The End Result....

Today went really well and for the first time in a while we actually felt like we didnt have to rush as such to finish in time. We had it finished by 2.30, more than a day early :)

I finished the ridging along the roof whilst Ed stuck the bridge in place. Emerald painted the bits of the trees which had flaked off during their 'planting'.

Emerald then gave the outer skin one more coat of the matting laquor to cover the main blemishes that had appeared from more handling.

We then stuck the building down to the base, Ed stuck the figures and cars in place, peeled off the cover over the river and that was it! Done!

I am pretty happy with the result I guess, there are always things that I think I could have done better on. One thing is certain, We could'nt have pulled this off a year ago. Here are the final pics:

Now for the report......

Almost finished..

Today went very well and yesterdays issues were rectified as best possible. I think we were slightly lightheaded from araldite fumes. Im serious.

First we started to take the masking off the acrylic which took alot longer than we thought it would and resulted in some minor damage to the matting - again! We decided it wasnt a problem and that we would brush on the matting with some thinners in order to restore a more consistant finish at the end.

We all ended up getting it 99% clear by the afternoon. There were minor bits that refused to come off due to being stuck into the araldite securing the main outer sheeting. We thought it better to leave them rather than risking damaging the stregth of the structure.

Meanwhile, Ed worked on putting the trees into the base board which involved drilling into the base with 1 and 1.5 mil drill bits depending on the tree size. These looked really good once in place but require some mior painting tomorrow to replace bits that flaked off then putting them in place.

Earlier on tutor Will said we shouldnt bother cutting into the veneer to stick the model into place as it would be a minimal difference and wasnt worth it. This saved us alot of time and hastle! so we stuck the centre section for the building into place and let it dry.

Ed decided to experiment on darkening the road sections of the baseboard. He tested using pva on an off cut of veneer we had and it worked well once dry and sanded back abit. We all agreed to go ahead and use it on the lower road part of the veneer.

I experimented with using the embossing foil Ed bought to make the edging strips for the main reidges of the model. I managed to get a pretty good effect by carefully folding small strips over my ruler and pressing so it left the mesurement lines lightly embossed on the strip.

Once the building was re matted I tried them out and they worked very well. me and Emerald then spent the rest of the day putting all of the outer ones in place and they certainly add alot to the building.

Tomorrow we will hopefully finish!

Today was productive although not as good a way as I might have liked. We spent all day glueing the final aluminium sheets in place with araldite (now well and truly sick of that stuff) and making sure they fit correctly. This fitting process has been awkwards a hell. A combination of limeted supplies and difficulty in measuring the actual size of each piece has made the whole process rely alot on luck.

The building is complete apart from the edging strips which should improve its look alot. Ed Sprayed the matting again due to the original layers coming off alot with us having to handle it to fix each segment in place.

Once back from the spray room Ed noticed that the 3rd arc up was angled too high - s***! There is'nt anything we can do about it. We have neither the materials or time to rectify this problem and I can only really put it down to my bad measurments when working out the arc dimentions. In my defence there were NO frontal arc plans to work from other than the side elevation and ground floor so each arc relied on checking by eye to see if it matched the images we had.

Regardless, it's unchangable. It still looks the part overall I guess.

Ed made some more poeple for the exterior, much more detailed than mine I might add. He also sprayed them and the trees he finished yesterday. We should have the bulk of the thing together by the end of tomorrow.

Bring on the end, We're just about sick of this project!

The Final Week

Today felt much more positive than Friday. Me and emerald listen the segments left to be cut and remeasured the badly fitting ones near the back of the model. We then spent the rest of the day aralditing them to the arcs on the baseplate. This was a very time consuming with each layer of glue taking about 10-15mins to set.

By 6 0clock we had managed to cut all the segments and stick all but 6 of them. We cant start on those till Ed's backsprayed another sheet tomorrow. We hope to have them all on by tomorrows end.
Ed managed to get some embossing foil over the weekend which we are going to use on the edging for each segment. He also worked on the trees to add flock to them. they look pretty good and will be sprayed black along with some more people for the surrounding area.
4 days to go.

Thursday and Friday have been very full days of work. However, overall we didnt achieve that much frustraitingly. Ed sprayed one of the aluminium sheets on the back aswell for use with the end segments of the building as the underside is visable. He also resprayed the loading bay section which ahs now been stuck on the base plate. Ed also started work on 'flocking' the trees we made.

Me and Emerald had alot of trouble getting the aluminium to stick correctly to the arcs. This could be a major problem as they are obviously the main feature of the building. Whist trying to make the aluminium sections fit some were damaged and therefore will have to be respayed or replaced - this is another big problem as we havean extreemly limeted amount of aluminium to spare.

We discussed our options and have decided to try some contact adhesive to secure them in place on monday morning. If that doent work then we have alot of thinking to do...

The Day Ed Smiled

Today I cut out styrene supports for the window arcs. Meanwhile Ed back sprayed the arcs matte black. There was a problem with arc 6 due to it being masked off on the wrong side.

Me and emerald cut out a new arc 6 during the laser cutting session at 1.30 then gave it to Ed to backspray it. We also cut 'shelves' to sit on the front of arcs 4,5 and 6 to support the outer layer.

We then laser cut the top veneer details.

Ed laquored the aluminium to matte the colour down as emerals attempt to do it using soda over the weekend didnt work. He tested several strips of aluminium catering foil first to see how different consistencys turned out.

Me and Emerald stuck top veneer and unfortunatly messed up the last two pieces causing causing a darker patch around the edge. However after sanding it back and sanding down the rest of the board details it doesnt look too bad.

We also made trees from wire. Still have to body filler them and solder the 'trunks'.

Once the arcs were dry we began to stick the front ones in place using araldite on to a layer of double sided tape to prevent damage to the backsprayed paint. The angle of tilt although taken directly from the drawings doesnt look quite right. We'll adjust it tomorrow to meet the vac formed layers.

A very productive day!

Made people using hand cut styrene strips. Although basic, they do the job really well. I primed and sprayed them black to fit in with the other details on our model.

Made loading bay from styrene with a simple door detail. As this is just a feture of the bigger model we feel there isnt any need for over detailing in this area as it isnt essential to the peception of how the building fits on to the rive bank.

I primed it and ed gave it a coat of the grey paint we used for the main interior section. Unfortunatly some dust got onto the surface whilst it was drying so we'll have to give it another coat tomorrow. Despite this I'm quite happy with it so far.

Laser Cut arcs eventually. Ed Ward overbooked the laser which really slowed our progress this afternoon. We managed to get on and cut the arcs (see pic below) out just before the workshop closed.

Ed Ward said he'd booked us for tomorrow instead so we can still make use of that booking to do the veneer for the top layer detailing.

Ed did alot of testing for both the backsprayed arcs (using the test ones we cut last week) and the Aluminium outer skin (see pic below). He also began testing the glue to use on the arc supports which has to be contact adhesive because of the paint being in direct contact.

Emerald Vac formed the final arcs, cut and sanded them down to proep them for sticking.

She also edited veneer files on the computer ready for laser cutting tomorrow afternoon.