How to make a wooden toy castle

I made this DIY castle out of birch plywood. I used the papier-mâché technique to give it a nice stone wall texture. I also used dry brushing to give it a more interesting paint job.

First of all I designed the template of my castle. I then printed the template out and joined all the template pieces together.

I then glued the templates on 9mm plywood, using spray adhesive. I made the circles on the template with 35 degree radius. This is perfect form my 35mm forstner bit. I first marked with an owl and then removed the material with the drill.

I then cut the rest of the pieces on the bandsaw.

The towers of my castle are mirror images of each other. So I glued two pieces of plywood with double sided tape and cut both templates together.

I then sanded the pieces lightly on my belt sander.

I glued all the pieces together with wood glue. I used my nail gun to add brad nails to keep everything in place before the glue sets.

To give the castle a more stone wall texture I used the paper mache technique. I thinned  down wood glue using water. I then cut pieces of kitchen paper. Using a bush I glued the paper on the plywood. The inner area I just coated with wood glue. When the glue dries you get a really hard paintable surface.

I panted the castle with latex paint. 

I then cut the ladder and door pieces on the bandsaw. I glued them together. For these pieces I also used bamboo sticks to act as mini dowels!

To give everything a more aged surface I used the dry brushing technique. You take a brush and dip it in paint. Then you remove the excess paint of the brush with a piece of paper of cloth. Then you apply really fast light strokes on the item you want to dry brush. This highlights the high spots and gives a really interesting texture to the project.

I finished the piece with two coats of clear, satin, water based varnish!

My castle came out epic! I hope you like it!