Paper engineering for fold flat

This is an idea I had for another set which I thought I could put into action in the "hidden" base section of the court yard buildings. That way I wouldn't need use the clamping bits (shown below) to hold together the walls - at least on the bottom!

The way I do it is by adding overlapping "holding tubes" and inserting a part similar to the one I used with the mast extensions. 

The bits to insert are four sides this time. I cut one end a little tapered, so they insert very easy. Actually the whole thing comes together very easily!

As with the masts, I have tried out both a glued (right) and unglued (left) version of the insertion piece. The unglued one will be compressed upon insertion but expand again inside giving a good fit.

When I take apart the module I get these parts.

For now I have used it with my usual "thin" walls, but it has the potential to also be used with full 3D wall elements (with actual window and door openings that could even open and close). 

The above resembles a flat wall but the one below has parts added where you can add the interior wall too.

I think this has a lot of promise for future projects. One thing I have to test yet is how textured/colored parts with work with this solution. I am guessing I have to color all the inside parts black, so there is no white leak. Also it will require a little bit of precision to avoid too large gaps on the corners when assembling the walls.

For the court yard house I want to use this method in the bases. That way one will have the walls joined together very easy by inserting the bits from above and the covering them with the floor part. For the top of the walls, the old method should be fine.

The problem with flat walls is that if you use this method for holding the full height of the wall (as shown in the test above) you have this little area extruding into the room and I am not sure if that is tolerable for grid movement games. You would loose all four corner grid elements.

Let me know what you think. If you like this approach, I could make a page of parts just for the joining bits with instructions and you could apply that to any model you like!

That's it for today. So until next time, have fun and keep building :-)

Chris