Problems with laying large sheets of matches and how to prevent/fix them

When building a model out of matches you have to lay large sheets for the floors and walls. The problem with this is the matches will bow, and it is hard to get the sheet to lay flat when the glue is dried. I am currently working on the first floor of my model matchstick house. So I thought that I will show what I did and what I did wrong and how to prevent UTTER CATASTROPHE!!!!! or just a minor problem that can be fixed You be the judge of the severity.

You can see how the right side is curved upward. As the glue dries the matches like to curve in this way. To prevent that you must lay supports running perpendicular to the rest of the matchsticks.

I cut out the floor plan of the section that I am going to build out of a piece of paper, you can use something thicker to add support but I used the paper so it wouldn't add any more height to the floor. I wanted the matches to run horizontally so I laid the supports vertically. (this also gives you something to glue to.)







Because the piece is larger than the length of one matchstick you will need to add side supports to these as well. I forgot to take a photo of this step, but you add another match at the connecting points like you see here. You only have to glue a match on one side of each support but you can do both sides. If you are doing a larger piece than this I would do both sides, but something small like this wont have too much pull.

The weak points are shown here with a red line. They are where the piece will bend if you do not add the extra supports. I thought the top line would have been fine because it was a smaller section, but I was wrong. So make sure to cover all the points the first time because it can be hard to correct fully.

To fix the problem I flipped the piece over and with a scalpel I cut the paper away. I then used a razor blade to cut large blobs of dried glue away from the points where I needed to put my extra supports. Be careful not to cut away too much glue as to loosen any matches. You want to be able to brace you new support matches against the existing ones so that you have two points of contact. Otherwise it will be no good.

You want to work fast when glueing these matches down. If the glue had started to set before you do the next step it will pull the matches loose and wont set properly. I added two matches per support just to make sure that it would hold.

I placed a spare strip of paper across the matches where I had put glue. I did this so I could put a weight on top of the section of floor without having to worry about it getting glued to it.

I used a large encyclopedia for the weight and I left it sitting like this for an hour or so. I then flipped it over and placed the weight back on. You can just leave it upside down if you wish. I left the book on it for another hour.

You can see here that It did in fact flatten out. It bows a little still, but it isn't overwhelming like it was.








I really liked having the paper on the bottom instead of seeing the glue covered mess on the bottom. So I glued the floor onto another piece of paper. I then laid the book back on top of it just to for added measure.









After it was dried I cut off the extra bits of paper and then used an emery board  to sand the edges back so there is no overhang.










And you are all set to attach the piece. Trust me its so much easier to just do it all right the first time. I should also mention that this is more for single layers of matches at this scale. I don't have the same problem when doing double layers that I used for the walls of the upper room. But at larger scales you would want to build the walls with studs as in a real house. You can see videos of my matchstick house here. and the video that involves this section of the house is here