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)