Paper Landmarks Parthenon card stock model kit; Not for the faint of heart modeler!!

For about the last three weeks, I have been working on an imported paper card stock model kit of the Parthenon from Latvia. This has been one of the most intense and at times a frustrating model, as some of the 400 plus parts this kit has are very tiny and must be cut out scored and folded very precisely before the model can be glued together, using white glue. The main problem is keeping the whole thing from warping out of shape as I put the thing together. But my patience is starting to be rewarded as the model is starting to come out nicely in what is the final assembly stages...

This is one of THEE hardest card stock models I have attempted to build. A little frustrating at times. That is when I stop  and let it sit for a couple of days to refresh my brain to keep on going. The instructions that came with the kit are really very poor, and is really only showed in two poor general overall blowup pictures of the sub assembled folded up parts  being assembled into the main model. They do not even show how the individual parts themselves are folded up to be assembled.  Alot of the pieces, you really have to just sit, and study the two exploded view drawings of the model, then study the actual printed part on the paper sheet before you cut out, score for folding, and glue together the piece.

Models of this type, I have designed and built a few, myself, and they are a passion of mine.

The packaging says you can build it in 8 hours. Baloney! This model is so complex, I believe I already have more than two times that amount in it already!! And I consider myself to be a seasoned modeler with close to 50 years experience. This is DEFINITELY not a model for the inexperienced builder. I'm having a bear of a time with it, but it is still fun, and I love a challenge!

After over a three week time period, I easily have about 30-35 hours labor time in this thing. That is, cutting out, scoring the parts, folding them, then gluing the parts together. Then after enough parts are together, you can take those parts and start to assemble the model in steps. Some of the parts were so tiny that I had to have a 100 watt work light aimed at the work board so I could see clearly what I was doing, with my strongest bi-focals on, after a while, my eyes and brain still went wonky on me at times. That is when I would quit for the day and continue to work on it a day or several days later. But other than some minor warpage issues, which I think I was able to correct, I think this model came out beautiful.

To sum it up this way, this is NOT a model for a beginner to try out. Especially with the 400 plus parts the thing has in it in total. The kit says it has 383 parts total, but the 23 inner upper level pillars in the naos where the Athena statue is at, did not have capitals, so I made those out of scrap paper that was left over from that days work and glued them on to the tops of those pillars. The model came out FAR from perfect, but at least I was able to get it to come out.

Select pics of the 1/250th scale paper card stock model. Looks pretty real, don't it?

The Parthenon was/ is quite the beautiful building back in the day and even now, as a ruin. This building is so beloved that a community leader in  Nashville, Tennessee, decided in 1897 to replicate this building full size as it was back in the 430's BC in Athens. It is the only structure of its kind on the planet, other than the original in Athens, Greece, and it is quite spectacular, to say the least.

I have unscrewed the model from the heavy MDF particle board that it was mounted to to keep it from warping as I finished the final assembly on the model, and it worked. The model is no longer twisted like it was when I  started it. I had mounted the model itself directly to a piece of 1/4" drawer box bottom plywood to try and stop the warping, but that did not work, so that is when I screwed the whole get-go to the high density particle board, which is absolutely impervious to warping, and it will hold a true flat plane forever, as long as it is not directly exposed to liquids.

Anyhow, after I unbolted it, I had to take the whole model to work to trim the plywood base down surrounding the model on all four sides on one of our industrial table saws, so that the plywood base looks like a fourth step. The proportions of the model with that extra step looks fantastic. I intend to laminate the excess blank paper that was left over from the kit to the exposed plywood edges to make the base look like a part of the model, in the form of that fourth step. Pictures will follow after I'm done doing this. The plywood has about an eighth inch reveal all the way around the model, now.

Heavy 15 inch long molded clear acrylic (plexiglas) display box protects the model from dust, moisture and impact damage, now. This box is much more resilient from impact damage than the clear polystyrene display boxes they make for model cars. The model is secured to the display box base with two very short flush head sheet metal screws.

As I suspected, A C Moore had these in stock in several sizes, and this one was the only one in stock big enough to fit my model.

 East end pediment view of model in display box with model identification tag that I printed out for it.

I'm planning on doing another one of these Parthenon kits... not happy how this one came out. I ordered two more of these kits from a place that has them in California.

Because the instructions do not give an assembly order sequence that is specific enough for this model, there are some parts I had to specifically modify and/ or purposely damage to get them to fit. With the experience of building one under my belt, this second model when I do it will not only come out better, but I'll probably be able to do it in about two-thirds of the time it took me to do this one. I know EXACTLY now how the order of assembly needs to go now in order for the thing to come out not warped and twisted. You know the old saying,"Hind sight is always 100%". This second model, I will not feel like I am "stumbling around in the dark" so to speak like I did with this one.

Jim.

A plastic model Parthenon? Yes, really!

Just got this "new" plastic replica of the Parthenon, direct from Athens, Greece through an eBay auction my son did for me. This little model is only about 6" long but the detail in it is incredible. You can make out the relief sculptures in the surrounding architraves and the statues in the pediments, the detail is that good. It also has a little view-master feature. You look through a little lens on the one pediment, and you push a little button on the bottom, and you can view 8 different pictures of different ancient historical ruins around Greece. Cool little replica was made in the 1960's, as the seller says in his eBay auction. He still has a couple more left to sell.

As you can see in these photos, the engraving details that were put into the molds of this model are fantastic in recreating the pediment and architrave friezes. Again , I say for the small size of this model the detail is unreal. I guess that has to be expected as this model was made in Greece, the country where the actual 2,500 year old buiding still stands, today in Athens.

 

In this picture, I have the model sitting on top of the original cardboard box that it came in new. The model was originally probably sold as a souvenir at the acropolis museum in the mid 1960's. This is the most detailed ready made replica of the Parthenon intact, that is as it was originally built that was made, in my opinion. That is, as opposed to the ruin that remains of it, today.  

                                   
                                                                                 

                                 

The little  six inch long model fits perfectly inside a 1/24 scale model car display box that I bought for it. I have it tied in place using white natural twine so that there would be no chemical reaction in between the twine and the 50 year old plastic of the model. I did not want to damage the model in any way be gluing it to the display box base or drilling holes in the model base itself to secure it. So I passed the twine through the front and rear porticos between the pillars, through flanking holes in the display box baseplate on either side of the model's base, and tied the twine together on the bottom side of the display box baseplate, securing the model gently, but securely. Model is now protected from dust and impact damage, but yet is still viewable.

Jim.

1993 Scratch built wood Parthenon model.

Here is an abstract model I did of this ancient landmark, because I became fascinated by it's architectural beauty of the building in 1972 in my ancient history class in 7th grade with my ancient history teacher, Mrs Menges, in then Lincoln Junior High School in Lancaster, PA. The simple beauty of its fluted Doric columns, and the the friezes on the pediments on both ends of the building are a thing of beauty to behold.

The actual building was completed around 445 B.C. by the great Greek statesman, Pericles , for the worship of the Greek goddess, Athena Parthenos, who, supposedly was the goddess of prosperity. It is still on the huge fortified outcropping overlooking Athens, yet, today, known as the Athenian Acropolis. Although it is a ruin today, it is still a thing of great beauty! They are, though slowly restoring the monument, today, as of this typing.

My model took a little over a month to build in the spring of 1993. I built it mostly at my work, on my free time. I'm a woodworker, by trade. One day, when I was at a work station, there, I saw a huge box full of these wooden fluted dowel pegs, and it inspired me. I thought they would work perfect to use as the bodies of the columns in a Parthenon model. So I basically drilled and cut pieces out of solid paint grade birch wood and plywood to fit around these pegs, and turned it into a very nice model of the building, although, with what I know now, is far from being architecturally correct. It is missing the inner portico columns that are behind the end facade columns. But I did get the basic proportions close. It does have the correct number of columns on the outside of the model. Forty-six of them, total. Not counting the corners twice, it has the 17 columns on each side, and 6 on the ends, as per the original, (in between the corners on the ends, that is, as when you look at the ends of the model, there are 8 columns across, on each end). The model is still pretty neat though, to look at. That is why I call this model an abstract interpretation of the landmark, because it is not all that accurate. But, then again models of the Parthenon are few, and far in between.

The model is about 14" long, by about 7" wide by about 4-1/2" tall. April 21, 2011- I was just asked to figure out the scale of this model, so here it goes.

If I just figured it out right, it comes out to about 1/200 scale, give or take a few points on the lower number of that fraction.

I spray painted it flat white, after I got the lintel/ columnade rectangle structure built. I spray painted the inner room walls separately before I assembled it to the outer column assembly, then I spray painted the pediment/ceiling/ roof assembly separately before I assembled it into the model, completing it.

The embossed frieze details on the pediments, and "dentil" details on the lintels of the model were made by gluing cut heavy gauge pieces of cardboard to these areas as needed to provide the relief detail that these areas have or did have on the actual building. I cut out the frieze silhouettes using, again heavy gauge cardboard, drawing the shapes on the cardboard, then hand cutting them out with a #11 blade X-acto modeler's knife. Then I glued them onto the flat recesses of the pediments. The little dentil squares on the lintels were embossed with the point of a dead ball point pen, with two lines evenly dividing each square into three even rectangular sections, as per the original building. I put enough detail in this model to make it interesting looking, but again, I say, it is very far from being exact.

Here are select new images of my model that I just took, today.

Jim.