Review and comments on Pegasus Gothic Building Kits for O Gauge Use (pictures)

Here is progress so far - I have only to raise the two spires one more panel level, at which point I will have used every single panel in two Large City #1 sets and two Small city #2 sets except for two doorways.  the completed cathedral will be 25 x 15 x 20" high and the largest structure on my layout.  As it should, Our Lady of San Beattadaise Cathedral will go on the Hilltop overlooking downtown and be the highest point on the layout, too.  I have a lot of filling, particularly of holes in columns where gargoyles and emblemanic shields were supposed to go, but at least I can see the "church" for the panels, now.

 

I have about eight million plastic gorgoyles left over, if anybody needs them!

 

It looks great Lee.......bigger than mine church and I thought it was big!!! I too may add another round to my tower.

 

You are going to use the plugs to fill the Gargoyle holes right?? I know they are not a perfect plug but there will be MUCH less filling after you instal them. Keep us posted!!

No, I plan to cover them with a thin plastic cover I glue on, as on the house in this picture: my first Pegasus Gothic City panels project. I used .025 styrene and covered the entire front faceof each column, then made the seams between stone blocks with a fine-toothed hack saw blade.  This is both faster and better looking, I think.

Neat alternative!

 

PS.....for those looking at these....it may not have been said yet....but the panels have two different sides so you can make two buildings look different from each other....it's just small details but does make a alternate look.

Lee. Thanks for the latest pics.

 

AMCDave. Thanks for the insight into using both sides.

 

My large kit should arrive tomorrow so I can see exactly what you're up to.

 

Terry

The Mercury 9 kit arrived yesterday.   Unlike the When World's Collide rocket (8 pieces that snap together in maybe three minutes, not counting the 6 under-wing anti-meteoroid rockets) this had maybe 50 pieces and took all of 30 minutes to assemble. 

 

Both models are a nice size, as you can see (the bottle of wine is, I measured, exactly one foot high).  The When Worlds rocket is meant to launch horizontally from a ramp (in both the movie and the model) but its fins permit it to stand vertically as shown. 

 

The When Worlds rocket went together flawlessly - just snapped with no oipen seams, etc.  Mercury 9 has lots of small gaps I will have to fill before painting, but its worth it.  Also if you look hard in the photos you can see a few empty slots - there are some transparent and other parts I will not install until I paint it. 

 

Mercury 9 came with a nicely science-fiction-ish refueling and control building that is about N scale.  I did not put that together.   

 

The Mercury 9 is a fantasy design, as described on the box, by a science fiction illustrator named Scott Willis (no relation I know of) - it has a wonderful 1950s rocket-ship adventure look to it. I plan to combine these two rockets into a single three-stage rocket that is about 22 inches high - perhaps inspired by drinking the wine to encourage the inner five-year old in me to escape and help.  It will go in the secret missile base (can there be any one kind?) on the other end of my layout from the town I am planning: my layout plan has a lake/duck-under hatch-cover there and I'm thinking of making it reversible: so it will lift out, flip over, and - surprise - rocket base!

The large kit arrived this morning. This is my first Pegasus product and I can't believe how quick and easy it goes together. The hardest part is going to be the design for the church. Great product.

 

Thanks for sharing all the info! Terry

Lee and Dave, thanks for sharing the progress of your Pegasus projects.  They all look fantastic.  Using a thin sheet of styrene to cover the unused ornament holes is a great tip.  I've been following this thread with interest as a while back I acquired a few of the various Gothic City kits with the intent of eventually using them to build an urban church based (loosely) upon this actual Mid-town Manhattan church.  Nice to see what others are doing with these kits.

-Duncan

Hmmmmmmm.....I can almost see doing that by combining DPM and Pegasus kits!!!!! Like I need a project!

Lee.

 

what year is the PLL?   the 70 and 82 were pretty tasty when I had them...  95 is too green/bell pepper for my palate

Busy day for me in the trainroom: I moved the yellow stripe on my Legacy J repaint and got my cathedral structure topped out.  Lots and lots of work left to do, yes, but the basic structure including all the Pegasus panels I will use is done. 

Lee. Your project is looking great. Based on these latest pictures, I have a couple questions:

It looks like you didn't use the other half of the columns on the inside to hold the pieces together. Is that right? How do you feel about the stability?

Your angled entrance is fantastic! Can you give us a close up shot and tell what you're planning to do there?

Lastly, the entrance at the towers. It looks like it's in the middle of a panel versus at one end. Is that correct? How about a close up shot of that too.

 

Really great project and thread! Thank you, Terry

I didn't use columns on the inside - that is correct.  With the kits I bought, the only way to make this and install a column in even spot would have been to use the roughly 30 flying buttress columns I got with the Small Gothic City kits.  It could have cut the buttresses off each etc., but I just left them off.  With a lot of glue, the stability is okay: it will be sufficient since the building will be glued to a wooden floor/foundation. 

It looks GREAT.....and great big!!! I still do not understand why you do not use the inside columns??  Pegasus gives you one column for each wall segment in a kit....so why not add them??? I can see not using them and re-purposing them as you can glue them back to back for a stand alone column. Maybe I'm just not understanding???

Again, I bought two sets of the Small Gothic City Building set #2.  In the large building sets all the columns are just normal, but in the small set #2 at least (never seen #1) most of the columns are the type with a flying buttress attached and smaller pegs on the back: I could have cut the flying buttress off of each and it is no problem to postion the column correctly even though the pegs are narrower, but I was lazy.  This has more than sufficient strength as is.  I did have to use a few cut-down flying buttress columsn by the way, anyway, but  . . .

 

And it is big.  I will be sorely disappointed if it does not fit, but I've measured three times and it seems it will fit in the space I've made for it.

Maybe they have changed the sets....all the sets I bought, 2 each of 1, 2, and 3, all had enough column backs to cover every panel supplied including the 'flying' panels/columns.

I ran out of normal columns and had to use about five cut down flying buttress columns.  I had two large #1 sets and two small sets #2: opened up all four boxes and just poured all the pieces into a 5 gallon can.  I used four window panels and one doorway panel on the mansion I made (picture earlier with the Bentley and servants) and all the others except for one doorway panel on the cathedral.  I have no normal columns left over, but at least sixteen flying buttress ones left, and millions and millions of gargoyles! 

The church kit would make a good Hogwarts Castle start for the Harry Potter set I've always thought. I use the Medeval and Egyption figure sets from Woodland Scenics diorama line for my Harry Potter figures.

Pyramid also makes a good gold miner figure set in 1/48.

Or do you mean Pegasus??? I have the Pegasus Miners and Padres but don't know of Pyramid???

Myself, I'm looking for a Cardinal, Bishop, Priest and some nun figures in O.  Preisser made some in HO but apparently not in O.

Good luck on finding "cardinals" and "bishops," but Arttista makes several priests and nuns.  Matt

Thank you, Boin106!  I will order the Priests and Nuns this afternoon.

 

Everybody: here is progress through five minutes ago.  Roof ought to be on by sundown.   

 

What are you using for roofing material?

That is coming along very nicely.  Lee...can you tell us the dimension of one panel?  I am trying to judge the size by the pair of sissors on the bottom photo....  So overall, the height of the two story part of the structure is...???

 

Thanks,

Alan

Lee you are truly embarrassing me badly.....I have been stalled on mine for well over a year......you did more in the last 24 hours than I have in a year.......shame me into getting something done!!!!!  

The panels are a net 3 1/4 inch wide - that is the width from center of column on one side to center of column on the other side.  The columns are about 3/4 inch wide.   If you look at the photo below, the side wall is 7 panels long.  Seven times 3.25 = 22.75 inchs, plus half a column width on each end or 3/8 + 3/8 - the side is 23.75 inches in extreme.  Add 1.5 inches for the roundish apse that sticks out the back wall (see pictures above) and the this is 25.25 inches long in extreme.

 

Roofs of the towers completed (not glued on though).  Note to the side the lower set of roofs I made first and decided didn't look grand enough.  

Looking great Lee! Can't wait to see what you are doing with the roof! Thanks Terry

Lee,

 

Simple solution for the gargoyles. Use them as loads, "Going to Europe for cathedral restorations.", coming from the local stone cutting establishment. A few 'oops!' bits and pieces laying around due to apprentice mishaps might be in order too.

 

 

 

 

Your spires look good Lee.......Mine will have costume jewelry ornate crosses at the peak. I found some nice ones at Hobby Lobby for about a buck! Just an idea for ya!  

Alright Lee. I can't wait any longer to find out if you've done any more work on your Pegasus gothic church! I don't think I'm alone based on all the posts.

 

Terry

       
       

Yes what you said stupid auto correct on my phone.

Guys and gals, if you're ever in the LA area, about 35 miles east in Montclair to be specific, you owe it to yourself to visit Pegasus.  They are a street north of the I-10 freeway and just west of Central.

 

They have the darnedest array of stuff you ever saw, and they can get a lot more that they don't carry in stock.

Lee any updates ??

 

Also to consider is the 3D puzzle buildings.

A few different ones around that build some nice buildings.

Well, I finished it a few days later than my last post here.  It has been on the layout for about 15 months now.  Here is the slide from my layout tour about it.

 I have not built any other buildings using it.  I have no room left for buildings but plan a revision of downtown in the future and might build a cxiuty hall with them, or something.

A very impressive structure, Lee.

I was there last OCT.....and every visit to So Cal I make!!! It is worth a visit.....BIG hobby shop....lots of cool stuff.