- 1). Draw a plan of your castle. Decide what size you want your model to be, how long its walls should be, and how many towers, gatehouses and other structures you intend to build. Cardboard as a material lends itself better to square towers than round ones.
- 2). Cut each section of your walls from thick cardboard, such as the kind found in shipping boxes, using a craft knife and ruler. For maximum rigidity, make each wall two layers of cardboard thick, with the corrugations of the second layer running at right angles to the first. This will help prevent the cardboard from warping as glue soaks into it. The tops of the walls will have crenellations, alternating high and low sections, which allowed soldiers to remain in cover and still shoot arrows at attacking enemies.
- 3). Assemble the wall sections of your castle, first gluing the layers together with PVA glue and then gluing the walls together. You may need to use masking tape to hold the wall sections together while the glue dries.
- 4). Build interior walkways, called "parapets," for your walls using sections of tongue depressors or balsa wood. You can anchor these with wooden supports to the ground and punch small holes in the castle walls to hold up the beams.
- 5). Add interior buildings to the castle. You can make them free-standing or flush against the castle walls. Medieval castles contained buildings such as dining halls, residential areas, stables, chapels, armories and guardhouses. Cut thin cardboard into uneven strips and glue it down onto the roofs of your buildings to represent tiles or slates.
- 6). Cut rectangles of thin cardboard and glue them irregularly to the outside of the castle's walls to suggest stonework.
- 7). Mix sand and PVA glue or acrylic paint to produce a textured mixture. Apply this to the castle's walls with a brush to give it a rough, stony texture.
- 8). Make gates for your castle using tongue depressors or thin cardboard. Cut thin lines into the cardboard with your craft knife to suggest a wooden texture.
- 9). Paint your castle using acrylic paints. If you have used textured paint, apply one coat of paint, wait for it to dry, then brush the wall lightly with a lighter color to give it a highlight. Paint the walkways in a weathered gray or brown color to suggest old wood.
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