15 replies to this topic

[Legoman]

G'day guys.

For those of you who don't know, I'm from Christchurch, New Zealand. Best city in the world, if I may say so  
One of the somewhat unfortunate things about living in this fantastic city is the fact that, just in case you haven't heard, we've been hit quite badly by a series of earthquakes which have changed our city quite a bit.. It's actually a year ago today since the first earthquake, which makes it quite a cool day to be posting this.
On Feburary 22nd (the worst earthquake) our cathedral was quite damaged, which gave the building even more significance
So, over the last 6 months-ish I've been building our city's best known cathedral, which I've only just finished (though there may still be a couple of additions and such, as I hear your thoughts and opinions)

Here's a Reference:



...and this is what it looks like at the moment


So without furter adu, here's some pictures of my latest model    







Please feel free to check out more pictures (including larger ones) in the brickshelf folder, once public (or if your snecky, you'll be able to find a way to see more before it's public.. Hint: check the URL's of the photos I have put up)
Christchurch Cathedral on Flickr, Christchurch Cathedral on Brickshelf

Comments and such are welcome, I'd love to hear what you all think.

Thanks, Sam - AKA Legoman

Edited by Legoman, 09 September 2011 - 10:34 PM.
Indexed

[badboytje88]

That's a very nice Cathedral you got there. I love how you did the roof. I really am going to need a bigger pic of the roof.

[harmacy]

This is really great Legoman. Ive been watching all the media coverage today for the 12 month anniversary, and its just such a tragic series of events. Your creation not just reminds me of how beautiful the cathedral was before it was destroyed, but how strong and determined the people of Christchurch are in rebuilding and restoring their city.

Well done.

[AussieJimbo]

Great job, Legoman.

A fine tribute. Nice cheese-work on the round window.

[LandShark]

A very nice MOC, Legoman.  
I'm also a native of New Zealand, and although I've never been to Christchurch, I can see that this was a very significant place, and you've captured it very well.  
The colours you chose work perfectly, too.
It's also good to see that this topic did not go to waste, the rose window looks great.

[epic_red]

Well done! Nice to see it finished! It looks great

[CommanderFox]

Nice job Sam!   well done on completing it!   I must say its incredibly full of snot, love it! The brick work in there looks great, i agree on close up pics, please!
So sad seeing the comparison pics, what a lovely building it was.

CF

Edited by CommanderFox, 04 September 2011 - 11:03 AM.

[Rufus]

Wow, a lovely tribute to a beautiful but unfortunate building

It's a little overpowering in dark bley (old dark grey might have been a better choice, but it's harder to come by these days), but the detailing - particularly the white pointing of the butresses - is superb, and the apse looks amazing

The rose window is a great solution to a difficult MOCing problem.

Does it have an interior?  You should deeplink more pictures!

[KielDaMan]

Excellent work Sam! I really like how you captured the overall look perfectly, particularly the intricate circular design which up to now I'm still figuring out how you cleverly pulled it off. Good job recreating this in brickbuilt as a fitting tribute in your own little way.

[Legoman]

badboytje88, on 04 September 2011 - 09:09 AM, said:

That's a very nice Cathedral you got there. I love how you did the roof. I really am going to need a bigger pic of the roof.

Cheers! The roof is just tiles, but it definately gives the nice effect I was looking for! For bigger pics feel free to look in the brickshelf folder, which is now public, or check out all the new pictures I've just put up on Flickr!

harmacy, on 04 September 2011 - 10:17 AM, said:

This is really great Legoman. Ive been watching all the media coverage today for the 12 month anniversary, and its just such a tragic series of events. Your creation not just reminds me of how beautiful the cathedral was before it was destroyed, but how strong and determined the people of Christchurch are in rebuilding and restoring their city.

Well done.

Thanks Man, truely means a lot  

AussieJimbo, on 04 September 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

Great job, Legoman.

A fine tribute. Nice cheese-work on the round window.

Thanks - that window took far too long, and it's still not perfect  

LandShark, on 04 September 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

A very nice MOC, Legoman.  
I'm also a native of New Zealand, and although I've never been to Christchurch, I can see that this was a very significant place, and you've captured it very well.  
The colours you chose work perfectly, too.
It's also good to see that this topic did not go to waste, the rose window looks great.

Thanks for that   Yech, That thread really helped inspire a few things in the window  

epic_red, on 04 September 2011 - 10:37 AM, said:

Well done! Nice to see it finished! It looks great

Thanks!

CommanderFox, on 04 September 2011 - 11:02 AM, said:

Nice job Sam!   well done on completing it!   I must say its incredibly full of snot, love it! The brick work in there looks great, i agree on close up pics, please!
So sad seeing the comparison pics, what a lovely building it was.

CF

Cheers CF  

Rufus, on 04 September 2011 - 12:55 PM, said:

Wow, a lovely tribute to a beautiful but unfortunate building

It's a little overpowering in dark bley (old dark grey might have been a better choice, but it's harder to come by these days), but the detailing - particularly the white pointing of the butresses - is superb, and the apse looks amazing

The rose window is a great solution to a difficult MOCing problem.

Does it have an interior?  You should deeplink more pictures!

Thanks Rufus. Old grey may have been better, but it's far harder to come by, and would have made this MOC even more of a mission!  

KielDaMan, on 04 September 2011 - 02:11 PM, said:

Excellent work Sam! I really like how you captured the overall look perfectly, particularly the intricate circular design which up to now I'm still figuring out how you cleverly pulled it off. Good job recreating this in brickbuilt as a fitting tribute in your own little way.

Thanks CDM! Means a lot. If you check out the Flickr folder I've just put up, it shows a few of the techniques I used - feel free to see what you think!


Now to everyone overall, Thanks for your great comments! I've actually been contacted by a local paper and TV network that are intrested in perhaps doing an interview, which is pritty awesome! Help get LEGO 'out there'  
I've just put up a new flickr folder with heaps of new pictures, so feel free to go ahead and check it out - write comments and tag and such  

Christchurch Cathedral on Flickr

Thanks again folks!

[F0NIX]

Nicly done. I like the way you made the roof. And the big round window too. And the arch...

I too love to make models of real buildings.

Can you tell us a bit about your method to do this work?
Where do you start? Did you decide on the scale before you start, or do you look at some special features and build around them?

The brown background in the photos make it hard to see exact what color the church is made of. But it seems like DBG and Tan mostly?

[Larrynautik]

I like the colors you used as they highlight the front decorations  and basement details. As a lot of people I saw the news about the earthquake, and felt really sorry about this. I hope your city will soon be fully reconstructed. Do not hesitate to share with us other buildings you MOCed in New Zealand, as you get an obvious talent to recreate them in Lego bricks  

[Logbo]

linked to my facebook for awesomes.

Its good to see my cathedral rebuilt. now if I could only use lego to fix my House.

[Legoman]

F0NIX, on 07 September 2011 - 05:07 PM, said:

Nicly done. I like the way you made the roof. And the big round window too. And the arch...

I too love to make models of real buildings.

Can you tell us a bit about your method to do this work?
Where do you start? Did you decide on the scale before you start, or do you look at some special features and build around them?

The brown background in the photos make it hard to see exact what color the church is made of. But it seems like DBG and Tan mostly?

Thanks very much
Yeah, They're a lot of fun to build aren't they I've mostly only MOCed Buildings, as I haven't been piticularly intrested in ships or such.. may give them a go later as I get more into MOCing

To be honest, this was really only my secound 'proper' MOC, and am still learning about how to start and such. I just started with a bunch of bricks and a couple of pictures, then carried on doing that, going to bricklink for specific parts, back to pictures and bricks.. Pritty much just played it by sight.
In Heinsight, I would have done it differently, in a few ways (Which I plan to do for my next MOC). I would have looked for specific parts that would be difficult to design from Lego and build them first to find out a good scale, and I then would find accurate dimentions for a base and then go from there to other pictures and buying parts  
That was/is one of the problems with this model - I really didn't check some parts well enough as I was building, then had severe things wrong in the final product as they were just 'built into it' - Which I really regret. The majority of them are quite small and you'd have to really study the MOC to find them, but still. I guess tose are the reasons practice makes perfect, as you can see what you'd like to change for future MOCs  

Yeah, Sorry about the bad pictures.. The Pictures in the Flickr account are a bit better, But it was just so hard to get good pictures with a decent white backround, I just had to settle for brown in this case. Sorry about that. But yes, DBG and tan are the two base colours  

Larrynautik, on 08 September 2011 - 10:33 AM, said:

I like the colors you used as they highlight the front decorations  and basement details. As a lot of people I saw the news about the earthquake, and felt really sorry about this. I hope your city will soon be fully reconstructed. Do not hesitate to share with us other buildings you MOCed in New Zealand, as you have an obvious talent to recreate them in Lego bricks  

Thanks for the support. I'm actually considering building another large Christchurch building that I've just found out is going to be taken down due to earthquake damage, But it's quite an expensive thing to do.. I'd need to scale it down a lot more than the Cathedral for it to be 'do-able' - and it would still probably be bigger than the Cathedral. But considering this one cost me around $700 in parts (plus what I had), It may be a while.. I need sponsorship  

Logbo, on 09 September 2011 - 05:20 AM, said:

linked to my facebook for awesomes.

Its good to see my cathedral rebuilt. now if I could only use lego to fix my House.

Cheers mate.
As you said that, I looked it up on facebook, and found nearly 90 people have shared this topic on Facebook! Wow! Thanks for the support everyone!

How was your house? I hope you weren't too badly affected! We only have a few cracks really, compared to most places  

Edited by Legoman, 19 October 2011 - 08:02 AM.

[LEGO Historian]

Wow!


What a tragedy for Christchurch NZ.... so much beatufiul architecture damaged or destroyed.  The great stone and copper spire and tower to your cathedarl has nearly been relegated to a pile of ruin.  Good thing it came down away from the church proper.  Also saw although the Narthex (front porch) is still intact, the great rose window has been extensively damage.  It appears that the scaffold is there to stabilize the remaining structure.

I haven't seen this much damage to a church since the images of WWII showing the destroyed churches of Dresden, Nurmeberg and Cologne, and Normandie in France, which for the most part were eventually rebuilt.

Cathedrals are no strangers to earthquake damage.... the most famous recent example is the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, where several monks were killed by falling debris in the crypt.

Probably the most famous earthquake rebuild was England's Lincoln Cathedral which was destroyed by a rare earthquake in 1185 except for the entrance front and towers, and was replaced to give us one of the glories of English architecture today.

Some of the great earthquakes gave some cities the chance to rebuild on a grander scale...such as Lisbon Portubal in 1755, San Francisco in 1906 and Tokyo in 1923.

But our sympathy are with the people of New Zealand....

Edited by LEGO Historian, 08 July 2012 - 06:25 PM.

[Lightning Dragon]

I like how you did the round window on the outside wall. It looks just like your city's actual one(stupid earthquake ) Hopefully the Cathedral will be fixed soon(the real one )