Institut de France, Paris, L'Instant Durable, 1:250[FERTIG]

Thanks Ricardo for the link and the advice.

I may be completely off base here, but I am going to try something different. The English assembly instructions in the book mention sticking the segments of the dome from behind with strips of adhesive tape. At first I rejected this idea completely. We are used to using paper strips as you suggest. But then I got wondering about the possibility of initially 'tacking' two segments together temporarily until glue could be applied from the inside. In the past, I've always been plagued with glue getting on the experior surfaces of the dome when only glue was used as the fastening method. It would get on my fingers as I manipulated the paper strip and then invariably it would end up on the exterior surfaces. The adhesive tape appealed to me as it was a dry material. Then glue could carefully be used inside the dome's seam.

But not a long strip of adhesive - very small patches - about 3mm x 6mm.

So, here we go. A work in progress...

1. A patch of tape is tooled down to one half of a segment. The adhesive tape is the type that does not adhere well until you press it down firmly. This property is of great advantage here, as it will not stick to the other segment piece at this point.

2. The dome is turned over.

3. Then the two segments are drawn together until their butt edges meet. Thumbs on top, first fingers underneath. The fingers can feel the seam and ensure that they are flush and not overlapping.

4. The thumb then pinches the joint and makes the second half of the tape underneath adhere to the next segment.

5. The dome is turned over. Glue is applied to the little seam below the tape to the beginning of the cuts.

6. The glue is brushed out along the seam.

So, we are under way here. I don't know if this method will work. As you suggest Ricardo, things will get tricky as we get further along up the segments - considering the size of the dome opening from below.
John

Hi Yu,

Ricardo and I have had a lot of fun discussing technical points on this forum! I recall our mutual admiration for templates here on the Stettin build:

Stettin Church, Modelik, 1:150 [FERTIG]

...and then there is Ricardo's classic tip of cutting slits rather than triangles on convex curves...

John

You make a good point about flexibility Ricardo. That is why I did not put a card reinforcing ring in place until the segments were ganged up in pairs. They could flex back to give fingers access to the slices being worked. If the base were rigid to start with, I feared that the slices could rip themselves out when forces were applied.

Progress has been made with the glue up. I decided to close each group of segments their full distance while everything was splayed open. This meant that the base had to flex a lot to let the fingers have access to the segments as shown.

It is the Victoria Day weekend here in Canada - the holiday that heralds the beginning of summer vacation activities.

The nice weather has precipitated outdoor activities these past few weeks. But yesterday it rained, so the Institute received some attention.

It has been slow going with the dome. Ricardo, I was able to keep the base of the dome flat. The 1mm card ring around the hole helped greatly. I was surprised at how many of the slices could be fastened together before having to move into the dome from below to glue the remaining portions closed.

I think I would use tape again on a small dome.

The dome was intended to be held on the rotunda with little tabs. I chose to build a card oval plug.

The church is now complete.

There is another dome on this church. You can see it here tucked in behind the main one. To my mind, it seems rather an odd location.

Here is the church sitting on the site. It is not fastened to the base at this time. The weathervane on the cupola is oriented correctly to compass bearings. We are on the south side of the Seine here. (The Left Bank)

Thank you Wolfgang. Your comment is appreciated.

I neglected to show the substructure of the base. Before I glue the church down, let's have a look at the underside of this base.

It is reinforced with 1mm card in an informal grid pattern. If you obtain this published model, have a close look at the prototype model on the cover and the back of the book. It is quite badly twisted. French models employ vertical paper struts to elevate and support courtyards, terraces and open flat regions. I would suggest that they be built up with a grid substructure. (e.g. J.F. Schreiber models - i.e. Berlin Cathedral and others)

Thank you gentlemen for the kind comments.

We now begin the east wing of the complex. It was added onto the original church between 1829 and 1846 by an architect named Le Bas. It features an internal courtyard called 'Cour d'honneur' and is surrounded by four interesting façades and modelling details.

There was an error in the first façade shown here. I had to cut back the width of the wall on the right side of the portico. It's narrower than the panel on the other side.

Now this involved windows. Just cutting the right side of the wall off to reduce its width would have sliced off the right side of the window frames. To keep them, a centre slice of window was removed. Then the pieces were put back together narrowing the wall.

Here's why that panel had to be reduced. You can see where it will butt against the side of the church.

The second façade has a very long tunnel running right through the building to another courtyard. Notice the structure hanging like a bat from the roof of the tunnel. Interesting...

Here are two sections of the east wing completed. I now see why the prototype model was twisted so badly. There are many severe angles in the roofs of the wing. Pulling them together as printed really put a lot of tension on the walls. The back wall actually bent inward so badly, an incision had to be made in a roof joint to relieve pressure. The roof let go and the wall straightened. Of course, this meant the roof at that junction had to be rebuilt. I see further problems down the road with some of the other roofs.

No complaints here. I love these challenges and enjoy engineering around the problems. However, these detractors could stall the construction of this model for some modellers. That would be a pity as this model is packed with interesting architectural details and intricate constructions.

Coming around to the back of the wing...

The roof also put outward pressure on the walls. Here you can see a green right angle triangle holding the back wall plumb.

I really like the method of printing the location of the roof dormers. The triangular portion of their footprints are not printed on the roof. It is a much more forgiving method of placing the dormers.

You will notice that I employed Ricardo's technique of placing a glue bar inside the dormer. This made it much easier to glue the dormers on cleanly.

There is something that should be explained at this point about this beautiful model. It does not model the entire extent of the Institute. To make the size of the base manageable, Jean-Marie Lemaire chose to not include the long section of the complex running back over an entire block long, facing the Rue Mazarine.

Here, by permission, is J.M. Lemaire's beautiful watercoloured pen and ink drawing of the entire Institute.
(Permission to photograph and transmit in low resolution, this third picture from this édition granted by L'Instant Durable: http://www.instantdurable.com )

Study the location of Section A-A. It creates a cross section right at the back wall of the Bibliothèque de L'Institut. Behind it in the Deuxième cour, the Aile Le Vau and the Aile Le Bas. Furthur back is the Troisième cour.

And here it is - the Section A-A cross section.
The tunnel runs right through the Bibliothèque de L'Institut to the Cour d'honneur on the other side of the building.

Yes Ricardo. You are right. I think there may be a love/hate relationship with French roofs. Some of them on some of the models are like facets of diamonds with every conceivable angle. Very challenging but very rewarding as well when assembled.

Here's something else that makes these models fun - neat little well designed detail elements. Here is, (I think) a unique variation on the traditional Greek vestibule. It's round!

Distinctive features of the Institute are the two wings that curve outward from the central church. I knew that the east one would present a problem with the roof when I first cut out and dry fitted the roof. More on that later.
Here the construction begins. When you are using templates, you have to think ahead as to how the parts are to be assembled. The roofs and the walls are built up together as units. It would be tempting to just glue up the walls to the template and think about attaching the roof later - you can't. Unless you cut holes in the bottom of the template, you will never get the roof on.

The template...

Two sides of the courtyard coming together.

The yellow tab awaits...

...with F8 ready to slip under the roof.

The two parts married together.
Edit: Note that there is no back wall on the right assembly. Your fingers have full access under the roof to glue and hold tabs in place until the glue dries. The setup could be compared to a Hollywood false front movie set.

But all is not well with the roof at the front. I think the plan will be to not do anything right now. I will leave this area and will approach it with walls and roofs coming from the left - and then make a decision as to how to proceed.

I think the little section of roof under my poorly manicured thumb will have to be cut out and rebuilt. We will see...

Thanks Yu. We will sneak up on the offending roof part by building up the left side of the east wing.

The northeast corner of the complex is terminated with a pavilion - the Mazarin Library. It anchors the corner. In the first shot you can see the brown template coming down the left side of the Institute. In the second photo on the right you see the beginnings of the Mazarin Library.