Church of the Flying Spaghetti
Monster
Construction Photos
The final lag on construction was the worst one of all. Weeks passed as I stalled on designing the final parts of the church. Eventually, though, I made myself a promise that I'd get this project finished by the end of the year - and luckily I had a week of vacation right before New Year's eve.
The main holdup for me was the design of the wheelchair-lift. My first designs were a more Technic-based gear system, but I was having trouble making things work at the small scale I needed. Eventually I just went with a simple rail system. Not as snazzy, but completely functional.
In the photo above you can see the new side facade being roughed in, as well as another shot of the Beer Fountain that I was still trying to cram into the interior.
This photo shows a problem I had with the early design on the lift - the bar that raised the platform was too long and smashed into the detailing around the door. Luckily I was able to rework the length of the lift arm without breaking the play value. You can also see the "Today's Sermon" marquee in this shot - as you can tell, I ran out of tiles with a plain "A" on them and had to resort to ones with weird accent marks.
A bit later on the facade was mostly complete. The lift has been modified to fit in the space, and I've added the Pirate Flag and some more flower-landscaping. Not sure what the dinosaur is up to in this shot.
If you look in the upper right corner, you can see I was now out of "classic grey" and relying heavily on the blue/grey bricks I had left.
The other big holdup was finishing the interior of the church. I knew I wanted to put in comfy stadium seating, but I also wanted to cram as much seating in general into the interior as I could. This shot is one my first attempts to plan out the space. While it left a nice "walk in" area near the front doors, it limited the seating to 40 spots, plus the 18 in the VIP area. Not nearly the attendance I was hoping for - I didn't want to resort to "standing room only" from the get go.
Then I had one of those "eureka!" moments you hear about. I slid the stadium seating back until there was just enough clearance to open the front doors. Suddenly there was enough room for two full rows of "ground floor" seating - and the murals (which had been heavily obscured by the stadium seating) were now in full view.
It meant giving up the Beer Fountain - but I knew I could use the area under the stadium seating to provide the next best thing - a beer stand. Plus, that'd let me use the espresso machine I'd designed a few years back.
The two new rows of pews were enough to give the church a nice "Full" feeling when stocked with mini figures. Plus, it gave a nicely defined area for someone to park a wheelchair - a nice bonus after all the work I put in to make sure they could get in the church at all.
The lack of atrium space did mean I had to nix my idea of a seating area in the window-bubble overlooking the Meatball Tree - so I put in a bunch of flowers as you can see in the shot above.
The last bits of construction were designing the removable roof sections - and making the AC Unit and lighting for the rotating FSM figure. Happily, those last bits came together very quickly.
I was able to make my self-imposed deadline of Completion Before The New Year - I took these photos of the completed model at 9:00pm on December 31st.
Be sure to check the "Guided Tour" section to see all the final details and finishing touches!
Construction Pages: [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ]
| Guided Tour | Floor Plans and Isolated Details |
| Construction Photos | Desktop Wallpapers and Icons |
| Go To The Official FSM Site | Frequently Asked Questions |
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