Hyrule Castle Replica W/ Secret Compartment

All throughout the land of Hyrule are buildings of all different shapes and sizes. One stands out from the rest. With its wooden gate, strong walls, and high towers, Hyrule Castle is the most significant. You can own that castle with a secret compartment built in!

Well, it’s a castle. This instructable will teach you how to build the one from Ocarina of Time. It is also a playable stage in the Super Smash Bros. series. Just for reference, I created a 3D model of what the castle will end up looking like. You can download it with this file, or you can view it here.

This castle is made entirely out of cardboard, so of course, you will need a lot of cardboard. You can find cardboard sheets at Costco between layers of items on their pallets and walk out with them for free. That’s where I got my cardboard. In addition, you will also need:
-Hunter green spray paint
-Flat grey spray paint
-A box cutter
-A tape measure or ruler
-Yellow acrylic paint and masking tape (optional)
-A silver and a black sharpie
-A hot glue gun

Prepare yourself for some tedious cutting. This castle is made up of more than 80 pieces of cardboard. Use the ruler to measure the pieces and use the box cutter and a straight edge (use the same ruler) to cut it out. Keep all the pieces in separate piles (7 total).

You can print out a checklist using this file. All the measurements are in inches.

Almost all castles have high walls. Let’s start building those. We also need a drawer (part of the secret compartment) and towers to watch for attackers. This picture above shows what the pieces should look like when they are cut out as well as the measurements.

In case you didn’t know, the keep is the highest building in the castle. It serves as a watch tower. The great hall is just where the Hyrule warriors can meet. 6 inches of the great hall are cut out so part of the keep can fit inside. This is why the pieces will assemble into a box with a 6 inch gap.

These are just multi-purpose buildings in the castle. The roof of one of the buildings will have a 3 x 1 rectangle cut out of it. This is because part of it overlaps the keep. This building also has another part that shares a wall with the 5 x 3 piece. The other additional building is just a box that is missing a wall (this is because the wall is shared with one from the keep).

The warriors of Hyrule need a safe way to fire arrows at attacking troops and a way to keep enemies from scaling the huge wall. In each 6 x 2 piece for the tower, measure 0.5 x 0.5 squares at the top and cut two of them out. These are our arrow slits. For the spikes above the gate, measure a 11 x 2 rectangle. The top inch is for the spikes and each is 1.125” wide. There are 4 spikes on each side. This leaves a 2 inch space in the middle for the Triforce.

I decided to add the Triforce symbol above the door. This is not in the castle from the game, but it adds a nice touch. To do this, I cut an equilateral triangle with 2” sides and painted most of it yellow with acrylic paint. Then I added a masking tape Triforce (0.5 equilateral triangles) and spray painted it grey. When I pulled the masking tape off, there was a grey triangle with a yellow Triforce. For the door, I simply drew a design with a sharpie on a 3.5 x 3 piece of cardboard.

If you look at the checklist of pieces, you’ll notice it says which need to be painted green and which need to be painted grey. The checklist will also state which pieces need to be painted on both sides and which only need to be painted on one side. Try to cover the corrugation with the paint. These pieces still need to stay in separate piles after they are painted.

Though this may sound like an army going off to battle, it’s really just a bunch of builders putting mortar between stones. We have it the easy way. The pattern on our bricks is called a stretcher bond. This is because almost only stretchers of the bricks are visible. Stretchers are the long end of the brick. The checklist states which pieces need the mortar pattern. Take a silver sharpie and draw a line parallel to the base of the piece every 0.5 inch. Do this on only one side of the piece. On every other row, draw a line parallel to the height every inch. On the rows with no marks, draw a line parallel to the height 0.5 inches from the end and every inch after. Use the pictures for reference (the diagram of the stretcher bond is not mine).

Now it’s time to glue the walls together. You can use any adhesive, but I used hot glue. Apply the glue to the inside when possible so it doesn’t show on the outside of the castle. The next few steps will go over how to assemble the pieces. You will mostly have to use the pictures and diagrams to build it, but I will add some details in the steps. You’ll notice they have the same names as the steps on how to cut the pieces. The blue prints in this step will help you assemble pieces if you are unsure about anything.

Glue the 9 x 4 to the 12 x 15 on the top edge. There should be a 2” space on its left and a 1 inch space on its right. Glue the 11 x 6.5 to the bottom edge of the 12 x 15. The 15 x 4 goes on the left side. Each tower is comprised of 4 grey rectangles with dimensions 6 x 2, a 2 x 2 on the bottom, and another 2 x 2 about 1.5” from the top. Two of these go in the 1 x 1 gaps on the right side of the 12 x 15 on one goes in the 2” gap on the top of the 12 x 15. The drawer is just a simple box, with a 13 x 11 for the base and rectangles with dimension of 11 x 4 and 13 x 4 on each side. Glue the spikes, Triforce, and door onto the drawer and insert it into the walls. You can also draw windows on either side of the 13 x 4 Then glue the other 12 x 11 on top. If necessary, cut a bit of of the tips of the 11 x 4 and 13 x 4 so you can glue the 12 x 11 to the tops of the 9 x 4, 11 x 6.5, and 15 x 4.

As I wrote before, the keep overlaps into the great hall. The green triangles are always the roof of the building. The 2.5 x 1.6 pieces should be glued at each end of the great hall so there is a 6 inch gap in the middle. The keep is a 6 x 6 with a roof and a smaller tower on top. The smaller tower has a roof as well.

There’s not much to say about these guys. The first building fits into the keep. That is why there’s a 3 x 1 cut out of it. The second building is just a box. Both buildings have pyramids for roofs. The second part of the first building is the same thing as the second building rotated 90°.

With your defensible castle and it’s secret compartment, you’re ready for battle! Go collect the 3 stones, awaken the 7 sages, and defeat Ganondorf! If you liked this instructable, please vote for it and add it to your favorites. If you have any questions or suggestions, leave a comment below.