Acme building

The Acme building is finished!

You can see progress of this project here and here.

I put a Kenny Chesney poster in the window because that's what was there when I saw the building in person.

I did my best to distress the brick work like the original building.

I think these are the best windows I've ever made. Might have something to do with using a super sharp scalpel for a change. 

The the roads signs I printed out the images from the internet (finding the right ones took a lot longer than I thought it would) and taped them to a thin brass rod which I stuck in holes that I'd drilled in the MDF base.

Now I'm off to put this in an exhibition with a few of my other pieces!

Bus bench

As part of the miniature model I'm currently making - the Acme Farm Supply building in Nashville - I've had to make a bus bench.

I've got a lot of my own source photos because for some reason, second to photos of the food we ate, my sister and I took a lot of photos of us on bus benches around the city.

I had no idea how to go about making the bench so I asked my model making tutor for some advice.

He suggested using the kappa-line foam we've been using in class.

I started by cutting out the end pieces of the bench out of PVC card and sticking them to the ends of a piece of foam.

Then I sanded the foam until it was the same shape as the end pieces.

I painted the foam black and added the rails made of plastic covered wire which was conveniently already black.

I printed out a poster for the back which I stuck to some more PVC card and added feet details to the bench legs.

Then all I had to do was attach it to the main model.

Miniature progress

I've finally started a new miniature project I've been wanting to do make since October.

I've chosen to make a replica of the Acme Farm Supply building in downtown Nashville.

That's the white building in this photo I took when I was there.

The only other replicas I've made were my bedroom and Holly's fireplace. I think they're more challenging then creating something entirely imagined but  I walked through a lot of Nashville and New York thinking, 'I want to make it all in miniature!'

This was the only photo of the building I took so I've found a really useful image on google, and google map street view has been really helpful as it allows me to see the building from all angles.

Here are a few shots of my progress so far.

The front of the building is made of thick card board.

Usually I would print the bricks on using a stamp made from a rubber, but the bricks on this building work out as 1x4mm which is far too small for a stamp. So instead I've roughly scored horizontal lines, 1mm apart, across the cardboard which should give the impression of bricks.

A major feature of the building is the brickwork at the top which I made from 6 layers of paper, all cut to the correct size and then glued together.

One of the things that I like about this building is how distressed it is with raw bricks showing through the white paint. So today I've been working on achieving that look.

I've made more notes and diagrams with this piece than I have with my other pieces, but I wanted to make sure I do it properly.

I can definitely see how I've improved as a model maker compared to when I started making models about two and half years ago.