Frauenkirche Dresden, 1:300

[Kiyoshi]

Hello xD

As promised in my introduction message, I started on the Frauenkirche in Dresden (1:300). The remainder of Unseen University (Clock Tower) is on hold for the time being because well... I couldn't wait to start on this model. I have already discovered that I will have to work a lot more precise, and a lot cleaner, than before to get results that do the model justice.

I started out by glueing the groundwork to the provided cardboard (1 mm), and already made my first mistake there: the glue (I used bookbinder's glue, since that's one of my other hobbies) turned out to be too watery for the thickness of the cardboard, so after drying and pressing, the groundwork turned out all wobbly. I managed to push everything back into shape a little, and hope it won't influence the overall stability of the model too much (and, in the end, I will glue it on a glass plate anyway).

After that, I started with one of the walls, carefully making my way along all those nasty folds. The windows are to be cut out and then recessed windows are glued to the backside of the walls. Gives a nice effect, I think, and I haven't seen it before (at least not in the models I have done in the past).

So much for now, I plan to keep posting updates as I progress.

PS: I am sorry about the lousy quality of my pictures, but the battery charger of my camera went MIA, so I have to use my phone

 

[Zathros]

Beautiful model!! If your pics don't come through at first (or posts) it is the forum flagging you because of your recent status. I'll try and make sure they get approved. This will stop after you post more.

 

[Kiyoshi]

Hello again xD time for an update. And Zathros, I'll just submit myself to the quirks of the forum

The day started with more walls and windows to cut, fold and glue. Not really my favourite part, those windows, but since I want to progress towards the really detailed vehicle models, I guess this is good practice. But to make it a bit easier for myself, I extended the tabs on the curve of the windows a bit.

Extending the tabs may not look so nice, but hey, it's the inside anyway

Next step was, obviously, to glue the recessed windows in place.

The walls are still very wobbly, the paper used is quite thin. I have considered glueing cardboard against the back of the walls, but I don't have the right cardboard at home at the moment, so that was a no-go.

The main walls are up, wobbly and all, I hope inserting the tube (building part 5, that will cover the middle gap in the groundwork) together with the stabilizers between walls and tube will solve it partly. Fixing the roof should solve it completely. But first, I need to add part 4, the curved wall with recessed windows that will go in the bottom right part of the previous picture. Since I am no hero when it comes to building curves, it's gonna be interesting for me to see how I fare. But again... when I want to build vehicles, curves are something I need to learn to master.

Part 4 scored and ready to get cut, folded, curved and glued xD

See you at the next update...

 

[Kiyoshi]

Hmmmm I guess the forum flagged and ate my update post I did yesterday. Could you like... prowl the catacombs of the forum and approve? Thanks

 

[Zathros]

Hmmmm I guess the forum flagged and ate my update post I did yesterday. Could you like... prowl the catacombs of the forum and approve? Thanks

Sorry, I was sick today, you are all set now

 

[Kiyoshi]

Hey again xD

Zathros, I hope you're feeling better today.

Today I modelled the curved wall at the side of the main building (apsis? no clue what it is called...). It turned out pretty nice, and I realized that what I did wrong in the past regarding modelling curves was that I used to work way too fast... and that resulted in sloppy curves.

After the curves it was time for some interior work. The whole model is kinda kept in place by a large tube in the middle of the model, that supports the dome and connects to the walls. These beams are then used as supports for the roof, with - I hope - the roof being the element that will shape up the walls completely.

A view from above, showing the roofsupport structures and the - still - wobbly walls. The next step will be to fix the roof, and from then on the main structure, apart from the cupola, is pretty much ready, and all that remains is filling in the detailing (and, as is proper, there is a lot of that).

 

[Kiyoshi]

Time for another update. I figured I wouldn't be able to glue the roof part to the walls properly (and cleanly) without some help, so I made myself a little helper

Wit the aid of the cardboard I was able to glue the key places to the exact spots on the roof, and then to work my way around, glueing the rest in place.

Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but in this case the roof part is, by design, larger than the gap spanned by the walls.

After that, it was time to finish the lower part of the model, i.e. glueing the remaining decoration (walls, doors, steps) in place. I quite like the solution the designer picked: another layer of cardboard for more definition, and within that layer, instead of in the walls themselves, the doors are placed.

And the endresult for today, with the steps added. After this, I need to start working on the corner towers. I am not sure how to proceed yet, since the instructions urge the builder to progress by number in ascending order, that might cause me some problems in the next few stages.

 

[Kiyoshi]

Hello

Just a short update today. Not because I haven't done anything, but because the work was repetitive. According to the building manual (just some drawings, this is the first time I build a model only from construction drawings) it was time to add the four little corner towers. The problem is that, when following the building order, I would get in trouble later with the placement of the little balconies and doors, so I added them too.

After all that was finished, it was time to glue everything to the roof. I have to say, at this point, that the accuracy of the model, and the printing, is really first class. Everything fits like a dream (perhaps helped by my taking time to score, cut and glue neatly, instead of sloppily as I have done in the past :/ )

The progress so far:

The next steps will include fixing the roofs. I am eager to see how that goes, and if the fit remains perfect

 

[Kiyoshi]

Another day, another update xD

Today I wanted to work on the roofs of the lower part, hoping that everything would fit as well as the rest of the model so far. I started out by making the conical roof of the apsis, and glueing it into place. Unfortunately, this was a single part, where two parts might have been a lot easier to work with. Next came the supports for the curved roof.

The roofs came in a variety of shapes, with little tabs that needed to be glued to the bottoms of the roof sections.

The long rectangular shapes between the roof parts were used to cover up the seams, altho, in my opinion, in some cases they made things worse. Not using them wasn't an option, because the roof parts had white segments that needed to be covered up. But on I went, glueing stuff into place.

The above part was also the last part that went in easily. Especially the parts to the left and right of the conical roof proved very difficult to place, and didn't go in completely as planned. I blame it on the fact that one straight side met two curves, which causes very very small errors to be magnified tenfold or more. In the end, I had to trim some roof parts to get them fitted.

But the endresult is, thanks due to the band around the top of the cylinder, which covers any loose ends on the roof parts, quite okay. The places where I kinda messed up, are on the backside and invisible when I put the model on display xD

 

[Chris74]

Looks very well so far... good luck with the rest! :thumb:

 

[Zathros]

Looks really great. These models are quite beautiful when completed!

 

[Kiyoshi]

Thanks Chris and Zathros for the encouraging words I have come to love this model, because it's so immensely rewarding. And well...no matter what model, I still think it's neat that something beautiful in 3D can be created with nothing but some sheets of paper, knives / scissors and glue. A big cheer for all the designers out there

 

[Kiyoshi]

Time for another update.

I worked my way around the lower part, finishing the details. First there are the decorations above the main doors. In the first picture you can see them in different stages of completion, the second picture shows them in place. They were hard to fold though, with too small tabs for my fingers The second picture also shows the copper roof parts that run around the whole building. As I had come to expect by now, the fit was great.

Next came the ornamental designs that cover up the bit below the copper plating, and which fits into place on all the small tabs that are still visible all along the building. This is also the only part of the building that doesn't have scoring marks, leaving some room for adjustment. Folding around corners just 3mm deep isn't easy tho...

But... it all worked, and the lower part of the building is completely finished by now (building groups 1 - 27). According to the instructions, I should continue with building group 28 and onwards, but that means I would have to finish the corner towers first, leaving little room for manoeuvering the main cupola in place. So, since I have a history of clumsiness when it comes to accidentally knocking off small parts (and damaging them beyond repair), the cupola will be built first, and the corner towers will come last.

The cupola rests on its own base and is then built up from that, so no nasty connections that need to be made. It also means that any error in fitting the central cylinder in place is evened out.

And now for the progress so far:

And that's about it for now

 

[alang]

Very well done. I am impressed that you have managed to get those pieces around the conical apse roof to fit, albeit with much adjustment. Eventually I gave up on the original parts in that area and remodelled them to get better outlines. It is strange that in a model which otherwise fits beautifully, this one area gives so much difficulty.

Anyway, things are looking very good, and with the quality of work so far, the rest of the model should give you few problems.

Alan

 

[Sticks-N-Stones]

This kit and the Hamburger Michel are my two favorite paper models though I have yet to start either one. You're doing a fine job on this one. Keep the pictures and build tips coming!

 

[Zathros]

It really is coming out nice. Services to be held soon!

 

[Paperbender]

Excellent Progress

Thank you for taking the time to document your progress. I have never bought a model but seeing what you have done with this construction makes me wonder if I might. Grrrrrrrrreat Job.

 

[Kiyoshi]

@ Alang: I do admit I kinda mangled the paper a little, and the fit isn't perfect, but I managed to get them into place, that's true

@ all: thanks for the praise xD I do hope the rest of the model comes along as nicely as it has till now. And I will continue uploading pics and tips

Today I decided it would be cupola time. So I started by carefully cutting everything out, hoping it would be as accurate of the rest of the model. The roof segments are glued together by a tab that goes to the backside of each segment, and - thank god - not by tabs to the sides of the segments. The strip behind the segment also helps to bend it into shape.

I started out working my way from left to right, planning to glue the circle together on the end.

But whether or not it was my imagination, as I progressed I got the impression that there was a slight distortion of the roof, so I decided to complete the circle first, and then work my way around it from both sides at once, thus hoping to eliminate any possible distortion.

As you can see, instead of circular, the dome ended up oval. I don't know exactly why that happened, but in the end it turned out not to matter much. But first, it was time to dry - fit the dome on the rest of the building.

Not looking very nice, eh? The oval shape really shows in this picture. To counter it, I decided to add the closing segment of the dome first, together with the wall above it and the segment to close off the wall. Actually, I planned to add all the windows and doors on the cupola before glueing it to the base, but I figured that the more cardboard and glue was spent on the cupola, the more rigid it would become, and thus the harder it would be to get it circular. So, now the cupola is glued to the base (mind the alignment of the windows!, they need to be above the doors and behind the corner towers). Unfortunately, the accuracy of the marking on the fixing point was a little too small, making placing the cupola a matter of trial and error since it's almost impossible to see the outline where you need to place the cupola.

As you can see, I used copious amount of glue, so it would stay wet a little longer, leaving more time to manoeuver the whole thing into place. Now the glue bottle has a deserved rest and doubles as weight The base of the cupola will be wrapped in several layers of ornaments, thus making sure any mistake in placement of the cupola (if not too big, that is) will be evened out.

So much for now xD

 

[Kiyoshi]

I didn't feel like studying, so I figured I'd add the ornamental parts at the bottom of the cupola. The model was staring at me with puppy eyes, just wanting to have that ugly white band covered up. So I rushed my dinner and gave in And no, on the picture you don't see a centipede

With that ornament and the other ones in place, it looks a whole lot better already:

And one more, just because I can xD

 

[Kiyoshi]

And yet another update xD I am getting there slowly. On top of the cupola rests a structure of sorts, that gets topped by some columns and a square dome. Around the columns is a balustrade, which I wanted to add before I could accidentally break stuff. The balustrade is doublesided print, which makes it easy to make, especially if you add the floor (like I did), before glueing the whole thing to the cupola.

Next thing was fixing all the windows in the cupola. I proceeded by cutting off the miniature tabs at the top of the lower windows, planning to fix the roof ledges in place with a drop of glue, and by removing the bottom tabs of the upper windows, to prevent rough, glaring white edges showing. In case of the lower windows, I glued all straight tabs to the back of the windows, to make sure they would stay in place and not push the windows forward when glued in place. What annoyed me about the upper windows is that, when cutting out, the curved part doesn't fit the dome exactly, leaving a (very small) gap, or rather gaplet, at one of the sides of the window... but well... I promised myself not to super this model, and build it as it was planned, so I will have to live with it xD

And well... that's pretty much all for today xD