Model making is an important way to cultivate the practical ability of civil engineering professionals, and it is also a basic way of civil engineering practice teaching. It effectively promotes the process of students transforming "planar design" design thinking into "three-dimensional" design thinking. The model making course teaching mode adheres to the "four-in-one" teaching principle, which organically combines the four aspects of classroom teaching, team seminars, computer operation and model making. This paper analyzes the problems existing in the current teaching mode of architectural model making courses and explores the countermeasures, aiming to make a beneficial attempt for the practical teaching of civil engineering and the cultivation of compound civil engineering talents.