Martin Luther’s church in Wittenberg, Germany

[chrisstahl]

As a designer, I usually don't build other's models, as my own test builds take too much time. For this one, I am doing an exception as it was created by the guy who taught me everything about papermodelling - my father.



image: Wikipedia

On the subject: The Stadtkirche (Town church) Wittenberg is the church were Martin Luther was the Pastor during the early days of the reformation. So it could be said that it was actually his church.
It should not be confused with the Schlosskirche, (All saints church or castle church) the door of which was allegedly where Luther posted his 95 theses, an event which is 500 years ago this year.
The church is also interesting architecturally as it is a typical example of many similar churches to be found in East Gerrmany.

On the model: The model was created by Dieter Stahl and is currently not available as a download. I am happy to forward any requests for the model files send to me through PM. The model depicts the church as it appears today, with fresh rendering on the towers.
The scale is approximately 1/240 and the model is generally kept simple to allow it being build by beginners (esp. pupils/high school kids). It is mostly hand-drawn with textures that have been extracted from photos.
There are 9 A4-pages:



Please note that the version I am building is a pre-release version, which still contains a number of quirks, that have been removed on the final version. I had the prints lying around and didn't have the heart to let them go to waste.

[chrisstahl]

First up are some buttresses for the main nave, some of whom are stepped and some of whom are not. The stepped ones consist of two parts.

[pmbirner]

PM sent. This looks like an interesting subject.

[wideride]

Beautiful building. I look forward to the build!
George

[Vermin_King]

This is especially interesting to me as my home away from home is a German community of about 1000 folks and five Lutheran churches. And that's not counting all the rural ones. I might be asking for the files, but I'm not sure when I'd fit in time to build.

[Captain Wildchild]

That is a great looking church! Can't wait to see more photos of the build.

[chrisstahl]

Base plate glued to harder material and holes created for better access to the insides. Note how this base plate version is still showing the original floor plan (unlike the final version)



Construction of the main nave. Then the entrance hall area is added. In this version, the roof of it did not have the correct size, so I cut apart the roof part and installed the entrance hall roof seperately. Note the big glue tabs, which were created for extra stability and ease of assembly (don't we all sometimes cut glue tabs bigger than intended by the designer?)



Roof is put on. This reveals another quirk of the pre-release version. In the second picture there is some excess roof, which is in the place where a stair tower will go.

[southwestforests]

Originally Posted by chrisstahl

As a designer, I usually don't build other's models, as my own test builds take too much time. For this one, I am doing an exception as it was created by the guy who taught me everything about papermodelling - my father.

Ah, that is a grand connection to have to the model.

[chrisstahl]

Next is the second part of the nave. The gable has a stepped section (if anyone knows how this architectural feature is called, I'd be curious to know.) for which the backside needs to be glued on first with a glue tab on which the roof rests. Again on the roof part, i had to cut away the edges, as the roof was too long in this version. (hey, but better too much roof than too little)



With the nave now completed, I could go ahead to glue the buttresses on the walls. Note how in the first picture, the second step is still missing. In this picture you can also see the stair tower. Here I checked if the extended roof is actually useful, before cutting it off. I have to revisit the stair tower later, when the big towers are there.

[chrisstahl]

If you send me a PM to request the model, please be sure to give me a working email-address to send it to as It is not possible to attach files (not even >6mb ones) to PMs