themodelmaker

Bartholomew church model is almost ready. It needs some paint in few places, base with surrounding and display case.

Few photos of my current project. Its house from animated movie Coraline. Its in scale 1:160, made of paper and cardboard. Its still work in progress. My next stage is paint roof, fix gutters make base with terrain, porch and finally add all remaining details.

Here you have few pictures of my finished scale model of Carl’s little flying victorian house from new Disney Pixar animation Up.

Here you have the most recent addition to my model collection. This is N-scale scratchbuilt model of flying house from the new  Pixar movie “Up”. I haven’t seen the movie yet (still not open in cinemas in Ireland) but I loved the trailer and this colorful piece of architecture.  I needed to have it in real 3d…  The design was simple, I based on pictures, movies from youtube and cut out toy from official Disney Pixar website. I started last Friday, all parts were ready on Saturday. It was going to be weekend project. So far its two weekends project and I am not yet satisfied with my paint job. I will post more photos from different angles later.

I was asked by people from forum pixarplanet.com how was it made and blueprints. Here are my drawings with all of my parts to give you better idea what was involved in process of creating it.

First drawing is prepared to be cut on 1.5mm cardboard. The blue lines are cut to 0.5 mm,  yellow is the engraving of panels on the door. I glued the parts together, I prepared little holes and joints, so all walls are at right angles and in exact positions and its quite rigid construction.

Second page is cut on 0.5 paper. Its another layer to cover joints and create window frames. I engraved the boards on the walls, but later decided that I want better 3d effect, so I covered it with overlapping stripes of paper.

Last page is with 3 types of shingles and boards for wall and is cut out of 0.3mm paper.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask on my email or post a comment.

All of my moulds are finished. This is my first cast assembled.  It is painted with base colours. It will take a lot of time to paint and weather it. I will describe this process later in short tutorial.

Most of my parts are already done. This is my first  cast assembled and primed white. You see here 9 main parts and another 8 small details. I need to pour the silicone on 2 more pieces and I can finish this model.

This is my favourite part of the building. I think that asymmetrical tower captured my attention when I was passing by that church. It has 8  little columns on the perimeter and looked complicated at first moment, but it was very easy to make.

I started with 50 cross sections laser cut in 1.5mm cardboard. Then  filled spaces between pillars with green stuff and sculpted stone. It will be primed later and cast as single resin part.

Those are my first casts of 3 finished parts.  I used polyurethane Axson F16 resin. Very quick de-moulding time (2.5m pot life, de-mould 20 – 30 minutes).  It has low viscosity so  it flows like water to all details.  Silicone mould rubber T20. Its hard to get those materials here in Dublin so I ordered it at http://www.tiranti.co.uk.  It arrived quickly and well packed. The bad surprise was delivery cost over 20£ for 4 kg parcel.

This is the project I am working at the moment. It is Saint Bartholomew Church on the Clyde Road located in Balsbridge in Dublin. When I first saw this building few months ago, something captured my attention. Was it the location? Its stands on the triangular land surrounded by red brick houses converted to embassies. Hard to believe that when it was built in 1867 it was open fields.

The church was designed by an English architect, Thomas Henry Wyatt in a Gothic Revival for Sidney Herbert, of the Earls of Pembroke. The original design was never completed, the unusual octagonal tower never received its intended spire.

I am building the laser cut cardboard master in scale 1:160 (N scale). I am going to make moulds of finished pieces and cast it in resin. I will see how many copies my moulds can handle. I will offer them on eBay sometime in future. That will be very limited edition. If anyone is interested, send me an e-mail: architecturalmodelmaker@gmail.com or check this blog to see the progress.