A Texas-based artist and Gears of War fan has created an amazing replica of pistol from the Gears series almost entirely out of paper.
Matthew Milam may seem like just another Texan technical writer to anyone he might meet on the street, but in his spare time, he adopts a whole new persona. Going by the pseudonym Leo Firebrand, he creates amazing papercraft artwork, such as this Gears of War pistol replica. The replica, as well as his other artwork, was made out of such simple materials as paper and foam core.
According to Geekosystem, this pistol is made almost entirely of paper. The only non-paper elements are the LEDs and paint, and apparently a small amount of foamcore was used for structure and support. Even so, criticizing this piece because it’s not 100% paper is a pretty weak argument.
As if this Gears pistol alone weren’t impressive enough, Milam has an entire gallery of papercraft art he has created under his own brand, Firebrand Creations. These works of art range from recreations of video game characters and items to replicas of actual military equipment. Firebrand’s bio page says that he does the designs for all his pieces freehand, then uses software to turn them into something he can cut out and construct. He states that the reason his designs are done freehand is because he doesn’t know 3D software well enough, “which sadly means others can’t download and build [his] models.” It seems, though, that an unforeseen benefit of Firebrand’s apparent shortcoming is that it comes with a built-in copyright; not being able to share his models means no one can steal his designs and try to pass them off as their own.
Firebrand’s gallery also displays a series of tabletop gaming miniatures he painted, citing the fact that he no longer actively plays these games, as well as a few Halloween costumes he has made over the years.