Hello everyone,
my name is L.J., 39-years-old, born in former Czechoslovakia, currently residing in Tampa, FL. I've been modelling since I was a little kid, on and off. My main niche is (hiding from thrown stones...
) plastic modelling, mainly German u-boats from World War II.
Here and there I get swayed into build a paper model (it is always nice to expand my horizons) and especially now, living in small 1 bedroom apartment my modelling capability is severely limited.
But enough about me. (Nobody probably cares about bios anyway LOL). Me and my girlfriend have recently made a very nice trip to my former country and spent three weeks "castle hopping". She has never been in Europe before and was very impressed with the history of Czech Republic. Our first stop was Karlstejn castle and, in a way, it became very iconic for her. The gift shop at the castle was selling Betexa's paper model so I promised her that after our return I will build her a nice memento....
The build...
After realizing that the Betexa's castle, when finished (in 1:350), was going to be, roughly almost 30x30 inches (I have mentioned my space limitations), I decided to scan it and resize it to more manageable 1:500 scale. Being graphic designer by trade, the scanning also allowed me to do some retexturing....
The main setback of the model is the fact that (in order to save paper to create unnecessary "terrain") the creators cut the Water Tower in about 1/3 of its height. I decided to build the castle "whole" which will require raising the model about 2 inches and do some scratch building (mostly of the terrain).
Here are few pics (I apologize in advance for crappy cell pics with cluttered background).
The very beginning:
The rough build is finished (notice the "extended" Water Tower)
my name is L.J., 39-years-old, born in former Czechoslovakia, currently residing in Tampa, FL. I've been modelling since I was a little kid, on and off. My main niche is (hiding from thrown stones...
) plastic modelling, mainly German u-boats from World War II.Here and there I get swayed into build a paper model (it is always nice to expand my horizons) and especially now, living in small 1 bedroom apartment my modelling capability is severely limited.
But enough about me. (Nobody probably cares about bios anyway LOL). Me and my girlfriend have recently made a very nice trip to my former country and spent three weeks "castle hopping". She has never been in Europe before and was very impressed with the history of Czech Republic. Our first stop was Karlstejn castle and, in a way, it became very iconic for her. The gift shop at the castle was selling Betexa's paper model so I promised her that after our return I will build her a nice memento....
The build...
After realizing that the Betexa's castle, when finished (in 1:350), was going to be, roughly almost 30x30 inches (I have mentioned my space limitations), I decided to scan it and resize it to more manageable 1:500 scale. Being graphic designer by trade, the scanning also allowed me to do some retexturing....
The main setback of the model is the fact that (in order to save paper to create unnecessary "terrain") the creators cut the Water Tower in about 1/3 of its height. I decided to build the castle "whole" which will require raising the model about 2 inches and do some scratch building (mostly of the terrain).
Here are few pics (I apologize in advance for crappy cell pics with cluttered background).
The very beginning:
The rough build is finished (notice the "extended" Water Tower)
