The Monument To The Battle Of The Nations in Leipzig

[gregoy]

Was in doubt in wich section to post this build thread, as it fits 2 categories (Architecture/Vintage Model), but since it's the first time I'm doing an vintage model, I decided show the progress of the build here. Accordingly the AGK database, the designer of this model is Bruno Holz and the publishers are probably Julius Bagel, Mülheim an der Ruhr. This publication was the "Bogen-Nr. M 179" and it was published approx. on the end of 1912.

I was waiting until finishing the base/terrace before starting the thread here because this part, especially the terrace, has a tricky "pyramid" shape, so as you can see on the second photo, I needed to think of something to aim me in holding the overall shape of the walls. So I managed to get this idea: See where the stairs are? I used the walls that are around the stairs as guide to make duplicates of those walls on slightly thick cardboard. Then I glued those reinforcements just below the tabs where the walls go, as shown on the second photo. This not only made easier to build the terrace, it also gave some resistance to the shape of the terrace.

Now for the next section, I will build the four large arches that lays over the terrace.

I'll leave the link for PAPERMAU'S blog if anyone is interested in building the model: PAPERMAU: The Battle Of The Nations Monument In Leipzig Paper Model - by AGK

Cheers,
Gregory.

[gregoy]

Forgot to mention the scale and finished height:

If Printed to A4: Scale approx. 1:360, model size ~ 59 cm
If Printed to A3: Scale approx. 1:250, model size ~ 86 cm

I printed the sheets using IrfanView's 'Best fit to page(aspect ratio)' opition, as it scales down the image to fit the page size while maitaining the size of the pieces the same.

[gregoy]

Now I'll mention the issues that I've faced so far:

1st issue:

The piece 17, the largest stair, is missing the lowermost step, but it was easy to fix, I just opened the page where piece 17 was in Photoshop, and I just made an copy of a part of the own stair's topmost step, making sure that I only cutted the needed amount of the step's texture. I used the height of the to guide myself for the cut process and since the other piece where the stair would be glued were also on the same page, it was way easier to predict the size I needed to cut. I got the measure of 11mm on the other piece where the stair should be glued by looking on the gluing spots on the lower part of the piece, and it worked very well after printing the fixed piece and building as shown on the photo.

[gregoy]

2nd issue:

I needed to add an square support under the terrace top to prevent it's own weight from deforming the stairs on the front, as shown on the photo.

[gregoy]

3rd issue:

Now that I'm on the arches that goes over the terrace, I noticed, when testing the gluing of the stripes that goes on the archways itself, that the length of those strips were 0.25mm smaller than needed to match the length of the archways itself, so again I would need to make an edit on the pieces inside Photoshop again, but I needed to translate those 0.25 that the strips were missing in a percentage amount so I could enlarge the pieces in the width correctly, without having the risk of enlarging it too much, so after some failed math, I came up with this: if I need to enlarge the piece by 0.25mm, maybe I should do an enlarge by 2.5% percent, so inside Photoshop, I did the following:
1. On the page file, I selected only the first stripe piece.
2. With the transform tool, I unlinked the width and height(so the changes don't affect the height) and typed "102.5%" on the width value.
3. I repeated the process on every stripe piece.
4. I saved the page as a copy.
5. Then I printed did an test build and it worked flawlessly!!!(photo below)

I definitely will be applying this method on future vintage model builds, too bad I don't know how to easily test the fit between pieces before printing, it would save me some paper and ink.

This is what happened so far. I'll keep you informed if other issues arise.

Cheers,

Gregory

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hi, gregoy. That’s a fine start you’ve made on your Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig. I have seen the model available on the AGK site for some time, but I have yet to build it. I’ll be watching your build as you go along.

Some of us may not be familiar with this somber German monument, so I’m attaching some photographs of the inside and outside of the building. The statuary throughout the monument is both heavy and broodish in nature, but it, along with the ponderous architecture creates a powerful message of grieving strength. It is a unique monument to the losses incurred by war.

An internet search of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations will reveal much information and many more images.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[gregoy]

The archways and the structural "roof" are done. Now I'll be doing the walls that goes over that "roof" as well the corner parts that goes around it, finishing with the cover wich is the "floor" for the 12 figures wich will be placed later around the wall that also goes on this "floor".

Cheers,

Gregory.

[gregoy]

Doing the figures after building the round wall and the surrounding parts as well the floor/round walls where the figures are placed(photo below). I also glued over this large round wall the part nº 75, wich is the floor for an smaller but still round wall and more 12 pairs of pieces. I had some fit problems when joining parts 56 & "B" and part 62 & 75 and I felt I should warn warn anyone that pretend to build this model about them:

1. Part "B", the circle with alternating brown and white spaces, is .50% smaller than the needed size to be glued onto part 56. So I needed to make an enlargement of part "B" onto Photoshop, save an copy and then print it again using IrfanView, after this fix the part fitted properly as it should.

2. Part 75 had the same problem as part "B", so the solution was the same.

3. Also, between the parts "B" and 62 , there some misalignments on the gluing spots and the colored spots in both floor and the wall, so when gluing the figures, you may have white spaces showing in one of these 2, so it's advised to have copies of those parts printed so you can fix any white spaces that may appear(just cut a small part from the spare part, ensuring it's from the same place where the white is showing and glue it over the white).

4. This also happen between parts 62 and 75,and I fear that this may also happen when gluing parts 77 through 88 onto parts 75 and 76, so keep an spare of those parts also so you can do the same thing as mentioned on 3.

I'm on the antipenultimate leg of the building, and even with the issues caused by the design errors, I'm still enjoying the building of this model.

Cheers,
Gregory.

[rockpaperscissor]

There are quite a few design flaws noted in your last post. There must have been many angry modelers back in the day when they came across such errors. Thanks to Photoshop, etc, we can work around these challenges today. It's shaping up to be a really good looking model.

[gregoy]

Finished placing the 12 figures(first photo), now I'll be placing another ser of 12 pairs of parts around part 76(second photo), and this time I know for sure I'll have some white appearing either on part 75 or 76, so fixing those whites will take some time to complete.

Cheers,

Gregory.