St Paul's Cathedral, London

[Philip]

Many and varied have been paper models of Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's cathedral, but I haven't seen this one mentioned anywhere before. It was published as a "Make-A-Model Book" by Garrod and Lofthouse, London, 1985. The title implies that the book was part of a series of models but I'm unaware of any other examples.

Building was a bit of a curate's egg; good in parts. Parts fit wasn't too bad, but the instructions, such as they were, were next to useless. And another thing, he said raising his voice, the parts pages were printed on the reverse of the pages containing all the photos and text about the cathedral. So as building progressed, more and more stuff was lost. I like the model, though. The artwork is nice. It's more colourful than the real thing but I don't mind that. The front and back covers of the book double as the base and backdrop. Don't know the scale; the base measures 35 x 25 cm approx.

[Vermin_King]

That is wonderful, sir.

[chaparral2d]

A beautiful model of an iconic structure.

Dave

[Tapcho]

I like this Philip, I like it a lot. The artwork is great with the backdrop and base. New publisher to me and I found out that they were mainly a LP record cover print and producing company formed 1952 with a list of over 3800 album covers. Check the list here. What a catalogue!

I did some searches and found out that another Make-a-model -book by them was the Tower of London. No copies available though I'm afraid.

Tappi

[SCEtoAUX]

Very nice finished model. One of the best photos of St. Paul's from the Blitz is that dome sticking up out of the smoke and ruins.

[Tapcho]

That's a very famous picture and it was taken by Herbert Mason from the roof of Daily Mail newspapers office building. It got published in Berlin too!

Tappi

[Mike Stamper]

very creative with the colours - I wonder what it would have looked like if Richard V had used his "Czech" pallet !!

Mike

[BobbyC]

That's really nice Philip. I like the hand-drawn/ water coloured models. They can be a bit 'creative' with their colour schemes but much better than monochrome grey. Like the backdrop too. Annoying about the printing on reverse of info and photos - maybe scan the info or just take a photo so you can retain it for reference.

I've got a few London models in a book called Make Your Own London Landmarks by Thames & Hudson but they are more photographic in appearance. It has St Paul's, The London eye, Tower Bridge, Westminster Palace and The Shard (which I have completed).

I've just started The Popes Palace at Avignon by Instant Durable which also uses a hand-drawn style - think it's going to take some doing though.

Keep on craftin'

Rob

[Philip]

Thank you all for posting your comments. They made interesting reading.

Tappi: I've got some of those albums! And while building I did wonder where I'd come across that name before. Now all is clear.

BobbyC: I think you're right about the Palais des Papes. But they do, in some quarters, say "no pain, no gain". All the best with it.

Link to the cathedral: Home - St Paul's Cathedral

[asettico]

Very beautiful model!
I like the coloured backdrop, it adds a sense of depth.
It's a pity for information left on the back of the parts... you could open some windows to allow reading in the inside of the model!