Panorama of Defense of Sevastopol

[Mike Stamper]

Here's another of my obscure buildings - the title will give you a hint of where the building stands. The kits comes from papermodeling.net. I knew this kit was on the way more than a year ago and like most of my kits - I've visited the building.

It's the best panorama I've visited. Visitors enter on ground level and go down a series of steps and wall towards the centre of the building. Another lot of stais lead up onto a circular balcony. from here you see a diorama from the centre to the walls. Items near the fisitor are full size and get smaller the further away they are, it is finished with distant detail painted on the wall. You can wall round the balcony to watch a point in the battle as if you were standing on top of the hill in Sevastople.

If you want to see the inside, type the title in Googe and follow their suggestions. One site called "Russian Women" have some good pictures of the panorama. My apologies for "the adverts".

The kit has many unusual "firsts". For example there are 12 pages of templates that have to be glued to 1mm card ( from experience it's best to use good quality card). There are "only" 6 pages of parts. It is also the first model I've made where I've spent about two weeks cutting out the templates. The kit also has the smallest parts of any model - for example there are 25 triangles 1/8th of an inch long (2mm) - how about 30 dormers the same size?

Given the above don't be too surprised if this tread suddenly comes to a halt ;-)

Now for the pictures -

The first one shows one of eleven circles with a pile of the templates in the background.

Next is the base - the only real parts are the grass ares, although they are also glued to card.

Here are most of the circle parts ready to glue together

Almost there.

The last picture shows the "lantern". In this picture, only two parts of the kit are used the rest - over 100 of them are templates on 1mm card.

If you want "instant gratification" don't start this model!

Cheers
Mike

The following pictures

[papermodelfan]

Looks like a very interesting model, Mike. So you go inside and from the center you can look out at a diorama/model that represents the seige of Sevastopol? Is this Crimean war? Does your model actually have the interior? Is it a model of a model then? Will watch this with great curiousity.

We have something like this in Atlanta, called the Cyclorama (Cyclorama). It dates from circa 1885, and was originally a travelling exhibit. The subject is the Civil War battle of Atlanta of 1864, when General Sherman, commanding the Union (northern) army, attacked Atlanta, against a spirited defense of the Confederate (southern) troops. Atlanta did not do very well, and was burned down on the process. The diorama is a painting on a canvas that is 20 foot tall and about 360 feet long, mounted in a circle, with 3D modeled figures in the foreground. One sits on a moving turntable in the middle, that slowly rotates, and a son et lumière show with narration takes place as different parts of the diorama come into view. This was apparently a standard 19C "special effects" show, and I guess Sebastopol and Atlanta are two of only a few that still exist.

[Mike Stamper]

I have finally started "real" building. The first parts are the 15 walls and 13 recesses that will eventually hold statues.

The recesses are constructed in the same way as the ABC windows, but they don't have tabs at top and bottom. I found there were small gaps at the bottom so I added a small "L" shaped piece. After the first few, I realised that if I glued the L shaped piece to the wall it would be easier to locate the recess.

This is something the "Medieval Town Makers" may find useful. Just remove the bottom tab and glue a "shelf" to the inside of the wall!

[Mike Stamper]

It's been a while since I last "posted" Partly because this building has at least 16 of everything and the "skeleton" is not quite exact so each new piece has to be adjusted.

I've realised that even cutting about 80 pieces 1mm thick as accurately as possible, any small variation will be magnified up to 80 times!

As you will see all the outer "skin" has now been added (about 90 pieces)

I have just started on the roof. I realised that the ribs are too thin for the roof parts to be glued on to, so I've added extra strips of thin paper. I have an awful feeling that as I work my way round, the ribs will eventually not be where they should be, but I'll wory about that when it happens.

So just a couple of pictures - as you will see there is a lot of tidying up to be done.

BTW, I have found that I have some duplicates of the Ukrainian kits so please PM me if you are interested - not all are as complicated as the panorama !

Cheers
Mike

[Kevin WS]

Interesting build.

Anything special planned for Xmas?

[papermodelfan]

Pretty good write up of the Siege itself on Wikipedia for "Siege of Sevastopol (1854-55)". The final culmination of the Crimean War, I guess. Also a pic of the Defense memorial and of the enormous painting within by Franz Roubaud. Grim scene. Does the model have an interior?

[Mike Stamper]

Kevin - Not quite for christmas, but I made a truck for my grandson's birthday 7th December - luckily - it seems to have been a hit with him and his parents!

Rob - Thankfully there is no interior - It's bad enough making the outside. I have pictures of the interior - that's enough for me.

I'm currently working on the roof. As you can see from the pictures above there are 16 ribs and each of the roof sections covers two of the ribs. This means that once the first roof section is in place, the second section has no support on one side and the section on the other side extends past the next rib. A quick calculation shows that for every roof section, I loose at least two mm ( the thickness of the ribs) there are 16 sections, making a total of 32 mm. This works out that by the end I will have to use only half of the final section. It also means that the bend where the sections join is no longer in the right place - This makes it difficult to bend the sections to the right shape for gluing to the next. I'm also having to make tabs to fit under each one.

I'm determined to finish it but I'm not sure what it will look like when completed.

Cheers
Mike

[Mike Stamper]

Rob,

I've just looked at the paintings by Rouboud. If you can imagin the long picture turned into a 360 degree panorama where the bit immediately in front of you is full size and gradually gets smaller the further away it is and the final area is painted on the wall, it will give you some idea of the amazing detail of the scene.

[Mike Stamper]

A couple of pictures to show that I'm still around, with no men in white coats in sight.

I must admi that when I tell my wife that I'm off to carry on thit the model I say "I'm off to do battle with the Model" Almost every piece needs to be adjusted to make it fit. I was hoping that now I'm on to making parts that aren't attached to the main skeleton, that things would be easier - unfortunately it's not the case.

I've even found a few pieces with the wrong part number, and the idea of making it in numerical order disappeared ages ago. I now decide which section then find all the parts that make up the area.

anyway, I'll have to finish it because it's one of the places I've viseted.

Wish me luck - only about 200 pieces to go !

Cheers
Mike

[papermodelfan]

Merry Christmas Mike, and good luck with the myriad of fiddly bits.