Cheap and Easy: Paper Models for your Tabletop

I love my 3D printer, but it DOES take a long time to get anything of substance printed up. I printed up this building and got it painted, but frankly, a lot of the wow factor of the building is simply the fact that it’s 3D printed.

If you’re wanting to have a fully decorated and terrained-up table, it’s going to take far too long to do it entirely 3D printed. Not only that, but I’ve already got a lot of paper buildings, so I’m going to mix it all up and use both. Paper buildings can look beautiful and professional for mere pennies. You can usually print on cardstock for around fifteen cents a page, so most buildings can be printed for less than a dollar.

If you’re interested in papercraft buildings, here’s some things to check out.

Let’s start with models to print:

Dave Graffam Models: Dave has a ton of really fantastic models. I’ve printed off a bunch of them, and purchased even more. They’re very easy to build, and look fantastic on the tabletop. They also have multiple layers, so you can print off the exact same building multiple times and have them look different.

World Works Games: I love WorldWorks, and have bought them for years. They have REALLY great modern stuff, great sci-fi stuff, and pretty good medieval stuff as well. The image at the top of the post is from Himmelveil, which is a great set, which looks a lot like the Terraclips (see below) they designed, so they integrate well. The TerrainlinX stuff is complicated, so I prefer the earlier stuff, but the TerrainlinX stuff is higher quality art, so your miles may vary.

For stuff that’s printed and ready for you to assemble, there are a few options as well.

Terraclips: These are out of print, but they are amazing. I own a few of the sets. If you can find them at a shop that hasn’t realized what they’re sitting on, they’re essential. The tiles punch out, then connect together with plastic clips you buy separately. They are really fantastic pieces if you can get a hold of them.

Cardboard Heroes: These could also be placed up above in the printable section, because they’re now mostly only available in printable form. However, I’ve now got one of the wall sets and the keep set in physical form. They’re pretty easy to build, needing minimal glue. They are very modular, allowing you to put them in a ton of configurations. I used to obsess over the Warhammer Fantasy Castle Walls, wanting to get them, and now I pretty much have the same thing with these. If you can find the physical copies, go for it.

Battle Systems: This terrain looks pretty cool, but I haven’t seen it in person yet. It looks a lot like Terraclips, but is a bit more expensive. Maybe there’s more terrain there? Not sure, but it’s in print, which is the most important thing. There’s a few pieces I’ve been looking at for Necromunda, but there’s some good fantasy sets there too.

Clever Paper: I just found this stuff, so don’t snatch it all up before I can order! Also, the website there is in Russian, so if you’re looking for it, look it up on Ebay or Amazon. These are gorgeous kits, for dirt cheap. The paper is textured as well. It should mix well with all my other stuff. You can pick up lots of different sets that have walls attached, and put it together to create an extensive city wall. I’m hoping to get some for my birthday, and have put them on my wish list.

So that’s what I have for you today! Do you know of any other good paper buildings? What else should I have talked about?