A church for Acorn Wood

[Stuart Birks]

Having decided to replace the Superquick church in my village scene I spent a long time looking for a "typical" church. There is no such thing so I just had to find something that was about the right size and not too fancy to make it hard to build. In the end I found the church of Thomas A Becket in Pylle, Somerset. It was the right size and importantly within driving distance to take some photographs.



I didnt fancy making all the windows so decided to have a go at making a mould and casting them. I made a test window and it worked well.
This is the master window.



And this is the silicon mould taken from it.



I made a small test piece of wall and it looks ok.



It might look a bit rough here but it is only 36mm high. The glazing was just printed from the computer.

Stuart

 

[AdeMoore]

Looks Bob on Stuart. 2mm scale I’m guessing?

 

[Joe's Garage]

That looks very good Stuart, another interesting church is the one in our village, Biddisham. It has a leaning tower due to additional work on the original Saxon built part.
What scale is this?
All the best
Julian

 

[Stuart Birks]

Its actually 4mm scale. The tower dates from the 15th century and a close look at some of the stonework showes it is actually quite crude. I decided not to model it like this so evened it up a bit. I also decided not to match all the detail as it would hardly show.



The master for this and another tower window weere quite interesting to make with lots of indexed holes to drill.





But the result is well worth it.





These windows are only 32mm high.

Moulds were also made for the crenellations



Then the whole tower panel can be assembled.



One panel has an extra windoe and a door. The door frame was built up in several layers of sheet cut to the various different sizes and then extra shaped sections added.



Stuart.

 

[simond]

This is very nice! Lovely work!

 

[AJC]

Nice work - even making the masters is a skilful and difficult job.

The tower dates from the 15th century and a close look at some of the stonework showes it is actually quite crude.

Almost certainly because the tower was rendered and limewashed as built: the cult of bare stone owes a lot to 19th century restorers: given the price of masons and the availability of good stone that's unsurprising.

Adam

 

[Joe's Garage]

That is interesting Adam as I presume what we are seeing today is not as originally built many centuries ago.
Cheers
Julian

 

[AJC]

That is interesting Adam as I presume what we are seeing today is not as originally built many centuries ago.
Cheers
Julian

Correct: a great many are basically Victorian buildings with medieval (and later) bits. Even then, most had been rebuilt, expanded, shrunk, expanded again, etc. since they first appeared.

Adam

 

[Stuart Birks]

In the case of this church the tower is 15th century but the rest of it was built in 1868. It is very noticable when looking at the weathering on the stonework. The old stuff has lost so much detail.
Stuart

 

[Stuart Birks]

The rest of the church is built in much the same way. Another mould was made for the butresses on the walls.



All the wall and roof pannels are Wills sheets which only needed a couple of joins which in most cases were easilly hidden. Only the roof has a significant join. This is when you discover that the Wills sheets are not dimensionally consistent. This is good for realisim but it does make joins a bit tricky.
This is the unpainted building finished.









Stuart

 

[Mike W]

Superb. Sometime I need to build a model of Wellingborough station buildings which are Jacobean in style. I had in mind a method similar to yours and this is inspiration because clearly it does work. Thank you. Lovely.

Mike

 

[Stuart Birks]

It looks a lot better once painted.







And in its final location in the village



I did install lighting and the end window is a photograph of the actual stained glass window. I have no idea what it looks like as I have never connected it up and tried it.

Stuart

 

[Joe's Garage]

That is a lovely model Stuart and it looks quite large on your lawn, definitely you need to connect up the lights for the stained glass window.
Julian

 

[DavidB]

Great modelling, Stuart. Impressive. What materials / products do you use for the moulds and castings?

 

[Stuart Birks]

Great modelling, Stuart. Impressive. What materials / products do you use for the moulds and castings?

The exact stuff I used is no longer available but try looking for this sort of thing.
For the moulds

Polycraft T15 Translucent RTV Addition Cure Silicone Rubber Shore A15

MB Fibreglass of Northern Ireland (Mcconnell Bro's)- Supplying throughout the UK & Ireland

www.mbfg.co.uk

And for casting the actual components

Polycraft FC100 (White) Fast Cast Paintable Polyurethane Liquid Plastic Casting Resin System

MB Fibreglass of Northern Ireland (Mcconnell Bro's)- Supplying throughout the UK & Ireland

www.mbfg.co.uk

There is a wide range of materials with different properties. For this type of moulding strength and elongation are not very important. Pot life is signoificant. You want something that gives you a bit of working time without having to wait hours for it to set.
If you are going to do this on a large scale then it is worth investing in some form of de-gassing machine. It is amazing how much gas comes out of the mix and the pour is much smoother afterwards. I made my own from a vaccum pump and very sturdy saucepan.


Stuart

 

[DavidB]

Thank you, Stuart. Very helpful.