Let's have a little faith...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Churches. Why are these so scarce? I see about two dozen kits on Walthers, but the vast majority are repurposed wood residential homes with a steeple. That may work for the bible belt's Baptist communities, but there are large, brick or stone churches all over the US, especially in the larger cities.

Looking back at the Walthers site, the only one that really fits this size and style is the Kibri "Cathedral" which is admittedly, one hell of a great kit. Everything else is too small, to European or both.

We could use a few more choices.
Can I get an amen?

[Bobster]

Daniel,

I'll give you an Amen.  I have the old Model Power wood church, but it could pass for a schoolhouse too.  I've seen a modern one with a cross in the roof too beside the Kibri cathedral.  Something well done and in a medium size would be good.  A bit more variety would be nice.

Thank you,
Bobster

[Specter3]

Yes, if you are modeling a downtown area you need downtown style churches as well.

[thomasjmdavis]

Appropriate conversation for a Sunday morning...

Vollmer also makes a cathedral style church http://www.vollmer-online.de/en/articles/art_7760.html and several smaller churches.  Once upon a time, Kibri, Faller and Vollmer between them had quite a few, many based on real European structures (which is ok, many of the larger US churches are copies or near copies of European structures).  Current business practices being what they are, I would suspect that they are cycling through small batches and at any given time, only a small percentage of the total catalog is actually available.

Lots of laser cut wood kits are also available.

In stock as I write this at MBK-

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-Structures-s/1440.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1440&show=30&page=1&search=%20church

A quick search for "church" under N scale: Structures on the big online auction site brought up 144 hits.  Many of those were the latest from Tomytec and that little one from Lifelike.  But scattered among them were a couple dozen interesting options.

[jpwisc]

As long as they build enough bars to keep up with the churches. Across Wisonsin and Minnesota, any time two roads met in a rural area, there would be one church and one to three bars on the other corners.

[C855B]

Fascinating topic. US churches especially in the last 50 years probably keep half the architects in the country employed. As a former organist, I have more than the usual appreciation for the architectural genre.

The Tomytec "9th Street Baptist" is strictly a Southwest psuedo-mission style. I would not be surprised if it was modeled after a specific church in East Los Angeles. I did the same searches you guys did, and aside from the way-too-compressed Atlas "Modern Church" and the handful of country-style clapboard one-rooms, there ain't nothin'. Daniel's "too European" is right on.

In our travels, the most common style for pre-1960 in-town churches is red brick with stone accents, and they are frequently the largest structure in town. Frankly, the style is somewhat generic, and really ought to have appeal for commercial mass production. This is one thing that, to me, is so absent in MRR town scenes. The church usually defines the local skyline in the real world.

HO has the same problem. The best representation I could find for this style was an old AHM "courthouse" where the clock tower could easily become a belltower and steeple. But like every other model I found, it was highly compressed and simply didn't have the architectural mass [pun intended] that churches have relative to nearby structures, typically.

[bman]

Well,  if your modeling a more modern era,  you could use just about anything.  Here in Columbus, I've seen single story public school buildings converted(built originally in the 1960's)  larger retail storefronts, warehouses, and even large houses with a metal partition build on the back for the Sunday meetings.  I always seem to see something that makes me think, "wait, that's a church now?" when I am driving around areas of town I do not visit often.  But then I don't venture out of my 'burb often I don't drive that much anymore.  But nothing beats the architecture of the churches built in the downtown areas IMHO.

[C855B]

Here's a perfect example that would make a great model. We see this style bloomin' everywhere:

[dnhouston]

I will give a hearty amen to that.

Roger Holmes did a very nice kitbash to create his church 
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35183.msg411318#msg411318

[Bendtracker1]

Well,  if you're modeling a more modern era,  you could use just about anything. 

We've got several older grocery stores that have been converted to a church.  One you wouldn't know it was a grocery store, the other it's blatantly obvious.

Close by there is an old movie theater that has been revitalized to working condition, they even rent it out for Sunday morning services and even advertise the service hours on the marquee.

[up1950s]

This is pretty churchy to me .

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/kib/kib37025.htm

[rickb773]

Tomy Tec calls this a Congregational church but it sure looks Catholic to me.
It is a stand in for St Patrick's RC Church in Woodbury.




It is a better stand-in than the Presbyterianish church (that I like better) that used to be there.

[casmmr]

I really like the picture submitted by C855B, that building done by DPM would be great.  We really do need something other than 1 room churches.  You can always try to scratch build some of the larger wooden churches that you might see while out driving around the rural areas.  Remember that most larger churches were build in the form of a cross with the doors at the bottom and the altar at the top with seating in the cross members.  The roof takes some time to get right due to the angles involved.  Methodists seemed to build wood, Lutherans, brick, RC's depending upon where in Europe they came from, I have seen wood, brick, stone, even cement block.

[C855B]

Tomy Tec calls this a Congregational church but it sure looks Catholic to me. ...

Suggests an extreme compression of two Congregational churches I'm familiar with in the Los Angeles area. The big rose window seems to be a "thing" with this primarily-West Coast denomination.

[glakedylan]

this one is almost the same as the Lutheran Church in my hometown


https://www.walthers.com/ditzingen-church-6-1-4-x-3-13-16-quot-16-x-9-8cm-4cbf53#


I think I have the kit, as well...if you want it for fair price send me a PM


respectfully
Gary