Cathedral of Notre Dame

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by BARX2

Wow! I can see how you'd go bug eyed working on the windows at that scale! I thought the model was larger. It looks larger than 7.4 inches in your pictures!

Without something to give it perspective, the model looks larger when photographed against a neutral background as long as I am able get good depth of field.

Check my thread on Dante, Devil May Cry to see a different perspective.

[Mike Stamper]

That is a great looking model.

I agree with your idea about scaleing the models to the size of the paper. I hate the kits that have the card folded and parts end up with fold marks across the middle.

I applaude your idea about the windows, I did it with one of the Haunted Dimensions models. Photos taken in a darkened room give a nice touch.

Many more years ago than I care to remember, I got hold of a small book about making Micromodels - one of their ideas was to cut a thin line round the base lines of a building then mount the base onto glass, then put the building on the base. Then light it from underneath to give the effect of lights round the base. I never tried doing it, but you sound just the sort of person to give it a try ;-))

Cheers
Mike Stamper

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by Mike Stamper

Many more years ago than I care to remember, I got hold of a small book about making Micromodels - one of their ideas was to cut a thin line round the base lines of a building then mount the base onto glass, then put the building on the base. Then light it from underneath to give the effect of lights round the base. I never tried doing it, but you sound just the sort of person to give it a try ;-
Mike Stamper

Damn! That's a great idea and I wish I had thought of it! I have been musing about how to light the interior because it's a rather complex structure. But, you just solved the problem for me. I am at just the point where I can do all of that! I'll give you credit for that great idea.

Mike Stamper? That name sounds familiar for some reason. Are you, by any chance, an IPMS modeler, too?

[Mike Stamper]

Thanks for the note, I'm glad you like the suggestions. Another one was to lay a piece of thred on your bench and press the card onto it where "down pipes" are printed it give contours to the model.

You may remember me from the "original" card modellers web site run by Saul Jacobs some years ago. When his site stopped accepting construction reviews, I stoped looking for web sites.

Just recently, I've been looking around and found this site. I've been making card models for toooo many years :-) someone recently asked me how many I had. I counted at least 150!

The biggest is the new Prague Castle by Betexa down to many of the Micromodelsincluding Hampton Court.

Does this help ?
Cheers
Mike

[Jimmy Three Shoes]

Very cool church!!!!!!! I LOVE this one!!!! Waiting for the lights now, that will be great!!

[Phil]

Excellent! (too many great builds here to continually find words for).

[Art Deco]

That model is just 7.4" long? Wow, very fine work!

Are you planning to include a 1/683 scale Quasimodo?

[Golden Bear]

Wow. Notre Dame at 7 inches. Holy cow it looks nice. Very nice.


Carl

[cdavenport]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys! I enjoy this forum; it's almost like being at a club meeting.

With that in mind, Mike Stamper recalled a method of lighting Micromodels that I am going to use. Today, I made the cuts in the base and the base of the model so that I could add lights to the bottom of the base and allow them to shine up into the interior of ND.

I would have much prefered to design the model this way from the beginning, but, even though the cutting is not pretty, it will be functional.

If you look closely in the cathedral, you can see that I added Red River metallic paper in order to bounce the light onto the vertical stained glass windows. I'll light it up next week.

I'll be gone for the week to Carlsbad, CA to enjoy 4 days of intensive Shotokan karate training.

See you next week!

[cdavenport]

Returned from karate camp in Carlsbad, CA a little sore and very tired! After helping a fellow dojo student paint her car, I am back to work on Notre Dame.

I did a test build on a tree to see how it would look. It took me awhile to come to the conclusion that I could use standard techniques and materials; all I had to do was to make them smaller.

I'll post some step-by-step pix so you can see how it's done. Takes about 3-5 minutes per tree. I am going to gang build about 25 of them for the ND diorama base.

The tree looks larger because of perspective. If you Google ND, you will see that my model comes close to the actual perspective if you were standing on the embankment with the Seine River at your back.

Remember that the model is secondary; it's the modeling techniques that are important so that you can use them in your own builds.