Moments In Great But Obscenely Useless Nerdery

This is Patrick Acton and his model of Minas Tirith. More specifically, this his model of Minas Tirith made entirely out of matchsticks. Yes, for the last three years, Acton has been gluing matchsticks together to make this incredibly detailed and stunningly accurate model of the great Lord of the Rings fortress/city, and expects he has about a year to go.

I don’t want to knock Acton for spending years making a Lord of the Rings model. I’d be hard-pressed to say he didn’t spend his time better than I did, since I just drank and played videogames and I don’t even have a big-ass model to show for it. However, I do want to ask Acton one question: why matchsticks?

Matchsticks can’t have been an easier building material than clay or plaster. Plus, neither of those will crumble at a mildly forceful touch or go up in flames if someone accidentally drops a cigarette butt around it. If you’re going to spend four-plus years making something, why not make sure it’s going to stick around a while? Plus, if you use a real material, you get to call yourself an artist — and exceptionally nerdy artist with too much time on his hands, but an artists nonetheless. You use matchsticks, and you’re just the creepy matchstick dude.

Just sayin’, man. Just sayin’. (More pics at Geekologie)