Online Resources for Printable Miniature Buildings

By
Lesley Shepherd
Lesley Shepherd
Lesley Shepherd is a miniature artisan who shares her knowledge about miniatures. She has over 30 years experience teaching this highly specialized craft. Lesley is also a professional museum model maker.
Learn more about The Spruce Crafts' Editorial Process
Updated on 05/31/19
Three paper house
Jasenka Arbanas / Getty Images

Tiny doll houses, Christmas towns, and model railway villages are adorable—but they can also be very expensive. Fortunately, there's a very inexpensive option: printable buildings you can produce with a computer, a printer, and some tape. Select, print, and build these to create anything from complete towns to table decorations. Many sites offer these printables free of charge; others charge a nominal fee.

Many of the wonderful buildings available online are designed to scale; some are fanciful while others represent real places. Discover links to sources of free printable buildings in many scales, from 1:24 or G scale for dolls houses and railway buildings, to smaller scales for railroads, dioramas, and gaming terrains. Most of the options are in full color, but some are specifically designed to be colored by the user.

  • 01 of 10

    Vintage Style Coconut or Glitter Houses in 1:144 Scale

    Printable miniature micro or "N" scale garage and store for a glitter village.

    The Spruce / Lesley Shepherd

    Several traditional style glitter or coconut houses (sometimes called Putz houses) can be made in miniature for scale villages, as Christmas tree decorations, or for special gift boxes or table favors. This tutorial will walk you through how to make one.

  • 02 of 10

    Victoria and Albert Museum Printable Miniatures Online

    The Online Theatre Collections of the famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London has two antique paper toys available from downloadable files.

    One is a revolving circus, which could be scaled to at least 1:48 scale, with O scale train figures substituted for the circus animals and made into a carousel.

    The second featured toy is an antique toy theater, originally published by Pollocks Toys, complete with figures for a Cinderella pantomime. The Theatre is designed to be colored, so there is lots of scope for turning it into a dolls house scale toy, or the front stage of a model building.

  • 03 of 10

    All Gauge Trains Railway Scale Printable Buildings

    All Gauge Trains have two separate sections of their website devoted to printable scale buildings. For N to G scales, they have a New England Seaside town, Yule City buildings suitable for a Christmas railroad, a Western Town, Farm, and Country buildings, and industrial buildings. They also have a range of O, O27 and S scale buildings in basic styles.

  • 04 of 10

    ScaleScenes Railroad Building Printables

    ScaleScenes specializes in printable railroad buildings, but also offer an intriguing line of ship models, standalone sets of windows and other exterior elements, and entire street fronts from country and city locations.

    Continue to 5 of 10 below.
  • 05 of 10

    Fiddler's Green Village and Town Buildings

    Fiddler's Green, famous for their airplane models, also produces scale models for an English village and a Frontier Town. The models are sold for a reasonable price and can be downloaded and used multiple times. They are available singly or in collections.

  • 06 of 10

    Ray Keim's Paper Model Purgatory

    Ray Keim's Paper Model Purgatory pages contain free detailed printable models of Disney's Haunted Mansion Rides, including Liberty Square and New Orlean's Square approximately 1:66 scale. There are also details for entrance gates, tombstones, coffins, and the tower from Pirates of the Caribbean. The buildings can be resized to be made in several different scales.

  • 07 of 10

    Paper Toys

    Paper Toys produce free printable miniatures of several famous buildings, including the Chrysler Building, Eiffel Tower, Dubai clock tower, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Neuschwanstein castle, and Frank Lloyd Wright 's Falling Water. These are not listed at any particular scale.

  • 08 of 10

    Canon Creative Park

    Canon Creative Park is the motherload of free printable miniatures. Their Buildings of the World section has everything from famous Japanese Temples to the Roman Colosseum and Mont Saint Michel. The seasonal section contains a complete Santa Claus House.

    Continue to 9 of 10 below.
  • 09 of 10

    North American Historic Housing

    This page contains free downloadable kits for paper models of a plains tipi, an Iroquois longhouse, a set of various styles of houses from prehistoric Ohio, and a Northwest Coast Cedar House.

  • 10 of 10

    Paper Model Kiosk

    Paper Model Kiosk has a number of free downloads for paper creches and Nativity scenes. To find them on their site, do a search for free downloads, or search their downloadable creches for the free versions. The free Svetava Creche #5 includes a full Nativity to print and assemble from three letter-sized sheets of paper.