Hi!

That's quite a large structure you are wanting to make. It will need some kind of support, possibly a wooden framework. Alternatively, you could build it up with boxes and pieces of cardboard cut from large boxes and packaging.   Papier mache is very heavy when it's wet. Polystyrene chunks are also very good. When making the framwork bear in mind the final weight of the thing. The lighter it is, the easier it will be to transport and the less likely it is to get dropped and damaged.


As for the adhesive, that is a matter of personal choice. I would use wallpaper paste. You could add a bit of pva (white) glue to the mix for extra strength.

For something this size you could use large pieces of pasted paper (say a quarter of a newspaper page). If you use small strips on a project this size it will take a month of Sundays!  Once you have built up enough layers, you could either paint it as it is, or for a rough texture, coat the whole of it with a layer of pulped papier mache.

When dry, seal it with emulsion paint then decorate in any paint you like. Poster or acrylic are probably the best. To give it a tough protective layer you can use either watered down pva glue (50/50) or matt varnish.

Hope this helps.

I have built a structure just like what you are talking about for some dance photos.  It has about the same dimensions.  I built mine entirely out of papermache.  It has no supports of any kind. 

I started by making panels.  The local newspaper here gives away remnant rolls of newsprint.  So I rolled out 8'x4' lengths and spread paste between layers.  I found that it was easiest to start with thin panels 3 to 4 layers thick because when they were heavy they would have a tendancy to fall apart under inital cunstruction.  Then the panels can be clamped together with those wood working clamps that squeeze open (like giant clothespins). 

Apply lots of additional layers with more at the base than the top.  The more structural areas may have as many as twenty layers.  Whereas at the top it may only have three.  This makes the structure more stable.  Bear in mind, there are no supports in my structure.  If there was a framework this might not be an issue.

The trick is to know when to stop.  When the paper mache is wet, it is heavy, and adding too much at one time can cause the whole structure to collapse.

Michael L