"Model of a cathedral?" Topic

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know where I could find a model of a cathedral online? I don't mean the sort you make but the kind you might get at a gift shop in Europe.

I did some math and found out that at 1/600 scale the towers of the Chartes cathedral would be about 6 inches tall, which means that it's quite feasible that I could use an off-the-shelf model for my terrain set-ups. Having a to-scale cathedral on the table, surrounded by my 1/600 buildings, would be pretty cool, IMHO. I'm having trouble finding such small,desktop sized model online though. I've seen them before so I know they exist- I'd imagine there is a factory in China that makes these by the millions. Any ideas?

thanks!

Gaudi's Barcelona cathedral is certainly modelled to such a scale………….

But I somehow doubt that is what you are looking for, unless you have totally taken leave of your senses.

You can search Ebay for cathedral souvenir -spoon. (Souvenir spoons are a *huge* market, and I know you're not interested in those.) Most of the descriptions will include the dimensions, then you can calculate the scale. Be aware that a cathedral with 6-inch towers is going to be expensive, whether it's made of resin, pot-metal, or pewter.

If there are cathedrals whose appearance you particularly like, search for them directly. For example, Chartres souvenir -spoon yields this little guy for $115 USD: auction

It's an antique, which helps account for the high price, and it's only 3-1/4 inches high.

Good luck!

That scale is pretty uncommon. I'd contact these people:
ptdockyard.com
and enquire about whether they'd be interested in making one since they already work in that scale. Otherwise find a paper terrain company that makes one you can rescale.

Also consider that many 'Cathedrals' are quite small, about the size of a medium city church. The only real qualification for a church to be a cathedral is that it has a bishop's chair – a cathedra, all else is optional.

As an example Sydney, Australia's largest cathedral did not have any tall towers for about 150 years. Another 'cathedral' of a similar vintage in Parramatta (Western Sydney) is about the size of a prosperous suburban church and only has a basic bell tower.

Many Medieval cathedrals took a couple of centuries to finish – I think the Gaudi cathedral mentioned above is still only about half built.

It doesn't have to be exactly 6 inches high, or even exactly in 1/600 scale. Chartes is particularly big- isn't it the biggest in the world? Not saure if that includes the height, or just volume. It could definitely be a lot smaller, and honestly if it was that'd probably work just as well. Anything from 3 inches through 6 would work for my purposes. It would be a lot easier than modeling a cathedral from balsa wood. The thing could even be gold or silver, or whatever. I don't mind spraying and painting, I just want the basic form already done for me. I may have to dig a little deeper. I'd hate to have to order it online from some gift shop in France and then ship the thing. Hmm… I wonder if St. Johns in NYC might sell a model of the church?

National Cathedral in DC: auction

$30 USD, almost 6 inches long, and looks like it's about 3 inches high. And, hey, prepainted!

Try the gift shop at the National Cathedral in DC

JPattern2- Ok, that's perfect. Hopefully no one buys it before I get home. Works out to about 150 scale feet high based on what it's supposed to represent, but that should do it for my purposes. Excellent work!

Have you tried the websites of the National Trust or English Heritage? They have an ENORMOUS amount of tat in their gift shops and a lot of it is apparently available to buy online.

"Works out to about 150 scale feet high based on what it's supposed to represent"

The actual building is 301' so the model is actually 1/1200. However the building style, I'm sure, would make it an easy stand-end for 1/600.

I have tried to track the manufacturers down as well but without success so far.

I have managed to buy some when visiting cities such as Strasbourg, a mix of resin/plaster and metal ones. The smaller scale ones work with 6mm figs for me but I work one scale down from the figure scale so 1/600 or 1/1200 buildings.

Try this site – example here is Koln cathedral

auction

link

Thanks for the links! The cathedral of Koln model is quite nice. The National Cathedral gift shop sells a model online, the same as in the auction further up the threat, so I need to look into that one too. As it turns out there's plenty of 1/600 terrain out there if you get creative about it. I'm going to be in Spain this coming summer so I'll definitely be on the look-out there.