Make a paper and Cardboard Castle: Neuschwanstein

Here are a couple of different views of this paper castle project:

This is a complete tutorial on how to make this copy of Neuschwanstein castle with paper and cardboard. You can use posterboard or even cereal boxes to make this castle. I also have a youtube video of this castle if you want to take a look at it.

Status on this project: The castle project is complete. You have everything you need right here on the next few web pages including downloading the pictures to print out.I have also completed a word document of this project so you can download and print up the entire thing as a booklet . I recommend you download it and read it. The whole document is 42 pages long and you don't really have to print the whole thing. You can just print pages 17-42 because these are the actual castle parts. The first 16 pages are instructions with pictures.

Download the Booklet Here

Want to experiment with building your own paper castles and paper/cardboard projects? What I usually do is just grab some empty cereal boxes and start roughing out a shape. This is a good first step because it allows me to work out a lot of the basics without spending too much time. I can easily make changes with a little masking tape, cutting and plenty of cardboard. The picture shown here on the left was the first cardboard prototype of this castle. You can probably tell that I like Honey Nut Cheerios!

Some General Tips before you begin making this castle.

This castle is a bit more challenging than my first castle but it is still pretty easy. What I have done is broken it down into small sections so all you have to do is make each small section one at a time and affix it down to the base. And everything is geared to a sheet of paper that is 8 1/2 by 11 so you can print it up on your printer. The reason why this castle is not that hard yet looks really good is because I have broken it down into building each of the structures one at a time then gluing or taping them down to the base. There are no complex or difficult to understand folds. And it still looks quite beautiful but I can't really take credit for that. That credit goes to the architect who designed the original Neuschwanstein!

About the cardboard or poster board

You can use either poster board (you will need 3 of them but get 4 just in case) or you can use cereal boxes and depending on the size of the box you should be good with 6 of them.

About fixatives and glue

This project is designed for you to print out a sheet, affix it to your cardboard then cut it out. This is the best way to do this. And you have several options for affixing to the cardboard. you can use glue stick which works the best. You can also use paste which works great. Or you can use common white glue which works fine but just make sure you use it very sparingly. If it gets globby it will tend to wrinkle your castle. Nothing worse than a wrinkled castle!!

Coloring the Castle - I have left the whole castle blank and it looks really great this way but you may want to color and decorate your castle. I recommend you do this with the plain print outs either before of after you glue them to the cardboard. Once the castle is built it is very hard to decorate with pencil or crayon. But you could do some decorating with water colors after it is built. I have a learning sheet about this castle and pictures so you can make it more authentic by painting or coloring it the way the real castle is.

The Castle Base: It would be better (for strength) if you can glue the base of the castle to a thicker corrugated box type cardboard. If you don't have any then cereal box cardboard will be fine.

Extras: Here are some suggestions for making your cardboard and paper castle better.

Add a blue construction paper moat around it
Make another building and add it into the model.
Add small toy figures
Paint a small garden on the inside of the castle
Paint the courtyard a dirt or sand color
I have a teeny tiny catapult project that you can build and storm this castle with!

Okay! Let's Start Building This Paper Castle

Materials you need to make this paper castle

3 paper towel tubes
2 bathroom tissue tubes
3 sheets of poster board or 6 cereal boxes
white glue, glue stick, or paste
Cellophane or masking tape
Scissors
Ruler
A Pencil
Colored pencils, crayons or water colors (optional to decorate your castle)

***I recommend that as you build each building unit you affix it lightly to the base with just a piece of tape or two for now. And continue doing this. Once you have all the pieces completed then you can look at it and tweak it around a bit before you glue or tape it down permanently. This will also help with the small differences between your castle and mine and with variations in printers and how the pages are printed.

These three images are the base of the castle. Print them out and tape them together then tape or glue them to a nice solid piece of cardboard. You can tape them to posterboard but something more durable and stronger would be better so it is easier to move and carry your castle. You will be gluing the parts of the castle right onto this base.

Base A - Base B - Base C

When they are taped together they should look like this:

The base of the castle