The church of Oravainen was build in 1795-1797. It is a wooden cross-church with an octagon center tower ending on a cupola. The main entrance has doric (greek) style columns. The column effect has been modelled in the upper part of the tower with wood panelling. Simpler panelling has been used for decoration on the walls and corners.
There is also a separate belltower next to the church (not visible in these pictures), but it was not modelled in this project.
The text over the main entrance dedicates the church to the then king of Sweden, Gustaf IV Adolph in the year MDCCXCVI (1796).
This diagonal photo gives a good impression of the complex nature of the roof.
The backside of the church. As an interesting point of design is the lack of any windows on the main altar wall. The altar wing has side windows though, so the altar doesn't dwell in darkness completely.
Ok, let's build one then. First an octagonal cross church walls out of balsa on a 3mm card. Interior won't be visible in the final product, but that doesn't mean it's any less important.
Some of the red on the altar is actual human blood as the mosquito that has been smashed there had just been feeding. With little luck the sucker was a virgin (as the donor wasn't) to make it a proper sacrifice.
The roof was constructed from 1 mm card. Cutting and fitting an octagonal roof with decorative insets is quite laborous. It is better to build one wing at a time from custom cut pieces as there are so many angles and planes that any mass produced pieces are not going to fit together.
The cupola roofing was sculpted from modelling clay.
The wood panelling in the corners was done with paper strips. The natural texture of balsa is sufficient enough to give the wood effect on the walls. Notice that no windows were added at this point.
The church after painting. Smaller wood panel decorations were implemented by painting, e.g. in the tower.
Windows are copied and printed pictures of the actual windows that have been glued to the model. Looks way better than any modelled & painted windows would.
An angled picture from the backside.