	Stan Lucian
	April 23, 2026
	8 Comments

Constellation Miniatures (formerly known as Template Miniatures and Toothpick Miniatures) pursues an ambitious goal: to design and publish free templates that allow anyone to build wargaming miniatures at a very low cost, with minimal initial investment. This approach presents an intriguing engineering challenge. While the resulting models may not match the detail or realism of commercial products, they emphasize accessibility, creativity, and hands-on engagement with the hobby, successfully fulfilling their purpose of making wargaming more widely available.

Tank Encyclopedia recognizes the value of this initiative and has chosen to support and promote these miniatures, helping bring historical interest and creativity to those who might otherwise lack access to such models. Over the coming weeks, we will share a new booklet each week, sharing them widely to help make wargaming more accessible to all.

The booklets require no printing at all. Templates have to be created using the available instructions and dimensions. These are then used to shape suitable cardboard sheets (including recycled materials, such as tissue boxes). The resulting pieces are folded, glued, and assembled into the final miniature or subassemblies, which can then be painted. A single template can be reused to produce dozens of models.

An example of the templates and resulting components.

An example of the instructions for constructing the A13 Cruiser Tank.

If you are interested in contributing, whether by designing new models, testing and improving existing ones, translating the booklets, or otherwise, you are invited to take part in expanding this initiative and helping make the hobby more accessible to a wider audience.

A message from the founder of Constellation Miniatures:

It takes me three months to make a booklet, from the initial research & development to the complete instructions. At this rate, I will never be able to cover all the models that could be made.
It is only natural that you would want to make a cardboard miniature of a historical vehicle you’re interested in, and I encourage you to do it.
Having only so much energy on any given day, I wouldn’t be able to review your work or host it on my website, but you can send it to Tank Encyclopedia at [email protected] even if it’s not a tank.
A guide to help you design your own miniatures should be available here and on my website by the end of July 2026.
Have fun! 🙂 Alexandre Karadimas from Constellation Miniatures

Free Constellation Miniatures Booklets
	Renault AHS, AHR and AHN trucks in 1:64 scale Version 1.1 – April 20th 2026 Contents: Renault AHS 2-tonne truck, AHN 3.5-tonne truck and AHR 5.5-tonne truck, open cargo bed, canvas top.
	Renault AHN truck variants in 1:64 scale Version 1.0 – May 2nd 2026 Contents: Renault AHN based ambulance with optional interior, LC-Koffer with optional interior, Holzgas option, fictional Maultier suspension, and fictional LRDG style modification.
	A13 Cruiser Tanks Mk.III and Mk.IV in 1:64 scale Version 1.1 – April 20th 2026 Contents: Cruiser Tank Mk.III, Cruiser Tank Mk.IV, mantlet spaced armor version, sand shield, smoke generators, pennants for identification, ventilation grille.
	Marmon-Herrington Armoured Cars and variants in 1:64 scale Version 0.5 – July 22nd 2025 Contents: Marmon Herrington Armoured Car Mk.I, Mk.II, Mk.II with Pak 36, Fictional APC, Fictional BA-10-like front MG port.
	Panzer II in 1:64 scale Version 1.2 – May 22nd 2026 Contents: Panzer II Ausf.b, Ausf.c, Ausf.C and Ausf.F.
	Pak 36 and variants in 1:64 scale Version 1.2 – May 22nd 2026 Contents: Pak 36, Stielgranate 41, IG 37, Soviet M1937, M1942 and OB-25.
	Terrain I in 1:64 scale Version 2.0 – June 24th 2026 Contents: Modular houses, Interior, Trees, Rocks, Roads.
	AMR 35 and variants in 1:64 scale Version 1 – June 13th 2024 Contents: AMR 35 ZT-1, AMR 35 ZT-2, 81 mm mortar, 8 cm Schwerer Granatwerfer 34 auf Panzerspähwagen AMR 35(f).
	AMR-VTT in 1:64 scale Version 1 – March 25th 2024 Contents: AMR-VTT
	GAZ-64 and variants in 1:64 scale Version 2.2 – May 22nd 2026 Contents: GAZ-64, GAZ-704 trailer, fictional GAZ-Willys, fictional GAZ LRDG, fictional GAZ Holden ambulance.

Comments (8)

Eric Kulp April 23, 2026 at 18:40

now this is cool. thank you for doing this.

jes lyck April 23, 2026 at 19:54

A great idea, it made me smile.

Gareth Lynn Montes April 23, 2026 at 20:37
Hi Jes, Glad you liked it! Please send us pictures if you make any, and keep an eye out for our future releases. Thanks Gareth (TE Manager)

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CLR April 24, 2026 at 02:26

Reminds me of my college friend. He built Tiger I from cardboard without blueprint, everything was from visual observation from various photos. The scale was unknown, the proportion might be slightly off, but it was one-off work of art.

Harrison Zielonka April 27, 2026 at 00:13

wow that is really cool. I built a cardboard M56 scorpion like that. it was really hard though.

Herman April 27, 2026 at 01:18

I'm afraid I will throw some cold water on this. First of all, you have come up with still another scale. War-game miniatures already come in 1/72 (the Airfix scale) but some Japanese model manufacturers have used 1/76. Then the is 1/86, this is the model railroading HO scale and was the Mini-Tanks scale, though that seemed to grow a little over the years. Then there were the Roco minatures 1/100 scale. Then there is also the GHQ miniatures which are 1/286 scale. But that is for an entirely different class of war-gaming. And now you are making 1/64 scale. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but as you yourself point out, at the pace you can make these, you will never live long enough to make all the even relatively common vehicles. But these are incompatible with anything else. So, this as viable war-game pieces are entirely dependent on your output. Secondly, they are relatively complicated to put together, which makes difficult to achieve the manufacture of the quantities that would be necessary for battles. (A problem in real wars too.) My recommendation would be to change the scale to something that is compatible with other models also.

Stan Lucian April 27, 2026 at 06:18
Respectfully, bullshit. First off, Bolt Action, Chain of Command, Disposable Heroes, Ultracombat Normandy all use 1:64, also known as the 28 mm scale. Second off, given how these are meant to be built, if you want to scale it up a bit, you just multiply all the dimensions by a fixed number (0.88 if you want 1/72), and you get that scale. Third off, the difference in length for a 4 m long vehicle between 1:64 and 1:72 is 7 mm. It won't make a difference in the actual game, won't seem wildly out of place, no one will kick you out for that mismatch.

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Alexandre Karadimas April 27, 2026 at 11:02
Hello Herman, I'm the creator of Constellation Miniatures, your post gives me the opportunity to give more context behind the project. Let's first leave the scale issue aside, as Stan Lucian wrote 1:64 is 28mm scale ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_model_(gaming) ), which is widely used in wargaming. The main point of my project is that at certain moments in life there is simply no money. For many people, there will never be any money for miniature models or wargaming, at any point in their life. This project at least gives them an option. Note : in my view 3D-printing isn't exactly an option for people with no money. A combination of these two worlds would nevertheless be interesting. Papercraft models are another interesting alternative ( https://cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/ ) but they require a printer (often a colour printer) and special paper. Constellation Miniatures also provides options for other situations. A beginner player or a teenager may want to concentrate his ressources to purchase a few iconic models but hasn't enough money for the other components of an army, trucks for instance. With Constellation Miniatures he will be able to make trucks and get on with playing. If you think your army setup would benefit from a 2,5 tons truck with a wood-gas generator that carries an infantry gun in portée, it would be complicated to find this configuration in retail, whereas you can built this setup right now from available Booklets. What if the experiment fails on the wargaming table, or you lose interest in it ? Then you wouldn't have lost any money on kits for that. Finally, if you really really want, you can try to design your own miniatures with this method. I'm in the process of writing a guide for that, but there is already an early video about that here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dWFTSrBLLo If hobbyists send their own designs to [email protected], the models library could cover more wargaming needs. To conclude, it doesn't compare to commercial models but it is an alternative option where there was none before.

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Constellation Miniatures

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