Here's some stuff I learned putting together my first paper model (a Mars Station 3x4 building). This is more for me so I remember everything I learned, but I thought people might find it helpful or amusing.

Figure out what the building is for, and make sure it does that.
The building I have is for Warhammer 40K, but it has no firing slits. As it stands, I'm going to add some "bunkers" to the roof, but I really wish I'd thought of firing slits. For now I figure it can kind of be a safe place to hide to wait for an army to come to you - on the rare occasions you want just exactly that, and the building is in just the right place.

Edge fiddly or hard to reach pieces before you glue them to the model.
Anything that might show after a piece is glued up should be "edged". I have some surfaces that I glued other pieces onto, like the outside corner pylon things, that have white showing through on. I should have colored in the white tabs before I tucked them in, and edged all the sides first. I didn't do this with the first two ceiling supports, and then tried to edge them when they were glued to the wall. I edged the second two before gluing them to the wall, and that was much better.

Edge folds in sheets before you glue them in place.
I found that if I try to edge a folded area, it doesn't go very well because the part you want to edge isn't well exposed. I tried to use the point to get in there, and that doesn't work so well. I found (with later parts of the model) that I could fold the piece flat and then edge the outside of the fold, and then when the fold was at 90 degrees it was already done.

When it says "cut off the tabs", it's not talking about ALL the tabs.
Don't cut off the outside support tabs (fortunately I only did the bottom ones). Just cut off the single inside tab of each of the walls you're doing that to.

Cut the right side of the model. Don't cut the wrong side of the model and then flip it over and cut the right side. Even if the fold you're cutting survives the process, it will be weakened to the point where it will come apart later.
Duh. (Fortunately, it worked out fine).

Get the door piece into the wall before you glue the wall so you don't have to use both walls on the sheet next time.

Glue the ceiling/roof supports a little lower than the very top of the wall so that instead of having a crooked roof that people can see not laying flush on the supports, you can have a crooked roof that people can't see (as well) because the bottom edges of the roof are below the wall.

When doing the roof, glue the "floor" to the top of the roof, and make sure it's a little too big, then flip the roof over and cut the excess paper off from the under side.

Get a glue gun.
I need to weight my model and I don't want to use tape.

You are not the paper modeling all-star you assumed you'd be the very first time you tried it.
But the next one will be perfect.

Congrats on finishing your first model. Its always a nice feeling.


Edging is a big deal for me. I always try to edge before gluing - models look so much better that way, IMO.

Thanks!

Let's hope I actually follow through on what I learned so I don't make the same mistakes again!

I bought a 50 pack of felts just for edging,,,heh heh... A bit anal perhaps but I think matching the edging colors as close as you can looks killer... I just googled and downloaded some neon signage to add to some of the Mayhem buildings...("Live Nudes!", "Cocktails" etc...) and the bright blue and pink edging looks hot!

Congrats on your build!

Yeah, when I first found WorldWorks I thought "Wow! The Maiden! That is such a cool model - I've got to build that!"

Fortunately, I started a bit more simply (Mini-chunk Dungeons 1") - and promptly got even simpler still (VillageWorks, and then DungeonLinx: Lair of the Dragon God). Now I've had more practice I'm tackling more ambitious builds, but I've got a bunch more kits on my shopping list before I embark on the Maiden - Not to mention the fact that the ratio of build time to play time is better for the simpler models.