Can you help us with a 3D model?


Hi There, Our Church in Boston is looking to get a 3D model built. Can you help us? We have no money, but maybe we can trade (Im a graphic / identity / logo designer) or I could pay you personally as I know the Church can’t afford it… attached here are some images. We want to start with a mondel of the cross at the top of the church… its a funky combo of a boat and a cross as the building was constructed by a wealthy international trade family.

Any chance you can make a 3d model of our steeple cross and boat?

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I might be able to do that for you. What do you have for information about it? Dimensions? Drawings on paper? Anything more than this photo?

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The shape itself doesn’t appear particularly hard to model, but without any measurements we’d have to guess a lot. I imagine it’s a scary climb to get up there to measure, looks very steep!

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some photos from a great distance (and preferably with a high focal length) from front, left, right and back will be helpful…

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And also looking as close to horizontal as possible.

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Initial stab at it is getting there. Strong telephoto is touchy for Match Photo. Note that putting the control points of the red and green vanishing lines as far apart as possible gives better granular control which you need on such minimal perspective. No dimensions to go by.

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Interesting exercise in Match Photo. A little heavy in parts perhaps and no scale. Anyone else want to play with it, go ahead. Saved back to V2017 for accessibility.

Boston Church Cross v1,0v17.skp (332.7 KB)

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Sounds like a perfect opportunity to add another string to your bow. Learn sketchup on a special project with help from here. Teach a man to fish and all that…

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Thanks Everyone… I have attached a few more images here

This one is a little distorted due to lens flare… but its as close to straight on as I could get

So.
A quick piece of info about this church… it was erected in 1885. Built by a great patron family in the wealthy town of Milton - the next town over from Mattapan. Milton is the town where the family that owns Fidelity Investments (yes, it is a family. owned business) hails from.

The patron Family were the Lamb Family of Milton. Two sisters Lamb convinced their family to fund the founding and construction of the building. Fun fact: a major part of their wealth came from international shipping trade… and yes, you guessed it, slave shipping from Africa to Brazil and the America’s. EVEN MORE FUN FACT: When the church was built it was a completely white rural / country parish. Today however, There are but one or two white families in the Church. It is now nearly fully a minority black and brown parish fellowship.

Mattapan, the neighborhood of Boston where it lives, is one of the poorest, most under served and marginalized communities in greater Boston.

The hybridized symbol you see here of the cross / ship has profound meaning int he American History of industry, international trade, social and religious justice, and the marginalization of races in American culture.

Its a really odd place. You can learn more about the architects and background simply by googling Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan.

It was my childhood church and I have returned to it somewhat recently as my current house of worship. If I can answer any other questions, let me know. Im guessing that the cross is about human height 6ft-ish. But I don’t have a ladder long enough or a crane to get up there to measure it.

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One more minor but fun fact… there are many… the cross / ship symbol at the pique of the building points straight at Downtown / Boston Harbor… calling forth as a beacon, the population of Boston to join the parish… just fyi.

Anyplace you recommend I start learning. I agree and would love to learn more.

Andrew,

interesting project…was wondering if you might have access to that narrow window? if you could measure the height of the bottom window pane, a modeler would then have a scale to go by. Seems like an element that one could get to from the interior of the building.

Interesting modeling challenge. From the last couple of pics the o.p. posted it doesn’t look like there’s a straight vertical line for reference except for the end caps on the cross ? Everything thing else appears to have some amount of taper. Curious what the end use is for the model ?

Is the first image cropped from this one?