Is papier-mache a good material to use for modelling?

Papier-mache has been used over a chicken-wire frame to create hills and mountains for almost as long as the hobbies have existed, and it does a great job too, providing a hard shell on which you can apply paint and add scatter to give a realistic portrayal of nature at its best.

But if not done right, the newspaper and magazine strips used to create it can start to separate, the shell can become weak and brittle and the whole structure can begin to fall apart.

The main problem is when papier-mache is considered to be a quick fix or process. Time should be taken to build up numerous layers to create a shell that is at least several millimetres thick and even then, a top coat of plaster would not hurt.

Constructing a solid well-built papier-mache model takes time and patience, this has led to it falling out of favour a little as modern-day alternatives such as plaster-cloth provide equally pleasing results in a fraction of the time.

There is no particular reason not to use papier-mache in model making, it can provide great results inexpensively, but it must be done right.