A Thai man built an entire model city from pieces of paper that he painstakingly printed and folded by hand.

Darunbhop Puangsombat, 29, said he became interested in models when he was 10-years-old but could not afford the expensive pieces from toy shops.

Instead, he began making his own models from paper and cardboard which he could colour himself with pencil crayons.

His lifetime obsession has culminated in an incredible working city designed around the features of Bangkok, Thailand.

Footage shows a cardboard model monorail sky train transporting mini passengers above the streets. There are even police stations, post offices, Japanese restaurants, car showrooms and apartment blocks.

Darunbhop said: ‘My hobby first started when I was in elementary school. I don’t know what really inspired but I liked model making whether it’s boat or aeroplanes.

‘When I saw those models in department store and looked at the packaged models I thought there must be ways of making these models myself by using materials easily found near me.

‘Instead of buying packaged models because the cost is high, each box costs thousands of baht. I tried different materials from flute boards and plastic scraps and later found that paper is in fact the best to assemble into different shapes like a box or anything square or circular.

‘At first I use colour pencils to colour the surface then changed to printing and finally switched it to digital by designing it on a computer using the Sketchup software.

‘I thought is it possible for me to have something like this at home so I thought to myself that, I have experience in paper models so why not mix it in making a model train city.’

Aside from the train city, model fanatic Darunbhop has built a replica space rocket and a Star Wars space ship called ‘Star Destroyer’ made entirely from paper.

VIDEO SUBTITLES


1.43 Hello my name is Daranpop Phosombhat my nickname is Idea. I’m a YouTuber, content creator and a freelancer in media production
1.53 As for my hobbies, I have many but what stood out most is probably making paper models
2.01 It first started when I was in elementary school. I don’t know what really inspired me to start liking model making, whether it was boats or aeroplanes
2.12 When I saw those models in department stores and looked at the packaged models I thought there should be ways of me making these models myself by using materials easily found near me
2.22 Instead of buying packaged models because the cost was high, I tried different materials from flute boards and plastic scraps and later found that paper is in fact the best to assemble into different shapes like a box or anything square or circular
2.41 At first I used colour pencils to colour the surface then changed to printing and finally switched it to digital by designing it on a computer using the Sketchup software
2.55 Honestly speaking, I learnt how to do everything by myself. My experience in a model city started when I saw a finished model city in museums
3.06 I wondered if it would be possible for me to have something like that at home so I realised I have experience in paper models, so decided to make a model city with a train
3.20 I started by designing the routes and then applied my knowledge and talent into the making
3.27 The buildings, the cars, the flyover, the bridge, the tunnel and the mountains, all these things I made them on my own
3.34 As for the duration in completing this project, as I don’t do it every day and I don’t do this for a living. I do 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes an hour or half an hour
3.46 I continued doing it and it took me almost a year in completing it. Since I am a fan of the film StarWars for a very long time
3.54 When it only started, the original from 30-40 years ago I was obsessed with it and loved all the ships
4.02 I personally like structural engineering and architecture so when I saw this model, I thought I wanted something like it to be sitting at home
4.12 So I tried paper models like this Stay Destroyer ship. Its uniqueness and highlight is that this hasn’t been designed using a computer. There was no design and I only planned it using pens and pencils on a piece of paper
4.35 I then started building the structure and adding details to it, resulting in this present model and it took me around 6 months
4.43 When I first started this model it was never in my mind to sell it. But then I made a video from the first piece and posted it on Facebook
4.58 I don’t know how it happened suddenly there were many people, mostly foreigners that were interested and wanted to follow the progress of making this piece
5.13 I had people contacting me all the time, ever since this model started to materialise. Now I have offers asking to purchase this model
5.20 And they even offer to hire me to make another model in their place and asked how much I was going to charge for such services. There were negotiations and agreements on the price
5.30 It keeps on going up. I even have people offer to buy this model for almost 2 million baht, that's about 58,000 dollars
5.37 If there is somebody that truly understands the model's value and its worth, and wants to store it safely whether it's for themselves of a museum, I will be happy to sell it