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.

Me and Emerald made Interior balcony barriers and stuck them in place. Booked Laser for 1.30 tomorrow to cut the final arcs. Must adjest the drawings again before taking them over. This requires just moving them around to fit the piee of acrylic I have to use.

Emerald made escelators and tested fitting the arcs to the vac forms on the sketch model.

They fit alright but a couple need modifying. This may not be aproblem on the final model as the vac forms will be out of sight and therefore dont have to be particually well presented as long as they provide the support they're suppost to.

Me and Emerald came up with a weekly time table of jobs to do from the list I compiled over the weekend.

Today I laser cut the arcs again due to the first batch being scratched and then accidentally damaged when I spilt a bottle of Dychlo. These however were cut in the wrong material which made them go yellow annoyingly so I have to cut them again as soon as possible next week.

I did however make use of them by applying them at the correct angles to a styrene base board.
The angles seem fine apart from the first one but I suspect its an error in cutting the guides for the angle.

Emerald has taken some samples of the aluminium outer skin to test dulling them down using baking powder at home (We think baking powder! She'll check online before testing)

Ed didnt come in.

In Brief:

• I Spray painted the base in a light grey colour
• Adjusted Rhino arc drawings due to some mistakes on the first ones.
• Tested cutting them out on 3mil acrylic.
• Laser cut all of the pieces and the front glass sections.

Emerald added step edges to the vac form sketch model and re vac formed them all to give a crisper edge to cut to.

Ed came up with ideas as to how to represent the bridge section on the base board, Drew some ideas and then made several mock ups.

Today I adjusted the Rhino drawings to fit the top of the bigger arcs more convincingly. This went swiftly but we were unable to get on the laser cutter due to full bookings so Ive booked on for tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak on earlier.

Emerald finished the back of the clear sketch model and revac formed certain sections of the model to be used on the final structure.

The rest of the team agreed with my idea to split each section at the point to allow better manipulation of each segment. This was an issue because the vac formed molds wernt accurate enough but still hold the required shape to do the job we need them for.

Me and Emerald learnt how to make 'trees' for the model and will start next week or whenever the outer skin on the main building is complete.

Edward finished the front of the base board river and veneering. It looks really good. We are keeping the masking tape over the river to ensure it doent get damaged between no and hand in!

Ed also did some laquer testing to matt down the sheets of aluminum. It went alright but we need to test some more mixtures before we get it just right I think.

I mixed up the colour for the interior and have enough stored in a jar most likely for use tomorrow, then once dry we can press on with interior detailing.

We added to the list of 'to do's' which has made the path alot clearer for the next week. Hopefully we will get the bulk of the main build completed by Friday or at most, early next week.

The week of non stop effort to get the bulk of the project finished hasnt really started. Ed Didnt turn up till the afternoon and Emerald was feeling ill.

I did however have a go at laser cutting card tester acrs for the glass sections behind each step in the building. These came out alright with only the biggest 2 sections needing adjustment.

I feel that the model would be much more structurally sound if we use the 'glass arcs' as ribs to support the vac formed sections (also better in individual sections I think) and in turn the outer Aluminium sheeting.

Hopefully we'll be achiving alot more tomorrow.

I made Rhino drawings for the 'window arc' sections that sit inside each of the segments.


I'll get them cut next week, first out of card then if the fit correctly which they should, cut them out of acrylic.


Me and Emeral vac formed the building segments again and did a whole building example to test for fit with the internal floorplates.


Emerald tested the outer skin with the segments to see how they fit. They seem ok but may need 'personal' adjustment when it comes to the final model. The finish of the aluminium is also too shiny which we didnt account for before hand.

The material looked much more matted when it was in the packaging. We will try test pieces with wire wool and or dipping them in water with baking soda(we think but will check before hand obviously) to dull down the finish,




Ed didn't come in.

19th November

Me and Ed began putting the veneer on to the base board. It looks really nice. Tomorrow we will finish it and test some of the aluminum sheeting on the arcs.

I sanded down the forming blacks that emerald used to vac form. The biggest one isnt sanded to the correct angle and is too far gone to adjust. We may have to make that one again but need to discuss it as a group tomorrow.

If the vac forms dont work we may have to look for an alternate method of working to get the arcs to stay in shape. Tomorrow should be quite fruitful with any luck.

The wooden former model looks fantastic made of plywood. Shame we hadnt considered that for a final finish.

Bristol for CE

I was in Bristol visiting Amalgam Display Ltd.

Emerals finished sanding all of the former blocks but there are a few that arnt straight along the point that the arcs meet. She also made vac formed test of all of the parts which look really good. Still need to adjust them abit so we can use them as supports.

We previously looked at a few different samples of veneer several of which are shown on this samples chart. (http://pcwwc.com/8.html)

Ed began to cut the basic shapes out of veneer to ensure nobody used the teak sheet we wanted!

13/11/09: I picked up 4 seheets of the aluminium we are going to use for the outer sheeting on the model. We have only planned to use 3 but we felt it better to have more just in case cause we may not be able to go to 4d models again before the deadline.

Today I re-filled the floorplates and sanded them down followed by a primer coating. Apart from possibly ajusting then slightly to make sure they fit inside the 'shell', they are pretty much ready to be sprayed their final colour coat.

I drew the Rhino drawings for the scrylic sections that will sit at the front of the model to represent the glass entrance hall. Testing them in paper seems to fit well but with the final acrylic they will have to be bent slightly to fit the outer radious.

Ed remade the water acrylic section for the base board and backsprayed it black.

Thinking further ahead, we thing black trees and surrounding detail would fit best due to the river being represented as black.

Emerald worked more on getting the arcs of the shell correct. They seem to be taking a long time and its extreemly frustraiting that we havent had the correct drawings to work from in the first place.

Tomorrow we must meet some bigger goals, preferably the initial test cuts for the out shell and then the testing of the internal model which will then allow me to go on and spray it the final colour and add firther detail.

I'll tell Ed to start cutting the veneer cause theres no point in waiting any longer, jobs need to be done asap.

If possible I'll transfer the rhino drawings to illustrator and send them to Ed in the laser room to check over and then we can cut them. Once cut out we will have to make a former to bend them to in order to fit the model correctly.

Today we achived quite alot.

Emerald scaled the site plan drawings on rhino and laser cut them from car to test for fit.

She also made the arc patterns out to test how they will fit on the sheet or aluminum - taking into account that each one has lines running virticle up to the top edge. This poses a problem as each section tapers slightly and therefore we can only fit so many on each sheet.
Test Card versions look very good!

Edward continued to work on the base board. He cut the acrylic 'water' section and back sprayed it black but may have to redo it due to a smudge on the paint - it still looks good if you ask me.

I finished the floor plates which are much stronger than the .5mil ones I made earlier in the project. I filled the gaps within the styrene and sanded them down. They now need to be checked over, if nessisary filled and sanded in parts again then once rimed they need a coat of light grey before i can put on the railings and escelators.

Tomorrow I am going to London as part of CE, I will pick up 3 sheets of the Aluminium from 4D so we can start on the outerskin on Monday.

No real progress

Emerald was unable to get the aluminium sheeting from 4D over the weekend so we went to Channel 4 models to see what they had. No luck, they recommended that we try 2 companies in southampton called Alco and Alcan (aparently once the same but split off to go in seperate directions - one cheap one expensive) - However I can find no trace of them online.

I'm going to London on Thursday as part of my CE project so I'll stop by and pick them up on the Friday morning.

I feel we are running out of time without realising it. Tomorrow we will focus on getting the floorplates together and see how they hold up to a full paint job and whoever isnt working on that will be planning the baseboard laser cut outs and cutting vaneer and acrylic to fit to the base board.

We can't afford to waste another day without making any progress what with other projects on the horizon and a no doubt busy workshop over the coming weeks.

Last few days..

We are extending the base board yet again to add abit more river after seeing photos of the bride and surrounding are we discussed making the base abit bigger and settled on adding approx 10mm to the river (small but Ed seems alot happier with this!)

I bought some White Primer from Halfords for the floor plates. Cut out 95% of the floor plate parts and have white primed the seperate levels. Just need to stick the 5th floor walls on and then spray the final colour before sticking them all together to see how it looks. The styrene was 0.5mm thick and is therefore quite flimsy when standing alone, We hope that it will be stregthened by the multiple floor layers and some wooden supposts I have put in.

The Worst case scenario is I will redo them all in thicker styrene. If it comes to it at least Ive done it once so know the floor layouts ect.

Emerald has had some trouble getting the radiai for the individual shell segments (This whole issue is down the the lack of detailed plans! - AGAIN!). After speaking to tutor Will, we have decided to construct the outer shell as we se fit then make each 'semi circle' of acrylic window section to fit.

Above: The Mock up model with styrene segments for a more defined arc for measurement.

Our attempts at finding a supplier for the aluminum sheeting didnt go very far and due to the ongoing postal strikes we have opted to just buy it from 4D models in London. Emerald will go and pick some up when shes at home over the weekend.

Today I began putting the walls of each floor plate together. This took ALL DAY! and I still havent finished them! Another stupidly detailed part that often gets overlooked but without it the model would look unfinished!

Emerald began working out rediai for the arcs of the building but went home early as she wasnt feeling well.

Edward put the base board together and began to fill and sand it.

I asked the workshop about getting veneers who said it costs £75 per meter and a half!

I asked Will who said the studio have a supply of different types which we could use - thank god for that.

We decided that Emerald will pick up 3 sheets of the Aluminium sheeting over the weekend from 4d models as we want to know we have it in time and as soon as possible really (more postal strikes on the way)

Need to get Plastic Primer!

• Extended the base board dimentions from 330 squared to 330x400mm to include more of the surrounding area. After placing the card model on the 330x330mm board ed suggested we change the size as we realised how close to the edge the building was.
• Cut out floorplates and planned the walls for each one.
• Emerald made patterns for the side skin pieces which we will use to cut the final skin.
• A friend of mine who lives in Glasgow kindly went to take some more specific photographs of the building for us which turned out very well (despite not being able to get in the building).

TO DO'S

• Cut and arrange floors joining walls with dychlo
• Assemble Base Board
• Find Source to buy outer skin material we saw in 4D London
• Find source for veneers (ask turors and workshop first)

London

4D models: we found some 1:400 figures and cars and sheets of aluminium with etched lines running across it - perfect for that we need for the exterior of the secc but we will have to check on scale and wether or not we can get away with it regardless of scale. We have made note of the product codes to check online for potential discounts or cheaper sources.

Saw several interesting models in the

design museum today. gave us some ideas regarding the finish of the model and how the main subject will meet and 'connect' (as in look like its supposed to be there astheticly) to the base.

Of perticular interest was the way in which 'water' covered areas met the edge of the baseboard. We will discuss this as a group tomorrow (See right).

Progress!

Today was productive.

• I scaled up the side elevation and plan whilst Ed printed the site plans.
• We had a few issues scaling up the drawings. Taking the 1:500 drawing back to 1:1 and then down to 1:400 gave us and overall length of 318.75mm. This was fine but in order to enlarge the 1:500 drawings up we needed a percentage which confused us all for a while. The percentage of increase must be 25% rather than the 20% we had calculated. This may seem reletively minor but it really set us back just because we couldnt make sense of it! (we still don't understand quite why it was 25% rather than the increase of 20% from the 1:500 drawings!)
• Once we had the site plan emeraled scaled it up to 1:400 and we began planning what exactly we wanted to include on the base board.
• We decided on overall dimentions of 330mm² at a height of 90mm at the 'high point' of the board and 60mm for the river level.
• Decided on construction of the baseboard and Ed cut out the peices.
• Me and Emerald made a sketch mock up of the model at scale 1:400 to use as a guide in constucting our model.

Overall a productive day. Next come issues with the finish look of the model on the baseboard.

Slow Progress

Having recieved no response from any of the emails and or phonecalls we made we have collectivly decided to start from scratch and focus our ideas onto idea 1.

To set it apart from a previous example on display in the studio we are going to scale up the model to 1:400 making it 319mm in length - considerably bigger than the previous example.

(I suggested a scale of 1:450 initially but Will reccomended that we round it up to 1:400 as that is a more commonly used scale)

This change of plan means that our reasons for the model must also change and will no longer be aimed at demonstating structural details but will focus on representing the building in relation to its immediate surroundings showing other details at equal scale.

We may also include parts of the surrounding buildings but will only replesent them in basic 'block' form.

This plan greatly reduces our need for detailed structural and floor layout plans and should mean we can now focus on getting the drawings right and finalising our concept.

Tomorrow we will begin planning the baseboard and hope to have it cut or partly constructed by the end of the day.

Thinking of change

Still no reply from any contacts we have made.

I emailed the BA Archetecture course leader who responed quickly but was of no help to our cause only suggesting the routes we have already taken.

Emerald contacted the Edinborough office of ARUP last night to try to track down the structural engineer who worked on the Clyde Auditorium (based in Edinborough). Aparently he is away on holiday.

Its looking like we need to steer this project in a new direction due to the lack of detailed plans.

Group decided on a deadline to start on a new outlook - Monday morning. If we have not managed to get plans by monday morning then we will go to 'plan B' and effectivly restart our design thinking.

Printed cross section and ground floor plans scaled to 1:150 (deciding that our initial plan for a scale of 1:100 was too big)
No response from either email.
Rang ARUP (consultants on SECC) and sent an email requesting structural plans.
Group agree to begin thinking in a new direction due to the possibility we won't be able to get plans soon enough.
Tutorial with Paul Johnson:
Agrees on idea 4 but on the condition we have better plans for reference.
For the purpose of this model (showing structural construction) we should work at our original scale of 1:100 (if we do stay with idea 4).

Group have discussed moving away from representing the whole building and on to showing larger scaled section of the building (going further down the explanitory/engineering route we looked at in AR project 2)

Also discussed adding a 'cut away' section to emphasise the structural detail - essentially to make our models focus more on the building 'skeleton' and how it works.
Further Ideas:

4. Entrance area with 'glass' front section and structural detail.
5. 'Slice' through of the building (showing an internal slice of the interior details?)
Emerald found a full ground floor plan of the Auditorium through the SECC events organisation page (needs to be scaled - Group still undecided!)
After disscussing plans further we have decided to scale our model to 1:100

Emailed Foster and Partners enquiring about getting hold of more detailed plans.

I briefly discussed our idea 4 with Will Strange who said (in brief):
May still be too detailed
Get fully Scaled drawings ASAP
Make sketch models from card or wood off cuts to demonstrate construction ideas

(Edward ill)

Group tutorial with Will:

Remember to collect Drawings ect for sketchbook/file research

Do research on similar models and print pictures used for reference as we disigned the model.


Me and emerald decided to create a former to make vacformed 'ribs' to support the outer skin of the model.
We made the formers out of plywood which we then bandsawed down and sanded the radius. This brough several problems with arcs not meeting. We got kicked out of the workshop before we could finish.

12th - 16th October

Project 2: Team task

This task took us a day of wasting time trying to find plans before we finally got started but it went well as soon as we did.
The task was to build a 1:20 scale model of one of the structeral 'trees' that makes up the Renault Building in Swindon (below).

Initially we couldnt get going sue to the lack of plans of any kind! So we brainstormed ideas and came up with a plan to make a corner section with part of the roof to show how it was constructed in relation the the structural elements. This seemed like a great idea until we actually got our head round the scale the day after and realised it would be nearly a meter high! Way too big for a now less than 4 day project. so we scaled down our ideas to projuce just a section of the structural tree. We decided to focus on the central joining mounts that held the 'arms' of each tree on the the mounts.
Will brought in a book on Tuesday specifically about the Renault Building with detailed plans which got the project flowing fast.
Once scaled correctly, me and emerald began to cut out pieces of the 'steel' I bars from styrene whilst Ed worked on lathing the main pole that was to hold the whole thing together,
Emerald worked on the mounting rings whilst I made the main flat sections with circular cut outs and drilled holes for mounting bolts.
Ed moved on to start making the base board when he had completed the main pole. We decided to make the top surface from backsprayed acrylic to reflect the view of the underside of the model. This was to emphasise the detail and make viewers aware of just how much there was.
The main arms came together quickly and as me and emerald assembled the parts Ed worked on illustraitor to make data files for the circular sections we had decided to get laser cut.
This eventually proved useless as none of us had used the laser cutter before and were under the impression we could be talked through what to do as we did it. This wasnt the case so we abandoned that idea and Emeraled found an acrylic tube that unbelievable fit the holes almost perfectly.

Ed cut out the rings that would form the upper and lower suppost rings but they needed to be cut down to individual sections which would take up more time and didnt get finished till the next day.

Emerald came up with the idea of hand drilling small holes into wooden dowel to allow us to moung copper wire in 'mounts' on the top and bottom on each support arm. These were stuck in the correct position on top and i cut out small sections of each one to be mounted on angles at the bottom. We primed all the parts that were completed and left them for the night.
The next day I finished sticking the mount support rings on and we primed the main pole and mounting brackets. Me and Ed then painted all of the parts in what was conveniently a ready mixed yellow. The model needed 3 coats before we decided it would be easier to stick it together and spray an overall coating to get everything covered at once.

Assembly proved to be difficult and we ended up slightly compromising on our original plan by mounting the arms against the mounting brackets rather than having then sticking up in the middle. This was unfortunate but we were running out of time and the finished product does the job very well regardless.

After one more whole coat with model was then left to dry as we didnt want to risk ruining the paint job if it didnt quite fit in the base. We hand sanded down the hole for the model in the base and then after about 30mins of drying time Ed got bored of waiting and just went for it - luckily it fit perfectly!
All in all a very succesful project.

7th -9th October

Project 1: Individual project task.

We were given the brief to create a concept model inspired by turmite mounds to be orientated on a north south axis with the bigger concrete covered end facing south. The idea was to have the south facing side largely covered with concrete to control the buildings temperature using an internal atrium that ran up inside the building largely inspired by the controlled heat in termite mounds (shown below).

After being given a pretty bizzar brief from a 3rd year achetect i set about coming up with a way of representing the concept model. Initially the 3 of us who had the same task talked about it and all came up with different ideas about it. Me and Edward wanted to make similar acrylic based models in layers to show floors but I wasnt sure about using styrene for floor plates , thinking that I would have trouble when it came to 'carving' the shope out of the bulk of material. Rob went for shaping the buildings from chemi wood and not including any acrylic to represent the windows but simply paining the finish to represtent where they were intended to be.

In the end me and Ed ended up doing pretty much the same design due to the amount of time it was taking us individually to complete one of the 3 towers needed.
On suggesting that we joined forces however our tutor Will said we had to do it seperatly. This proved to be very time consuming and quite wasteful as neither of us managed to get the 3 towers completed (only managing 2 each). However I went on the finish mine with a rather rushed baseboard (i should have just left it blank!)

Here's my finished (not how id like it!) model in the wooden baseboard made by Will Strange:

The basic design was to sandwhich acrylic and styrene together with dychlo and then carve out the shape of the 'mounds' using bothe machine and hand sanding. I then planned to either clad the 'concrete' sections with styrene.

The making process had many setbacks (the workshop being closed for most of the time didnt help!). By the deadline time the finish on the outside of the building hasnt even been started so it was presented 'as was' with just scrylic and styrene throughout.

This however turned out to have quite a nice effect when seen in the surrounding city scape baseboard and with light behind (the dychlo making interesting patterns with the light through the building). The prject certainly threw me back into the swing of things and jogged my memory to remember some of the skills I have learnt from the first year.