Parc Güell

[OldSchoolDM]

This is Not a Box, and is Not for Beginners.

The hardest model I've built so far: The chapel @ Parc Güell.

I've got a piece of terrain I want to build for an original fantasy campaign I am co-authoring with my adult artist daughter. The style is meant to represent the architecture of a non-human sentient race with psionic powers, so no need for square corners or uniform decoration.

I'd recently been on a trip to Barcelona, where I was more than impressed by the architecture and design of Antoni Gaudí visiting almost a dozen of the buildings & structures he designed while in Spain. This became my inspiration for our "City of Light" where these beings live. If you've never heard of Gaudi, or Sagrada Família, or Parc Güell, or Casa Batlló take some time and check out what you can find on the web (or better yet, go!). Clearly an artist at least a century before his time... Antoni Gaudí - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While visiting the gift-shop at Parc Güell I noticed they had paper models of many of his works. This was about 3 months before I discovered this hobby. :-( I remembered that they existed when it came time to make my city, so I ordered them (from Spain!)



The Parc models are significantly smaller than 28mm scale, and hand-drawn, so I chose a single-page model of the chapel/gift-shop from entrance to the park. A quick inspection showed that this was going to be a challenge: Besides having 100s of tiny saw-tooth-tabs to accommodate the no-right-angles construction, the fold-over interior walls and rails obviously did not properly align with each other.



With the gross registration errors in the artwork, I'd go nuts if I had to cut and recut after gluing - so the only way I'd get through these models is to robocut them. After blowing the artwork up [by scanning at 600dpi and then scaling to 300dpi) I started tracing the artwork in Studio. When I'd complete half of a backed-piece, I'd mirror it for the backing and then groan and head off to modify the artwork to fit. The good news is you can't tell - the tile-work stretches 20% no problem and the hand-rails are plain tan on the back.

Another mod I did was to create more interior templates as structural support for the round tower and odd shaped building footprint [look closely at he floor tile in the last photo...]

Gluing a non-rectangular roof was very frustrating and fiddly, as well as attaching it all to the tower and floor. Nothing fit properly anywhere. [I was pinin' for some clean-lined Ebbles when I finished] I'm looking for more tips before heading off on the next of his buildings.

Oh, did I mention, there were NO instructions? Just a image with each numbered piece in place. It was obvious to me from the start that the numbering could NOT be the order of construction, especially since some pieces had no mounting tabs, and no obvious means for attachment. [Anyone who builds this model should feel free to contact me for specific questions.]



But, the floor-template I inserted had the desired effect, the final gluing to the base went without a hitch (other than realizing too late that I hadn't attached the fences (numbering order!) A quick hack later and I was done!







This model definitely taught me I can build just about anything and how to experiment with construction techniques (like templates and shims). I'm ready for my next Gaudí! The 2x scale wasn't big enough (I'll go for 3x next time).

I don't know how anyone can build this at 1x scale. I imagine I am one of very few to actually complete this...

This is probably why the Casa Milà is much simpler and pre-cut on foamboard.

I'll keep the photo album of all my Gaudi at http://photobucket.com/papergaudi











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[Tomdaviesclay]

Thanks for sharing your photos and work. Although my main architectural interest is Gothic, I do like all of the many Gaudi's buildings that we visited. We were in Baracelona for a week in 2009. You can read about our adventures on my web page www.cathedralquest.com . Click on Spain 2009 and look for the Baracelona days (actually we were there twice on the same trip...we liked it so much).

I was interested in your Park Guell model. I note it was published by Papeti. I have the Park Guell model published by Papeti. I have not made it yet. Mine seems to be very different from yours. It is of the whole park. Yours seems to be of just the one building as indicated by the base part # 1. My base is for the entire park and covers a whole page. The numbers are also different. Your #2 is #38 on my sheet. In fact the sheet is rather different, many of the same parts, but they are numbered on the tabs plus there are numbers where pieces are to be glued. There an extensive directions in four different lanuages including English plus a whole page of diagrams. The model that you made looks very good. I would like to know more about your model.

I note in your photo that you also had a Papeti kit of Gaudi's Mila (or also known as La Pedrera de Gaudi). I have Pedrera by Merino. I haven't made that one yet either. I am presently working of El Pilar in Saragossa. It is a Merino model with 25 domes in various sizes. It is taking a long time. Some of the tops of the smaller domes bearly fit over the tip of my little finger...that is small.

I also have Sagrada Familia, which is a Domus kit. It is hard to find Domus kits now. There are several good Sagrada Familia kits on the market including a free down load by Canon which several folk have shared on papemodelers.com. I had built my model before going to Barcelona. I took closeup photos of the model with me to compare to the "real thing". I have 100's of photos of the inside and out. I hope to live long enough to see it completed. I am 73 now and if it takes 20 years as they predict, I am be too old to travel.

The three buildings that you and I have seem to be the only models of buildings in Barcelona that are published as kits. If anyone knows about others, I sure would love to have them.

I note that you have only been a member of papermodelers for two months. Welcome. It is a fun webpage although those of us who make architectural models seem to be outnumbered by models that have wings, sails, treads, and wheels and other devices that make them move. I enjoy looking at these also but there is not enough time to make every papermodel on the market. One papermodeler recently wrote me that he had enough kits to make that if he made one a month it would take him 11 years. It will only take me 5 years to make all the new kits that I have!

Please keep us posted on your "City of Light"...it sounds fascinating.
Thomas

[Vermin_King]

Hey, OldschoolDM, I hadn't realized you were over here. Excellent build and build thread. I really like the building and the way it came out. Is the other entrance building also a one-pager?

[OldSchoolDM]

Originally Posted by Tomdaviesclay

Thanks for sharing your photos and work. Although my main architectural interest is Gothic, I do like all of the many Gaudi's buildings that we visited. We were in Baracelona for a week in 2009. You can read about our adventures on my web page www.cathedralquest.com . Click on Spain 2009 and look for the Baracelona days (actually we were there twice on the same trip...we liked it so much).

I was interested in your Park Guell model. I note it was published by Papeti. I have the Park Guell model published by Papeti. I have not made it yet. Mine seems to be very different from yours. It is of the whole park.

After searching this board for "Gaudi" I stumbled across your site and immediately bookmarked it. The buttress stuff was particularly interesting. I grabbed a copy of the Canon version of the Sagrada Familia as well as a result of your site.

I also have the full Parc Guell model (with a redundant copy of the chapel/gift shop with the higher numbers you noted.) Since I accidentally purchased the single-building model as well I started with it to see if I wanted to dig into the rest (I do, and have already started on the Gatehouse, but this time at 3x.) More photos here as I build out each section.

Thanks for the feedback!

[OldSchoolDM]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

Hey, OldschoolDM, I hadn't realized you were over here. Excellent build and build thread. I really like the building and the way it came out. Is the other entrance building also a one-pager?

Nope. I'm scanning the bits off two pages as part of the larger Parc Guell model. Blowing stuff up 3x is a bit trickier than I'd imagined.

[Vermin_King]

You need to find a friend at a print shop or advertising company. They have printers that will easily handle things like that.

Looking forward to seeing more

[OldSchoolDM]

Yay! Parc Güell Gatehouse! Now bigger for your gaming pleasure.

Here's a few of the new pics at Gaudi pictures by frandallfarmer - Photobucket

Original scanned at 900dpi, then printed at 300dpi. At this scale all the hand-draw errors multiplied enough that proper alignment became impossible. And the instructions consisted of a numbered list with no real help (I didn't follow the numbers, as it made no sense. Also, again there was no help attaching sub-assemblies that had no tabs or means of attachment.) If you ever build this, feel free to ping me with questions.

I got it assembled for my needs though. Pretty big.

Can you spot the three figures in the first image?



Here's another angle:

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

People interested in the Papeti / Gaudi series may like to know that I also stock them - see my site www.zeistbouwplaten.nl, pager Modern architecture. Perhaps easier than going to Barcelona...
Oh, by the way: Merino also has a Gaudi model, the Casa Botines.

[OldSchoolDM]

Originally Posted by Diderick A. den Bakker

People interested in the Papeti / Gaudi series may like to know that I also stock them ...

And I'll gladly share my Studio cutfiles with anyone who wants them. It is hard enough to figure out how to build these puppies without having to hand cut them all out!

[Tomdaviesclay]

I highly recommend Diderick's website- www.zeistbouwplaten.nt . He has an excellent selection of models, many that are hard to find. I recently purchased from him the Guggenheim in Bilbao and a hard to find Gloucester Cathedal by Rupert Chicken. This was the first time that I had seen either of them on all of the model web sites that I visit. He not only has great models, but prompt service. I check his website every several days for new models.