Krakow Cathedral - GPM - 1/200

  • As you know, I very much like architecture subjects and GPM is one of the most active publishers, although not necessarily on architecture subjects. My first experience with a GPM architecture kit (Baranow Sandomierski, in 2004) was not very good and many years passed before I bought new kits from this stable. Frombork cathedral (I have shown it here) was much more pleasing.


    The Krakow Cathedral is in another class. It is a very ambitious kit of a very pretty and large building. Without the detail set (laser cut structure and window frames, as well as acetate windows), there are 800 parts printed on 25 pages larger than A4. Quite clearly, the number of parts will be higher. For example, the use of acetate windows makes it necessary to cut window frames on several parts. GPM’s criteria to use gluing tabs or not continues to be a black subject to me. To fit my assembly taste, I’ll have to add many tabs, card templates and the like. So, this build is sure to take some time. It is already well underway. So, don’t be surprised if construction pictures arrive at an alarming rate…





  • Welcome aboard, friends prost2


    @ Hans-Jürgen – I don’t deny being hopeful of a good result zwinker2


    I thought that assembling the 10 smaller buttresses would be an easy way to get started with GPM’s methods. Well, it was a good way but not an easy way! The parts have no gluing tabs and I used spare card from the laser cut structure to make some rectangles and avoid butt gluing on relatively large parts.


    The tiny (0,5mm card) strips you can see on pictures C009 and C011 provide a decent gluing base for the yellow details. Regarding the pinnacles, they are not included in the kit! GPM provides a template and color indication and it is up to the modeler to make them. Grrr! Frankly, I didn’t understand GPM’s idea. This is exactly the kind of detail that could be provided in the laser cut set, among others. Well, not to worry…




  • The kit provides some parts for the structure of the left tower’s top. Gluing tabs are mostly absent and I had to improvise. Some extra card and paper parts and a few rolled paper bits did the trick. This work will be invisible on the finished model and justifies a couple of pictures.


    The yellow balls are rolled paper strips. It is surely not the most accurate solution but I like to keep my paper models as “paper” as possible.




  • Hi Ricardo,


    this thread I will follow naturally.
    Krakow is one of my favourite cities, I like being there and was inside and outside the cathedral many times.


    If it's allowed, I will add some pictures of the church (from my last trip in 2013):




    As always your work is outstanding: I think the yellow balls on the top of the tower look very good, you can compete with the original.


    Best Regards
    Dieter

  • Thanks for the comments :)
    @ Dieter - the inside is as pretty as the outside! I see that the banners on the towers are yellow/golden. Not in the kit...


    Today’s pictures show a lovely detail that will be glued to the left tower. After taking the pictures, I remarked that some joints were left on the visible side. Fortunately, it was possible to rotate the parts and hide the joints.


  • If you found the left tower’s top complicated, the right tower’s top is fancy! The pictures show part of the assembly of 8 elements that will glue on each side of the roof. The main roof is an octagonal pyramid, very tall and with more details. There are no gluing tabs and I felt the need to add some formers and extra parts to serve as tabs.




  • The roof is easy to assemble but fixing the detail near the top is tricky. I used rolled paper with a thin wire inside. Only the wire goes inside the roof. One of the wires crosses the whole roof. All the six others end in the middle and are glued to a rolled paper bit in the top, that also serves to support the pinnacle.



  • Hello Hans-Jürgen,


    I couldn't put it better than you did! In this regard, an Halinski kit is easier to assemble...


    The first 4 pictures show the conclusion of the 8 assemblies that surround the roof. The laser cut details helped and could help a lot more if they were properly cut. I got the feeling that the laser was adjusted to the smaller window frames paper thickness (those frames are almost perfectly cut). It took time to separate the 16 parts without destroying them…


    Regarding fixing the 8 assemblies to the roof, I didn’t seriously envisage butt gluing (there are no tabs…) as it would be more fragile and alignment would be a challenge. Trapezoidal card templates did the trick. I used 1,5mm spare card, taken from the base.




  • @ Fred and Dieter - now, imagine this fancy assembly on top of a huge tower!!!



    On the “basic” kit, each window has a single part. Using the detail set makes it necessary to cut the window frame in 3 parts. I find it more comfortable to have gluing tabs and I opted also to use the brown surrounding of the laser cut part. Glued in the back, it serves to conceal any gap that might be left in a less successful operation. In all, for a simple wall with a single window, 14 parts are needed!


    The pictures show the assembly sequence. Well, it does look better with the detail set than without. But it takes time…




  • Thanks, Curmudgeon and Peter :)



    Who says one wall with a single window says many walls with many windows…


    For sure, a substantial percentage of the work in this model will be dedicated to the windows.


  • The vitrage printed on foil could bear some delicate light from inside as for an evening mass. Congratulations for technique.

    Liebe Grüsse an alle Mitkleber: Krisztián
    Leute, die Modellbögen kaufen denken, dass sie auch die Zeit kaufen, die für ihre Montage notwendig ist. Aber ich bin alt genug zu wissen, dass es nicht wahr ist.
    People buying model booklets think they also buy the time necessary for their assembly. But I am old enough to know it is not true at all. verlegen2 prost2

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