Matchsticks Sculptures

With a background in carer counselling at a community college in Marshalltown, Patrick Acton aka (The Matchmaker) has recently retired and taken on Sculpting / Model-making full time.  He has constructed some amazing models that include Minas Tirith (from Lord of the Rings) Hogwarts School (from Harry Potter), The International Space Station, Notre Dame Cathedral (famous Cathedral in Paris France), to name a few.  All the stats and information are in the article but just think, it took 420,000 matchsticks to create the city above.  You can go and see is amazing work at the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Centre in Iowa.  Once in the article you can enlarge the image by pressing it (not the first one).

Minas Tirith.
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Matchstick model of J.R.R. Tolkien's City of Kings, Minas Tirith, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This construction took nearly 3 years to complete, utilising about 420,000 matchsticks.

Minas Tirith.
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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The Famous school from J.K. Rowling's book Harry Potter.  In its construction, 600,000 matchsticks were used, held together with 15 gallons of carpenter's wood glue.   It took 2 and a half years to complete and it was recreated using the Hollywood screen adaptation of the story as a blueprint.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Detail.
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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Detail.
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International Space Station.
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It took 1950 hours to complete, requiring 282,000 matchsticks held together with 8 gallons of wood glue.  The model was built 1/26 scale of the original that is displayed, two images below.

International Space Station Sleeping Quarters.
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Two additional models were made at 1/13 scale, of the original size with cutouts to show sleeping quarters for the Russian and the Europeans cosmonauts.

International Space Station, The Real Thing.
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Notre Dame Cathedral.
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Acton originally got the idea for this build, 10 years prior to commencing the work, but struggled to find sufficient information and details for him to construct the structure.
When he eventually started it took him 2 years to complete and used 298,000 matchsticks.  Even though it isn't his biggest model, Acton considers this his most detailed to date.

Notre Dame Cathedral.
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Notre Dame Cathedral.
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Notre Dame Cathedral Detail.
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Notre Dame Cathedral Detail.
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