Hidden in a matchbox

[Viator]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

Andrew -

A splendid little building!

I look forward to seeing the Bahnbetriebswerk someday.

Don

OK, so let's continue.

The water tower, after the original railway water tower in Ustka harbour in Poland, built 1908 under the German government. The classic. My favorite. I made my own sketches of this tower in 1970s or 1980s, and now the building is abandoned and deteriorated Few years ago I prepared the drawings of the main parts to be printed in TT scale (1/120) but never finished the decorative details of the masonry nor the roof. Now I adopted and scaled down to 1/500 these old drawings, adding one or two windows and removing the additional pilaster. I haven't made the ladder too (originally made of steel pipes and lacking any safety cage) nor the pole with a flag on the middle of the roof, because making them of paper has little sense if the model would look realistic.

[Viator]

I wrote about the ladder and the roof mast with a flag (in fact a rather sophisticated weather vane made of iron or steel, as the mast played the role of a lightning rod as well), but on the photo image of the original enclosed to my last post there aren't any, so let me explain. I have these features documented in my own sketchbook. I made these sketches in 1986 or 1987. It's a pity that I had no camera, however in the architecture a good sketch could be of more use than the photograph image.

The weather vane is visible on one of the older photo images but it is a LoRes image so no details nor the date could be noticed.

BTW, the date on the weather vane was 1918, not 1908, sorry.

[Don Boose]

This is a superb little model of an attractive structure, and I enjoy seeing your sketches and learning about these buildings. Structures of the late 19th and early 20th century are particularly pleasing to my eye.

Don

[Viator]

Well, today I finished another "matchbox scale" model, however I am not perfectly happy with the result.

The diorama shows the oldest part of the sub-Parisian Parc de Sceaux in the new version. The whole park covers a pretty big area but the most elaborated part is a jardin-a-la-francaise connected with the castle (chateau). Few years ago the relatively simple grass and flowerbeds were developed into the sophisticated broderies. The castle itself was renovated and its roof slightly altered (the building itself is not as old as it looks, it was razed to the ground during the French Revolution and rebuilt later in the form resembling but not identical with the original palace). And this is the part of the Parc de Sceaux which I wanted to put into the matchbox.

To Be Continued

[Viator]

To comprise the choosen objects in the matchbox I must scaled down the original model of the palace from 1/280 to 1/7500. Of course making the trees and the water tanks (fountains) of paper was pointless, so I used the plastic materials instead, but the palace itself was made after the adapted drawings. The walls were printed from the rescaled originals, while the roof was built from the scratch.

[Viator]

The pieces of the roof were cut from a multi-layer block of paper (some 16 strips of thick paper glued together) and levelled with a file.

[Viator]

After preparing of the base, the palace was glued in and supplemented with stairs.

Perhaps the palace could have looked better if I had made it of a thermoset modelling clay or a piece of wood, but in this case I wouldn't have shared the images here.

Okay, at least I collected some new experience which could be helpful some day.

[Philip]

I'm so pleased you did decide to share your images with us, Viator. Fascinating stuff, indeed.

[BigGiraffe]

I think your palace looks very good, and it is amazing how you recreate your subjects in such small scales! Sitting it on the matchstick really brings home how tiny this is!

Best regards,
Kurt

[missileer]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoy watching people push the envelope and succeed.