Every town big or small needs a church

Gotta have a wedding

The Glen Ivy Church.

Detailed Plasticville snap-together by club member Walt.

This is the first Church that Department 56 produced in porcelain. Though it is 19 years old, it is still quite nice.

Gilly....What a nice job Walt did on that church....WOW!!  Really looks great..

Alan

Passenger Train Collector, I'm continually impressed with your use of the Dept. 56 items on your layout. Not just the huge collection of buildings, but all the accessories - the trees, people, sidewalk and other pieces artfully arranged city block by city block.

Thanks for all the photos of the churches. I've put "The Cathedral" on my list to purchase some day. Although it was an earlier production, it looks good. I'll just have to admire St. Mark's Cathedral in photos. Very nice looking but also very pricey. I was going to mention how Dept. 56 hasn't used the square turret type of tower very often, and then you posted the Dickens Village church photos. I haven't really looked at that series, but the buildings look nice. Have you been collecting Dept. 56 for almost 20 years, or did you back collect the pieces?

trestrainfan:

I have been collecting D56 since the introduction of the Dickens Village in 1984. Those were the days for this firm. Collectors could not get enough. The Church below is a perfect example of a stone tower. It is called the Norman Church (after it's architectural origins) and was the second limited edition piece done in the Dickens Village collection. Though it is rather crude in terms of editions that followed it as the product began to mature with better design, it has character and I think it is historical and a splendid piece. Many in this thread have referred to Churches similar to those they attend(ed), and the Norman Church is a lot like my childhood church, same color, same stone construction, and same squared off tower.

Wow, 30 years of collecting Dept. 56. You have certainly done a wonderful job of displaying your collection and incorporating it into your train hobby. From what I have read, Dept. 56 used to have some nice conventions for collectors (I've picked up a couple of the event pieces). I'm not sure if they are still having conventions. It seems like people aren't into collectibles quite as much as they used to be (some of that might be because of the economy), and that has effected all of the manufacturers, Dept. 56 included. I know I used to see Dept. 56 in many stores, and I don't see much if any now. It's neat for the folks who find a building that looks like one they have actually seen, or in the case of a church, attended. That gives it special meaning.

United Methodist Church at Mapleton PA.  Model still under construction...

Very nice!

What's the footprint?

PRR

That is just fabulous. Is this your local Church?

Neal - Very nice job!  That will be beautiful.

Art

Thanks for the nice comments.  I've been working on this for about 5 weeks or so. I noticed this thread previously but the model was not far enough along for me to post a photo.  Still have to get the base with the stone walls and a small graveyard (hidden to the right) finished.  The impetus to build the model quickly was our local NMRA Jamboree.  This year's contest is to kitbash or at least do something with a Plasticville structure.  Mine is kitbashed out of two Plasticville cathedrals.  I've had the kits for a few years, but decided to go ahead with the project once the contest was announced.  The structure is a close representation, though not a precise model of the United Methodist Church in Mapleton PA, a small rural town in central PA along the PRR Middle Division.  The town will be modeled, and I felt this was the signature structure of the town...that's why I put so much time into it.  I realized the Plasticville cathedral had a lot of the same architectural features as the prototype church, and would be a good basis for kitbashing a model of the real thing.

Neal:

Many thanks for supplying us with the details regarding the construction of this Church. Please post photos when you finish it.

Also, good luck with the contest.

St Martin's Church.

Dale,

I always wanted to do what you've done!  Buying a church, or a school, or a library as a home is a great idea!

I'm assuming that past pictures of your layout have been in that building.

For some reason, I thought you lived in a school....

Ed

Gentlemen,

   There are usually at least 2 churches even on our small Christmas layouts.  On the bigger layout we had around 4 churches in different areas of the layout.

PCRR/Dave

What a great job, please pass it on to him. Nice module as well.

Guys thanks so much for your pictures of all the fabulous looking churches. Passenger Train Collector has some truly nice Dept. 56 churches that has inspired me and also the Bachmann churches and how people have modified them looks really nice too. It has been a really hard choice, but I have ordered a Bachmann church that I plan to change the color of to a light brown. Does anyone know where Bachmann got the idea of this model church from?

The Knottinghill Church.

This Church was named the Brick Abbey. It was issued by D56 many years ago and is a good example of the quality of the early Dickens Village.

I just received this today via USPS. Wow that was quick delivery as I just ordered it two days ago. I have not decided if I will leave the colors alone or paint it another color.

For those looking for a Church to go with their North Pole Christmas layout later this year, this may be perfect for you. It is the Wedding Chapel.

PTC, thanks for posting the photo of the Wedding Bells Chapel. I hadn't seen that one before. Looking it up, I see it is part if the Elf Land series. Some of the Elf Land buildings don't show up in the North Pole village on the Dept. 56 web site. The roof and overall construction of the building goes well with some of the older North Pole village buildings.

Many thanks for your comments during the course of this thread, trestrainfan.

This is the last of my Churches and it is from the Dickens Village collection.

Here's my layout's new cardstock fake tin-plate little country church...

That's beautiful!! 

What was your source?

KD

Here's mine from my Holiday set-up, well it's still up, I got this newer version 

of the Plasticville with a priest I picked up at a flea market.

Tin 

Thanks! My source is Microsoft and my imagination!

I start with Word to draw rectangles for the basic walls using the rulers to get the size I want, then copy and past the rectangles into Paint to draw in the details. I'm doing most of the buildings on my layout this way and have drawn up a collection of appropriately sized windows and doors to copy and paste into each building I draw.

The ideal of stain glass windows came from Paul ( VaGolfer1950). Thanks Paul!

The stained glass windows are a great idea. Really adds to this Church. Nice job.

Thanks Brian.

Here are some photos of the church I've been working on.  It is kitbashed out of two of the Plasticville churches as posted by N5CJohhny.  It is supposed to be a model of the Mapleton United Methodist Church.  While not a precise scale model, its pretty close.  The cemetery was added to give it some additional flair, but is not part of the prototype church.

Neal - That is a beautiful job that you are doing on the church!  It really captures the look and feel of the original.

Art

That is really great work!!! Changed the whole look!!! WOW!!

Neal, simply outstanding.

Neal........

The more I look at your Plasticville based church the more I liked it.  It is very much like a small church I wanted for the rural area of my layout. I then remembered that I had a sealed Plasticville Cathedral kit in my stash. I was not really familiar with the kit but got it in a lot of other kits I bought. I had planned to sell it. But your kit bash made me pull it from the pile!! 

If you don't mind can you supply some details??? I kinda see the wall rearranging you did.  But a few things have me wondering.

1. what did you use for the foundation build up? Wall around the cemetery?  It matches the kit parts well!

2. Can you share some basic paint tips? It is really well done and makes this building. Looks like maybe some dry brushing?

I really enjoy bashing these Plasticville kits into something 'new' and not on everyone's layout....and if I build one it will be inspired by yours....but not exact!

Thanks for sharing!!!! (even if it means I have to buy another kit1!)

Dave,

In answer to your questions...

1.  The foundation is nothing more than a piece of 3/4" plywood.  The edges are faced with Plastruct stone material (sheet styrene with stones embossed in the plastic) and the top of the wall is a piece of strip styrene .060" X .125".  The gap is filled with putty then sanded smooth.

2.  Good call on the painting technique!  Yes, it is dry brushed.  First, I painted the stone with flat gray primer (white windows were first painted flat white then masked off).  Then I drybrushed individual stones with "warm white" (white with a very faint yellow tint) then drybrushed other stones with flat black.  I kept drybrushing the two colors together to achieve the effect you see in the photos.

THANKS SIR!!!

Attended a concert here yesterday with some friends. Amazingly it included Mr Mister, Boston, Phillip Phillps, Aerosmith, Vampire Weekend (Unbelievers:-), Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and train related Grand Funk Railroad! 

Any ideas on how to make stained glass windows like these? And maybe to fit specific windows? Thanks!