I don't know if he's the best papercraft artist in the world, but Taras Lesko is definitely the most famous one. You probably don't know him by his name, but you definitely saw his excellent car models and that replica of his own head that he did a few years back.
From replicas of Deadmau5's mask to giant robots the size of an adult human, he can pretty much pull anything off. Not surprisingly for such a passionate and skilled guy, he was able to turn a hobby into an internet business. A website called VisualSpicer shares his awesome projects though do-it-yourself -plans that you can print out and turn into cheap replicas of cars you'll never be able to own and might never even see in real life.
His latest includes two legend of the 2014 supercar scene, the Koenigsegg One:1, which is the first megawatt car in the world (it has 1000 kW, or 1 hp per kilo of weight), and the McLaren P1, arguably the sexiest of thee hybrid monsters with electric motors that can dominate on the track on the road.
As you'd expect, it takes a lot of planning and preparation to go from a 2D piece of paper to an accurate 3D model of a car. Usually, Taras makes a simple prototype from cheap white cardboard to determine where alterations need to be made. After that's done, the prototype is practically useless. But instead of simply throwing it away, he decided to make a couple of viral videos as he destroys them. With the Koenigsegg model, he holds it and smashes it into a wall to simulate a crash test, while the P1 gets run over by a car.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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