Cathedral of Notre Dame

[cdavenport]

I was fortunate enough to celebrate Easter Eve mass in Notre Dame in Paris when I was a senior in high school (1970). It's always been one of my favorite architectural wonders. So, I decided to build Canon's version of it.

I want to light it up, so I replaced all the printed windows, which are represented black, with acetate copies of stained glass windows such as the one below. I just did an exhaustive internet search and found as many pictures of stained glass windows as I could.

I am building a lighted diorama base which might take a bit of time since the base is a copy of the grounds where the cathedral resides. I have to scratchbuild all the ground cover because of the odd scale of the model.

I'll show some other in-progress pics shortly.

[buffalowings]

this will be interesting

[cdavenport]

Here are some completed shots.

#1- this is the base made from Letramax 1000 mechanical illustration board. You can see the outlines marking the location of the cathedral, lights, and ground cover. I'll use LED's to light it. I'll have to make the trees from scratch because of the odd scale. I'll show you how I do that later on.

#2-4- shots of the completed model. Notice the black areas where the glass would normally be. I built this model to be photographed in a nighttime setting. So, the interior will be illuminated showing off all the color of the windows.

[willygoat]

That is just completely insane! and might I add totally awesome!!!!:D Can't wait to see it lit and finished

[cdavenport]

Thanks, guys. After cutting and pasting all those acetates, I did feel a bit insane. It took me a week to do that just because I had to give my brain periodic breaks.

It's amazing what buffalo wings and a good beer will do for the soul!

[Don Boose]

Whoa! That's a beautiful model! And it's neat that you have actually have a connection with the prototype.

Don

[BARX2]

That's beautiful. I have the Domus kit of Notre Dame to build one of these days. Do you have any idea what scale the Canon model is? One of the things that irks me about the Domus models is that they are in different scales.

[ThunderChild]

Been there last year. Its a wonderful cathedral, and you have done it proud! Great job!

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by BARX2

That's beautiful. I have the Domus kit of Notre Dame to build one of these days. Do you have any idea what scale the Canon model is? One of the things that irks me about the Domus models is that they are in different scales.

Glad you asked because I needed to know the scale to size the trees properly. The real cathedral is 402.75' long and my model measures .616'. That works out to a scale of 1/683.

I have long suspected that Canon designs its models to fit a particular paper size in the same way the US plastic model manufacturers once designed kits to fit in a particular box size.

[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!