The Temple of Love: Building a Sisters of Battle Cathedral pt 4 - WIP Nave

The central nave of the cathedral is not only the largest section, but the most complicated. It has pitched roofs, aisles with columns, balconies with flying buttresses and a circular section topped with a dome. It also needs to be able to come apart so I can view the interior.

The plan I came up with was to build the nave in two halves, each a mirror of the other, split down the long axis. The pitched roof will be a single separate section which fits on the top with the dome atop that.

Anyway - enough words! Some pictures!

The interior columns and arches are made from the Pegasus components

glued together. Half the larger arches were cut off their columns and glued

onto another one at right angles.

The initial layout - black lines are the outer wall, with the red lines marking the

position of the columns and arches.

A test-fitting layout - most is just balanced in position. The larger columns are .75"

PVC square tubing with Hirst Arts plaster casts (from the Roman Temple mold)

I assembled all the pieces together, just to see how it looked.

More of the larger columns can be seen. They are of a different design to the smaller

ones, but I will explain this in the fluff by having them be much older and erected by

the Emperor himself when he walked on Ophelia VII.

This picture shows the rear panel of the front section. It has ledges where the pitched

roof will sit. It is currently loose and slides into slots on each side - I may leave it

like that, or glue it in after painting.

A closer shot of the columns and a Machaenix Canonical supervising the work of her

servitor (and for scale!)

The rear section. Small arches are visible here (the cream parts) - these are cast

from a smaller Pegasus arch cut in half. These are the only components I will have

to duplicate (and I should have no components left over out of the six kits I bought!)

A Thunderhawk's-eye view!

An artistic shot through the columns.

And one through the windows!

The balcony and flying buttresses (again, resin casts). The balcony wall is made

from solid panels cut down. One section remains to be put in place.

As seen from inside the cathedral.

More work done - several of the larger columns are complete, the balcony and inset

upper wall is complete on both ends, and finials have been added. I have just enough

finials for the design I chose - pure chance!

The view from the other side. The balconies and inset walls are not as complete,

but the central circular section has a couple of sections in place. I think I cut

the panels too narrow - I can fill the gaps, but others will be cut wider.

So that is where it stands right now - it is starting to come together. There are a few places where things do not quite line up - but I am not too worried. The misalignment is very minor and I believe I can easily correct it with judicious cutting, regluing and even a little bit of heating and bending if needs must.

The next stage is repeating the balconies and inset wall on the other side, and replicating the two panels in the central section another three times. Oh! And casting up a bunch more Hirst Art Roman columns - each side of a large column uses one casting of the mold.

A note on those columns - as I mentioned in the caption above, they are of a different design (a variation on Corinthian, essentially) to the rather plain columns of the Pegasus kits. I shall justify this by saying the ten columns were left on Ophelia VII by the Emperor, as part of the original shrine to Verity. This explains the different design, but also allows me to distress them a little ... which also serves the purpose of hiding imperfections and minor misalignments where the Hirst Art blocks come together imperfectly. That is not the fault of the mold (which, like all Hirst Art molds, is just great) but rather my casting "skills".

Lots of work left, but let me know what you think of it so far!

Danforth Laertes =][=