(Pronounced nomm-day-moon) in Seoul, South Korea. It is also called Sungnyemun.
This is the South Gate of the wall that used to surround the city in the time of the Cho-seon dynasty.
The gate dates back to the 14th century.
My wife is from South Korea, so I have visited the country several times, and have had the opportunity to see this impressive structure up close and personal.
The gate features two distinct sections:
The base structure, made from hewn stone, and the upper pagoda section, made of ornately carved and painted wood.
I chose to model the gate as it appeared up until 2008, when a deranged man who was upset by the government set fire to the upper wood section, destroying it completely. The structure was rebuilt between 2010-13, featuring a new section of adjoining walls that are closer to how the old original walls once appeared.
The scale of this model build was based on one LEGO element: a 1x6x2 arch brick. This part defines the top of the stone entryway arches, and establish the scale of the model at approximately 1:88.
By utilizing photo scaling techniques using pictures found on the internet, I was able to derive the major dimensions of the building.
The stonework base construction was fairly straight forward, consisting of four walls, a parapet, two side doors and a flat roof.
It wasn't until I got to the top structure that things started to get dicey.
It took me no less than six build/tear-down cycles before I was able to get the roof sections to exhibit the right slope and upward curvature of the edges. I was finally able to pull it off using creative plate layering
Pagoda details....
The original building is incredibly detailed.
Far beyond what can be modeled with even the smallest of LEGO elements.
The undersides of the roof structures are filled with highly ornate carved wood beams and panels, all intricately painted in bright reds, blues, greens and oranges.
In the LEGO world, these details can only be hinted at with judiciously placed small elements.
Same goes for the myriad small intricacies of the tiled rooftops.
As a final touch to the main building, I found a photo of the plaque over the gateway that reads "Sungnyemun" in Chinese characters. I reduced the image on my printer to the size of a 1x2 tile. The sign was attached with double sided tape, and the tile mounted at the proper angle with small clip and bar elements.
Finishing the model required building the side wall segments, steps, and vegetation areas.
Lots of plate elements required here.
All in all, I am very pleased at how nice and remarkably close to scale this model turned out
I didn't keep track, but I estimate well over 800 parts in my model. I was very lucky to have on hand most all the elements in nearly the right colors to pull the whole project off.
Lastly, here are some pictures I took of Namdaemun during my first ever visit to South Korea in May of 1980:
Cheers!
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