Thanks sir… just a little something I’ve spent 10 or 15 minutes a day, two or three times a week, for several months for the past couple winters and the occasional summer days on weekends when it rains too much to golf. Winters are basically 6 months long here in west central Alberta.
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Sounds like Pittsburgh with the winters. Snow in April, spinning out on ice.
Told the wife I was done. Calling the realtor tomorrow.
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Yeah we usually get some snow in either late September or early October but it doesn’t really stick around; but by November until late March we can have winter for sure. So five months of darkness and cold, but at least it’s a dry cold compared to eastern winters. Not humid like you get on the east coast areas, or anywhere east of the Great Lakes for that matter. So it could be worse I guess. April can be hit or miss. I’ve golfed before the Masters tournament before, but sometimes it’s May before courses are playable in parts of the province. Either way, there’s a lot of time for building.
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So good to see you haven’t lost it Dave, if anything you’ve found an even higher gear of quality/detail. Seriously I think only Cheyenne, Stickframe & TanksfortheMemory are in your league, magnificent.
I doubt you’ll want to know my weather report, 39C for the past couple of days…semi-naked model-making for which no images will be forthcoming 
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Hey Tim that’s a pretty high temp for sure. I’m jealous of course, but it was plus 10-12 Celsius here in Rocky today so I can’t complain. Supposed to be about the same for a few days now.
I thank you for the high praise, that’s some pretty wild company to be compared to… perhaps someday I’ll get there, but I don’t think I’m quite in that sphere just yet. Maybe if I actually finish this diorama before I start collecting my pension; or just finish it period. My track record ain’t so good yet lol. I’ll do my best to live up to your confidence in my abilities.
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Well I haven’t completely gotten the upload in the order I wanted yet, but I did figure out how to put more than 5 images together in a post lol, so I’m getting better. This was my first version of the front facade, before the renovation I made around the time I decided to change the orientation of the layout. I decided to include it in my log so as to keep it all real for the masses. I make lots of both mistakes and poor design planning from time to time; but that shouldn’t be ignored… as I learn as much or more from the experience that then shapes the end results. That will always be a win in my books.
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Blah, blah, blah… the front facade and entrance area began looking like this. It was fine I guess, but I’m glad that when I decided to change the position on the layout that I also started the renovation process of the actual building itself.
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Is that a tank in 1/35 scale?
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Yessir. Academy’s 35th scale with added Zimmerit.
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Wwwow, then that church scale will be enormous.
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Yada, yada, yada.. so after I chose to adjust the position of the church on the diorama I was able to address an issue with the windows that had been bothering me almost from the beginning of the build. I had not done enough research, and preliminary work up on how the windows should be positioned for aesthetic purposes. I came to realize I had not allowed room for any enclosure or setbacks in my initial design, and while I could have used the space I had by simply shrinking the window area to allow for a border and setback; that would have diminished the effect I was trying to achieve. And all my previous work to build four window frames would be lost as well. So it was a fortuitous happenstance to decide to change the church’s orientation.
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Yes it’s quite large lol… I think at last measurement I got something like almost 85 feet high and a little more than 65 feet wide.
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The renovation allowed for both the church walls to extend out to the edges of the layout as well as give room for a proper looking surround around the two window openings.
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I attempted to show some damage to the stonework and the building’s edges for dramatic effect lol. Nobody likes perfect angles and finished lines…
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With the exterior windows framed in and the borders installed I began to detail the exterior walls themselves. As with my last project, I wanted to both challenge myself and break up the monotony of the facades by varying the look of the stonework in the different sections.
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Lots of cutting, gluing and repeating in the making of a cardboard church… along with measuring and marking and coffee… Lots of coffee!
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For those with inquiring minds the first image is the latest cost of the cereal I enjoyed prior to its steady and inflammatory increase in price over the course of about 18 months… it was listed at close to 16$ a box at one time this fall; double what it cost when I first started buying it. I stopped buying it in the summer last year unless it was on sale, and eventually I gave it up altogether. Fortunately I have a good stockpile of boxes:rofl:
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More randoms… some of you will recognize my slightly less than grand piano from my previous work, and a collection of some of the glues I have used during this build. I’ve also used regular white glue, and even tried a low VOC contact cement at one point. Not a huge fan of the stringy residue it left on the different edges of some of the pieces but it sure is a strong adhesive. The piano is scratched out of mostly evergreen plastic of various sizes; I call it less than grand because it’s four keys short of 88… Not sure how that happened but each key is pretty tiny in 35th scale so 
An interesting side note, the Bob Smith brand of CA glue affects my sinuses quite harshly if I am not careful in its application, whereas the Mercury glue does not have any side effects when I use it. Unfortunately the closest hobby shop, an hour away at 110km/hr, doesn’t carry the Mercury brand. The next closest store is a two hour drive away in either a northeastern direction or a southeast direction, so for now I’m stuck with the bsi stuff.
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