All I can say is “three thumbs up”…or…give this project a “5 star” rating…the completed church is going to be spectacular…
Howard…

Thanks for the kind words, Howard...let's hope it turns out

I've been off the project for near a week as I waited for my bell order to arrive. Finally got them last Thursday, and together with a belfry floor and roof, got them all installed. They're a bit smaller than I'd hoped, but present well if you go looking for them. Today I spent a few hours cutting and cementing the main roof in, adding a bit of internal bracing (as if it's not heavy enough already), and then made the decision to go ahead and construct/add a steeple to the top of the tower. Here are a couple pics; the one on the left shows the interior with the added structural components, and on the right is the current state with the roof on and the steeple dry-fitted:



I had thought coming up with a steeple would be fairly simple, but that proved wrong. I started by trying to use Carstens's design, enlarging it a bit, but that didn't work when I realized his design was not symmetrical (two sides were deeper than the other two). So I started from scratch; a bit of noodling and some protractor work and we had something that looked like it would work. I folded it up like origami, papered the seam, then gave it a shot of Rustoleum "brick" enamel. I'm going to use one of Howard's tricks of using a piece of thick corrugated as the steeple base...presuming it fits properly, I'm hoping some Titebond will hold it in place.

I'm not happy with the look of that front door. I used Carstens' design printed on a bit of cardstock; the door itself seems okay, but the white framing looks out of place. I'm gonna revisit that.

Anyway, this is where we are. More when I know it.

FYI - I used this shot of Pete's collection of churches for inspiration:



I found that one in the upper left compelling, albeit with a number of modifications.

A bit more progress, accelerating toward completion. Before going much further, I gave the whole thing an overspray of clear matte:



The glaziers showed up at the job site and got the stained glass installed. I shamelessly used Carstens' graphics printed on vellum paper, cut to size, then pasted in with a bit of Elmer's white glue. The process can be a bit dismaying at first, as the paper has a tendency to curl terribly when it touches the glue. However, a bit of diligence with a flat edge, along with a bit of burnishing, and everything eventually shrinks up nice and tight. I'm second-guessing whether I should have included frames of some sort, but too late for that now. Made a note in the project book.

I hated that front door's white trim, so I made a new one with a green frame using MS Paint. Looks better to me, although the door color looks a bit faint altogether. Colors generated by my HP ink-jet printer leave a lot to be desired.

Started working on the base, a simple 10"x12"x1" panel fashioned from USPS corrugated. This time I bent the edges over rather than scoring them; the advantage is there's no long edge to be papered, the disadvantage being it's tough to get a nice sharp edge. I added some bracing to the underside to try to draw the edges vertical...mixed results, that. Still had to paper the corners.

Fencing will be modeled after one of the local churchyards here. I cut some heavy corrugated at 3/4-inch high, which looks a bit too low. Might recut that to twice the height...not sure yet. Cutting thick corrugated on a bevel free-hand is a challenge.

Okay, pretty much done:



I'll post a few other pics later, but for the most part, complete.

Just beautiful!! You did a fantastic job!!

Beautiful!!

I echo what Lynn and Lee posted!...that's one impressive church...I'd say it definitely fits into the "Giant" classification...I have to ask...What's the next project?

Thanks for the comments...I am most appreciative.

A fun project, but likely the last for a while as I have a huge and growing pile of old toy trains piling up on the workbench requiring varying degrees of effort to get them back into operating condition. That and one of my kids is getting married in September will likely keep me distracted. I do want to build a putz-style level-crossing at some point, so that might be next up.

With the church project underway at the time of the spring TCA meet at York, I found this hollow-cast curate by W. Britain on a table full of lead figures. He might be a bit oversized, but looks like he's in the right place:



Thanks again.

Paul R.