Not exactly a ship, but...

[Cousarmy0001]

So I've got this long running project, which started as a wharf with four buildings, and has grown to a wharf with... well, ok, it grew to a wharf with twelve buildings, but I got rid of two of them in favor of giving one of the buildings a wall and a courtyard.  So it's in flux.  Given that I started the project five years ago, and thanks to my ex-wife's spending habits I haven't gotten more than perhaps 5% done is perhaps a good thing.

Anyhow, one of the buildings is a church.  I started this project with the intention of making a wharf that was vaguely Caribbean or Central Atlantic in nature, but it has since become more Dutch/Belgian/Scandinavian in nature.  At one point I had added a church, but the church looked too New Englandish for the direction the rest of the wharf had gone, so last night I decided to redesign it.  The new building takes cues from the Rondleiding Oude Kerk in the Netherlands, at least in terms of the exterior.  I suffer from a condition commonly known as "not being able to speak Dutch", so I'm having a rather hard time gathering information on this particular building.  Most disappointingly, I haven't been able to find many pictures for references to how things may have been in those during the 17th-19th centuries.

I was wondering if I might hit up some of our European brethren for any information they might have on the layouts of 17th-19th century Protestant churches in that area of Europe.  In New England during that time, it was common for the preacher to speak from a raised pulpit.  Was this the case in Europe as well?  Did churches there have pipe organs during that time, and if so, were they large or small?  Do larger Protestant churches (specifically ones inside cities) of that period have catacombs beneath them where the dead are buried, and if so, were they accessed from inside or outside of the main sanctuary?

Any other information about churches (specifically Protestant ones) of that period that you guys can help me with, I would greatly appreciate!  Especially if there are pictures.

[Jacob Nion]

Well, remember that the settlers in New England were European colonists. There wasn't a huge difference in architectural design. These people would construct buildings the way they knew it from their native country. Same about liturgy, the pulpit and organ. All of that were things the settlers brought with them from Europe. So you can assume that everything you find in the New World during that time was directly imported from Europe. 

About Dutch churchs I can only say two things: many protestant churches all over Europe had been former catholic churches (logically, when people converted during the Reformation, they didn't build a whole new church).

Second, the by far the most used building material in that time were bricks, especially in northern Europe and all coastal areas around the North Sea due to a lack of natural stone. In the 17th ctry such building were often covered with plaster because visible brick structure was perceived as ugly. This changed a bit in later centuries. So both plain white and red brick textured buildings would be fine.

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Jacob Nion

[Cousarmy0001]

The specific church I'm pulling from appears to have been built in two parts, given that one part of the building has tan stone, and the other has orange-ish stone, so I'm trying to copy that by making one side light and dark tan, and the other part light and dark grey- though I may not keep that.

Thank you for your input :-)

[Maxim I]

I can't really help with those protestant churches as my part of the Low Lands stayed Catholic :p

The start of the wars between catholics and protestants was when the latter raided the catholic churches to get rid of the statues (hence the naming "Beeldenstorm").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeldenstorm

This gives you an indication that there were a lot of statues (of saints and holy people) in Catholic churches in that time and absolutely none in the protestant churches.

My advice would be: keep it sober and simply. If it was a Catholic church, it would have been the opposite as the catholic churches are very beautifully decorated with paintings, statues, gold and more paintings :p

 

[Cousarmy0001]

Thus far it's pretty simple in terms of decoration.  It is a Protestant church.  I'll get some screenies shortly.

I'm thinking about building some catacombs underneath it, since I've gotten into subterranean stuff since I started the project.  Do Lowland churches of that time period tend to have those, or no?

[Cousarmy0001]

Here's the screenshots.  I didn't include any of the catacombs because I haven't spent much time on those, largely because I'm waiting to see if that sort of thing existed with this type of church.  I wound up getting rid of the color differences between the older and newer halves, because I thought it looked kinda stupid.  The doorway thing with the roof in the one corner is over the stairwell to the catacombs, but it wasn't originally a part of the design, and I can remove it easily.

Other than all that... yeah.  I may try to add accents to the walls eventually, such as bricks partially jutting out.  It's a long way from being built, at any rate, so there's plenty of time for modifications.  I'm wide open to suggestions of any type.

Now that I look at it, though, I remember that I didn't change the floor tile colors between the new and old halves, so you can still see where the "split" is.

[kurigan]

Looking good. It takes up a pretty sizable chunk of real estate huh? Must be quite the display your working on. If it's in question, I wouldn’t stick with the roof over the stairwell. I don't think it’s translating well into Lego.  

[Cousarmy0001]

2 hours ago, kurigan said:

Looking good. It takes up a pretty sizable chunk of real estate huh? Must be quite the display your working on. If it's in question, I wouldn’t stick with the roof over the stairwell. I don't think it’s translating well into Lego.  

I'm inclined to agree about the roof on the stairs, but I'm not sure what to replace it with.  I might just ditch the catacombs altogether and put some choir benches there or something.

The display itself is 260 studs long by 64 studs wide, and the church in this picture is the tallest building (even without counting the steeple).  I'd offer normal measurements but I can't currently reach the table for legal reasons (long story).  I think the table is 8 feet by 4 feet (2.4m by 1.2m), but I could be wrong.  The display is a wharf, so the width is only half of the table, the other half being taken up by water and ships.  I originally posted on it several years ago, but it hasn't gotten that far in terms of actual building since then.

It has the church, a state building, a tailor, rope maker, clock maker, cobbler, sail maker, wharehouse, print shop, boarding house/brothel, a tavern (boarding house/brothel upstairs from the tavern, there is also a kitchen beneath the tavern), counting house, doctor's office, Sons of Liberty hideout, brewery, rathskeller (below the brewery), and a foundry.  It had two barracks buildings as well, but I got rid of them just before designing the church in favor of giving the statehouse a courtyard and protective wall.  All of the original buildings, save the foundry, have been completely scrapped and redone at least once since I started.  Each building has a full interior, and (assuming I've designed them correctly) the roofs and each floor is removable so that all of the interiors can be seen.  I suspect that this church will take some effort to get the roof right, though, given its complex shape.  At present, it has 26,344 bricks, but that will go down if I ditch the catacombs, or up if I decide to stay with them and actually finish the design.

Considering it originally just had a statehouse, foundry, tavern, wharehouse, and counting house, I have to admit it's grown quite a bit.

[kurigan]

 

Well this is exactly the kind of thing we all like to see develop. Why not take some time and give us a (long?) running WIP topic? (if you're legitimately updating the old one, it doesn't count as bumping...) I mean, if the quality of the other buildings is up to this caliber, it'll be a treat. We simply don’t have enough architecture in the MOC forum. Don't get me wrong, I love ships, but what purpose do they serve without places to go? Any way it seems your has come much farther and faster than the few facades of my little quayside. I applaud your dedication, sticking with it. 

 

The catacombs would be neat to be sure, but how will they be visible? If not, or not well skip them. You could always do a nice staircase with a neat door at the bottom instead. 

[Cousarmy0001]

The plan is that the building itself will be able to be lifted up, revealing the catacombs below.  That's how I plan to do it with the rathskeller and the kitchen.  At the base of each building, I place tiles so the buildings come right off, with up to four studs or so to keep the buildings from sliding around / coming off on their own.  Here's the kitchen with the building above it removed, showing what I'm talking about, and it's also partially visible on the top of the walls in the church interior pictures.  It's a pretty simple thing that I think is done pretty often with Lego, just probably not to this scale.

 

As previously mentioned, the plan is for each roof to be built with this method, and each floor (all of the buildings save the foundry are two story) as well.  So the buildings can basically be lifted apart to show the interiors, and then replaced just as easily.  This has required move buildings to be primarily rectangular or square, without a whole lot of deviation, but I don't think that takes away from the overall appearance a great deal, as the buildings are all touching each other, and there is a one or two stud deviation between building fronts, so it doesn't look like one giant building the whole length of the table.  As I said, the one that has me worried is the roof of the church.  As is, it has three sections, but given the complexity in the walls introduced by the tall windows, I suspect that the roofs themselves (particularly the largest one, with the steeple included) will be somewhat flimsy and will need to be reinforced.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Cousarmy0001

[Cousarmy0001]

Progress!!!

So thanks to a few errors in ordering, my church looks like it's 1944, but I actually do have about 90% of the roof, it just won't hold together at less than 100%.  I also need additional floor tiles, obviously, and more pipes for the organ.  Also, the wrong parts came for the candle holders.  I'm missing a few windows as well because the black arched windows cost a fortune, and I'm waiting to see if I can find them for cheaper than $5 each.

At any rate, I wanted to show off what I have.  I included two high ranking minifigs to give it some scale.  I honestly didn't realize just how big this thing actually is until I had laid out the foundation.  Enjoy!

[CappnRob]

Looking absolutely fantastic, so great to see a project come together!

[Cousarmy0001]

All right, it's close enough to being done, and I'm tired of waiting to post this.  Behold!  The 98% finished church!  It just needs a few roof tiles, windows, and the right colored parts for the candles!

Thoughts?  Also, I should probably think of a name.  It's Protestant, any suggestions?

I'm kinda thinking "Werkelijk Grote Kerk".

Edited May 28, 2019 by Cousarmy0001

[DonRamon1981]

Absolutely amazing!

[Cousarmy0001]

Why, thank you, kind sir!