Church on the Spilled Blood

[Mike Stamper]

In my earlier thread about Russian churches I mentioned that I was starting with the easiest kit and working up to the biggest - well, here is the last of the Russian Churches.

At first sight many people will say it's St Basils in Moscow - But as you will see from the title, it is a similar building in St Petersburg. It was built in 1883 - 1907 as a memorial to Tzar Alexander II who was assacinated on the site of the church. Unlike the architect of St Basil's, A.A Partland didn't lose his eyes when the building was completed ;-(

It may not be the biggest at 42 cm high, but it is the most impressive, even the printing gives it a high "wow" factor. Like the others, this is a slot and tab construction and the parts are die cut. The pieces are photographs of the building. This is the first kit I've seen where the parts are printed in matt and gloss colours. The brick work is matt - each brick is shown and the coloured areas are separate bricks. The gloss areas are the windows and mosaic pictures. It also comes with a sheet of gold parts.

Althogh it is slot and tab construction - the parts fit together well, although I have, in some places, removed the tabs and butt joined the parts.

As you will see, I have done quite a lot of the building already. I have yet to make the entrances, a few towers and about eight highly coloured domes.

Here are a few pictures of the builing so far.

Cheers
Mike

[silveroxide]

Very beautiful architecture. it would make for a great backdrop for the Sisters of Battle.

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

That is very nice. Actually the story of the blinding of the Architect by the Tsar it is a myth. But with Ivan the Great you may never know...

[Retired_for_now]

Saw that one last spring - definite wow-factor. Looking good with the build.

Yogi

[BARX2]

Beautiful! I'm afraid to ask where you got it, because I don't need another big model. :)

[buffalowings]

very fancy, looking forward to even more pics

[Mike Stamper]

It's not that big - according to the cover is't 35x26x42 CM

It's available from quite a few sites, but I have a friend in Moscow who buys them for me.

Ivan the Terrible was an interesting character - I've read a few books about him and knowing how bad is childhood was, it's not surprising that he got the name ;-)

[Mike Stamper]

In the last photo in my first post you will see a domed roof.

because this is a slot and tab model, I though I'd see what it would look like just using the tabs.

As you will see from picture one, the fit is very good. However, I thought I would glue the pieces to get an better finish. picture two shows the piece when it's removed from the page. Although the pieces are die cut and the cover says "no cutting needed" I found that to get a clean edge, the pieces have to be cut out.

Picure three showes the underside of the part. As you will see, I have added tabs half way along the piece and at the end. I add glue along the edges and butt join the parts, using the homemade tabs as strengthening.
because the pieces are butt joined, there are few white edges, but I painted in the areas where the white edges showed. Picture four shows the finished roof.

Because the part is so well designed there is very little difference between pic 1 and 4 - except for the mosaic piece round the edge!

I added pic 5 as an "aside" I was impressed with this piece - when I first looked at it I was not sure how to fold it it looked impossible. However it seems to work - the only problem is that now they are on the model and I have added another piece similar to the mosaic piece in 4 - they are almost invisible.

The next step is the tower at the other end of the building... watch this space for more pictures!

Cheers
Mike

[BARX2]

Looks great. The colors are beautiful and you're doing a great job of it!

[Mike Stamper]

First, thanks for all the good comments.

While the parts are a reasonable fit, it's still a tab and slot which is a bit frustrating because of some of the gaps. I've spent a lot of time trying to get round the tabs. As you will see from the following pictures, there are a few holes. I guess with a building this complex, it's inevitable.

Despite the shortcommings I still like it and the WOW factor is still there.

Cheers
Mike

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

This is very nice. Both the model and the work. I long to build large architecture models. Although I find myself compel to build the small ones!

I buy the movie Ivan the Terrible Part 1 and Ivan the Terrible Part 2 from eBay... they come to me the last week but I have not watch yet.

[Mike Stamper]

This is quite small - compared with some of my models.

I guess the biggest is the Betexa "Prague Castle". I have also made one of the towns from the ABC book "Medieval Villages". I know they are big and both took about 6 months to make. But the way I look at it, is that I spend a few hours most evenings making models and look on the big models as lots of small models that get joined together. The ABC kit is a good example. There are lots of different buildings and they all fit onto a base when all the buildings are made.

I think I know which film you mean - I think it was made by Sergei Eisenstein ? A few months ago we were in Riga and there is an area of the town that has Arte Nouveu buildings designed by his son -Mikhail. Now if someone whould like to design a model of one (or more) of those, I'd buy the whole lot.

I hope you enjoy the films.
Mike

[Mike Stamper]

The area I am now making is the spire on the central tower.

The first picture is a "spot the difference" The left hand dormer has been doctored. The first change is to remove the slot and tab on the roof. There is enough card to butt the two halves.

The second change is the angle of the wall, you will see that the left one has less card along the bottom. The next picture will show the difference between the "before" and "after".

The diagram is all that comes with the kit - the pictures are enough to work with.

The last picture is the tower, the roof fits on the top and the tower slides inside the outer tower - which can be seen in an earlier picture.

[Mike Stamper]

Here are a few pictures of my "dom-ain".

The kit has a cone and disc to be used as formers, while the "leafs" have slots and tabs.

I decided to remove all the above bits, add my own tabs and butt joint the rest. I was very impressed with the printing and found that the graphics lined up all the way to the top of each dome. I have not yet painted the edges and as you will see, there is very little painting required.

To give an idea of the size - the coloured domes are about 2 inches tall.

This is the final leg of the construction - They and the crosses are the last bits to go onto the building.

Cheers
Mike

[BARX2]

Wow! Those domes are gorgeous. Great work!

[Don Boose]

You really have a flair for these magnificent onion-domed churches, Mike. I love to see your beautiful architectural models.

Oksana -- Ivan the Terrible is worth seeing. It is a very long experience, but most dramatic and impressive (like all Eisenstein films). I saw it over 50 years ago when I was a Navy ROTC midshipman at Cornell. I went to see it with two of my ROTC instructors, one of whom had been Navy attache' (ALUSNA) in Moscow and was an historian. He told me that the section in color in Part II because the Soviet Army had captured a bunch of German color film (I don't think that is true, since Part II was completed after the war). He also said that, as in the case of Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein intended to represent the on-going struggle with the Germans, as well as the 16th century history.

Don

[Mike Stamper]

The church is now complete.

It has been an interesting model. The die cut/slot/tab format is not my favourite, bit I must admit that this was the best of this format I've made. As I mentioned in the earlier note, the printing and accuracy of the parts is very good.

As you may guess from my comments, it has been a very enjoyable build!

So, here are a few pictures.

[Papercut]

Magnificent, this is the word that comes to mind as I look at this wonderful church. You are a Master Architecture builder.:DRick

[BARX2]

Mike, that is outstanding! What a beautiful model and great build!