Lesna Chateau - Z-Art - 1/120

[ricleite]

This is my first experience with a Z-Art kit. I bought it at GPM, late last year, along with some trains and planes that, sooner or later, will make the way to this forum. Many of Z-Art kits model castles and palaces, most of the times with a lot of landscape. This one models a wonderful building at a large scale (1/120) and is very much to my taste. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised by the apparent kit quality (paper, printing, graphic detail) and by the number of parts. At 642, it is much more detailed than expected. Z-Art’s site mentions 372 numbered parts. That may well be correct, but I guess that 372 is the number of different parts! Many, like windows and window shutters, for example, have several copies. The kit is presented in the typical Czech style and includes a very useful listing of the sheets where each part/group of parts is printed.
The first pictures, as usual, show the kit.

[Erik Zwaan]

Well Ricardo, that looks like a wonderful challenge! I am 100% sure that you counted each part, and doublechecked the total count before starting the actual work .
The castle looks very interesting to build and you have my attention. Let the show begin....

Good luck,
Erik

[Philip]

You've taken on quite a lot there. Hope it all goes well.

[Mike Stamper]

Good luck with all the windows and shutters!

Cheers
Mike

[ricleite]

Welcome aboard, friends

@ Erik – I’m not particularly careful when counting the parts. The total may not be exactly 642 but I can assure you that it is much more than 372…
@ Philip – indeed! If the kit is as good as it looks, I hope there will be no major problem.
@ Mike – You know very well that the real problem, if there is one, is often to join large assemblies. Regarding windows and shutters, they are a bit labor-intensive but easy to process.
On such a large-scale model, there is scope for a lot of detail and there is no lack of it. Each wall has its share of windows and doors. Most of the windows have “wooden” shutters but I plan to deal with them much later. For the moment, I’m following the written assembly sequence…

[RGeorender]

Great looking kit, and a good start making it.

[ricleite]

The model is conceived as a group of 3 blocks (left, right and center) with a single level. The base exists only outside the blocks and is printed in several sections. The top, under the roofs, is printed in 3 parts, according to the blocks. The assembly instructions indicate to “process” and assemble the walls before adding the base and the top parts. I didn’t really follow the instructions but, anyway, there is a lot of walls to make. Fortunately, the added detail is very diverse, making for a less repetitive work.

[Erik Zwaan]

Lots of cutting Ricardo to accommodate all these windows. Hopefully there will be plenty of layering as this makes an architectural model so fascinating to look at. Always a detail to discover.

Cheers,
Erik

[ricleite]

@ Erik - the walls have countless forwar and aft bends, all around...
The pictures show what I guess is the palace’s chapel. At this point, I decided to add a section of the base. The section has notches for the buttresses and help to align those elements. The notches had to be slightly enlarged but, overall, the fit was fine.

[Michael Mash]

This Z-Art kit appears to be well designed and decorated.
Fine work.