Building a house out of some readily available materials is really not that difficult a task. With a little effort you too can create a simple house structure to add to your scenery collection. You'll need to gather up a sheet of 1/4 inch thick foamcore, a few 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch thick balsa wood sticks, and some thick card. All of this stuff is easy to get at your local craft store. So without further ado, let's get started.

The first thing you might want to do is quickly download and print the following three PDF cutting templates as I will be using them as the basis for the house's dimensions. Print them onto US letter sized paper (8.5 inches X 11) and if you can, uncheck the little box in your Acrobat print settings that says "fit to page". As the dimensions are completely scalable you can shrink or expand the size of the templates as you please, creating a smaller or larger house. But enough techie printer talk, let's...DOWNLOAD PDF TEMPLATES #1 - #2 - #3. (only 8K each) These handy templates eliminate the pain of measuring exact lines onto your foamcore. Simply download them, use some Scotch tape to affix them to a sheet of foamcore as per the instructions on the sheet and get ready to cut!

Along all the solid lines on the template you will cut completely through the foamcore. On all the dotted lines, this is important so listen up, cut HALFWAY through the foamcore. NOT all the way through! The reason we are doing this is because the half cut sections will act as a hinge that keeps the foamcore in one piece, yet allows us to fold it in upon itself. If you follow these simple instructions and carefully cut your lines staright and true, you should have a single piece of cut out foamcore a small rectangular piece that looks something like the picture above right. Now, let's put it all together with some glue and tape.

If you have cut out the template properly, you should be able to match up the sides and form a building. We need to glue this shape together in order to form a fully functional piece of terrain. Match up the edges and use white glue or super glue to affix the building together. Once things begin to set, place the extra rectangle foamcore bit that you should have hanging around (this piece was labeled on the template) inside the house. This small piece is key to a solid structure. Be sure to seat it properly and then glue it in place good and solid. Check out the picture to the right for a look at what you should be doing. A handy way to keep the walls all lined up and save some time and effort while you try and keep the whole thing together is to use Scotch tape to hold the entire structure in one piece while you wait for the glue to dry.

You may notice how the corners of the building are essentially exposed areas of bent foamcore. Why is it like this? Well, you'll see in a bit, it's all part of the genius of this simple project.

While your project dries grab a sheet of thick card. We need to cut up some shingles for the roof of our house. Dig up a pair of scissors or a hobby knife and start cutting small squares of card out. Make them big or small, it's up to you to determine the size of these pieces. Just start cutting!

Once you have a sizable pile of card squares cut out, it's time to move onto the roof spine and roof. These should now be cut out from Template 3. We are going to cut into the roof spine as if it had shingles built right into it. Simply take a cutting device and carve out some shingles. Once it is good and cut up, fold it in half along the long edge. For a better idea as to what you should end up with, check the picture to the right.

Put the shingles, roof and roof spine aside for a bit. Pick up your now dry building (hopefully) and prepare to place some timbers on it. Using a hobby knife, cut some of your 1/4 inch thick balsa wood strips to fit into the open cracks that show on each corner of the building. See how the balsa wood strip seems meant for this spot? Affix the timber in place with a well placed line of white glue. Repeat this for each corner of the building. See the rollover image to the left for full details.

Next, begin laying down small timbers in a suitable pattern of your choosing. This is your chance to be creative. If you wish to do a a simple pattern, then by all means do so. However, if you want to get crazy this is the time to shine. Either way, all you have to do is measure off a length of 1/8 inch thick balsa wood strip to fit each area you are working on. Just lay it against the piece, mark it off with a pencil, make a cut, and glue it down. Keep plugging away until the entire house is covered in wooden timbers. I kept things simple and eneded up with what you see to the right,

Keep in mind where you want doors, and windows to be placed during this stage. You don't want to cover up all the areas with timbers, just to discover there's no place to put a door in! In fact, now is the time to build a door and glue down windows. I used some Arcane Architecture bits for the windows and constructed a simple rectangular doorway, but you can do whatever you want. I'm trying to show you how to build the basic house structure, not fiddly bits like doors and windows!

"Hold on? What about the roof?!" I hear you say. I didn't forget that integral part folks, so bear with me!

Grab your roof, roof spine, and shingles, as well as some glue. Lay the roof down into place with some glue and once again use Scotch tape to help make the roof stay put while it dries. Once it does dry, start gluing down shingles one at a time, starting from the bottom row and gradually moving up the roof. You can do this in a very orderly fashion, or in a ramshackle hurry. It's up to you to decide what looks best. Next, use some more glue to slap the roof spine onto the...well, roof's spine! Having constructed a roof, shingle work, timbers, and overall structure, you should have a house that looks pretty good. But it's not done yet...

In order to create a texture that paints up really nice, we need to use some quick dry spackling. This stuff comes in small tubs and is normally used to cover small holes and cracks in walls. But we will use it to make a cool texture that'll give you awesome painting results.

Mix some spackling up and start laying it straight onto the blank surfaces in-between the timbers. Use a spare stick of balsa wood to smear into the general area you want it to be in. Then, grab a nasty old brush, or just use your finger, to smush the spackling exactly where you want it. If you dab at the spackling, it comes up a bit creating an awesome, rough texture. Stay determined and completely cover the blank areas with spackling, while avoiding the timbers.

If you persevere and stick to it, you'll have a finished house like the one above that is all set for some paint. Now, was that really so hard?