !

you have to cut down in the cardoard with the xacto knife and a ruler. this is a tricky bit, but is obviously the key to a good result. you have to score the cardboard deeply enough so that it will fold neatly but it musn't go through. i suggest a bit of practise on some scrap bits of cardboard.

follow the printed lines . you have to score on one side of the cardboard on the full lines, and on the other side with the dotted lines.

tip : you can make the tabs around the shapes slightly bigger than the printed pattern. they are only used to glue on the other bits, so the bigger the area the better.

tip2 : printing it all out on A4 paper would make a smaller head but with this method using cardboard i think it would become very difficult to assemble...i wouldn't recommend.

Step 3: Glueing

good job with the cutting!

Don't remove all the patterns yet as they contain the numbers to guide you through the assembly. You will have to remove the paper that you stuck to the cardboard as you glue. As i said earlier, the less glue you used during that step the better. You have to try and leave the surfaces neat so they can be painted afterwards.

To be honest i didn't manage this very well, but after a few coats of paint, small imperfections won't show.

The glueing process is pretty straightforward. you find two pieces containing the same number and glue them together using the tab. in this process you should crease the pieces.

tip : start from the tip of the horns and finish with the base. the horns are easy to spot, they contain the smallest facets... they are also the trickiest bits to glue together. to do a good job you have to slip a finger inside to allow to press the tab against the cardboard for a while : you won't be able to do this unless you work downwards.

Stop the glueing before you close the head. Cut a big hole through the bottom piece so you can access the inside.

Step 4: Painting

painting is pretty easy, the hard bit is done now!

i used a stand to hold the head and paint it : i slipped it through the hole previously cut to do the painting and let it dry.

i used several layers of primer and only one layer of white paint mixed with the gloss gel.

i painted the wall mount in the same manner

Step 5: Fixing

fixing the head on the mount was a bit tricky because there is no access left.

i put two nails near the top of the mounting board so that head could rest on them and support the weight then put the head in place on the nails. the nails go in the hole we cut out previously.

that alone isn't enough, the head can move around and it's not perfectly stuck to the mount.

i used double faced tabs, the kind that's got foam in between the sticky surfaces, and i stuck one bit at the bottom of the head, and two at the top. it's tricky because once this is done the head is stuck in that position. i also tried to make sure that the cardboard was still in contact with the nails to support some of the weight and that it doesn't rest only on a few sticky tabs. i think the nails are necessary because without, if a tab gets unstuck while the head is mounted on the wall it would crash down on the floor, so the nails act as a safety feature.

I could've done this in a simpler manner by sticking the head firmly to the mount, but i believed it would be good to be able to remove it, should i have to repair it. this is a personnal choice because during all this process i had several accidents where i had to make minor repairs.

Step 6: Done!

there we are! you can hang the trophy to your wall and be proud of yourself. it took me many hours to get to the end, and sometimes interruptions of several days or weeks when i didn't have time. this is when all the accidents happened because the head was lying around and someone hit it over.

I'm really happy with the result now, let me know what you think and if you do one yourself! Thanks for reading!