Final construction presentation

 The final stage of our construction project was to be able to light the piece and present it along with our groups sketchbook work. Part of the presentation was to add the history wo it so we chose to have a member of our group dressed in 50's fashion and sit on our step. We chose the 50's because the main part of the research we found about the waverly building was to do with the art students from that decade.

 

 

To present our work we had a small table at the side and also a washing line style section. The lights on ours was kept simple but one of them had a blue gel added to it to make it more sutble and to make it look more like an outdoors light.

Scale model figure

 

For the scale figure you start with a lenth of piano wire and fold it in half, the bend of the wire becomes the head once you twist it to make a small circle. you form the body similar to how you work out the body proportion by creating shoulders and hips then wokring down to the legs. Arms are another piece of wire twisted round the shoulders.
The wire structure is then built upon with an epoxy putty called milliput, the two parts are worked together till the colour is even then worked onto the structure to pad the body out. The milliput has to be worked whilst its soft but can be carved and added to whilst its hardened, the clothes are added using tissue paper with PVA glue. I added a thin layer at first at let it dry as a base to build on, i then added more layers to build up the shapes of the clothes. I found this quite easy to do and really liked the effect that the tissue paper gave to the texture of the clothing, it was easy to manipulate to the style i needed for my figure. I painted it using guoache paint.

Final group construction 4

We started painting our scenery by picking the darker colours from each section, we mixed these colours and added them to the stucture. We pick the darker colours so that we can work on the lighter colours to build up the layers of colours and textures. We needed to make the top part look like it has moss and lycans growing on it so we added sawdust to green paint and PVA, we then spread this on the top in patches paying close attention to the placement. Later when this was dry we built into it with darker brown round the edges and lighter greens into the moss to make it more realistic.

 

 

We worked into the bricks with different shades and made the mortar stand out to define the bricks a bit more, we spread the moss down the side and repeated the process of adding tones. The idea of this piece was so that it looked realistic and as close to the real piece as possible so all through this project we kept a close link with the real space and always checked back to see if we had got parts of it correct. We also found it useful to alwayds have a picture reference at hand when painting and mixing colours.

 

For the stairs we used the spray gun, we layered the different colours that we could notice in the main stairs to create the overall effect. This was a good method as it added texture but i think we should have added texture in the earlier stages because it made the stairs look too clean so we had to scuff the edges and add final pieces to the overall scenery like dust and bits of dirt that would fall onto the piece naturally and go into the edges and corners.

Final group construction 3

Final Group construction 2

For the second session we started to shape the polystyrene so it would look like like our chosen space, the main part that needed the detail was the main column at the side of the steps so this was the part we had polystyrene on. We needed work in the detail of the bricks, the shaping at the top and all the angles of the column. Alot of the shaping and detail was done with sandpaper and rasps, this meant we could shape the structure quickly and give a good overall finish.

 

 

The polystyrene wasn't very thick in places once we started filing it down so we have to be careful that we didn't ruin the detail or lose parts when shaping. The polystyrene was stuck on with an adhesive called copydex which took a while to dry so we had to wait for this initially.We had to put in as much detail as possible at this stage so that when we started painting it we could add colours into to pick out some of the detail just by dding highlights rather than having to paint them in completely.

 

The last stage before painting we needed to add a plastic paint called idenden, this is used to make the polystyrene stronger so that it is not easily damaged and to make it look less like polystyrene to be able to give it the effect we need during painting. The only thing we found with the idenden was we didn't realise how much you needed to put on so we felt we lost some of the detail within our bricks, other than this i think it gave a good overall look and a good base to start painting.

Final Group Construction 1

In our group we decided to start the construction by breaking down our chosen space into smaller bits so we could work out how to make them so that it would be easier to make in smaller sections to put togther at the end to create our overall structure. The sections are madeup of frames created from lengths of 3 by 1 which we then nailgun MDF sheets to once we have cut them out using the wall saw. This makes the sections strong but light so we can move the pieces once weve started decorating them. For the stairs we started with the side panels and added supports in between to stand them up whilst we add risers and treads. We cut off any excess at the edge using a router which gives it a clean smooth finish.

 

 

I think we worked well within our group and we managed to work on our piece without overcrowding, we had equal amount of jobs and each of us was prepared to use the different equipment when needed. Our piece was quick to construct because it was similar structure for all the separate parts once we had worked out the sizes we were able to cut out the parts quickly.

 

Once we had constructed all the parts out of wood we covered the parts that we were going to need to shape in sheets of polystyrene, this meant we could add the detail we needed easily but it would still be light enough to move. We accounted for the thickness of the polystyrene in our original measurements for the sections, so by adding the right thickness of polystyrene it made it the right size from our technical drawing and model.

So that we would be able to add history to our scenery we decided to also make the bottom step from polystyrene because this would make it easier to shape to add wearing/weathering. This would mean that the steps would not be able to be used they would just be a show piece, for this project that would be able to happen but if we wanted to make them functional we would have to think of an alternative solution.

Workshop safety

This session was the first induction in to the workshop and how each machine worked so we would be able to use them to construct our chosen scenery from the Waverly. We started by looking at the health and safety in the workshop so knowing what equipment to use when, safety boots at all times and the ear plugs in the second machine room because of the noise levels it reaches when the extractor fan and machinery is on. We then moved on to using machinery to be able to cut a piece of 3 by 1 in half then being able to shape the end of it using a jigsaw, and shaping the other end by using the bansaw. On one end of the first piece of wood we created a tenon and on the other piece of wood we had to mark out so we could cut out the mortise part to create the tenon and mortise joint. To strengthen the joint we added a triangle piece of ply wood using the staple gun connected to a compressor. We left the triangle hanging over the edge a little to give us the chance to use a router to cut the ply wood flush to the other wood. Lastly we used the sander to shape the corner and make a smooth curve. As well as these machines we used a saw that was able to cut wood sheets down to a required size.

Model of chosen space

For this part of the project our group was to make scale models of the chosen space, the space we chose was geometric so the cutting and placing of the pieces was fairly simple to be able to work out the size.Some of the parts I found were too small on the model to be able to represent them accurately.

Chosen space

For the project we were sent to choose a part of the main waverly building, our group decided to choose the steps leading into the building. we measured all the aspects of the chosen space because this is important to help us make a 1:25 scale model of the space.