[papermodelfan]

With time available over the winter holidays, I launched into an old stalled project - completing the Micromodel of Hampton Court Palace. Having made some progress, I thought I would try to document it along the way.

The model: This is the biggest and most complex of the Micromodels, published in 1954, number 21 in the architectural series. It was so big that it came out as three separate packets, A, B and C, with numbered cards running from 1 - 30, has 30 numbered cards of parts, 6 cards that make up the baseplate, two little strips of parts, and two thin sheets of chimney pots and roof ridges. I am always intrigued by Geoffrey Heighway's choices of subjects - some are Icons of England, (Westminster Abbey, HMS Victory) some are copies of models he saw in the Museum of London (The London Gates), and some are items in the news of the day (The UN Building, the train the Queen was to take in South Africa). Not sure why he chose HCP, except that it is open to the public, and perhaps was much visited after WW2?

The building: From Wikipedia, I gather it is a wonderful old pile on the Thames in London, built as a Tudor palace by the show-off Cardinal Wolsey, and used as the royal home from Henry VIII to George II, seriously renovated by Christopher Wren, to rival Versailles, but not lived in for the last 250 years. I have not seen it yet, though now I must next time I visit London, of course.

The actual model: Assuming I finish it, I will enter this in a competition for most delayed model ever. My father bought it from the Dayton's Department Store in Minnesota in the early 1960's, and after doing other Micromodels, we started on it in 1964, finishing most of packet A. We stopped, daunted and a little bored by the zillions of chimneys and acres of brick walls. I have carried it around with my moves since, saying "Soemday...". Now in Nov. 20, 2009, I started up again, though not with the original packets. So that is now 45 years later. I have no photos of the first steps, but started to document it soon after the renovation began.

Several issues are at play in this: First I and my father were enthusiastic but not very skilled, and the original build is a bit slapdash in spots. I am keeping it that way - to respect the modelers we were and the fun we had; I am not starting over. Second, I am using color copies of the cards, that are a bit brighter than the original, which is now slightly yellowed. I like this, actually, as it makes it even more clear what was original from 1964 and what is 2010. Third, Micromodels are REALLY SMALL in spots - the typical four story building is no more than 1.5 cm high. Finally, Heighway was not a precise designer himself - the artwork is crude up close, not all the buildings fit well onto the ground plan, and the errors multiply when there is a long line of little boxes - by the end, the ground plan is off by several mms. There are many little adjustments to make. However, the net effect is often better than the close up camera makes it look.

The first stage was restoring what was left of the original. Some chimneys were gone, some towers had been lost and buildings stoved in. Everything was glued to a hard masonite board that had never been trimmed to size. We really should have trimmed it before we started gluing on the buildings, because they went right up to some edges. This may have been part of why we stopped. So step one was sawing that board with a jigsaw, carefully, but still damaging the buildings right on the edge. Then step two was resurfacing those buildings, replacing the lost towers, and chimneys, and replacing some of the tiny gothic spires that rise from the buildings around the entry gate.