Hi all.
Got some time in the attic this week-end and spent some time on the church I have been working on.
There are several churches in the 1974 Musketeers films, but as I am looking at making 'flats' as backgrounds to the action in the streets, I don't want to build the whole thing. So i was looking for something that would do as a generic holy building.
A swift troll through Google brought up this image
the
Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo Apostoli, in Galatina in Southern Italy. It's nice, relatively simple, obviously ecclesiastic and this layout is quite common even in French churches.
My plan was to base my model church on this, not reproduce it exactly. Some of the decoration and ornamentation on the facade, I don't have the skills or the inclination to make, so I will go with something that looks appropriate, but suits my time and abilities.
So I started by copying the picture into Powerpoint and scaling it to a 24mm tall figure - which gave me dimensions for the doors, the windows, the false columns, and their relationship to each other.
It worked out about 28cm wide by about 14cm tall. The width is good - it would make up one side of a playing space and was not so tall that it would impede the the players reaching over it to move figures.
For this reason i deliberately cut the building off at the top of the frieze.
After a few sessions I had this
Hard cardboard, solid stuff, using bamboo skewers and coffee stirrers to make the mouldings. It's heavy and solid and to be honest it wasn't working for me.
I was waiting for some styrodur, and after some complaining, it arrived.
So this weekend I re-started the project cuttng two basic shapes, over laying them and then adding false columns, and the start of the frieze at the top.
Today, after it had set overnight, I started inscribing the brickwork, and sanding the cut surfaces.
I also noticed that I had cut the right hand door post of the central door too wide by three milimetres, that was trimmed down.
The progress was much quicker. The structure came together quite rapidly and I am much more satisfied with what I have done so far. It will be glued onto a backing piece to make it more durable.
I also really like working with styrodur, even if it is expensive for what it is, I will find a better source than the one I have used.
More on this when I have it, hope you found it useful.