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.

Large sales model at 1:250 scale. 

At 2.7 metres long by 2 metres wide this is one of the largest, housing sales models we’ve ever made. The project started off as a phase 1 model only but then the client decided they wanted to market phase 2 and 3 at the same time so asked us if we could model the whole site in one go. With just under 500 units on a complex sloping site this became a 3 month project and we just managed to meet the launch day deadline. For portability and ease of working, the landform is in 4 sections that butt together on a purpose built plinth. The Perspex cover however, was a one piece unit and we had to take a large window out just to get it into the sales office. We’ve got two other models on the go for the same client but thankfully they’re both more manageable sizes.

Two industrial models showing internal components.

SSE, one of the UK’s biggest energy suppliers commissioned us to help create these two demonstration models for use in their educational program in schools. After exploring several different designs we advised them which options were practical to build and also achievable within their fixed budget. The models incorporate cut-away views showing simplified representations of the internal components of a wind turbine and transformer. The wind turbine model is actually designed as six sections that can be easily fitted together to demonstrate how wind turbines are constructed.

Overview model and detail model.

The original brief for this project was for a small, easily portable model of a typical noise barrier installation but as the project progressed the client realised how useful it would be to also have a larger scale model showing a single barrier section. This would allow the salesman to point out small but important structural details that improved the overall performance of the barrier, not just for noise reduction but also to reduce the pollution levels from vehicle exhausts. We were happy to accommodate this extra requirement and even managed to adapt the original travel case to fit both models (see above pic).

Fully interactive model for Notting Hill Sales.

One of our existing clients recommended our services to Notting Hill Sales which lead to us producing this fully interactive sales model for one of their major developments in London. The interactive element allows touch-screen controlled illumination of individual apartments with floor plans visible on screen and various filter options such as number of beds, aspect, availability, etc. Due to limited space in the marketing suite, we had to use a smaller than usual scale for this type of model which made it much more tricky to build in the wiring and individual apartment lights. The client asked us to create a “ghosted” but recognisable representation of an existing on-site building so our solution was to model it in clear acrylic, but still replicating a lot of the building’s architectural features – you should be able to pick this up in the photos.

Detailed model with extending fold-down ramp.

At 1:25 scale this model of an aircraft boarding system was only 450mm long but as you can see from the photos we were able to include plenty of realistic detail including scaled down branding and and even a fold-down ramp. The finished model also came with a clear Perspex cover and a foam lined transportation case.

Mangled model restored to former glory.

If you’ve got a damaged model that looks beyond repair make sure you contact us before you throw it in the skip – we may be able to give it a whole new lease of life. This industrial model had been shipped to events all round Europe since 2015 (when we built it) before it got badly damaged in transit. The client asked if we could repair it and we were happy to oblige. Of course it helped that we’d made the model originally but even if your model was made elsewhere, as long as you’ve kept most of the broken pieces and can supply plenty of photos of how it looked before the damage, we should be able to restore it to its former glory at a significant saving compared with rebuilding it from scratch.

Topographical landscape model.

Featuring the site of a gas-fired power station on the Pembrokeshire coast, this large topographical model was built at 1:1000 scale which is an ideal scale option for a large spread-out site. At this scale 1 millimetre represents 1 metre so a 2Km long site fits onto a 2m long base which is big but still manageable, as long as you have space in your marketing suite. Even though the scale is small it still allows us to show a recognizable level of detail for any important buildings whilst any surrounding context buildings can be shown as massing blocks which helps to keep costs down.

Topographical contour model in 4 sections.

Orkney Islands Council asked us to produce this stylized representation of the Scapa Flow area which was to be used for marketing events and as focal point for internal meetings. Due to the size of the model (1.8m x 1.4m) it was constructed in four sections that could be stacked in a flight case for storage and transportation but could also be quickly fitted together when required. Although the islands show a simplified representation of the contours at 25m steps, the main purpose of the model was to illustrate the water depths in Scapa Flow and the surrounding seas. Sea charts normally show the deep areas in lighter blues but because this model was going to be viewed by mixed audiences the client asked us to reverse this colour coding and show the deeper areas in the darker colour. If you click on the main pic to enlarge it you’ll notice we also supplied a Perspex overlay which shows the relative size of Edinburgh to Scapa Flow. This is the third project we’ve completed for Orkney Islands Council this year.

Sales models for two housing developers.

Earlier this month we delivered two housing models to different developers on the same day. We’d actually finished both models a few weeks earlier but neither client had their marketing suite set up so they asked us to store the models until they were ready on site. Both marketing suites were completed in early August and, whilst we deliver projects all over the UK, on this occasion the sites were less than 40 miles apart so it made sense to deliver them on the same day. We produce at least a dozen of these residential sales models every year alongside industrial and display models of all types for a variety of different marketing requirements.