Roof-off view of Porter’s Lodge refurbishment, St John’s College, Oxford.
Whilst the majority of the models we produce are about external appearances, occasionally we get a project like this where the main purpose is to show internal views. Often the best way to do this is to create a model with a “roof-off” view like this recently completed model showing the planned internal refurbishment of the Porter’s Lodge at St. John’s College, Oxford. We’ve shown the new proposals in full colour to differentiate them from the existing buildings which are stylized and painted white. Part of the refurbishment proposals include a new front courtyard with an arched colonnade entrance feature which is why these areas are also shown in colour. The courtyard retains all the existing trees, some of which are close to 300mm tall at 1:50 scale. We actually custom-made all the trees to reflect the shape and characteristics of the real trees.
Aircraft model for exhibition display.
This eye catching model of a fire fighting “water bomber” plane was commissioned to hang above a stand at a trade show event. We particularly enjoyed this project, especially when we reached the stage of adding the Canadair red and yellow livery which really brought the aircraft to life. The model had a 1.5m wingspan so for easier transportation we designed it in 3 separate sections – fuselage, wings and tail plane – that could be easily assembled on site using just 3 bolts. The model was made almost completely from balsa wood so was extremely light. If we’d fitted model engines and radio control gear we could have flown it out of the workshop!
Interactive model to illustrate best water management.
This interactive model was commissioned by the NFU as a visual demonstration to farmers of good water management practices on their land. The model shows two different catchments, one illustrating a high risk landscape with poor farming practices and the other showing a low risk landscape where the delivery of good practice minimises risks. The buttons on the front of the model activate LEDs set in the landscape to highlight different aspects of land management practice. The brightly coloured area shows an example of a Scimap, a graphic plan that shows farmers the risk areas across their land.
Cardiff city model relocated to Cardiff Castle.
We’ve just moved our 6.5m x 5.5m model of Cardiff city into the visitor centre at Cardiff Castle, an exciting new venue where it will become part of the organised castle tour. The model is fully interactive with a touch screen interface that provides onscreen information whilst lighting up the relevant building or area on the model. If you click on the left inset pic above you should be able to spot (despite the rain) the profile of the castle’s twelve-sided Norman Keep, one of the finest examples in Wales.
Educational puzzle made from 5mm coloured acrylic.
Alongside our core work we like to fit in one-off unusual projects like these laser cut educational puzzles for the Neuroscience department at Cardiff University. The puzzles, a simplified representation of DNA, were designed as a rough sketch by the client which we then drew up accurately in CAD for final approval by the university. The initial order was for a set of four but with an expectation of additional units at a later date. We’ve produced similar puzzles for the university before (see Laser-cut Brain Puzzle - Recent Projects, March 2017) and actually used the leftover coloured acrylic for this project.
