A Silesian Church

[DHautpol]

A Silesian Church

I recently found myself frustrated by the fact that, amazingly, there appears to be no model of, perhaps, the most famous church of the WAS/SYW era – the Catholic church at Leuthen.

I therefore decided that I would try my hand at building my own version.  A search on Google gave several illustrations showing the eastern façade, usually with the gate being stormed by the Prussian Guards.  It proved quite tricky to find a view of the western end with the tower and the main door, but I finally managed to find one.  Eventually I had assembled a small collection of suitable photos and this allowed me to go on to the planning stage.


I have a few Total Battle Miniatures models (TBM) and I wanted the finished model to sit comfortably in the same landscape with them.  Consequently, I decided to work on an 80mm x 40mm footprint (the same as TBM's smaller church models and larger secular buildings)  I have TBM's Small Church with Lead/Copper Spire and used broadly the same dimensions for the height of the walls, roofs and the tower.  This meant that my model was not so much a scale model of Leuthen church as a model inspired by the original building.


After some false starts, I eventually arrived at the plan above – it seems that my A-Level Technical Drawing was not entirely wasted.  One compromise was in respect of the corner buttresses for the tower.  The original single corner buttresses are set at a 45° angle to the tower walls.  I decided that these would be too tricky to model and opted for two buttresses at each corner each set at 90°.

Another compromise was not modelling the north and south porches as these would have overlapped the planned footprint, so I treated them as "later additions".  In similar vein, I have a vague memory that the spire was a nineteenth century addition and opted for the squatter roof shown in some of the paintings.

I have not shown window positions or the west door on the plan, mainly for clarity.  However, I made a card template with cut-outs for the windows to ensure the same size and spacing on each the four wall sections and did the same for the windows on the tower.


The core materials are 3mm MDF and 25mm Bluefoam; together with some 3mm obeche strip wood and thin card (for the rooftiles).  I made a bit of a mess with the first attempts at cutting out the pieces, basically due to not having quite the right tools, and the tower took three attempts.  This was remedied by the acquisition of a deeper razor saw blade, as my ⅝th inch blade was just not deep enough, and a metal mitre box to ensure the accuracy of the angles.  Also make sure you use a new sharp blade in your modelling knife, otherwise you risk tearing the Bluefoam rather than cutting it.


This shows the basic assembly ready for detailing and tiling.  You may, as I did, find it easier to apply the basic detailing to the east façade before assembly, rather than once the façade is in place.

I added some stones to the walls of the church and tower, as always trying not to overdo it.  Then came the tiling.  I had originally planned to apply the tiles in overlapping strips but didn't like the look so I bit the bullet and applied individual tiles (including the ridge tiles on the roofs there are a total of 917 tiles).  I cut out paper shapes the same size as the roofs (see plans) and glued the tiles to these and then, when dry, trimmed and stuck the completed roof assemblies to the model.  I thought this would be much easier than trying to glue the tiles directly to the Bluefoam.  I worked on the main roof assemblies as each being two panels and worked on each panel separately.  Each panel needed about 180 tiles and if you cut these at the outset, the gluing process becomes relatively quick.  The ridge tiles were added after the roof assemblies had been glued in place.

Not having any Tetrion immediately to hand, I used thinned down Vallejo Diorama FX Ground Terrain paste.  Whilst this went on very well, it dried with a grittier finish than I had really wanted and so I had to apply a coat of thinned down PVA glue to try to soften the effect.  (Note: For future projects: don't be too impatient and fetch the Tetrion from the loft).


Finally, I added a few bushes and undergrowth from Green Stuff to add interest. 

The piece was now ready to paint and, unless stated, all the colours are Citadel.  Whilst the church currently boasts a beautiful limewashed appearance, I decided on the darker brick colour shown in the paintings.  Consequently, I painted the body of the church in Karak Stone and drybrushed with lighter shades to highlight the detailing.  The roofs are Skrag Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then drybrushed with Skrag Brown and Deathclaw Brown.  I pin-washed either Agrax Earthshade or thinned Rhinox Hide along the joins to give greater depth to the model.  Finally, the bushes and undergrowth were washed with Athonian Camoshade and dry-brushed with Warboss Green, Elysian Green and Yriel Yellow.

[Techno 3]

Excellent ! 

[Corso]

Nice work

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Superb

[paulr]

Wot they sed         

[pierre the shy]

Superb project DHautpol 

Thanks for taking the time to take us through your creative journey.

[fsn]

Craftmanship!

[DHautpol]

Thanks for your encouragement.

[Roy]

Like I've said on your other post. Excellent. Thanks, again, for sharing