Pasta can be an affordable and effective model building supply… this is not your kindergarten noodle art.

When I was completing my undergraduate degree, I was required to build a model for my thesis show, The Learned Ladies.  I wanted it to be as perfect and beautiful as possible.  I designed beautiful arched doorways and spent hours bending wire perfectly to create details on my curved molding around the arches.  Upon completion of the model, I took it in for review by my teacher and we talked about my process.  He listened with a sly little smile as I explained what I had done and then said, “You know what would have saved you a lot of time on the curved molding would have been spaghetti.”  (This is one of those moments where the saying “Experience is something you only get after you needed it” holds especially true.)

Since then I have had many moments where pasta was the perfect tool for the job.  It comes in many shapes and sizes, is very affordable and holds paint well.  In its raw form, it is stiff and can be cut easily with a utility knife.  After being soaked in water or boiled it is moldable, but then dries out and becomes stiff after you form it and glue it down. 

For moldable applications it is easiest to work with when it about halfway between hard and edible.  It does get a little sticky, and usually needs to dry for a number of hours before it is paintable again, so this is not a tool for last minute model building.  For straight applications, it can be used hard and painted as soon as the glue dries.

The shapes I am most likely to use are Spaghetti, Angel Hair and Linguini.  Every now and then I’ve also used a rigatoni with ridges, which I slit down the side and flatten to use as paneling.  Most other shapes are a bit too big and bulky for frequent use.  Spaghetti and Angel Hair are good as half round in scale and Linguini in various sizes can be a good stand in for scale lumber, especially in curved applications.

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