We are sure that most of you are Lord of the Rings fans, however, your fan level is not quite high enough. Before you get offended, check out what Pat Acton of Matchstick Marvels has done! This guy dedicated more than 3 years and a total of 420,000 matchsticks for creating a scale model of the Minas Tirith – white city of Gondor in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
Acton has been making matchstick models for quite a long time now, he worked with these in the late 1970s first. His first model was that of a church. Ever since then, he has crafted a total of 65 models that concern art, machinery and architecture. He has used a total of 4 million matchsticks for this purpose so far.
A number of Acton’s masterpieces are housed in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Actually, the company has purchased a large amount of his work. Minas Tirith, however, is situated in the Matchstick Marvels Museum located in Gladbrook, Iowa. Apart from the 420,000 matchsticks, the city is also supported with 24,000 wooden blocks which constitute the mountain from which the city emerges.
The 7-level model has been detailed to perfection and includes Tree of Gondor along with the Tower of Ecthelion at the top. Acton uses matchsticks without sulfur heads thus making it easy for the layering. He also uses needle-nose pliers to create curved shapes out of matchsticks. He has been in the business for too long and has some amazing aces up his sleeves when it comes to creating models from matchsticks.
