De Grote of St.-Bavo kerk Haarlem 1:300 [FERTIG]

Model: St. Bavo Church - Haarlem
Model Designer: Léon Schuijt
Scale: 1:300
Number of Pieces: 487
Number of Sheets: 9

This late Gothic church is one of the largest cathedrals in the Netherlands. It is steeped in history. It houses a world famous Christian Müller organ that was played by both Handel and Mozart. Three model ships are suspended from its nave and centuries old paintings grace its walls and columns.

Hello eskatee,
Thank you for 'listing' Liszt as well... and thank you for the wonderful link to picutres of this beautiful instrument. I can hear the music reverberating high into the vaults!
John

Hi Gert. Am I correct with your name?
Enjoy the organ music. I appreciate its power. Took organ lessons many years ago. Ended up with Grade Nine Conservatory of Music in Organ, Harmony and History.

Please feel free to add cultural Netherland history as this build progresses.

Cheers from Canada.
John

The construction begins with the insertion of six windows into a nave wall. Léon employs the simple system of folding back tabs at the window edges and glueing them to a flat print of the window. The tabs tend to 'spring' giving the windows depth.

Hi Michel. Thank you. What would be really interesting would be a photo or two slipped into the thread when we get to interesting architectural features that have been built up. A comparitive shot could have a nice impact. So, yes, I'll take you up on the offer of taking a photo or two as we go along.

Ricardo. I almost did not proceed with this model. Take a look at your copy of the front cover sheet. See anything amiss with the tower? We've talked about this before. Why publishers do not put their best foot forward when representing their models baffles me...

John

Here is a good example of the Léon Schuijt's artwork. The window treatment is definitely not Erkotyp style. The flatter but recessed look works for me here.

This is what you see when you look at the back of the windows. Absent are the raised three-dimensional gothic 'bumps'.

This means that the window with its edges glued up can be placed flat on your desk while you lower the wall gently over it. You look through the window opening and gently press down. A similar technique to assembled windows and doors, but you can press all the way down onto the desk. You get the window nicely framed in its casement quickly.

I'm not saying this window technique is better than any other. It's just a pleasant change for me from the many 'built up' windows I have installed in Czech builds.

Here is the footprint of the cathedral printed on black paper. The transepts of the building cross at the middle of the structure. There are many outbuildings nestled around the exterior walls.

Hi lobob.
Good to hear from you. You realize that your St. Laurens build prompted me to revisit this model I have had on hand for over three years. Thank you.

Here is the build up of the what I assume is the west portal. I am quite pleased with the fit of the parts so far.

Thanks Matthias. We'll see what we can do.
I have decided to make two 1mm templates of the gallery roof to unify construction of the apse and choir, the north and south transepts and the nave. Here are the templates.

It's simply a case of laying the walls up from the floor template and gluing the upper template under the tabs at the top of the walls.
Here we go...

...and continuing on...

...until the building is closed.

Now here is where the gallery roof comes into play. As I mentioned, I used it as the pattern to make the floor and ceiling templates. You can see from the way I'm holding this wimpy part, it wasn't up to the job, in my view, of tying all the walls together on its own.

So here is the core of the completed church mounted on its black base.

And a higher view...

Hi René.
Yes. those are the operative words - 'so far..."
Thank you for your interest.
I agree with you. This church has quite a different feel to it. I think that's what initially drew me to it. It will be the first Dutch model in my collection.
Cheers...John

Well said René.

What is impressive about this model at this early stage is the fact that the parts are literally falling onto their registration marks. The aisle wall you see in this photo is just sitting on the base unglued, and yet it looks as though it is properly in place.

Before the aisle is glued in place with its attached roof, I want to establish the location and sizing of the corner pilaster. A word about these pilasters on the building. It has been my experience that placing a template behind them really firms them up and makes applying them to walls effortless. You can just grab the pilaster between thumb and forefinger and press the part against the wall. You don't have to worry about keeping each loose independent side plumb. The part works as a whole. Here is an example of the first one...

The first pilaster brings up another interesting point. I have been guilty in the past of complaining about the use of heavy, stitched broken black lines to indicate fold lines. Now I accept this practice as the historical way it was done. We owe a lot to the early card model designers. Rather than shy away from some of these early works and miss the original artistry of them, a 'do around' for the stitch lines is easy - paint them!

In this photo, I am holding the cover photo sheet of St.-Bavo. Notice the stitch lines on the corner left pilaster at the front of the church. In my other hand, I'm holding the pilaster. The stitch lines are almost gone. The water colour pen coloured the white spaces between the black lines.

Hi Hans-Joachim.
That's a great suggestion! Never thought of it! Your technique would mean that only one edge would have to be glued. Also, the pilaster, being now a rectangle, could be collapsed on itself and the tab glued in that fashion.
The only catch would be, as you say, to have enough paper space at the side of one tab to add the necessary face width of the pilaster.

I must try this technique as we proceed here...

Thanks,
John

Edit: Just thought of an extension to the technique you have suggested. If you collapse the pilaster as I propose, and have more material than necessary beyond the glued tab, you could simply cut it off and spring the pilaster open to its shape - which will be a rectangle in cross section. No measuring...

The gable roof of each corner buttress is mitred at 45 degrees to turn the right angle corner. This is the first time I have seen the roofs atop buttresses joined like this at the corners. It is rather attractive. They solidify the corner nicely.

Thanks Ricardo.
Yes, you got my point about poor craftsmanship being represented on cover sheets of some published models. You're also right on the money when you suggest that, in this case, the model itself far outstrips what is represented on the cover.

Ricardo, we are building two models together right now that are at the oppostie ends of the spectrum. The clean, almost cold style of Richard's Erkotyp model of Drazice sharply contrasts Leon's brushwork representing strong shades and shadows on St-Bavo. I have a new appreciation for Leon's work. I bet if he were painting up the walls of Rozmberk Castle, rust stains would be running down the wall from all those hand forged iron shutter bolts.

Two different designers - two different styles. And now we have the computer generated architectural models out of Poland.

Love this cardmodelling!

John

The black stitch lines are quite noticable on the white quoins at the corners of the first octagonal tower put in place. Let me share a technique that seems to have worked well. With the use of a very small, short bristled brush, white gauache paint was stippled or dabbed into the fold to cover only the black section of the stitch. Gouache paint, straight from the tube is rather stiff and actually filled the fold groove.

This technique worked well perhaps because the quions were white and staggered on each side of the fold. It was easy to confuse the eye with stipple effect.

Here is the result - under high magnification. Like all artwork, it looks better viewed from distance - but you get the effect.

The first section of the church is complete to the gallery. Only the roofs of the annex (?) caused some problems. I found them too short. The centre one looks like a greenhouse roof.

Another view...

...and a third.

On the other side of the nave things get a bit more interesting...

The work begins with the construction of the aisle and the first chapel R9.