Dr Abby Armstrong

I feel seen by this thread.
(Pleeeeeeease give me this abbreviation in its non-abbreviated form elsewhere 🙏)
*Minus running the manuscript through transkribus because my MSS are usually not hundreds of folios thankfully

Thanks Leonie! It brightened my day

It’s always great receiving random emails from people who’ve enjoyed your work and found it useful.
Receiving such an email today has made my day 🤗 especially as I’ve been struggling a bit recently

Notre Dame is complete and it is beautiful! 😍
Bonus pics to show off how magnificent this set is. So intricate. So detailed.

Annoyingly many typos in this thread but I blame it on the sore fingers and thumbs from trying to stick together all the tiny Lego pieces

Notre Dame is complete. Spire has been added to the roof. Also twelve statues representing the apostles look out over Paris. Except the one with the face of one of the main restorers who admires the spire. Greenery also added along the side of Notre Dame.

Bags 33 and 34. The last pieces. Notre Dame is now the tallest building in Paris until the Eiffel Tower is built. Restoration of 1843-60 adds the 12 apostles to the roof. 1 of the statues has the face of Viollet-le-Duc who faces the spire rather than watching over the rest of Paris like the others

Lego Notre Dame cathedral with far more spiky pinnacles added around the rounded east end on the flying buttresses and along the nave

Bags 31 and 32. Yup fiddly stuff. We jump 100 years to 1350 with pinnacles replaced (or added in the Lego version) on the uprights of the flying buttresses. Jumping even further forward to the 19th century restorations we have tabernacles added atop the flying buttresses along the nave

Complete construction of the Lego Notre Dame. Roof completed.

Bags 29 and 30. The roof is done!
We have now reached 1245 with the completion of the overall structure. 🎉
I feel like the remaining bags are now going to be fiddly decorative touches 😬

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#IMC2026

Bell towers added on top of the west end

Bags 26, 27 and 28. Back to the bell towers. Accidentally put the ‘bells’ in upside down on the first one and had to redo it 😅

Roof added over the nave of Lego Notre Dame

Bag 25. What? Not finishing the towers?! Adding on the roof over the nave instead

Okay I’ve left it on the coffee table this afternoon post build and every time I’ve walked past it I have to admit that those wand pillars look really good. Worth the faff and fiddlyness

Only the LEGO versions 😅

It’s a beauty!

It’s a beauty! I love all the tidbits of historical and architectural information provided by the instructions too

Towers now a level higher than the nave. Lots of columns

Bag 24. Another level of the towers. Still no bells but a whole load of columns.

Less fun bag this one. Those lovely columns were made using 40 tiny wands which had to be set at different angles.

The two towers starting to protrude from the west end

Bag 23. The towers continue. We’re somewhere between 1225 and 1245 (when the towers were complete).
Towers up another level with sturdy to supports to hold the weight of the bells on the next level (I assume)

Continuing building the towers of the west entrance higher to the level of the nave. Another rose window added

Bag 22. Another rose window added. Up we continue to build.
Sadly the galley of kings represented by cones and other round elements rather than mini figures. To be honest the minifigs would have been very mini and would have had to hold a reasonable load as the towers continue up in the next bag

Returning to the west facade building up those towers and adding in some more windows

Returned from Leeds IMC to find the Notre Dame on display in its 1225 unfinished glory.
Taking that as a hint, construction has resumed 😅

Bag 21. Returning to the west end. Building up the towers above the main portals

Thanks for chairing Leonie! It was a great panel

Abby holding a copy of Approching Records of the Household and Wardrobe in front of the Routledge stand at the book fair

Just little old me and my little new book at Leeds IMC.

A free copy was available at the stand when I stopped by!

Jumbo flying buttresses lining the nave of Lego Notre Dame

Bag 20. Adding in a whole load more flying buttresses. The pieces actual have holes in them mimicking the water channels in the real thing. We’ve made it to 1225 now

Ribbed vaulting ready to hold up the roof of Lego Notre Dame

Bag 19. Adding in the ribbed vaults and more arched windows. Such attention to detail that they follow the original with a transverse rib at every second capital

Minimal additions visible from birds eye view of Notre Dame as all attention of large round rose windows to the north and south

View from the south side of Notre Dame. Large round rose window above a doorway. Lots of flying buttress action on display (both big and small)

Bag 18. All about the north and south rose windows.
Made an exception and included a picture from the side to show these beauties. Sadly lacking in colour though. May have to get my coloured pens out 😅

Roof added over pillars of first floor of Lego Notre Dame

Bag 17. More pillars went in to hold up the roof. Also added in the arches over the west doors

Lego notre dame. More roof aspects added

Bag 16. Been a busy few couple of weeks so I’m happy to be able to get back to this for a little bit this afternoon.
Working on building up the roof and adding more mini flying buttresses

If anyone is interested in working at CSMC and has any questions, I’m happy to try and answer them

Building up the front of the west end and starting to build the next floor up on top of all the supporting pillars

Bag 15. Building up the front of the west end with the arches (not the best angle for this) and already putting another level on top of all those pillars

Pillars added to the nave and starting to build up and enclose the west end

Bag 14. We’re up to 1208 with work continuing on the nave and preparing the foundations of the west towers. Lots of pillars gone in.

Building up the walls from the now constructed east end towards the west along the nave

Bag 13. Building the walls of the nave westwards

North and south doors added

Bag 12. Adding in the north and south doors.
Supposedly we’ve reached 1182. A temporary wall was added to protect the choir from the remaining construction in the transept and nave as we build further west