Kasteel Nijenrode/Breukelen 1:100[ FERTIG]

Thanks Ricardo.

Hagen, your enthusiasm is infectious! We both like castles.

Only four large pieces are required to close the rest of the castle. This would not excite you Ricardo, as you love small pieces and a high parts count.

1. Partial assembly of sections C,D and E (3 large pieces)
2. Installation of the front wall facing the courtyard (1 piece)
3 &4. The parts coming together to close the perimeter of the castle

Hello Hajo,
Good information. Thank you. I will look for Abraham Rademaker's drawings.

Stairs at the front and back of the castle, unlike the courtyard stairs, are straight runs. They lend themselves to a different style of construction. They will be built up solidly - sandwich style. One layer of thick card will be glued under another, starting at the top landing and progressively stacking down to the bottom tread. This will prevent the 'spring' of the part at the close folds and keep the risers vertical and the treads horizontal.

In this photo, you see the top landing glued to the first strip of card and the stairs bent down ninety degrees. When the glue dries behind the riser, the printed strip will be bent back to a horizontal position.
The next strip of card will extend further under the resulting first tread. It will be glued in place. This process continues downward until the staircase is compete. The staircase will then be solid and stable.

You will have noted in the photo above that the folds are thick. The printed card does not produce tight, crisp folds when the folds are very close to each other. Painting the resulting white material in the fold is really necessary. The paper can also delaminate.

I do not fault the publishers here. This model has huge, expansive walls. A heavier paper was selected with reason. It's just that when the parts get very small, folding becomes a bit of a problem. I like the practice of printing on a light paper and indicating which parts should be bonded onto 1 mm or thicker card stock. But I'm not sure historically when these different printing processes came about.

I am going from macro to micro on this model - from parts that are larger than handspans to parts that would sit on the face of a dime.

Interesting model. Here are the back stairs. They are the only part modelled in three dimensions at the back. This works well for me as the model will be sitting up on top of the china cabinet with its back to the wall.

Hi Papercaptain,

I see you noticed the iron ring bolts as well. Definitely boats involved here. Good humour!
Actually, I think what we have here is a 'sally port'. This one is not very well disguised. Perhaps it was built in less hostile times.

Thanks for the encouragement with the build.

Cheers...John

The portal facing the inner courtyard was meant to impress. It features a arched stone pediment.

Here are the parts laid out on the courtyard.

And here it is in place.

This photo gives the viewer an opportunity to see the three sets of staircases on the front side of Kasteel Nijenrode.

The large tower of Nijenrode castle was the main feature that drew me to this model. In this photo you will see it rising from the ground up to the roof line as one integral part of the back wall. It then tapers from the roof line to its top. The other three sides of the tower are canted inward and glued to the roof deck. This draws the back side forward above the roof line. Clever design.

Here are the other sides of the tower. There will be interesting angles involved with the placement of the two roof sections that will intersect here.

Note the gap at the base of the tower. That gap shouldn't be there. This is the first time I've not reinforced an underside of a roof deck with card. I didn't think it would be necessary. But as you can see here, the deck sagged a bit exposing a gap. The thin deck will flex to allow for any later adjustments when affixing the roofs to the tower, but it just looks sloppy to see two parts not mate tightly.

Now for a little edge colouring and it's on to the placement of the roofs. Hmmm.....

Edit: I made the above comment about the gap based simply on the photograph. Upon further investigation on the model, there were no tabs to be attached to the roof deck. The tower must have been designed to simply float in place awaiting the roofs. You can see a rounded tab on the front wall of the tower. This is the only point of attachment. Now it makes sense.

The first section of roof went into place fairly well. It is not quite right at the front eave. That could be a problem later on when the soffits go into place, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

You're at it again Papercaptain.
Good stuff!

You are probably correct. A trade entrance would make more sense looking at it. Sally may have had many callers...

Oops, now you've got me doing it.

Back to construction. The second section of roof was the one that I thought would take a bit of fiddling. It is sandwiched between the keep and the tower. However, with only one minor fold alteration, it slipped into place well.

Hello Hajo.
Thank you very much for the picture site.
My apologies for misaddressed my last post naming you.
Senior moment.
John

The third section of roof is on. It really looks quite peculiar without any eaves. A wide cornice will run around the entire roof perimeters.

Two stair towers are also in place.

The octagonal roofs of the stair towers involve quite a bit of folding. There are 97 folds in the corner tower roof.

The facer boards of these two towers slant inward. This gives them quite a nice look.

The two completed stair tower roofs:

Hello Yu,

This is encouraging news. Does this mean that there is another architectural build in your near future? I know you are into objects that are not static like buildings, but I do recall that you mentioned that your wife was impressed with your Dresden masterpiece.

It didn't have a motor or engine in it...

Perhaps please her again?

All in good fun,

Cheers...John

I must admit that I am rather disappointed with how the majority of the dormers came together. With the exception of the larger one I am holding, the quality of the other ones really suffered due to the thick card. It was more like card than paper. As I've mentioned before, this material creates thick, open folds. Even when burnished back, tab thicknesses can impede tight, thin joints. In some cases, I just cut them off. Of course that can lead to differences with finished assembly dimensions.

However, the dormers are in place and the chimney bases are ready for their stacks and pots. They will not go on until the eaves are added.

Here is the castle as it stands to date.

Thank you gentlemen for the nice comments.

Congratulations Yu on the purchase of a new home. This must be a very exciting time for you. Thank you for sharing the good news.

The roof edges of Castle Nijenrode are quite distinctive. The angled portion of each roof slopes down and abruptly ends at the wall. To this point, the roofs on the model look as though the overhangs have all been lopped off. They look quite odd. The eye expects and likes to see an overhang.

Nijenrode does not disappoint. At the wall plane, each roof section does stop, but then meet a horizontal shelf that extends well out out over the walls of the castle.

The eye also expects to see straight facer boards that do now waver in and out or up and down along their lineal runs. For this reason and to keep the folds from springing open, the overhangs are reinforced with little basswood strips.

Here's what I meant about the lack of roof edges...

I use the wooden strip here without apology. There was a time when I was a bit of a purist about using only paper in my builds. But every now and then, to me, it just makes sense to use what is necessary to produce the best result. I guess it's a case of always striving for perfection with paper, knowing its limitations and being receptive to using other materials when necessary. I'm sure many a modeller has wrestled with this issue.

Yu, I noted you mentioned plastic rod recently in one of your builds. Good for you.

P.S.
Having said this, I recall Ricardo painstakingly cutting curved pipes for his train out of thin card rather than use wire...

Well said Hagen. They say a wise man knows his limitations and maximizes his strengths.

Does that mean that we are ... wise?

(I didn't know card modelling could be so philosophical.)

Tongue in cheek,
John

This model is of an earlier vintage. Fold lines were prominently printed on the surface of parts. In the first photo, you will see them clearly on the roof edge held in my hand. But if you look at the roof edge already in place to the left of my hand, hopefully you will not see them. The same should be noticed in the second photo. Notice also in the second photo, the very noticeable fold lines at the break point on the roof where the roof changes its angle.

I didn't want to attempt removing the black dash lines on the patterned roof, but had a go at covering them up on the facer boards. I used Winsor & Newton's Designers Gouache. Permanent white was mixed with a little Raw Umber to get a shade very close to the printed parts.

The last photo shows four pieces of the roof edging in place. I had to cut off the top tab in some places to get the parts to fit.

Thanks Klueni.

Well said Fred. Thanks for the word fascia. I was needing that. That's the word for the facer boards covering the butt ends of the overhanging roof rafters. Under we have the soffits, but I'm not sure if the top exposed horizontal boards have a name. Probably not.

Here is a bird's eye view of the top of the overhanging eaves.

As a point of interest, there is a fold line in the courtyard. It was created when this large piece was folded up to fit the shipping packet. You will note that it is not continuous. It angles out and downward to the left in the photograph and stops below what will be the well. It stops just in front of the large green bush. Look furthur down and you will see it pick up again on a different angle in the large bottom bush. What happened?

Well, further visual investigation will reveal other cuts around the bush. That's how I altered the original courtyard to fit the china cabinet. In an earlier post, I explained how the cuts were made to keep the joints tight.

I must touch up that crease with some colouring.

Good fun.
John

Good Morning Ricardo.

I would imagine that that little roof is protecting,from the weather, a pulley fastened to a projecting beam. On barns, a pulley was fastened to the beam and a rope was used to haul up hay to the loft. I'm probably telling you something you already know. Here it is just a dormer window. I don't think they could haul up the grand piano and get it into that window, but maybe other goods came up that couldn't make the tight turns in the stair towers?

Cheers...John

Ricardo, your humour gives me a lift...

We now begin the construction of the clock tower. This is one of the features of Castle Nijenrode that impressed me. Rising above the adjoining roofs, it will be quite visible from a sitting position in the living room.

The base of the tower is supported by twenty-four stone corbels.

The floor of the clock tower...