My experience is in that finishing process. Browsing through Google and costume forums a lot of people have taken great care to cut, fold, and glue beautiful paper models, but when it comes to painting and detailing the end product, the project goes awry. I am new to the hobby, but I've noticed major issues with a lot of the tutorials currently available they lack information on the finishing process. Pepakura is a program that takes 3D models and unfolds them into a series of 2D pieces that can be printed out and assembled. I dived head first into the fun and quirky world of Pepakura.
For a long time I've been curious to jump into the world of costume building, and this Christmas break it made the perfect project.