Alterations and refurbishment to the Church in sleepy old Dapol.

[spanner570]

Yet again, top posts and 'Signatures'
All good stuff.

Thank you.
Ron

[Si Benson]

Completely missed this most excellent of blogs Ron:surprised: .....your chaps are making a cracking job of the building work.....very nice indeed :smiling4:

[spanner570]

Cheers Si. Glad you like the build thus far.... :thumb2:

Another addition.

As most cemeteries, big and small, have an area for the military, I've made start on Dapol's one.



Cheers.
Ron

[Tim Marlow]

Nice touch Ron. Would be nice to put a CWGC German headstone in there as well, perhaps a BoB casualty? They just have a different shaped top to the stone but are otherwise pretty similar.

[spanner570]

Tim, I will be adding plenty of head stones to the grounds, old and new. I did consider putting in a German military one or two, but they will have their own area, separate from my one above. Which is usually the case. So still plenty to add.

When I visited the huge German Cemetery at La Cambe in Normandy, the black stone crosses were very rugged looking. There were also loads of plain square slabs let into the surface of the grass. Michael Wittmann and his crew are buried under one of these....And a huge earth mound cum monument in the centre containing the remains of 21.000 German soldier. All very sad.

At Cannock Chase in Shropshire there is a large German cemetery. When I visited that it turned out to be a lovely setting. The headstones there are mostly rectangular and flat topped. So plenty of scope.

Thanks again.
Ron

[Guest]

If I was Idu or any of his pals I would be getting worried about you building a graveyard as they may end up there to save you a few bob from paying them....,.........well,you have offered potential violence in the past :smiling3:.

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Ron
I’ve been to many of the graveyards in Normandy, and the CWGC ones such as Ranville and Bayeux contain burials from all nationalities, even Russian. The German and American ones only have their own nationality. However, your model, your rules...

[spanner570]

I would think that in a sleepy English country village church grounds, the various nationalities would have a separate area. They are at my own village church.

Anyway, life is too short to argue the toss on what is a delicate subject. I could well scrap the idea and just keep the grounds simple and just grassed. I'll chew it over.....See wot I rote there?!

[stona]

I would think that in a sleepy English country village church grounds, the various nationalities would have a separate area. They are at my village church.

I agree, that was normal at the time.

Quite often 'enemy' dead were properly interred, but in a distant corner of the graveyard. Of course, almost all German war dead were subsequently moved and re-interred at the German war cemetery at Cannock Chase.

Germans who were already interred in military cemeteries were left where they were, and are looked after by the CWGC, but that's not relevant to a country churchyard.

[Tim Marlow]

Don’t scrap it, keep it in Ron. It’s a nice touch.

[spanner570]

Thanks boys.
Best get back to the church.....

Idu hasn't turned up as yet to add the extra thickness to the porch walls, so I've started the weathering.

Painted here and there with artist's burnt umber.


This gives a better idea of the size of the model.


Adding darker shades, again here and there.


To start getting a bit more texture to the church walls, I covered the whole of the model (Before anyone points it out..Less windows!) with thinned pva and then sprinkled it all over with finely ground down bits of Cotwold Stone gravel I picked out from my drive surface. I smashed up, then ground down the 20mm pieces of gravel using a lump hammer on the concrete floor of my garage.
All looking a bit too pale, but most of what you see is dust and will brush off - Sez he!






Idu has finally thickened the porch walls




I'm allowing this to dry completely, then once dry, I will gently brush the whole model down. Bits wot stay on, stay on. Bits wot don't, fall off - Sorted!

Then I can really lay the colours on.

You might notice I haven't filled in the slight gaps between the roof ends and the gables. I did this for a reason. That being, I will fill these in later, thus giving me a nice darker shade difference or 'Shadow line' to the stonework underneath the slight roof overhang.

Cheers all.
Ron

[JR]

570.
That Lynch Gate and the walls are perfection .Well done.
453.

[Mini Me]

Just had a catch up on this 570.......one of your better builds, loving the banter so far and am relieved you got rid of that "pesky"
empty suit from the building commission... :rolling: Looking forward to what comes next.
Rick H.

[rtfoe]

Ron, I stumbled onto this hilarious thread making a simple church build into interesting banter, craftsmanship and linguistic challenges.
I apologise for being late Father Mackenzie but will Eleanor Rigby have a headstone in the graveyard?
The boys remind me of the Indonesian construction workers who do a better job than our locals...great job fellas. :thumb2:

Biwilded an Gobsmakd,
Richard

[adt70hk]

Ron

Yet again more excellent work!!!