3D Building Papercrafts With Graph Paper!

Hi! I'm here today following up my 3D Buildings on Grid paper instructable with a papercraft version of it - you can now turn your awesome graph paper buildings into real models!! More of a concept like the last one, but still cool. Have fun with it!

Step 1: Materials

For your 3D building, you will need:

A 3D Building Drawing (see next step)
Craft knife
Glue (preferably hot glue, I found that it worked the best)
Q-tip if using liquid glue
Patience (edit 10/2022: editing this post 7 years after I first published it and I apparently took 14 hours to make the model)

Step 2: Make Your 3D Building Drawing

First, you're going to have to take your 3D building drawing(or make one here if you haven't) and use it as your model. The building you chose will be what you turn into a real object.

Step 3: The Graph Paper

Papercrafts should be sturdy. The regular graph paper that you'd be using is too flimsy and hard to work with for making models with. Cardstock paper is commonly used for papercrafts, because of its thickness. However, cardstock graph paper is hard to find, so I recommend printing graph paper templates onto cardstock paper:

If your printer doesn't seem to like printing on cardstock, gluing regular graph paper around the edges onto cardstock works as well.

Step 4: Making the 3D Template

Once you have your cardstock graph paper, you can start converting your drawing into a template. You'll use this to cut the cardstock paper into the right shapes, which you'll then glue together to put together the model.

To make the template, you basically want to break up your drawing into individual parts, and then "unfold" each part into a 2D shape. Here's a visual example:

Step 5: Building It!

This is the most fun step: putting it together. Fold all the pieces where they should be creased. Use any method of gluing it together. The picture shows liquid glue, which I tried at first, but moved on to hot glue.

Step 6: Other Details

So now, you're done with the building... and if you want it to just be like that, then great, YOUR DONE! ...but if you want to keep adding, then continue. I made up a few ways to add on some fun...

Glue it on to a sheet of paper. Make an outline of the building's foundation on the paper, then glue it down however you like.
Make a city. This idea's name explains itself.
LED's!! Before adding on the paper on the bottom, put a small LED circuit inside the outline to make the thing glow! But then, make sure to cut out a part of the building for the wires. And make the switch outside the building, too.

Step 7: Done!

You now have a drawing and a real model of your awesome 3D building! Thanks for viewing, and if you made it, please do an "I Made It!" post. I'd love to see it. Remember to Vote!