St. Peter's & Vatican - 1:3900 - Micromodels

[Marco]

Thanks! The design definitely has this old-school hand-drawn charm to it - but the fit of parts is decent.
The start of the basilica - the main pillars are added as extra relief.

[Marco]

And here is the dome of St Peter's - 56 parts if I have counted correctly.

[chris190]

Hi Marco, looking very good indeed, particularly the dome. Back in the day when Micromodels were at the height of their popularity I understand that the dome was often made from carved balsa wood to avoid the tricky card construction - t'sk, t'sk, not in keeping with the stern ethos of Micromodel building at all!

My time was somewhat after that; I did build the model with the proper dome and was also stupid enough to follow the challenge given in the instructions to cut out the printed black spaces between the colonnade columns for "extra realism" - ha, what a daft idea, the resultant wobbly mess was put away in a drawer together with the kit for a very considerable number of years before I braced myself to finish it off. Looks quite well but now very dusty!

Keep up the good work!

Chris

[Marco]

I did consider cutting out the spaces between the colonnade columns, but didn't dare to. However, search for Tapcho's builds on this forum and you'll find a beautiful example of that.

Here are the smaller domes of the basicila, and the sacristy.

I don't know if the model represents the Vatican at a specific time period pre-1954, or if there is a certain amount of artistic license in how the buildings are portrayed. What I mean to say - this little sacristy looks a lot different from its counterpart today.

[Tapcho]

Thank's Marco for your comment on my build. About the sarcristy I found this drawing from the 50's where it is in pretty much in the form of the kit. I think they needed more space and built the additions on top. But artistic licence exists in this this model for sure. You'll see that when you start to build the smaller buildings.

Good work Marco and nice for me to see this kit in colour. ;-)

(Drawing: A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method, by Sir Banister-Fletcher, New York, 1950, p. 645.)

[Marco]

Nice, that drawing is indeed closer to how the model is.

And here is the Apostolic Palace, with a lot of chimneys.

[Marco]

The buildings surrounding the Apostolic Palace:

[Marco]

The Sistine Chapel and part of the Vatican Museum:

[Marco]

The Palace of the Governorate, and a series of buildings I can't properly identify.

[Marco]

Some of the smaller buildings west of St Peter's and the Palace of the Governorate. Personal assistant for scale.