Every town big or small needs a church

I have 2, one is the MTH small church HERE

The other is a Off Brand Ceramic Victorian Church with Bell towers on the front corners.

Most towns actually have more than one church.

I agree with you, and I figured, why not a big one?   Made from kits (four or five I think) of building panels made for war games with Dragons and such, and evergreen/plastruk roofing and structural materials. 

Lee;

That is an Awesome Model.

Wow Lee that looks fantastic and huge.  That must have taken quite a Long time to build. 

Great work on the churches, both of you.  My layout has two Plasticville churches.  Both are situated such that it's easier to shoot the backs of them, but everyone knows what Plasticville churches look like anyway.

In the first picture, the minister helps the wife back their '56 Chevy out of the garage, while men clean the parking lot and tend to the flower beds.  In the second, the minister is pulling into the driveway in his Model T Ford.

Using the same modular kit Lee is using......

Need to finish it.......

I am planning to build this one. It is in Johns, Mississippi. I will build the sanctuary only. 

Some beautiful churches.  I agree every layout should have one.

Art

Mine is an adobe Spanish chapel, surrounded by a high wall, that also encloses a small

cemetery.  There is currently a horse drawn hearse and a plain wooden coffin on the

grounds.   There are saguaro and cholla, and sheep nibbling among the crosses.  It was scratchbuilt,  freelanced off one outside Santa Fe.  If I find a picture....

Just curious, does anyone have a synagogue on their layout? I've seen lots of churches and cathedrals but don't ever recall seeing a synagogue.

Jerry

Yikes, those aren't churches - they're cathedrals! Here's our small church, celebrating its 300th anniversary this year. It's just a Model Power church with the stain-glass windows removed and replaced with simpler windows and green shutters. It's not an exact replica, but close enough.

This BTS kit would be a good start project.

A church in my small coal region town.

Got a church. (MTH) Then my wife insisted I get a graveyard. Thought that was odd but I picked up a pack of headstones and a black wrought iron fence. Looks good.

Then I added a wedding scene. Very popular couple as many are in attendance.

Here's my MTH country church.

We have eight churches on our layout. This is a result of the many introductions of Churches by Department 56, particularly CIC where six are located. The all represent wonderful architecture and blend nicely into a large city. My favorite is pictured below, St. Marks Church, that is very rare. The stone towers are spectacular.

Lee,

Do you have a link to those Gothic building panels?

-Ted

I have an MTH church that I plan to repaint and detail.  I haven't picked out a good spot yet though.  

I don't have a layout, but if I am able to build a layout in the future my plan is to have quite a few churches.

I started my Dept. 56 collection with a couple of the Christmas in the City churches. They are my favorites. As PTC mentioned, they have wonderful architecture. I've added more along with other buildings. On my future plan, I'd like to have 2 Dept. 56 towns, one with Christmas in the City buildings and the other with North Pole buildings. I have 8 churches for the Christmas in the City area. There has been 1 chapel for the North Pole line, but some of the churches from the Alpine Village line harmonize with the earlier North Pole buildings, so I have the chapel and 2 Alpine Village churches for the North Pole town. I also have a Snow Village "Happy Easter Church", but not sure if that would look OK with the CIC buildings.

I'm thinking the main street in my planned town should probably be named "Church Street."

Might want to add a school with the church, when I finish my layout I should have two/three churches some with grade schools, like the figure of the nuns, brings back memories of Catholic grade school in the 1950's. 

TMack, the kits that Lee Willis used are made by Pegasus Hobbies. There are three different "Gothic City Building Sets":

PEG - 4923 Large Set

PEG - 4924 Small Set #1

PEG - 4925 Small Set #2

I purchased mine from Omni models, but If you do a search on the bay there are other sellers as well. Prices and availability varies. 

Note that Lee used SEVERAL kits, not just one. And the design is up to you. Lee also did some modifications to his parts and added Evergreen and other materials.

If you do a search Lee did extensive posting on his church.

Paul Goodness

OCSMR Lakewood

Good ole Plasticville.

Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I've been off line for a while.  Paul Goodness is correct.  I think I used one large set and three or for small sets.  I cut and filed and fit a long, but it was worth it.

Edit: The panels are easy to use and can make much more than just churches - government buildings, schools or even large house.  they are reversible and have a slightly differing architecture on each side.  I  used another set and one half to make a building front for a mansion for John Beresford Tipton III and his new bride, Veranda Turbine.  This is the only picture I have loaded now: here they have just returned from their honeymoon and Veranda is meeting the servants for the first time.

I have a church built from a BTS kit that end up being ~20% too long.  I ran it through the band saw and re-attached the end.  You can read my review of this kit in a past issue of O Scale Trains.  It's currently on my workbench having all of the scenery installed.

Matthew, in regard to our Jewish brothers, D56 issued a beautiful Synagogue. I have this model displayed in the city portion of our layout. The detail of this building is exquisite. I will post a photo as soon as I go out to the layout with my camera.

Yes, and I believe that's the finest church Bachmann made, based on the Littletown mold. The Cathedral is nice, though small. I have it, and all the other P'ville churches on the layout, as well as the K-line church based on the Marx mold. They are easy to modify, if wished, and they serve the purpose.

I have 3 churches so far on my layout, two are Plasticville, and were 2 of the first buildings added. I plan on replacing them, if I can locate suitable replacements. One is built from a kit a found in a shop in Mesa, AZ., which is pretty decent. In the room on the back I have detailed the interior for the caretaker to live in, and added windows made on my printer.

Paul-I love what you did on the stained glass windows. Great job!

Jon

I had a friend at work ask me that if I were Jewish would I still have churches on my layout or would there be a synagogue and I said I've never even seen one on a layout so I don't know what I would do then, probably a really poor attempt at scratchbuilding one.

Lees cathedral idea would be a good starting point for a big one I guess, like this one in Liverpool:

Or these in Baltimore:

Baltimore Synagogues

several of them rival many of the cathedrals we see, but would take a master craftsman to scratchbuild one.

Paul, where did you get that kit for the church in the first 2 pics? They look pretty cool!

Jerry

When we lived in the Bay Area I always liked the design of this simple little church. Don

I attended a wedding at a little church in the S.F. area...it was of a denomination I

had never heard of and haven't seen another church of that denomination, although it was definitely not a storefront, but somewhat similar to what Don has posted.  While

the church was small, the reception was anything but...high up in a revolving tower on a downtown S.F. hotel.  Had me thinking "earthquake?".  Mention was made above of

K-Line (Jewish?) churches made from Marx (Jewish?) molds.  Neither of these mfrs.

produced synagogues.  Lionel and Marx were astute marketing men, and if there had

been a demand, they would have filled it.

Here's a little Evangelical Lutheran church just outside Milwaukee that I always thought would be easy enough to model.

The Little Glitter Houses site has the Pine Mountain Synagogue free for the printing (and cutting out, and gluing, and painting.)

Pine Mountain plans

I think all but one layout here has a church on it.

Or a Eastern Christian church?  Some, believe it or not, are in union with Rome!

This is about as Eastern as you can get. This model is on the layout at the Riga Station in Moscow.