A strip of foamboard 4" wide and 18" long was cut out and segmented into 3" sections. In order to segment the foamboard, simply cut half way through it, NOT all the way through it! The door to the mausoleum was also cut out at this point.

The mausoleum will be hexagonal in shape as demonstrated by the image above. See how the segmented pieces hinge upon one another on a single piece of foamboard? This is the key to the whole project, otherwise you'd have to attach each wall separately, which can be nightmarish!

A dowel rod was cut to fit the doorway and a step was added using foamboard. Doing this now will save some heartache later, so make sure your measurement are correct.

Now that we are underway, it is time to glue the hexagon shape together. Line the walls up and using a strip of bent card, glue one end of the foamboard strip to the other. Further reinforce the walls with more strips of bent card along the inside of the mausoleum.

As the mausoleum needs a base, a hexagonal slab seems to fit the bill nicely. Simply cut out a hexagon that matches your walls and cover the exposed foamboard with strips of card. You can glue the walls down onto it if you want, but there is no immediate need to do so.

You may notice that each corner of the building is a big open hinge. Well, it just so happens that wood dowel rods cut to the correct length fit smugly in this crevice, neatly covering the gaps! So cut one rod out for each corner and set them aside as there is no need to glue them in place right now.

Time for the roof. A circle was traced onto foamboard using a coffee can and then oh-so carefully cut out. The exposed foam of the circle was then covered with strips of thin card. This circle will nicely accommodate the dome that will be attached later.

In order for the roof to come off and go back into place without constantly falling off or becoming loose, some balsa wood sticks were glued in place. These were specifically placed so that they would hold the roof on tightly. Also an arrow was drawn to designate the facing of the roof, with the arrow pointing towards the front door.

Eight strips of 4" by 1" card were cut out and glued onto the outer walls. This type of simple decoration adds a ton to the simple surface of flat and boring foamboard.

In addition to the strips around the mausoleum, it was decided that some big plaques would look nice. After all you need to know just who is buried in the mausoleum! Some plastic shield bits, and thin strips of card were used to make the plaques.

Arrange the strips of card and plastic bits in a pleasing manner. There are an infinite number of ways you can do this, it's all up to how complicated you want to make it. We went with a simple arrangement of rectangles and plenty of open space for when we paint it later.

Affix the plaques to the sides of the mausoleum carefully, you don't want to put them on crooked! Glue the base to the hexagonal walls, and add the dowel rods at this point. Use plenty of glue, but clean up any spillage to avoid a sloppy finish. Wait for the glue to dry and think about how you want to do the stairs.

We went with a simple pair of blocks that serve as stairs for the mausoleum. Thin card was glued to cover any exposed foam and a simple design was cut out and placed on the first set of steps. Let this dry before moving onto making the dome.

The mausoleum needed some sort of dome or it just wasn't going to look right. So after a bit of looking at different salad bowls, plastic dishes and such, a small clear dome was found. It was simply glued on top of the roof and a pinnacle was then added using odds and ends. You could place practically anything up there, just use your imagination!

Here is the piece just prior to painting. It may seem like a daunting task to paint such a large building, but it really isn't. Just set some time aside, set up your paint area and get to work.