Easy Hot Glue House Model

When someone loves his house very much and has it built, he very much loves to receive drawings of it. Couldn't we push the matter as far as making a model of this house? That's what I said to myself for my grandmother's house that I decided to make a model of it. Being in architecture study this project also allows me to improve my skills in model. In architecture, the model is very important, it allows you to visualize a building in space.

A model is not made randomly, it is very important to find the right scale to have a model that is neither too big nor too small and to respect it in order to be able to project yourself into this building. When an architectural project is carried out, all the plans, drawings and models respect a scale which themselves respect a coherence between them. The ladder makes it possible to always respect the correct proportions of the building. When I measured the house I wondered what scale to do. If I did it at 1/100, the model would then measure 35cm (14 in) which is small so I doubled all the measurements to have a model of about 70 cm (27.5 in) and to scale 1/50

Once the plans are made we can start the model. For that I used foamboard, this material is made up of two layers of cardboard with foam in between. This material is very easy to cut and allows all the shapes you want. For maximum freedom I have chosen three thicknesses, 1.5mm, 3mm and 5mm. To cut it I use a cutting board and a scalpel, much more precise than a cutter. Finally to glue all the elements I use a hot glue gun. The use of the glue gun is very useful for a model because the hot glue glues the foamboard very very well and very quickly. When you glue two elements together, the glue dries in a few seconds and this allows you to be faster than with a classic glue with which you will wait for it to dry longer.

The first step is to take action. To make the most precise and accurate model possible, it is necessary to have the right measurements of the rooms, the spacing of the windows and the placement of the doors. So I started by making sketches of the floors on which I noted all the dimensions to be able to make scale plans. I also took the measurements of the facade, i.e. the spacing between each door and window and their placement.

These sketches allowed me to make scale plans of the partitions and doors. These plans make it possible to realize the real size of the model. They will also make it possible to carry out the stages and detail in model as we will see it later.

The first step in the construction of the model was to make the exterior walls of the house, for this I used the thickest foam board to have a resistant structure and to be as faithful as possible to reality.

I then made each door and each window by making a hole for the panes. I made them in the thinnest foam board to be as precise as possible. I then left an outline around the window and applied glue to this outline when attaching the doors and windows. This will peel to easily put the hot glue and it does not show.

This house has roof windows, these windows presented a difficulty because it is necessary to make them a kind of small roof and it makes that it respects the slope of the large roof. So I made these hearth windows and they will be fixed on the roof, that is to say that when we remove the roof to see the interior of the model, the windows will leave with the roof.

The next step was to make the roof. For the one in the main building, I didn't have too much trouble, it's a double-sided roof and I created openings for the roof windows. The hardest roof was the expansion one, I had to make an angle and the pieces are tilted, I finally got it done at the end of an afternoon and I'm pretty proud of the results. We can see below the roof the wedges which allow the roof to always respect the same angle and to rest flat on the exterior walls.

After that, I made the lean-to, I really like this place with the beautiful exposed beams and the terrace which gives off a beautiful view. I tried to reproduce these frames and the low wall on the side as well as possible.

It was only after doing all that that I attacked the floors. I only made them now because I wanted them to be removable, so that we could take them off and put them back on as we wanted. So I took the measurements from my floor plans and made all the partitions with the doors. These floors are interesting because they could make it possible to think about a new layout of the house by modifying them.

Once I had made the house, it was important for me to do a little topography. Indeed it is important to place the house in a context by making a little garden. In addition, the garden here has a drop so I decided to make a part of it as a model. For this I observed the difference in height and I drew a drawing on which we can see the topographic curves. My study is not exact but it testifies to the reality. From this sketch we can therefore make layers of land that we then stick together. I only make small layers to save featherboard, that's why I add pieces of cardboard to level below.

When all the layers are done I can move on to assembly. I start by gluing the layers of ground then I then glue the base of the house on wedges which come to raise the level. I then fix the lean-to and then the house itself on this land.

To complete the model, a few details had to be settled. it is necessary for example to fill the dimensions of the models so that it is smooth, that one is the impression that they are complete layers. we therefore add small pieces of foam board. these details are not useful but really make the difference.

finally I made a Plexiglas shell for the model. so it will be easier to clean over time and it looks like a real museum model!