Someone once said, “creativity is a sign of sheer boredom”, and it was easy to see that the person who uttered those words lacked creativity. Creativity is the building block for progression, for without it we cannot move to the next level. When one of our readers, Mikel Smith, contacted us to share something he created, sheer boredom was not our first impression.

One of the trucks that Mikel created. When he said it was made of paper, we didn’t believe it. Then he showed us more, and we promptly ate crow.

When Smith was younger, he had a love for musclecars. He wanted to get plastic model kits, but growing up was kind of rough with five kids and a tight budget, so his parents sometimes couldn’t afford the kits.

Still, with a desire to put together scale models of the musclecars he loved, Smith came up with an alternative idea so he could build the cars and trucks he wanted to build. He began to make them out of ordinary construction paper by cutting out the parts and coloring them as necessary with markers. That’s right, he made paper car models.

Now 37 years old, Smith still indulges in the hobby that he created so many years ago, and has put together roughly 350 of these unique cars and trucks. But rather than making a simple flat body panels and gluing them all together, he goes a few steps further and builds the wheels, tires, engines and interiors for each model that he puts together.

The bodies on these cars share some of the same body lines as the real thing, with curves and body creases where they should be. It’s hard to imagine that he completes each of these models out of 100% construction paper, but he assures us that he doesn’t use anything but paper.

Using only paper to complete each one makes the task of building one of these cars even more incredible. But since he is doing much more than just putting a body on a chassis, there’s actually some meat to each one of these unique kits.

A few years back, Smith fell on hard times and found himself out of work due to an injury, and eventually he lost his home. Instead of giving up like so many do, he kept his spirits high and continued to make more models from paper as a way of keeping his mind focused.

This is the Challenger Smith shared with the Mopar people at SEMA 2012.

“Building these cars is not just a hobby, but it it takes me to a place of doing something that I love and that’s building cool muscle cars,” Smith said. His wife supports his hobby, and encourages him to take more pictures and to document his builds.

Smith has his own full-size musclecar that he’s been working on for a few years, a 1972 Cutlass, that he hopes to complete someday. Until then, he continues to build paper musclecars while he tries to get his life back on track after his injury. He said it’s a good way to stay occupied on a rainy day; but building one of these cars or trucks takes a bit longer – about three to four weeks to complete one from scratch.

Smith admires people like Chip Foose, and says that he uses some of the same ideas: come up with a concept and sketch it out before he builds it. He took a couple of his cars with him to SEMA in 2012, showing off his Challenger to the Mopar team at their display. He even met Bob Bertelsen, the owner of the Brute Force 1971 Camaro that competed in the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Bertelsen loved it, and took the car home with him.

Smith has also worked on a new Chevelle concept and says he wishes GM would consider a new Chevelle and check out his design. You have to dream big, and Smith does just that when he goes to work on these cars. His artistic skills to come up with the designs and to put it all together is amazing enough. In the most basic sense, he is cutting up colored paper and gluing it together. But the fact that he’s making three-dimensional automotive art pieces is what separates him from the rest.

We asked Smith to share some of his build pics with us so we could see the detail that goes into these. Needless to say, we were completely blown away. Enjoy the gallery below of some of Mikel Smith’s creations in paper. If you have an unusual and cool hobby with musclecars, share it with us!