Cemetery and Church project

[rogergperkins]

Paul attributed the purchase of his church to me. Possibly he followed the same method, I used to remove the snow, i.e. the method I shared with him.
I painted the roof covering over the snow.  One might attempt to use "sandpaper" to remove some snow before painting. I did my church a few years ago and examination of it now does not indicate I even tried to sand off snow.  The snow is not obvious when observed from a 3 foot or so distance.
I also removed some foundation detail, i.e. that included the snow base and trees in front.

Here is the Hallmark art work from the package to illustrate what Paul and I removed from our respective church models.

[PAL_Houston]

Paul,

What did you do to remove the "Snow" on the church roof?

Jon

Pretty much what Roger said.  The snow on the roofs I filed & sanded down  -- I probably cheated and used a Dremel grinding wheel too.  I also engraved some tile edges into those areas.  Then I used gray and black paint pens to blend with the original roof color.  The snow around the foundation I painted an earth color, and eventually will blend into the scene with grass, etc..  The evergreens I removed and spray-painted green, then replaced them next to the church doors. 
One of these days I will also make a stained glass window to fill that round hole in the back wall, and install some lights.

The hardest part is going to be making a set of church steps from the street all the way up to the front doors.

[rogergperkins]

I removed the base of my church thus it sits flush with the surrounding area.  The steps slip out; I did this to paint them with the Polly S Concrete color.
I used the same paint for the sidewalk which is from Evergreen Scale Models to the steps.
I see Paul and I also painted the cross. I did mine with a bronze acrylic paint, applying with a superfine microbrush.

Initially I feared this information may be of limited value; the ornament was released in 2005, so did not know if it is still available at
a reasonable price. I checked with a Google search and found they are still available and that several Central Tower Churches were offered by Hallmark.
I have no idea of the scale or relative proportions of the others.....

[Carolina Northern]

Here's mine. Like most, I got the idea from Roger.
I sanded the snow off mine and scribed a new pattern into the roof in an attempt to match the existing roof.
The base came off and the trees ended up in a group somewhere on the layout.



This is a quick snap of a new housing area I'm mocking up. Haven't settled on arrangement yet.

I placed a sheet of plastic inside across the light hole and put a Bright White LED inside. I keep the old hole to the back out of sight. The LED makes the "stained glass" really look good.

[rogergperkins]

C/N, thanks for the hint on lighting with LEDs.  I discovered I still have the original Christmas tree light that came with the ornament, but think it would not be a good choice. 
Now I am hoping the space I allocated will be larger enough for 118 graves.  I have 22 of the W/S and order the set of 96.

[wm3798]

I like the individual mausoleums in the Archetype set.

Gotta build one of them death condos though.  I made a lot of money back in the 1990s selling them...

[Kisatchie]

Speaking of cemeteries... the house we bought was a former Catholic church. We have two people buried on our property.


Hmm... yeah, unfortunately
right near my treehouse...

[Carolina Northern]

Seeing that picture made me cringe at the base, the car and that so called antenna on that house I had just laid on the layout.

Minus base and antenna - a different view.



This is with room light, so the church windows are lit, but not bright. Not going to increase it until I settle on the arrangement.

Still have more houses to come and then move them around for a awhile. The park is going to have the playground, some trees and of course, some benches overlooking the trains.

Snowing in Raleigh, so I might even get some modelling time today.

[Alaska Railroader]

I don't know, I guess I kinda cringe at the thought of using structure ornaments on a layout unless they are set back to allow for the 3 foot rule. Are there no affordable and nicely made church kits in N scale out there? No, I'm not trying to drum up business as I have no desire to make another church kit (had made, and discontinued one in Z). I do see the merit, however, if you want those elusive brick buildings found in Everytown, USA and have no other way to obtain them. Also, churches like this are very hard to scratchbuild so maybe I should step back and rethink this. Its just that I have also done the grind off snow thing and to my eyes I could never get it to look right. Maybe a tall tree well placed near the corner where the snow had been ground down and painted would take the attention away from the alteration.

I also felt that way about the Veranda Turbines made by Hallmark, but the very talented guys in Z scale successfully converted them into very believable running locomotives.

And I also might be influenced a bit by the fact I very much dislike MTL's Micro-Seasons villages. You guys are doing a good job with this church and I also see that you aren't making your entire neighborhoods out of ornaments either.

[PAL_Houston]

I don't know, I guess I kinda cringe at the thought of using structure ornaments on a layout unless they are set back to allow for the 3 foot rule. Are there no affordable and nicely made church kits in N scale out there? No, I'm not trying to drum up business as I have no desire to make another church kit (had made, and discontinued one in Z). I do see the merit, however, if you want those elusive brick buildings found in Everytown, USA and have no other way to obtain them. Also, churches like this are very hard to scratchbuild so maybe I should step back and rethink this. Its just that I have also done the grind off snow thing and to my eyes I could never get it to look right. Maybe a tall tree well placed near the corner where the snow had been ground down and painted would take the attention away from the alteration.

I also felt that way about the Veranda Turbines made by Hallmark, but the very talented guys in Z scale successfully converted them into very believable running locomotives.

And I also might be influenced a bit by the fact I very much dislike MTL's Micro-Seasons villages. You guys are doing a good job with this church and I also see that you aren't making your entire neighborhoods out of ornaments either.

At least in my case, the Hallmark church is the closest stand-in I could find to the actual thing, which resides at 318 Illinois Route 64, in Savanna, Illinois.

[Alwyn Cutmore]

Roger,

In all my view of churches in the USA I do not recall too many having fences at all. I believe it has something to do with them being places of open worship.  I can remember as a kid all the churches around our hamlet were never locked even and when I did my first visit to a big city I saw that all the churches were locked. This came as a big surprise but I was told it was because of theft.

https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=961&q=Churches+in+USA&oq=Churches+in+USA&gs_l=img.12..0j0i5j0i24l2.3063.10561.0.12378.17.12.2.3.3.0.217.2063.2j7j3.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.3.img.zhD1VE2Z6vk

I had a look at this link and it tends to back up what I thought. Even the ground appear to be quite bare. There is one pic there that shows a cemetery at the back.

Love the church.



I do hope the above image link has dropped the photo in . This is a Model Power Church that took me months to find on eBay as they are no longer avaulable and I think it is one of the best wooden US churches I have seen. I have been trying to find pics of a couple of Churches in Huntingdon, PA but the Google Street view does not cover much there. I first saw this church used by a mate in the Midwest Central layout and the setting he gave it was one if the best I had seen. It just seemed to fit the scene naturally. I do like the churches you have used and hope they just make you scene picture perfect.

Regards

Al

p.s.   If this darn pic does not work I will try until I get it to go.

P.P.S. Persistence prevails

[peteski]

Al, that Model Power church looks to me like a 2-story residential house with a steeple added to it.  If there is a prototype for it, I never seen it.

One of the better US-prototype small church models I've encountered is the one from the Blair Line http://www.blairline.com/church/
And that photo does not do justice to that kit. It even includes stained glass windows.

[Alwyn Cutmore]

Peterski,

I do not know if their is a prototype for the church but when I went through the Google Images link I found this one

    Midway Congregational Church, 1792

It has good potential to resemble a medium size community building.

Mind you the kit has about a 4.5 X 3.5  footprint for the building  and overall for the base it is 7.5 X 5 (that is actual inches) I you have a look at the Mid West Central articles in N Scale you will get a good look at the impression of the structure and the context of its' placement in the scene.

Regards

Al

[peteski]

Thanks Al, I never encountered one of these churches in my neck of the woods.  There is a prototype for everything... 

[Alwyn Cutmore]

Peteski,

I had not either until you asked the question. It looks like it was down in and around the State of Georgia so it may not fit in with my modelling. Maybe too cold for a larger church in Huntingdon, PA. I now look a lot at the Google images when I am looking for a prototype.

Regards

Al