Jigsaw Jointing and Rhino Rhino Rhino

Over the last 3 days I have spent approx 12 hours a day working to get the drawings ready for laser cutting. I really underestimated just how long this was going to take and the shire amount of time spent staring at this computer screen has started to make me counter productive so I will take a break from it for a while tomorrow.

Despite feeling nackered I have made significant progress. The drawings are 95% ready to be cut (screenshot below). The only additions needed are the interior sections of the new build combined and The roof which I have left out until I am happy with the assebly of the main building.

New Build Roof

I spoke with the architect today who stressed they are keen to represent the roof on the new build as it it a key design feature. I completely agree hearing it from them and I must admit I had disregarded it in my plans thinking it not nessisary to explain the main changes. I realise now that it is a key part of the design, subtly inverting the pointed roof of the existing church to leading into the new entrance. The hope is that the new build will be striking but inviting to visitors with the roof slope coming down to the modern glass finish and terracotta block work finish.

Aswell as having the roof represented they are also keen to be able to see inside! This obviously presents a problem. My initial thoughts are:

1. Retain the front overhang section of the roof and dodge cut the rest to allow views inside from above.

2. Make the roof out of clear acrylic (although I feel the space being as small as it is, the acrylic layer will actually hinder the visabiliy)

The architect suggested perhaps an etched texture so the roof is not completely clear but I fear this would clash with the point of it being clear. The reason the choice is roof or no roof is that the model is going to be enclosed within a case. Access to the case will be reletivly easy should a removable roof be used but the nature of the model being fragile puts me off this approach. If The construction of the rest of the building runs smoothly then I may produce several choices that can easily be placed on or off the model. This is quite a main issue to be thinking over as the architects deffinatly want it represented in some way.... some reasearch is needed I think.

Scale Furniture

Another thing I picked up from my phone call was that they deffinatly want to feature some furnishings inside. I had in my mind that I could brass etch seating for the main worship area along with the other brass features for the exterior. Perhaps a piano and alter? I have sourced 1:100 toilets at 50p each! http://www.modelsupplies.net/product/Toilet_T100-3

Any brass deatils should have beed drawn by now but as I have said the Rhino drawing had taken my by suprise so I'm going to have to play catch up and get those done asap! PPD Brass etching takes approx 1 week to come through so the sooner I get it sent off the better.

Jigsaw Joints
On Monday I was able to quickly test the jigsaw joint idea suggested to me by Paul (see below).

This method seems to work alot better than butting up the pieces (see below) and will hopefully provide greater strength for my to work with. I also tried using emusion glue (a pva with more tack) which may solve the problem i had with dychlo and super glue causeing whitening on the edges. I have since drawn all of the buttress joins using this method and have also added a slot system to locate them on the main body of the church.

Colour Schemes

I was also able to produce a layered sketch on photoshop that can be modified to browse different colour schemes for the baseboard and model (sample below). I will generate several samples and email them to the achitects to decide or modify.

Internally the architects have confirmed that it will remain white. This is the same for the new builds. Each coloured area will need to be identified and masked off for mass spraying. as it is being backsprayed I may be able to get away with hand painting several smaller parts without brush strokes being visable.

EMA Order

My EMA order arrived promtly the day after I ordered it! Unfortunatly a couple of the items were not what I expected (square tubing not having a square central hole as pictured and roofing tiles being far too big despite being labled at correct scale). Stuart noticed the square tubing (for the surrounding planters on the boundary wall) and remembered he had some off cut brass which is amost identical in size. I will try using some of that and see how it looks, cheers Stu!