Church Construction

Stage 0 - Gathering the pieces

• Here is the jigsaw used to cut the wall sections to size
• The base rotates up to 45 degrees which helps a lot when cutting the corners

• Used to fill in spaces at the corners and to texture the inside of the church
• Much easier to work with than using any sort of casting material as fill

• Foam card glued and tacked to the 1/2" plywood base
• The foam card is 3/16" thick and consists of two thick sheets of paper with foam separating them

• Made out of 1/8" thick polystyrene (plastic)
• Each brick carved with a dremel
• 12" wide and 5" high
• The side walls for the casting are 1/2" tall and secured with masking tape before each pour

• This is one of the main tools used in creating the church
• The Dremel I use is a variable speed 5,000-30,000RPM

• All of these will be used for the church plus a few additional casts will be needed for the tower
• Lightweight Hydrocal by Woodland Scenics was used for the casting - buying in the 5 gallon bulk quantity is highly recommended since their half gallon containers are quite expensive
• 2 1/2 cups hydrocal and 1 cup water fills the mold with just a bit left over after each pour
• Pam cooking spray (seen to the left) is sprayed on the mold to yield a clean separation of the casting from the mold
• These castings were poured over about three weeks
• Wall section casting steps:
  1. Assemble the side walls of the mold using masking tape
  2. Place the mold on a mobile board and set both on a table
  3. Spray the mold lightly with Pam cooking spray
  4. Mix 2 1/2 cups of Lightweight Hydrocal with 1 cup water in a bowl
  5. Pour the material in from the bottom center of the mold slowly.  This way the material pushes away the air which results in fewer bubbles on the face of the casting.
  6. Vibrate the board which the mold in all directions to work the air bubbles to the surface and away from the face.  Continue this for about 5 minutes.
  7. Let casting set for at least 20 minutes.
  8. Gently pull away the side walls from the casting
  9. Hold the mold upside down with hand supporting the casting.  If the casting does not simply fall out of the mold with little or no coaxing then either cooking spray was forgotten or the casting needs to set longer.
  10. Set the casting aside and let sit for at least 24 hours before attempting to cut it.
• A week or more was allowed before the castings were cut to size

• The 'glass' is actually transparency paper
• I found a few pictures of Medieval stained glass on the web, chose four, and replicated them three times to fit on a sheet
• A laser printer at Kinko's worked extremely well for creating a fairly realistic miniature reproduction of stained glass

• A few of the outside window flashings can also be seen which the 'glass' will be affixed to
• The outside flashing castings are the results of another mold created from polystyrene and carved with the dremel
• Sculpt-a-Mold was used instead of hydrocal for these castings to provide more flexibility in the casting

Stage 1 - Assembling the walls

• A few of the foam card walls have been attached to the foundation with pins and Elmer's glue
• Some of the casted wall sections have also been affixed to the foam card using Elmer's as well
• The wall sections were cut to size using a jig saw which allowed for easy 45 degree cuts
• CrackShot wall spackle was used to fill in the gaps where the wall sections met
• The window holes were cut with an Exacto knife
• The arched doorway consists of two pieces of foam card glued together - again the Exacto was used to cut the doorways

• The holes in the casting were cut with the dremel using a side-cutting bit
• Cutting did not need to be exact since both the inside and outside of the windows would be covered with flashing

• Inside flashings around the windows can be seen from this angle
• The inside flashing was also created from polystyrene, but no bricks were cut
• Again, Sculpt-a-Mold was used for the casting material to provide more flexibility

Stage 2 - Wall construction complete

• All walls have been assembled
• Inside window flashings have all been added as well
• The floor will be covered by 1" ceramic tile - the tile is not attached yet, just getting a feel for how it will look
• Unfortunately the tile isn't exactly 1" so some half tiles will have to be cut - nothing the Tile Nippers can't handle
• Two crossbow men (partially panted) can be seen - they were used to help keep a feel for scale

• Although this picture is a bit bright, the two statue niches can be seen flanking the doorway in the front of the church

• Both arch ways can be seen from this angle
• The side doorway with the cut in arches can also be seen
• The front and side doors and corresponding arches are very similar - the front is just a bit larger

• The front doorway and statue niches can be seen more easily in this view

• Shooting from the right side doorway through both arches resulted in a fairly interesting picture.
• The shadows cast from the arches produce an interesting effect

Stage 3 - Bell tower

• The floor is made of one piece of balsa wood which will fit inside the tower

• Only foam core makes up the roof in this picture.  Thin polystyrene will be put over the roof along with small styrene strips to give it a 'metal' look.

• The goal is to make the roof look like aged copper

Stage 4 - Church Roof

• The sheet material is a Plastruct plastic sheet
• Initially the plan was to cast the roof sections using the sheet as a mold, but the roof sections would have been too heavy and fragile

• All roof sections in place and the 2" diameter window in front has been cut
• Level 1 of the tower is also in place

• The timer on the camera was used to produce an 'inside view' of the church

• The floor is a bit dirty, but the triple arches can be seen to the right and left and the windows can be seen clearly at the far end of the church
• The physical size of the inside length of the church is 22 inches which equates to about 110 feet after taking into account the 5' to 1" scale

• A good view of the triple arches and the access door to the tower
• A movable ladder will be used to give the miniatures access to the tower

• The floor of the first floor of the tower will obscure this view when the church is complete

• Both doorways can be seen including the circular stairs in front of each

Stage 5 - Finishing Touches

• Side door just set in place to see how it fits
• The very small hinges will allow the door to open and close nicely
• The small arched window in the door will be stained glass similar to the other windows

• The old set of stained glass prints didn't really go very well with the large rose window chosen for the front.  The new set actually are in the same building (Nortre Dame Cathedral) as the rose window.

Stage 6 - The Finished Product!

View from the front angle

• The base has been flocked with Woodland Scenics turfing material.

View from another front angle
 

Looking from a top angle
 

Looking directly down from the top

• Not a particularly useful shot, but it does give an aerial view of the church accenting the cross shaped floor plan.

Tower roof removed

• Miniatures can take up positions in the top tower level.
• The center is open and surrounded by a railing.
• A ladder going to the first tower level is the only way up or down.

All roof and tower sections removed

• The entire inside of the church is playable.

Another shot of all sections removed from a side angle
 

Front doors installed

• The metal work is mostly from doll house materials which can be found at Hobby Lobby
• The handles are actually made from pieces of a pair of old eye glass frames.

Side door installed

• The side door also uses doll house hinges and metal nails.
• The 'stained glass' from the front window was made using the same transparency technique used for the windows.

View of the side door
 

Front of the church

• Good view of the rose window - since it is dark inside it is difficult to get a good view of the design on the window.
• The statue niches still stand empty.  Still need to find something to fill them.

Inside the church looking towards the front doors

• If it wasn't for this picture the inside roof probably would never be finished...  Looking at this photo will probably be enough for me to at least paint the rest of the inside roof.

Inside the church looking towards the side door
 

Copper roof view from the front

• The roof was initially painted copper, but it just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the church.
• The original plan was to make the copper look aged by painting it greenish, but it was decided that the green would be overpowering.
• A dark metallic was chosen instead.

Copper roof view from the side angle