BB: Low Tech Model-buidling advice.
Pegeel
The Kid has forgotten until the eleventh hour that she's supposed to build a
model of the local mission as a school project. It's due on Friday. I have NO
prior experience building scale models of buildings of any accuracy and
precision. I have even less experience when it comes to materials and
techniques well suited to fast work with a ten-year-old of no great skill.
She's distractable -- no more than most ten year olds, but we are not talking a
good choice of child to do thousand piece puzzles and that sort of thing -- so
methods and materials should be adaptable to "stitch and a prayer" construction
techniques.
Help is needed as fast as possible. I wish this were not true, but then I
would not be posting if I had time. I can do research given time. I have no
stinkin' time, dang it.
Peg
Dominic
"Pegeel" <peg...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030506115512...@mb-m16.aol.com...
First, find out what you can about the original (i.e. dimensions, etc.).
Then you can easily scale down to 1 inch = 1 ft. (or 1 cm = 0.3 m or
whatever you prefer). I would grid the major features out on graph paper,
with 1 square on the paper = 1 unit of measurement. Do a separate page for
each plane of the building (front, back, sides, roof). I am assuming the
building is flat planes; if so, you can easily build each plane separately
using your graph as a guide and applying units of measurement to your
material (cardboard, bristol board...illustration board if you want
something sturdy ....but a little more expensive). Once those are done,
assemble the pieces using any one of several methods. You can glue, which
works but can be messy. If you turn the whole model upside down, you can
use packing or masking tape to hold the whole thing together, putting the
tape only on the inside of the model so it is not visible from outside. If
you can work fast enough, you can build assembly tabs (tab A into slot B,
that sort of thing ) into the model, but this can be time consuming.
Once assembled, your exterior is mostly done. Any number of things can do
for windows and glass surfaces. Saran Wrap, colored cloth, construction
paper. I would use the semi-hard plastic found on the blister packages of
dollar store toys for a cheap but attractive solution. If you have to color
match, you can paint, use magic markers, or colored paper as necessary. The
quickest way is just to use color-matched construction paper over your
building surface and apply details with a magic marker, except for prominent
features like statuary, signage, and any protruding features of the roof.
These can be cut out of your building materials and detailled and attached
separately.
Do you have to detail the interior? That gets tricky, timewise. Still, all
you should need are the details of the more prominent features...I doubt
anybody expects you to detail the mouseholes and dustbunnies. Put in enough
of the basics (walls, major seating areas) to make sure you have the right
idea. The trick is to work it all out in terms of the simplest shapes
first, and then add details as time allows.
For things like floors and grounds, you can use carpet or material scraps
(cheap or free at carpet and/or fabric stores) to create a believable
illusion on which to rest the whole project.
Final step is to extract double chore duty from the kid for leaving this so
late and making you work so hard.
Hope this helps.
All the Best,
Dominic
Lynn allen
Go to your local craft store. Get a substance called "Sculpey" or
Sculpey II" polymer clay. It comes in big blocks of 1 or 2 lbs, in a
whitish color that's pretty much what you'll need for your mission
walls.
This can be formed with rolling pins and other easy to use tools to form
walls. Bake in the oven at a low heat (following package directions) to
harden. It can be painted after baking. CAUTION: Do not use any
utensils or baking sheets which will ever be used for food again.
Sculpey and other polymer clays are toxic if eaten and cannot be cleaned
off the tools used. Use aluminium foil or yard sale cookie sheets and
rolling pins with it. Use straws, sticks or clay tools to carve, then
discard or save for other plastic clay uses.
Build roofs out of sticks & cardboard. Glue-gun together. Paint to suit.
All except the hot-glue gun stuff can be safely done by the 10 year old,
who I point out SHOULD BE DOING HER OWN RESEARCH AND WORK.
If she doesn't get it done and flunks, so be it. Let me tell you,
bailing them out doesn't teach them a hell of a lot in the way of
desirable lessons. Let her fail now, it has a lot fewer consequences now
than later on, (hard hard experience talking here) and it will teach her
that no, mommy will not come through at the last minute if you won't pay
attention to your own life.
Give her the tools. Give her help with techniques and making things come
out to match her mental images. DO NOT DO THE RESEARCH FOR HER. DO NOT
COME UP WITH THE IDEAS. You've been to 5th grade. Now it's her turn.
Lymaree
Pegeel
>All except the hot-glue gun stuff can be safely done by the 10 year old,
>who I point out SHOULD BE DOING HER OWN RESEARCH AND WORK.
Thanks to Dominic and Lymaree.
Child will do her own work and research, but project is traditionally
parental-interactive around here: geared beyond average fourth grader's ability
to manage on own. Too many supply-choice issues among other things. So
parental draft is the norm. Indeed, I will be less interactive than many of
her peer's parents. But I am still on the hook. As local teachers adore
saying (often with an annoying smirk) "You are your child's best teacher."
As if I didn't know. Thanks loads.
But, yes, she will be doing her own work, and her own research, but I have to
be prepared to *be* a teacher which means among other things offering
direction, suggestions, and a rational supply chest, and being ready to teach
her assembly skills she's not encountered before.
Since I've not encountered them before either, I'm hoppin' around doing my own
homework. Actually I'm lucky. I've done enough art and graphics courses to
have a better-than-average supply kit of my own and know HOW to look for more.
Still need to go fetch more graph paper, though. Among other things.
Thanks -- and suggestions are still welcome.
Peg
Yen
Does this help? Forgive me for my California-centric fucous on mission model
building. Your mission may be elsewhere, but this may still help.
http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/missioncalifornia/tp/missionmodel.htm
Wesley Struebing
Got (a) snapshot(s) of it? Or can get them quickly? Of various
views? You can cut those out, paste them on posterboard, cut those
out, paste them together, then maybe play with doing a little 3-D
alterations on them.
Dunno. Just a thought. (and it is quick - except for taking/getting
the pictures...)
HTH...
--
Carpe Dementem! (grab the wacko)
Wes Struebing
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
str...@carpedementem.org
home page: www.carpedementem.org
Lynn allen
> ly...@NOT-semiotics.com (Lynn allen) wrote in
> news:1fuj9qe.1avm8e817r2e4kN@[192.168.1.102]:
>
> > Go to your local craft store. Get a substance called "Sculpey" or
> > Sculpey II" polymer clay. It comes in big blocks of 1 or 2 lbs, in
> > a whitish color that's pretty much what you'll need for your
> > mission walls.
> >
> > This can be formed with rolling pins and other easy to use tools
> > to form walls. Bake in the oven at a low heat (following package
> > directions) to harden. It can be painted after baking. CAUTION:
> > Do not use any utensils or baking sheets which will ever be used
> > for food again. Sculpey and other polymer clays are toxic if eaten
> > and cannot be cleaned off the tools used. ...
>
> This makes them inappropriate for children, IMHO. There are non-toxic
> materials available. When I was that age, my mother made modeling
> "dough" at home for such projects (I had to do a 3D topo map of
> California).
>
> I've used Sculpey II and it's fun stuff, but not appropriate for anyone
> who's liable to forget and put hand or finger to mouth while using it.
The child in question is 10. Sculpey should certainly not be used by 5
year olds, or at least not unsupervised..but hopefully 10 year olds are
a bit beyond thinking art supplies = snacks, or even being "forgetful."
Lymaree
Pegeel
tape-plus-rubber-cement construction, straight-pin bracing, to be over-painted
with an acrylic tempera-like craft paint. (Water soluble, with a nice flat
finish.) Well adapted to the tools at hand (remember, left-over materials from
graphic arts courses and fine arts courses and so on.) Straight pins to brace,
I figured.
So the kid brings home a book, by way of The Teach, and I've not only
pre-figured their approach, but improved on it. And she's not doing the
mission I feared, which could easily have turned into three buildings a bell
tower and a cemetary, but is doing another with only one building and two
wings. Level of craftsmanship and precision required is also lower than feared
-- indeed The Kid and I have already figured out ways to do a more detailed and
convincing job that are within her skill level.
So we appear to be home free. She did pattern making, and foam-core cutting,
and most of the assembly tonight. She'll do the rest of the assembly and the
painting and decorating tomorrow. She'll set it up on its base and do the
landscaping Thurs. evening, et voila! A mission! Yowsa.
My thanks for the ideas. Sorry I didn't take the sculpey idea, Lymaree, but I
don't currently have cookie tins and rolling pins to spare, and I DID have
foam-core, rubber cement, masking tape, straight pins, and paint. I took the
path of least resistance. But you have tempted me to play with the stuff
someday. Now I will have to keep an eye out for sculpey tools.
Again, thanks to all who responded.
Peg
Lynn allen
> My thanks for the ideas. Sorry I didn't take the sculpey idea, Lymaree, but I
> don't currently have cookie tins and rolling pins to spare, and I DID have
> foam-core, rubber cement, masking tape, straight pins, and paint. I took the
> path of least resistance. But you have tempted me to play with the stuff
> someday. Now I will have to keep an eye out for sculpey tools.
Whatever works. :)
Just be warned...there is something called Sculpey III, and there are
other brands of polymer clays which come in a rainbow of colors (and
metallics! gorgeous) with which one can make jewelry, beads, sculptures,
boxes, picture frames....
The whole process of collecting the implements and materials and working
with them can be addicting. The bare-naked kid-project Sculpey is just
the entry point. Like a pusher passing out samples.... ;)
Lymaree
denaldo
To paraphrase from a recent theatrical production: It is one of the
Gateway Arts on the road to addiction, is it?
(from "The Noblest Drug") (They claimed it was poetry)
--
My inferiority complex is not as good as yours.
Send POINTless responses to den...@ePOINTv1.net
Lynn allen
> > The whole process of collecting the implements and materials and working
> > with them can be addicting. The bare-naked kid-project Sculpey is just
> > the entry point. Like a pusher passing out samples.... ;)
>
> To paraphrase from a recent theatrical production: It is one of the
> Gateway Arts on the road to addiction, is it?
> (from "The Noblest Drug") (They claimed it was poetry)
Well, I have the full-fledged addiction to fabric (art-quilting) and
have had close brushes with polymer clay and beading...they're
everywhere, I tell you! ;)
Lymaree
it could be worse. I could be addicted to books....oh, wait.
John Vinson
wrote:
>The whole process of collecting the implements and materials and working
>with them can be addicting. The bare-naked kid-project Sculpey is just
>the entry point. Like a pusher passing out samples.... ;)
My dear wife is making "mini-vases" out of Sculpey and small plastic
test tubes. See http://www.pollinatorparadise.com/Market/Vases.htm for
some examples!
Anybody who says "those are CUTE!" will get thwapped... be warned!
John the Wysard jvinson *at* WysardOfInfo *dot* com