Those of you who haven’t assembled paper models until the present moment should acquaint themselves with some basic techniques and methods used in paper modeling before they get down to seriously building their collections. I am not going to describe them in detail; instead of that I will show you some sites where descriptions suitable for beginners can be found (visit the 'Links' section). On them you will be able to find information about the required instruments and materials which are usually used in paper modeling. As far as the above-mentioned characteristic of paper modeling materials are concerned, I will only say a few words:

• You should not use hard paper for the print-outs. Where the construction has to be reinforced I have specified the use of thick cardboard. The paper I use to print on and make the test models from is 100g/m².
• For strongly laminated or supporting elements the print-out must be glued to cardboard as thick as 0.5mm. Almost everywhere the elements of this type are presented in groups and are enclosed within a blue or red dotted line. Note that you must cut out the whole patch, glue it to the thick cardboard and only then cut out the separate elements. Very often there is a colored sheet which has to be glued to the backside of the thick cardboard. Thus the elements don’t have sides which are not colored. All this is clearly demonstrated on the pages containing the elements. The thin paper must be glued really well to 0.5 mm cardboard. For this purpose you should use highly viscous glue which does not dry up fast and can be spread out really well with a brush or a roller. Once the thin paper is glued to the cardboard it should be pressed with something and left to dry for 24 hours.

I will now draw your attention to some specific materials I myself use. They include:

• thin, isolated and bare conductors;
• thin rubber bands (the rubber band cut out from a balloon has turned out to be especially suitable for it is soft, thin and very elastic);
• lead balls or some other small weights (they are used to make certain details heavier in order to make the figure more stable);
• fishing cord (it is always good to have different ones in store);
• toothpicks (they are widely used in all types of models and are 1.5mm thick);
• tempera colors, markers, Indian ink, etc. (the different means of coloring are used in the coloring of the ‘white’ side of the elements as well as of some other additional materials.

Permanent markers are especially suitable for the coloring of toothpicks. It should be noted that they must be left to dry up well. You should also be very careful with glues because many of them, especially those based on acetone, dissolve coloring agents.

I use tempera colors to paint the white edges. You should use as little water as possible as a dissolvent because many types of paper as well as the different types of ink for inkjet printers are sensitive to water.